The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medicine man.
The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medicine man.
The museum's earliest names were the Navajo House of Prayer and the House of Navajo Religion, but, soon after it opened to the public, its name officially became the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art.
In 1977 the museum therefore repatriated several Navajo medicine bundles and other items to the Navajo people. With the repatriation of 1977, the museum changed its name to the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.
