Collections

The Museum's collections focus on the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and other Cahuilla bands, but include artifacts from other Native Americans and indigenous peoples worldwide. The collections are available to researchers and students by request.

Agua Caliente Cultural Museum's Southern California basketry collection, with over 400 items, is a wonderful collection of the works of Cahuilla basketweavers and their neighboring tribes. It is an excellent resource for comparative study of styles, techniques and materials.

Cahuilla ceramics include ollas, cooking pots, pendants, and pipes. Shell beads, bone tools, and numerous stone utensils for food preparation such as manos, metates, mortars, and pestles are represented in the collections. Historic period artifacts from early habitation sites include items from irrigation ditches, cans and bottles, china and buttons.

The Tahquitz Canyon Archaeological Collection contains over 50,000 artifacts from the oldest and largest village site and is one of the most extensive excavation projects in California. The collection includes all field notes and photographs of the projects as well as the ethnographic and ethnohistoric reports. The Ruth Dunham Shepard Collection has extensive artifact material from the Coachella Valley and accompanying field notes. Additional archaeological materials from various locations are also included.

Cahuilla history and culture of today are not ignored. Contemporary arts and artifacts are continually added to the collections.

Please click here to view a selection of the collection.