California State Indian Museum

Are you passionate about volunteering and giving back to your community? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you!

Join us this Saturday, July 27th at the California Automobile Museum for a Volunteer Open House and discover how you can become a volunteer at one of our local museums.

This event is your chance to connect with several organizations in one location and find the perfect fit for your interests and skills. Whether you have a love for trains, cars, science, history, or the arts, we have a place for you.

Participating Museums include:
Sacramento History Museum
California State Indian Museum
Sutter's Fort State Historic Park
California Automobile Museum
California State Railroad Museum
Verge Center for the Arts
SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity

Please RSVP to [email protected] if you would like to attend.

Shingle Springs Rancheria |

A great new educational resource from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

There’s a Better Way to Teach the California Gold Rush A new lesson plan centers Native American perspectives on the violence of Western expansion

Check out some of the latest news from California State Parks. One of the highlights is an MOU signing between State Parks and the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians!

Hi All,
We encourage all community partners and members to join us for our annual Big Time event. Which will be held Saturday August 24, 2024 at 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville, CA from 10 am to 10 pm.
Please use this link below to RSVP/sign-up for our event or scan the QR code attached to the flyer:
https://docs.google.com/.../1FCsejzsz9bFHPszev9jrEJw.../edit

You don't want to miss out!😆

How a planned Sacramento Native American Heritage Center will ‘tell the real story’

Check out the latest California State Parks Weekly Digest for a story about Honored Elders Day which was held on June 1st outside our museum!

June 2nd marks 100 years since the signing of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Although the Act granted citizenship, voting rights were left up to each state, and it wasn't until 1957 that the last state granted suffrage to Native people to vote.

Reflections on the 100th Anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act Opinion. Today is the 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Also known as the Snyder Act, the law granted dual citizenship to tribal citizens of federally recognized tribal nations.

We are delighted to announce that Honored Elders Day is returning to the California State Indian Museum! Join us on Saturday, June 1st, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, for a day of traditional dance, Native artisans, and selected speakers, with a luncheon provided for the Honored Elders.

Now in its 45th occurrence, this event is devoted to honoring California's Native Elders who keep traditions, languages, and stories alive for future generations. The event is outdoors, admission is free, food will be available for purchase, and the public is enthusiastically welcome to attend.

We hope to see you there!

ATTENTION TEACHERS: We are offering our popular “All About Acorns” program as a PORTScast on May 15th at 11am! This live Zoom webinar is open to multiple groups at once, including classes, homeschool families, and lifelong learners.

In this webinar offered through the California State Parks PORTS Distance Learning Program, students will join our presenter, Mike, and explore the traditional food staple of California Native Peoples, pre-contact, and learn traditional ways of gathering and processing Acorn into a sustainable food source. This program is geared towards 3rd and 4th grades but all participants are welcome.

To register for this FREE 45-minute webinar, check out:
https://ports-ca.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aoV8qhLgTDeu_IOaxJx4oQ #/registration

Baby ducks have been spotted. 🦆 come check them out.....

WE ARE HIRING a Museum Custodian for the CA State Indian Museum and Sutter's Fort State Historic Park!

The Museum Custodian (Limited Term) is responsible for the daily preservation, cleaning, monitoring, and protection of the Capital District park collections, exhibits, and museum facilities, especially those at the State Indian Museum and Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park.

The Museum Custodian (LT) may also work at the Statewide Museum Collections Center as needed. The Museum Custodian (LT) also assists with ongoing collections and exhibits projects including inventories, cataloguing, handling, and research. Will work independently and as a member of a larger team to meet deadlines and ensure the timely completion of projects. The work week for this position is Monday through Friday, but occasional weekend or evening assignments may be scheduled.

This is a great entry position for anyone interested in a career in museums, California State Parks, museum curation, and collection management.

See the position details and how to apply here:
https://calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/Jobs/JobPosting.aspx?JobControlId=417862

Thank you to everyone who braved the weather this weekend and visited the California State Indian Museum for Free Museum Weekend!

SacRT has partnered with Sacramento Museums to offer FREE rides to free museum weekend on Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3, 2024. To ride free simply take a screenshot, print this flyer from sacrt.com/freerideflyer.

Free Museum Weekend is coming up soon on March 2nd & 3rd! The California State Indian Museum is participating along with over 20 additional museums around the Sacramento region in partnership with Sacramento Museums. Similar to last year, registration in advance is required to receive free admission and limited tickets are available.

Visit www.sacmuseums.org/freemuseum for more information and to reserve your ticket(s).

Tickets for Saturday, March 2nd, are now available so reserve today!

Tickets for Sunday, March 3rd, will be available to reserve beginning on Friday, February 16th, at 8:00am.

Tickets are first-come, first-serve and any canceled tickets will be rereleased! Follow Sacramento Area Museums on Instagram () or Facebook (Sacramento Museums) for updates.

We invite you to a new temporary exhibit at the CA State Indian Museum: “Native Graduates: From Assimilation to Cultural Pride,” which was guest curated by Park Interpretive Specialist Michael A. Ramirez (Konkow Maidu). This exhibit explores how Native American graduates express their cultural heritage by wearing traditional regalia, such as feathers, patterned stoles, and beaded caps, at commencement ceremonies. Importantly, the exhibit not only celebrates the achievements of Native graduates, but also highlights how Native graduation regalia asserts the perseverance of Native culture in the face of a system that tried to eradicate it.

“Native Graduates” is the inaugural display in what will now be the museum’s rotating temporary gallery. Exhibits in this space will focus on contemporary art and culture, furthering the State Indian Museum’s mission to showcase the contributions of Native Californians to our shared present and future.

Attention teachers, join us virtually Friday, February 2nd at 11:00am to explore the ancestral and modern life of the Chumash culture and people.

*Pre-registration is required to attend this FREE LIVE PORTScast program. Use the link to register your classroom.

https://ports.parks.ca.gov/portscast/portscasts-calendar/

It’s day two of our annual Native Arts and Crafts Market. We have even more vendors than yesterday so come on down and check out all the great handmade items and gifts they have for sale.

We also have a booth from the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association here talking about the art of basketry.

There will also be a verity of food trucks here serving refreshments, food and desserts.

The event runs until 4pm today and admission to the museum is free for the event.

Happening now! Our annual Native Arts and Crafts Market is happening today and tomorrow. The event features dozens of native vendors from the local community. Come check out the great handmade jewelry and gifts.

We also have a number of native run food trucks providing food and refreshments.

The market is open till 4pm today and from 10am-4pm here at the California State Indian, 2618 K St. Sacramento CA

Our annual Native Arts and Crafts Market is happening tomorrow and Saturday. Come down and check out our largest market yet.

On both Friday, November 24th, and Saturday, November 25th, our museum will be hosting Native vendors from all around the state.
Come shop for unique and hand-made gifts anytime between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. We will have food trucks parked in front of the museum selling Indian Tacos, coffee, and other treats to help fuel those early bird shoppers.

Admission is free! We look forward to seeing you!

Happening tomorrow morning (Monday) at 11am at the California State Railroad Museum!

✨SPECIAL EDITION!✨ Next week, Story Time won't revolve around a book. Instead, it will feature a tribal story of the land and people that has been told for generations, thanks to a special guest from the California State Indian Museum. 🐻🐍🦅🐢🦝 Stuffed animals will be used to act out the story!

Story Time takes place every Monday at 11am inside the California State Railroad Museum. It is free with admission and geared toward toddlers and preschoolers. All are welcome.


California State Railroad Museum Foundation

November is Native American Heritage Month! To celebrate, California State Parks and the California Natural Resources Agency invite you to join their virtual and in-person events throughout the month. 👉 For all events, visit parks.ca.gov/NAHM.

📸 Courtesy of California State Parks.

On Saturday, November 11th, the California State Indian Museum is delighted to be hosting a basket weaving demonstration given by Dixie Rogers, accomplished Karuk weaver and cultural practitioner. Join us from 11am to 4pm in the museum here in Sacramento. The demonstration will be free with admission.

Dixie Rogers is a respected Karuk basket weaver and regalia maker from the upriver Klamath Basin. Dixie comes from a family of notable weavers from whom she learned her art. She is the great great granddaughter of Emma Pearch and Susie Merrill, the great granddaughter of Julia Starritt and Bessie Tripp, and granddaughter of Ramona Starritt, the great niece of Florence Harrie, daughter of Claudette Starritt Rogers, and cousin to Vivian Hailstone, Wilverna Reece, and Kathy Wallace. She studied both weaving and apprenticed in Karuk language with her grandmother, Ramona Starritt. Dixie began her weaving training as a child, studying the detailed, distinct designs in her family’s basket collection, much of which can be seen by the public at the Clark Museum in Eureka, California today.

Dixie works with traditional native plants for her weaving, including willow and hazel sticks, willow, spruce and pine roots, maiden hair fern, Woodwardia fern, alder bark, wolf moss, and porcupine quills, which she gathers, cleans, processes and sizes for each basket. For her twined baskets, Dixie returns to the exact ancestral sites where her grandmother and generations of her family gathered basket materials on the Klamath and Salmon Rivers in Northern California.

Dixie has exhibited work, taught basketry techniques, and consulted on collections at the De Young Museum, the Autry Museum of the American West, the Crocker Museum, the California State Parks Basketry Collection, the Maidu Museum, the Tuolumne Indian Market, Yolo Ave Gallery, the World Breast Cancer Conference, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, DQ University, Mills College, and at home for the Karuk Tribe. She has served on the board of the California Indian Basketweavers Association and on the Native American Steering Committee for the Tending and Gathering garden at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve. She has received three Alliance for California Traditional Arts awards, for a baby basket in 2014, an acorn cooking basket in 2016 and a master artist for a baby basket in 2018.

We have some new items in our Museum Store!

The State Indian Museum Store now carries beautiful hand-made bracelets from Etkie. They are copper cuffs, wrapped in leather, and hand beaded. They're created using traditional Navajo techniques, by Indigenous artisans, and make beautiful, unique gifts.

Not only will you be supporting the Foundation with a purchase, but we also have the best prices around!

HAPPENING THIS MORNING: At the State Capitol park grounds near 13th and L Streets, there will be an unveiling and dedication ceremony for a new California Native American Monument from 10am to 12pm.