The Navajo Nation Museum has extensive holdings of art, ethnographic, archaeological, and archival materials. Our archives collection includes over 40,000 photographs as well as a wide variety of documents, recordings, motion picture film, and videos. The archives are heavily used by authors, researchers, and publishers as a source for historical photographs.

We collect anything that helps document the culture and history of the Navajo people, including selected materials from Tribal and non-Indian neighbors. Most of the collections are available for on-site study and exhibit loan.

The museum maintains a very active and professional exhibition program, most of which is produced in-house. In its new venue, most exhibitions have tended to highlight the work of Navajo artists in various media, including weavings. These art-oriented exhibitions are interspersed with historical and cultural exhibits. A comprehensive, large scale, long-term exhibition on Navajo Culture and History is currently being researched and scripted prior to design and construction over the next few years.

The museum was established in 1961, but for most of its history remained a very small entity, not much more than a one-person, one-room operation which was periodically moved from one inadequate space to another. In 1998, the Museum was moved into a recently-built 54,000 square foot contemporary purpose-built building which it shares with the Navajo Nation Library and Research collection. As part of this rebirth, the Navajo Nation Council authorized a comprehensive staff list and a major increase in budget to support the staff and new operations. In 1999, the Museum took over management of the entire building, for its own operations, those of the Library, and meeting/conference facilities.