Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Native American art museum in Santa Fe, United States

The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum of Native American art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, built in 1937 to a design by William Penhallow Henderson modeled on the Navajo hooghan, the traditional home and ceremonial setting. Its eight-sided, log-and-stone form echoes that dwelling, and inside are galleries of Navajo art and culture from 1850 onward.

Mary Cabot Wheelwright, from Boston, and the Navajo singer Hastiin Klah met in 1921 and began recording Navajo creation narratives and ritual knowledge. They founded the museum in 1937, the year Klah died, months before the building was finished; the singer Big Man conducted a Navajo house blessing that November. First called the Navajo House of Prayer and later the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, it repatriated medicine bundles in 1977 and took its present name.

The museum grew from the collaboration of Mary Cabot Wheelwright and the Navajo singer Hastiin Klah, who met in 1921 and recorded the Navajo Creation Story and other ceremonial narratives. Klah was also a weaver whose large tapestries preserved sandpainting designs. After the 1977 repatriation of medicine bundles, the museum stopped studying Navajo religion and turned to collections documenting Navajo art and culture from 1850 onward.

The museum stands on Museum Hill, southwest of the Plaza, and is reached by car or shuttle rather than on foot from downtown. The 2014 gallery addition holds the permanent collection, while changing exhibitions occupy the main hall. Allow time for both, and note that the hogan-shaped building has a single main entrance.

The building was designed by William Penhallow Henderson after the hooghan, the traditional Navajo home and ceremonial setting. Hastiin Klah blessed the ground before construction but died a few months before the museum was completed; singer Big Man led a Navajo house blessing in November 1937, attended by many of Klah's relatives.