The New R.B. Annis Western Family Experience

Come and visit the NEW R.B. Annis Western Family Experience! There are many hands on activities that are fun for the whole family. Visitors will find answers and clues as they explore four Western locations in the newly-developed R.B.Annis Western Family Experience in the Nina Mason Pulliam Education Center.

Walk around the Indianapolis Totem Pole as you enter the North West Coast and build your own totem pole.  In the NW Coast learn about totem poles, the images they show and the stories they tell.  Meet a Tsimshian carver, David Boxley, watch and learn about his culture and the tools he uses to carve. Find the bentwood box and see some of the things used for carving and fishing in the NW Coast.  

After exploring the North find yourself in the Southwest at the home of a Navajo Weaver. Visit a Hogan where TahNibaa Naataanii weaves and lives with her young daughter at the base of Table Mesa in New Mexico. Try your hand at weaving on a traditional loom. Learn about raising sheep and play with the toys her daughter, Winter Rose, plays with from TahNibaa’s Navy footlocker.

From the Southwest enter the plains. Walk through a sod house from a family in the 1880s. Learn about the African American family who lived there and listen to the sounds of the Great Plains. Build the sod wall and try to find all the critters that also made their home in the sod house.  Play with the toys and the Hammered Dulcimer to understand some of the activities that went on in the plains.

Finally, enter the city of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory. Learn about a Chinese immigrant, from the 1870s, Wong Fee Lee and his Wing Tsue Emporium where he sold silks, fireworks, teas, herbal medicines, clothing and groceries. Look through the archaeological dig activity and see what was found on the Wing Tsue property in the 2001-2004 dig in Deadwood. Ride an authentic stagecoach and see what it was like to travel long distances through the West. Try on clothing and learn about different travelers who would have made a journey to Deadwood.

The Eitlejorg Museum is delighted with the opportunity to tell America’s stories through unique and diverse experiences of the people who helped to build this country. Come and spend an afternoon traveling through the West!

Interested in Volunteering in the R.B. Annis Western Family Experience?

If you'd like to schedule this experience for your group, please contact grouptours@eiteljorg.com.