Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum

I love to learn about Native American history (US), or First Nations People in Canada. I had high hopes for this museum - it had some excellent artifacts and information posted. It's a traditional-type museum that is self-paced with still, quiet displays & dioramas. I'm not a fan of the mannequin-style dioramas because it feels a little creepy to me, but that's just my aside thing.
I hope one day they will update their museum to have interactive elements and to modernize.

I'm glad to support this museum with my entrance fee. We spent about an hour here browsing the displays and enjoying the space.

Museum about the native Canadian Indians, inside a building resembling a 19th century log fort, complete with towers, near the center of downtown Banff.

Lots of mannequins with painted faces and hands, covered with traditional native Canadian Indian clothing. These mannequins are not in display cabinets nor in dioramas with background settings, but just out in the open behind security ropes. Low budget from the 1970s.

Display showing warriors hanging from their chest muscles from the ceiling, in a ceremony. Women weaving behind a small hut. Women washing clothes. An Indian warrior on horseback using a bow and arrow to shoot a bison. Indians herding horses, with a dog running aside. Warriors in teepee. Indian chief presiding over a gathering. Canadian Mountie and Indian warrior side by side with their horses.

Displays of headdresses, papoose, stuffed animals such as mountain lions and bison. Crafts, artifacts, native artifacts of the first nations.

Gift shop with free coffee, except that I'm not addicted to coffee, unlike most of my fellow Yelp friends.

Would have like to have seen big display dioramas of battles in the French and Indian Wars, and other wars involving native Indians in Canada. No showing of massacres.

Would I come back? Only reason to come here is that all outdoor events smoked out by the smog created by the forest fires, causing me to cough.

Banff, Alberta.

Highly commercialized museum near DT Banff. The portraits have the typical stereotypical features of the Natives with a Rain Dance exhibition included.

Buffalo museum is broken up into three main rooms. Fourth room for a small conference with a tv and all that is included but did not seem to be used.

The middle stage is an auditorium with soothing music, sometimes live but mostly synthetic. The museum was preparing to stage an event during my September visit.

One wing is dedicated to artifacts, placards and information. Good portion is dedicated foregone leaders/chieftans, lifestyle and relationship with settlers.

The other flank is dedicated to plastic statues and taxidermy animals. This section is a bit gimmicky with what I believe to be exaggerated depictions including the rain dance that may appear violently offensive to some.

Access/Roads: Paved.
Parking: Free and Plenty.
Costs: $10 USD per.
Distance:
East of Banff is Calgary at appx 130 KM (100 miles).
West is Vancouver at appx 900 KM (600 miles).
South is USA and Los Angeles is appx 1,700 miles out.
North is mountains, snow, ice, bears and the such.

Nearby Attractions:
The Canadian Rocky Mountain Range including Jasper and Alaska.
The Rocky Mountain Range, whether Canada, Colorado or Montana has enough stuff to do, experience, and live for multiple lifetimes.

Safe traveling my friends.

www.cleeshyun.com
@cigarcpa

Every time I visit a museum about Native Americans, something seems to ruffle my feathers. It might be because the museum is a relic of the politically-incorrect 70s, is underfunded, capitalizes on Native culture as a commercial venture, or simply marginalizes minority groups into stereotypes visitors want to see. The Buffalo Nations Museum falls under all these categories, which is unfortunate, because its mission is "to provide knowledge and understanding of First Nations culture by providing meaningful, thoughtful exhibits and continue building upon existing partnerships while forging new collaborations."

The building is impressive from the outside, resembling a gigantic fort made of logs. It is divided into four rooms on the inside, which consist of poorly organized and curated exhibits. The first is a display of a large teepee next to a taxidermied sled dog team. Pretty cool... but cultural and historical significance? Not found. This pattern repeats itself throughout the other rooms, which are chock full of very interesting artifacts, art, and lifelike displays, but the meaning and importance of the First Nations people of the Plains is lost. At best, the museum is a jumble of objects that have been painstakingly researched, but awkwardly presented.

Of course, the gift shop is disproportionately large, selling wares that only have slight connections to the museum's exhibits. Next door, the Indian Trading Post is half the size of Buffalo Nations, and, while it has some pretty nifty stuff for sale, should maybe use some of its marketing research to help out the museum.

The pictures, posted here with permission of the museum, speak for themselves. Highly recommend. Enjoy!