National Museum of the American Indian

This guide to the National Museum of the American Indian traces George Gustav Heye, an oil-fortune heir turned Wall Street banker who began collecting Native American objects almost by accident in 1897 and never stopped, eventually amassing hundreds of thousands of pieces. It follows how much of that collection was acquired, bought cheap from families under pressure or dug straight out of grave sites, and what happened to it after Heye's death in 1957. About a third of his original collection has since been returned to Native nations under federal repatriation law.