The Anne Forbes collection includes documents and photographs pertaining to her research on Indian arts in the Southwest, United States conducted during 1948-1948 and revisited in 1958. The work culminated in the dissemination of a survey titled "Survey of American Indian Arts and Crafts, Southwest and Northern Plains." Forbes focused mostly on Pueblo paintings having developed personal relationships with several Pueblo painters including Joe Herrera (Cochiti Pueblo), Velino Herrera (Zia Pueblo) and Jose Rey Toledo (Jemez Pueblo).

Photographs made by Lora Hadley during her healthcare work in the Southwest, which document pueblos, churches, and the pueblo remains at Puye, New Mexico, and include an image of a cross left during a funeral procession in the northern mountains of Mexico. Extensive descriptive notes are written on the versos, possibly by Hadley.

The Beatrice Medicine papers, 1913-2003 (bulk 1945-2003), document the professional life of Dr. Beatrice "Bea" Medicine (1923-2005), a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, anthropologist, scholar, educator, and Native rights activist. The collection also contains material collected by or given to Medicine to further her research and activism interests. Medicine, whose Lakota name was Hinsha Waste Agli Win, or "Returns Victorious with a Red Horse Woman," focused her research on a variety of topics affecting the Native American community: 1) mental health, 2) women's issues, 3) bilingual education, 4) alcohol and drug use, 5) ethno-methodologies and research needs of Native Americans, and 6) Children and identity issues. The collection represents Medicine's work as an educator for universities and colleges in the United States and in Canada, for which she taught Native American Studies courses. Additionally, because of the large amount of research material and Medicine's correspondence with elected U.S. officials and Native American leaders, and records from Medicine's involvement in Native American organizations, the collection serves to represent issues affecting Native Americans during the second half of the 20th century, and reflects what Native American leaders and organizations did to navigate and mitigate those issues. Collection materials include correspondence; committee, conference, and teaching material; ephemera; manuscripts and poetry; maps; notes; periodicals; photographs; training material; and transcripts.

Photographs probably made by Richard Henry Pratt and his daughter Nana Pratt on a trip around the United States, circa 1896. They include images of Southwest and Northwest Coast Indians, waterways, dwellings and pueblos, a church, a totem pole, and a town in the Northwest.

The Ernest S. and Eloise Carter collection includes photographic prints, negatives and slides taken between 1950 and 1976 in the American Southwest, Mexico and Bolivia. The Carters were research associates for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation between 1964 and 1975 and focused much of their research on petroglyphs and pictographs. In addition to photographic material there is also correspondence and documentation about the photographs in the collection.

This collection consists of 145 postcards and 11 photographs depicting indigenous peoples of the Americas, with dates ranging 1890 – 1930s. The bulk of the collection consists of postcards of Native communities throughout the United States, and includes portrait images, dwellings, basket-making, weaving, and crafts.

Information contained within the Final Report consists of a community profile, the project's goals and objectives, summary of accomplishments, and a calendar of events. Included are sample lesson plans, sample vocabulary lists and Yaqui booklets developed by the staff. Also included are Trainee Questionnaires and evaluations, profile of project par...

Images of several varieties of corn, including types of Pawnee corn, Canadian Sioux corn, Navajo corn, Mandan red sweet-corn, and Red Lake Ojibwa "flint corn." The collection also includes one image of a hoe blade made from a buffalo scapula.

The Helga Teiwes photograph collection contains over 7,000 negatives, slides and prints made by Teiwes between 1965 and 2002. For over thirty years Teiwes worked as a staff photographer for the Arizona State Museum, photographing and documenting Native American communities across the American Southwest. During this time, Teiwes also privately took photographs and built personal relationships among members of the Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Apache, Diné (Navajo) and Hopi tribes. These photographs include portraits of artists at work, families in their homes, daily life on the reservation, special events and landscape photography. Additionally, the Teiwes collection includes photographs from a 1975 trip to Peru and photographs of the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) community in Chihuahua, Mexico.