text: The Heard Museum is truly awesome It is not huge but they make the most of their space including short films longer presentations and a huge display of kachinas in telling the cultural stories of Southwestern Native Americans Importantly realizing that Native American cultures are not dead the museum contains modern artwork and filmed interviews with members of todays Native American tribes The amount of information given is detailed but not overwhelming and I would say that the museum represents an excellent introduction to Southwestern Indian culturennOne could complain that the Heard Museum does not document any of the internal Indian wars or strife but on the other hand considering the racism these groups still come up against perhaps its for the best that the rest of us just learn about how complex and beautiful these cultures often were and are nnA final note should be given to the beautiful museum itself which may be the only time I will ever use the world beautiful to describe any building in Phoenix It resembles images I have seen of Roman villas and its courtyard is very mellow with a nice cafe and pools of running water I would even recommend coming just to chill out with an ice tea in a stunning courtyard I mean where else can you find that in this town