The majority of the ethnographic collection was donated by private individuals who lived in the Pocatello area in the mid-1900s. This collection focuses on the Native American cultures of the Great Basin and Intermountain West of North America. with a significant component of Shoshone-Bannock materials (including an excellent basketry collection and extensive photographic archives). Various categories of material culture are represented including household equipment, travel/transportation gear, clothing, and personal adornment.
Other regions represented in the collections include the Subarctic, the Arctic, the Great Plains, the American Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the New Hebrides Islands, the South Pacific, Zululand, and Southeast Asia; as well as the nations of Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Poland. Most of the ethnographic materials have not been studied in detail, and we welcome proposals to conduct original research on any aspect of the Ethnographic Collections.