The Museum of American Indians and Western Art was founded in 1989 by Harrison Eiteljorg, an Indianapolis businessman and philanthropist. Throughout his life, Eiteljorg collected and preserved outstanding Native American art and culture.

Once a man came up with the idea that everything that he collected and stores can be turned into a kind of educational project. So he decided to create a museum. According to Eiteljorg, the museum’s mission is to inspire people and appreciate the art, history, and culture of the American West and the indigenous peoples of North America.

The museum has a large number of paintings by Frederick Remington and Charles Russell: they both preferred to depict the life of the indigenous population of the United States of America; paintings by George Winter, Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt, Charles King, and Olaf Seltzer.
The museum expositions were constantly expanding: something was bought by the museum administration, something was given by patrons and collectors. In 2005, it became clear that the old building could no longer contain so many art objects. So it was decided to build three more galleries. That doubled the museum's area.

From hall to hall, visitors are shown many images of Indians, their way of life, and Americans who first settled in the Midwest. There are a lot of special exhibitions. For example, there is an exhibition of the history of pistols. It is very curious what they were like before... the first pistols with drums are also presented there. The exhibition of motorcycles produced on the territory of the United States of America at different times is also very interesting: especially the style of these motorcycles and the way they changed over time.