Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum

Stewart Exhibition on Display at Reno-Tahoe Airport

The Reno-Tahoe Airport opened a new art exhibit about Stewart Indian School in Concourse C entitled “We Remember your sacrifices, you are not forgotten: The Story and Art of the Stewart Indian School.” This new display is a partnership between the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum, located in Carson City, NV, Nevada State Museum, Nevada Indian Commission, Visit Carson City, and Great Basin Native Artists Collective. This exhibit will be displayed from Nov. 2, 2022, through Feb. 1, 2023.

The exhibit tells the story of Stewart Indian School, a federal government boarding school located south of Carson City, where Native children from the Great Basin tribal nations of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute, and Southern Paiute were removed from their families to learn English and job skills. Eventually Native children from over 200 tribal nations attended the school between 1890 and 1980, when the school closed. 

While at Stewart, many students became interested in art through classes and through expressing their art in the beautiful stone masonry found in the stone buildings at Stewart. The students were taught by Hopi stonemasons from Arizona, and their artistry is demonstrated in the 65 buildings still existing on the 110-acre campus. In addition to the stone masonry, students painted murals in some of the buildings and left behind much of their artwork in the form of paintings, wood carvings, baskets, and beaded work.

The artwork continues today in the contemporary work by Great Basin Native Artists Collective, managed by Melissa Melero-Moose and displayed at the museum’s Great Basin Native Artist Gallery. Some of this contemporary is displayed in the airport exhibit demonstrating the continuity of traditional Native art in contemporary forms.