A distinctive rustic-style building houses the Yosemite Museum (nps.gov) and its collection from Miwok and Paiute artists, including hand-woven baskets, beaded buckskin dresses and dance capes made from feathers. Native American cultural demonstrators engage visitors with traditional basket weaving, toolmaking and crafts. There's also an art gallery featuring a permanent collection of paintings and photographs.
Behind the museum, a self-guided interpretive trail winds past the reconstructed 1870s Indian Village of Ahwahnee, complete with pounding stones, an acorn granary, a ceremonial roundhouse and a conical bark house. To the west across Village Dr, you'll find the modest and little-visited Yosemite Cemetery, where 65 Native Americans, white settlers and other early contributors to the park's history are buried.
Yosemite Conservancy has a small gift shop here, with a good selection of books, as well as jewelry.
