influence on the economic and cultural development of the American West. Plains Indians Museum The museum features the stories and objects of Plains Indian people, their cultures, traditions, values and histories, as well as the contexts of their lives today. The first curator was George Horse-Capture, an enrolled member of the A'aninin tribe. The majority of the collection is from the early reservation period, ca. 1880-1930. It contains artifacts primarily from Northern Plains tribes, such as the Arapaho, Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet and Pawnee. The holdings also include important contemporary objects, ranging from abstract art to star quilts. The museum also sponsors an annual Powwow held on the third weekend in June at the Robbie Powwow Garden at the Center of the West. This event attracts dancers, artisans, and visitors from all over North America. Whitney Western Art Museum The museum features paintings and sculptures of the American West. The gallery first opened in 1959 and was later united with the Buffalo Bill Museum. In June 2009, it re-opened following a re-installation. Replicas of the studios of both Frederic Remington and Alexander Phimister Proctor help visitors learn about the artists and their techniques. Included are works by other classic Western artists: George Catlin, Edgar Samuel Paxson, Alfred Jacob Miller, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Alexander Phimister Proctor, Joseph Henry Sharp and N. C. Wyeth. Contemporary Western artists include Harry Jackson, James Bama, Deborah Butterfield, Fritz Scholder, and the sculptor Grant Speed. Interactive stations allow visitors to create their own works of art. Draper Natural History Museum The museum features approximately of interactive exhibits highlighting geology, wildlife, and human presence in the Greater Yellowstone region. Videos, natural history dioramas, and photography replicate the sights, sounds, and smells of the area. Specimens of grizzlies, wolves, bighorn sheep, moose, elk and other wildlife are on display. Cody Firearms Museum The museum houses a large collection of American firearms. The collection includes firearms ranging from 16th-century hand cannons to guns of modern manufacture. It explores firearms as "tools of human endeavors" and boasts a collection of 7,000 individual firearms with ~20,000 additional related artifacts. The core of the museum is the Winchester Repeating Arms Company factory collection, which was transported from New Haven, Connecticut to Cody in 1976. The museum was dedicated in 1991 and also includes a large collection DuBiel Arms Company rifles. Programming and Activities The Center of the West offers a variety