Three significant cultures emerged in the region around 300 B.C. All were based on a farming society augmented by hunting and gathering. They included the Anasazi, who erected cliff houses in northern Arizona and New Mexico, Utah and Colorado; the Hohokam, who dug complex irrigation systems in central Arizona; and the Mogollon, who hunted and farmed along the rivers of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. Water was a precious natural resource in Southwestern societies, which kept strict rules about its use down to the youngest child. Some argue that these cultures were the most sophisticated of any Native American society north of present-day Mexico during the first 1,200 years A.D.

The Ruidoso River Museum offers visitors an outstanding collection from Ceremonial Headgear to Textiles, Buckskins, Moccasins, Spears and Pottery form various tribes of the Southwest. One of the most fascinating items in the collection is the original 1878 document signed by then President Rutherford B. Hayes officially appointing the Mescalero Apache Indian Agent.