The Museu do Índio is run by the Salesian sisters who have worked among the indigenous peoples of the upper Rio Negro for over a century. It is a small, slightly dusty, deeply specific museum — three rooms in a former convent — focused on the Tukano, Desana, Tariana, and Yanomami peoples of the São Gabriel da Cachoeira region in the north of Amazonas state.
What is on show is intimate rather than monumental: ceremonial dress, hunting and fishing gear, manioc presses, masks for the dabucuri ritual, and explanatory wall panels in Portuguese. A small gift shop sells artefacts made by the same communities, with proceeds returned to them. Easy to combine with the Teatro Amazonas, which is a few minutes' walk away.