[3] The English explorer William Gosse and his team were the first Europeans to visit the region in the 1870s.

Gosse named the mountains after Anthony Musgrave,[4] then Governor of South Australia.

At the start of the 20th century, Yankunytjatjara people began migrating east, and groups of Pitjantjatjara moved into the Musgrave region from the west.

Today, the majority of the families in the communities of Amata and Kaltjiti identify as Pitjantjatjara.

Mineral exploration companies in particular have been keen to discuss possible business alliances with the Pitjantjatjara people because in addition to being a highly prospective region (platinum group elements, gold, uranium, copper, silver,[7] possibly oil), the region represents the largest freehold Aboriginal province in Australia and has had no modern mineral exploration techniques applied since the Land Rights Act of 1981.