[3] His lifelong interest in Native American art was sparked serendipitously in 1955, when he happened upon a Northwest coast totem pole standing in a shop on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

Included in Coe's collection were kachina dolls, war bonnets, ceramic pieces and beaded garments.

The material he found was located by crisscrossing the country to visit Indian reservations across the United States, where he acquired pieces and learned about the history and significance of the articles he collected.

In 1976, an exhibition based on his work titled Sacred Circles: 2,000 Years of North American Indian Art opened at the Hayward Gallery in London.

A 1986 exhibition that debuted at the American Museum of Natural History was titled Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 1965-1985, focusing on works of contemporary artists, which Coe developed as part of what The New York Times called "his determination to show that Indian art is a living tradition".