Native Americans

Stories of the enslaved people who helped kick-start paleontology and the Native American guides who led naturalists to fossils around the continent have long been suppressed.

The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People

Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (center) leads his Mardi Gras Indian tribe, the Golden Eagles, on Super Sunday.

What You Should Know About the Mardi Gras Indians

For more than a century, New Orleans' Black residents have donned Native-inspired attire to celebrate Carnival

Aerial view of Apple's California headquarters

How California Took Over the World

A sweeping book offers a provocative new history arguing that today's inequality can be traced back to the state's founding

Wesley Miles, a Pima archaeologist, points out that the placement of this new canal parallel to a prehistoric channel “says something about our ancestors’ engineering skills.”

This Native American Tribe Is Taking Back Its Water

With a new state-of-the-art irrigation project, Arizona’s Pima Indians are transforming their land into what it once was: the granary of the Southwest

Anglers in Iliamna, Alaska, catch sockeye salmon. The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed Pebble Mine project would damage salmon fisheries in the Bristol Bay watershed.

Alaska

A Mine That Threatened Alaskan Salmon May Be No More

A rare “veto” from the EPA effectively halted the proposed Pebble Mine after two decades of disputes

The Tongass National Forest is home to a variety of wildlife, including bald eagles, salmon, brown bears and wolves.

Alaska

U.S. Restores Protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

A new federal rule restricts road construction and logging in the country’s largest national forest

Havasu Falls in Arizona

Havasu Falls Is Reopening After Three Years

Travelers whose reservations were canceled during the pandemic are first in line

Indigenous people brought to Spain by Hernán Cortés play the game patolli.

The Indigenous Americans Who Visited Europe

A new book reverses the narrative of the Age of Discovery, which has long evoked the ambitions of Europeans looking to the Americas rather than vice versa

A grave with bones that were analyzed

Ancient DNA Charts Native Americans’ Journeys to Asia Thousands of Years Ago

Analysis of ten Eurasian individuals, up to 7,500 years old, gives a new picture of movement across continents

Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl (Chief Earl Stephens) of the Nisga’a Nation with the Ni’isjoohl memorial pole

Inside the Nisga'a Nation's Fight to Get a 36-Foot Totem Pole Back From Scotland

National Museums Scotland agreed to repatriate the object, which was stolen in 1929, following an in-person appeal by an Indigenous delegation

Copco 1 dam, one of the four that will be demolished

The Largest-Ever Dam Demolition Will Restore Salmon Habitat

Four aging dams are slated to be removed from the Klamath River beginning as soon as next year

View of the Grand Canyon showing the Bright Angel Trail, which leads to Havasupai Gardens, formerly known as Indian Garden

Officials Rename Popular Grand Canyon Site to Honor Havasupai Tribe

The National Park Service forcibly removed members of the tribe from the area in the 1920s

The Colorado River passes through the Grand Canyon.

A Century Ago, This Water Agreement Changed the West. Now, the Region Is in Crisis

Much has changed since the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922

Harvard's Peabody Museum received the collection of 700 Native American hair samples as a donation in 1935.

Harvard Museum Pledges to Return Hair Samples of 700 Native American Children

The samples come from students who were forced to attend government-run boarding schools

Leola One Feather, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, observes as Native American artifacts are photographed in Barre, Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts Museum Returns Wounded Knee Artifacts to Sioux Tribes

A ceremony on Saturday marked the conclusion of a long repatriation process

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian dedicated the National Native American Veterans Memorial Friday, November 11 as part of a three-day event to honor Native veterans.

A Long-Deserved Tribute to Native American Veterans

A ceremonial procession kicked off a weekend of events to dedicate the National Native American Veterans Memorial

One reader wonders: Have any Native American nations been governed by women? 

Have Women Ever Run a Native American Nation? And More Questions From Our Readers

You've got questions. We've got experts

Artist Arianne King Comer works with indigo ink and rice paper at a farm on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina.

The Blue That Enchanted the World

Indigo is growing again in South Carolina, revived by artisans and farmers with a modern take on a forgotten history

According to contemporary accounts, Crazy Horse carried himself with great humility.

How Would Crazy Horse See His Legacy?

Perhaps no Native American is more admired for military acumen than the Lakota leader. But is that how he wanted to be remembered?

A screenshot of Native Land Digital’s interactive map

This Interactive Map Shows Which Indigenous Lands You Live On

The nonprofit behind the tool wants people to learn the history of the spaces they inhabit

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