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Archaeology: The Spring Rancheria

A literate society does not record a complete history of all of the people in the society. History is often recorded by ruling elites to justify their actions and over time history is often revised to reflect contemporary attitudes and to provide propaganda for particular political, philosophical, and religious viewpoints. To the elites who record … Continued

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The Cahuilla Homeland

The Cahuilla homeland in California was bounded on the north by the San Bernardino Mountains; on the south by the northern Borrego Desert; on the east by the Colorado Desert; on the west by the present-day city of Riverside. The designation Cahuilla is said to mean “masters” or “powerful ones.” As a tribal designation, Cahuilla … Continued

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“Indian Arts of the West” (Photo Diary)

The Hagerman Valley Historical Museum is a small (1,200 square foot) museum in Hagerman, Idaho. One of the exhibits in this museum is Indian Arts of the West. Arrowhead collections, such as the one shown above, are common in small museums. While they are interesting, from an archaeological perspective they tell us little about the … Continued

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American Indian Jewelry (Photos): Street Prophets Coffee Hour

Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly located at the intersection of religion and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. We are going to start today with some American Indian jewelry from the Southwest. Like peoples throughout the world, the Native peoples of … Continued

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The Uto-Aztecan Language Family

Linguists studying and comparing languages throughout the world have noted that some languages are similar to each other in terms of vocabulary, sound patterns, and grammatical structure. Using these comparisons, they group languages into language families. According to linguists Laurence C. Thompson and M. Dale Kinkade, in their chapter on languages in the Handbook of … Continued

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From Pine Ridge to Puerto Rico: Our Letter of Solidarity

Photo courtesy of Chuck Banner at the Lakota People’s Law Project As president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, I write today with a message of solidarity—and also to thank those of you who have supported my people through an extremely difficult time these past weeks. I know that many of you shared the post from … Continued

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Fishing on the Columbia River (Old Photos)

The Fort Dalles Museum in the Dalles, Oregon, has a number of old photographs documenting Indian fishing on the Columbia River prior to the completion of the Dalles Dam which inundated the traditional fishing areas. Background For more than 15,000 years Indian people have lived adjacent to the Columbia River. The river provided them with … Continued

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Orutsararmiut Native Council enrolled tribal member Valerie “Nurr’araaluk” Davidson – Alaska Lt.Gov.

On October 16, 2018, Valerie Davidson was sworn in as the Lt. Governor of Alaska. Valerie “Nurr’araaluk” Davidson, JD, Yup’ik, is an enrolled Tribal member of the Orutsararmiut Native Council. Ms. Davidson is a long-time advocate for Native health issues and brings many years of expertise to this position. […] Lt. Governor Davidson was the … Continued

Alaskan Natives