The Northern Plains include what is now North and South Dakota, Eastern Montana, northeastern Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This was an area which was the traditional homelands for the buffalo-hunting peoples, such as the Blackfoot, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre (Atsina), Sioux, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Plains Chippewa (Ojibwa), and Plains Cree. It … Continued
Over at our favorite website for classy headlines and snarky stories, Wonkette, there’s a fall-flat-on-your-face article about a twitter exchange that begins with a post by White House correspondent Lucian Wintrich, who writes for the right-wing conspiracy blog The Gateway Pundit. Seems Mr. Wintrich was none too pleased with a photo of three Native Americans … Continued
The Maya flourished in the area south of the Valley of Mexico. The Maya reached their peak of urban development during the period which archaeologists call the Classis Period which dates from about 250 CE until about 900 CE. On the Maya calendar, the Classic Period begins in baktun 8 (a baktun is a period … Continued
What might be “the largest forced removal of rural Americans since that of Japanese Americans during the Second World War?” It never is a good time to try to tell people about these issues; however, I had occasion this summer to meet a couple Navajo Elders from Big Mountain on the Navajo reservation, in which … Continued
The Presby House Museum in Goldendale, Washington, has three display cases filled with Indian artifacts. These included beaded items (moccasins, gloves, bags), baskets, and a variety of stone artifacts (pestles, mortars, projectile points). The items are displayed with no explanation of tribal histories or aboriginal use. Most of the items were probably trade items made … Continued
During the first part of the twentieth century, one of the primary concerns of the United States government, as well as state and local governments, was the suppression and eradication of American Indian religions. As a Christian nation, a fact expressed in a number of court cases, one of the goals of the federal policies … Continued
Before the European invasion, led by the Spanish in the eighteenth century, Southern California Native Americans lived in small villages of up to 200 inhabitants. In general, California Indians have been classified as hunters and gatherers, meaning that they tended to obtain food from hunting and from gathering wild plants. Often evidence of agriculture—the deliberate … Continued
Archaeologists use the term Mesoamerica in referring to Mexico and the adjacent areas of Central America which were the home to Native American civilizations prior to the Spanish invasion. During the time generally known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerica, the region was characterized by several complex cultural systems known as state societies. For Central … Continued
Stop Tribal Genocide What is tribal disenrollment? Tribal disenrollment is the stripping of Native American citizenship and it’s reaching epidemic proportions. Throughout Indian Country thousands of Native Americans are losing their tribal rights and having their citizenship terminated in their tribes. While some tribal councils assert disenrollment are meant to protect the “integrity of the … Continued
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the policies of the federal government regarding American Indians were based on the philosophy that Indians, like other immigrants, should assimilate into the English-speaking, Christian, American farming culture and that this could be best accomplished by transferring all tribal resources—land, mineral, timber—from Indians to non-Indians. Since the establishment … Continued
