The Plateau Culture Area is the area between the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia, and Western Montana. From north to south it runs from the Fraser River in the north to the Blue Mountains in the south. Much of the area is classified as semi-arid. Part of it … Continued
The Lakota Creation Story explains how Skan (that which moves everything, the sky, the Great Spirit) came from the waters on earth after Inyan (soft, shapeless, and had all power), created Ina Maka (Earth Mother) and Inyan became the rock after draining himself of his blood. The story tells how Inyan’s blue blood became the … Continued
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
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
Pow Wow women – from eastcountymagazine.org Welcome to WOW2 — Special Edition!! WOW2 is a twice-monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women, but this is a Special Edition. The WOW2 — Early November blog will post next week. The purpose of WOW2 is to learn about and honor women of achievement, … Continued
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
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
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
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
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
