American Indian History

Elders Council Secretary Judy Augusta and Elders Council Member Catherine Ford tour the American Indian Museum's exhibition "Nation to Nation" on the day the Treaty of Fort Wayne is put on view.

A Territorial Land Grab That Pushed Native Americans to the Breaking Point

The 1809 treaty that fueled Tecumseh’s war on whites at the Battle of Tippecanoe is on view at the American Indian Museum

When Did East Asian Countries Adopt the Western Calendar and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Link Wray

'Rumble' Aims to Upset the Rock 'n' Roll Canon

A documentary based on a Smithsonian exhibition is wowing festival audiences

U.S. senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell, dressed in ceremonial Northern Cheyenne regalia, and Daniel K. Inouye, a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, stand with Native American Vietnam veterans during the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.

A New Memorial Will Soon Honor the Heroism of Native American Veterans

For design ideas and funding, the National Museum of the American Indian turns to its community

The Mackenzie (Dehcho) River is the second-largest river system in North America.

How One Quest for the Northwest Passage Ended at the Icy Mouth of Disappointment River

The Mackenzie River, as it's know today, is North America's second-largest river system–but it wasn't what its namesake was looking for

"Many people, Indian and otherwise, will continue to fight until your team name sits in the rubbish heap where it belongs," says Gover.

The Washington Football Team Can Legally Keep Its Racist Name. But It Shouldn’t

The director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, speaks out against the D.C. sports franchise

The Treaty of Medicine Creek

Medicine Creek, the Treaty That Set the Stage for Standing Rock

The Fish Wars of the 1960s led to an affirmation of Native American rights

Photograph of two Havana meteoritic metal beads with a 1 cm cube for scale. The bead on the left (7.8 g mass) is cut perpendicular to the central hole, illustrating the extensive alteration of the bead and infilling of the central hole. The bead on the right (4.6 g mass) is cut parallel to the central hole and exhibits a concentrically deformed structure.

Beads Made From Meteorite Reveal Ancient Trade Network

Researchers have confirmed iron beads in Illinois come from a Minnesota meteorite, supporting a theory called the Hopewell Interaction Sphere

This law set the forced removal of Native Americans in the American Southeast into motion.

Witness the Document that Set the Trail of Tears in Motion

The Indian Removal Act is on display at the National Archives through June 14

Equus first evolved in North America millions of years ago.

How the Mustang, the Symbol of the Frontier, Became a Nuisance

A mainstay of Western culture, the free-roaming stallions are now a force to be reckoned with

Ned Buntline, Bufalo Bill Cody, Giuseppina Morlacchi, Texas Jack Omohundro (1846-1880)

Murder, Marriage and the Pony Express: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Buffalo Bill

His adventures were sensationalized in print and the Wild West show, but reality was more complicated—and compelling

A wapato bulb

The Northwest’s Earliest “Garden” Discovered in British Columbia

The 3,800-year-old stone platform was used to cultivate wapato—wild water potatoes—a staple crop for many North American peoples

Protestors at the Oceti Sakowin Camp

Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Are Over, For Now

The Army Corps of Engineers announced it will not issue an easement to complete the pipeline, but the incoming administration could change course

Moana

How the Story of "Moana" and Maui Holds Up Against Cultural Truths

A Smithsonian scholar and student of Pacific Island sea voyaging both loves and hates the new Disney film

Left to right: Newton Poolaw (Kiowa), Jerry Poolaw (Kiowa), Elmer Thomas Buddy Saunkeah (Kiowa). Mountain View, Oklahoma, ca. 1928

A Rare Insider's View of Native American Life in Mid-20th-Century Oklahoma

Horace Poolaw's photography is unearthed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian

Indians Poisoned

A Smithsonian Scholar Revisits the Neglected History of the Chesapeake Bay's Native Tribes

Revisiting Indian Nations of the Chesapeake

What Pilgrims Heard When They Arrived in America

They came to America seeking religious freedom, but what did their prayers, and those of the local Native Americans, sound like?

Alfred Jacob Miller's "Buffalo Jump," 1859-1860

1,600-Year-Old Feast Unearthed in Alberta

Archeologists at Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo Jump have excavated a rare roasting pit with the meal still left inside

Sarah Winnemucca, the first Indian woman to write a book highlighting the plight of the Indian people.

Sarah Winnemucca Devoted Her Life to Protecting Native Americans in the Face of an Expanding United States

The 19th-century visionary often found herself stuck between two cultures

Pictographs at Newspaper Rock, Utah

Why Ancestral Puebloans Honored People With Extra Digits

New research shows having extra toes or fingers was a revered trait among people living in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

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