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Indigenous Peoples

Cherokee citizens can now collect wild indigo, river cane, wild onion, hickory, bloodroot and other plants at Buffalo National River.

Good News

Cherokee Nation Members Can Now Gather Plants on National Park Land

A new agreement between the tribe and the National Park Service allows Cherokee citizens to collect plants with cultural and medicinal significance

In a screenshot from a short video posted to Instagram, performance artist Pepx Romero licks a work of ancient art at Mexico City's Museo Nacional de Antropología. 

Why Did This Artist Lock Lips With Ancient Works of Indigenous Mexican Art?

Pepx Romero kissed and licked centuries-old archaeological wonders to raise awareness of the ongoing, contested sale of pre-Hispanic treasures

Three spears have returned to southeastern Australia for the first time and are being displayed at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Captain Cook and His Crew Stole These Spears. Centuries Later, They’re Finally Back in Sydney

The artifacts are on display alongside modern spears created by the descendants of the Indigenous Dharawal people

The ancient remains of 108 Aboriginal individuals were exhumed from the Lake Mungo and Willandra Lakes region between 1960 and 1980.

Australia’s Oldest-Known Human Remains Will Be Reburied in the Outback

The decision comes after a decades-long campaign by Aboriginal groups, but not all stakeholders are pleased with the current plan

A golden wattle plant in bloom in Australia's Western Desert

Cool Finds

50,000-Year-Old Campfires Reveal the Deep Historical Roots of Australia’s National Flower

Australian wattle or acacia plants were used as firewood by ancient people navigating the harsh climes of the Western Desert, new research finds

Fones Cliffs along the Rappahannock River in Virginia. Last week, the Rappahannock Tribe announced the reacquisition of 465 acres of ancestral homeland along the river.

Good News

Ancestral Homeland Returned to Rappahannock Tribe After More Than 350 Years

The historic reacquisition spans 465 acres in the Northern Neck of Virginia

The offering consisted of 164 starfish, chunks of coral, seashells, pufferfish, a resin figurine, animal bones and the skeleton of a female jaguar holding a spear in its claw.

Cool Finds

Trove of Starfish Deposited as Offering to Aztec War God Found in Mexico City

Researchers discovered 164 sea stars placed in the Templo Mayor around the turn of the 16th century

A captured fisher is released after undergoing sedation and physical examination, a part of the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s longstanding efforts to monitor the culturally important species.

Inside the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Quest to Understand a Rare Carnivore

The tribe maintains some of the most detailed documentation of fishers in North America

The exploration and preservation of Yellowstone in 1871 and 1872 has long been recognized as a central moment in the history of American conservation. Less well known is its role in shaping Lakota history and U.S. Indian policy.

How Sitting Bull’s Fight for Indigenous Land Rights Shaped the Creation of Yellowstone National Park

The 1872 act that established the nature preserve provoked Lakota assertions of sovereignty

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin houses some 5,500 skulls collected by Austrian anthropologist Felix von Luschan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On Friday, February 11, the German museum returned 32 skulls from the collection to a Hawaiian delegation.

Germany, Austria Repatriate Dozens of Human Skulls to Hawaii

Earlier this month, a Hawaiian delegation retrieved 58 sets of ancestral remains from five European museums

Protesters led by Bad River Anishinaabe activist Mike Forcia toppled this statue of Christopher Columbus on June 10, 2020.

Meet the Indigenous Activist Who Toppled Minnesota’s Christopher Columbus Statue

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020

Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ is a 523-acre property donated to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council.

More Than 500 Acres of Redwood Forest Returned to Indigenous Tribes

The land is home to 200 acres of old-growth trees and federally threatened animals such as the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet

Researchers found the skeleton of a human (pictured) and dog left behind by a tsunami that destroyed coastal communities along the Mediterranean Sea some 3,600 years ago.

Cool Finds

First Human Skeleton From Bronze Age Tsunami Discovered in Turkey

Archaeologists find remains of a young man and dog left behind by a natural disaster some 3,600 years ago in the Mediterranean

Finds unveiled in 2021 included a wooden falcon that originally belonged to doomed queen Anne Boleyn, an intact ancient chicken egg and a dress worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.

Cool Finds

Ninety-Nine Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2021

The year’s most exciting discoveries include a Viking “piggy bank,” a lost Native American settlement and a secret passageway hidden behind a bookshelf

A humpback whale and her calf swim underwater. A recent study in Nature found whales eat and poop way more than previously thought—and that feces plays an important role in fertilizing the ocean.

The Top Ten Ocean Stories of 2021

From the discovery of a large bioluminescent shark to the use of an innovative drone to study hurricanes, these are the best marine stories of the year

Parts of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off British Columbia’s north coast, remained ice free throughout the last ice age. Archaeological investigations of just a few of the islands’ many caves have revealed a trove of surprising finds.

Archaeologists Discover Oldest Domesticated Dog Remains in Americas

Exciting secrets unearthed on Haida Gwaii include a canine tooth, roughly 11,000-year-old stone tools and the tantalizing signs of far more to come

The updated sign will state that Scottish fur trader Alexander Ross "mapped" or "encountered" Galena Summit.

Inside Idaho’s Campaign to Include Indigenous History in Its Highway Markers

Native leaders and scholars are advising the State Historic Preservation Office’s landmark decolonization project

Excavators discovered the underground ritual site beneath Garibaldi Plaza, formerly part of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.

Cool Finds

Aztec Altar Secretly Built After the Spanish Conquest Discovered in Mexico City

Researchers found incense burners, a vessel containing cremated remains and other artifacts in the former capital of Tenochtitlán

Climate change led Ancestral Puebloans to relocate, forming denser communities and building grand structures like the great kivas in Chaco Canyon.

How Volcanic Eruptions Helped the Ancestral Puebloan Culture Flourish

Drastic changes in climate in the sixth century C.E. led the ancient Native American civilization to adopt new technologies

This composite photograph shows the bison herd with one of the newly discovered petroglyphs overlaid on the sky.

Bison in Canada Discover Ancient Petroglyphs, Fulfilling an Indigenous Prophecy

Reintroduced to Wanuskewin Heritage Park in 2019, the animals’ hooves uncovered four 1,000-year-old rock carvings

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