Chester Medicine Crow (Apsáalooke, Crow) and his grandfather Joe Medicine Crow (Apsáalooke, Crow)

Remembering Dr. Joe Medicine Crow

He showed us we are capable of great things when we look within ourselves, says scholar Nina Sanders

An Incan mummy found at Mount Llullaillaco, Argentina, in 1999, which was used in the study

New Research

What Mummy DNA Reveals About the Spread and Decline of People in the Americas

Researchers have pieced together how humans spread from Alaska to Argentina and the extent of devastation from the introduction of European disease

Measuring human skulls in physical anthropology

When Museums Rushed to Fill Their Rooms With Bones

In part fed by discredited and racist theories about race, scientists and amateurs alike looked to human remains to learn more about themselves

An engraving showing the Pequot War

Cool Finds

Colonial America Depended on the Enslavement of Indigenous People

The role of enslaving Native Americans in early American history is often overlooked

The official seal of the village of Whitesboro, New York.

Trending Today

New York Village Votes to Keep Official Seal Depicting a White Settler Strangling a Native American

It’s a story that might as well have been ripped from a plotline on “Parks and Recreation”

Indians with Umbrellas, 1971.

How Native American Artist Fritz Scholder Forever Changed the Art World

An exhibit in Denver looks at why we should all be grateful that Scholder broke his word

The trailhead to Supai Village, part of the vast Grand Canyon area. Supai is the only the human settlement within the Grand Canyon.

Visit the Only Village Inside the Grand Canyon

Supai is so remote, mail is delivered by mule train

Archeologists working at the Upward Sun River site in Alaska, where they found the 11,500-year-old remains of two infants

New Research

Ice Age Babies Buried in Alaska Reveals Early Genetic Diversity in North America

The infants’ DNA shows that humans may have stayed near the Bering Strait for thousands of years before moving farther south

A bowl done in a style first seen around A.D. 1100 has “acid blooms” on its interior—imperfections suggesting that someone used modern soaps to clean the bowl up, possibly to fetch a higher price on the black market.

An Exclusive Look at the Greatest Haul of Native American Artifacts, Ever

In a warehouse in Utah, federal agents are storing tens of thousands of looted objects recovered in a massive sting

A statue of Junipero Serra, Catholicism's newest saint, stands in front of San Gabriel Arcángel, the California mission he founded in 1771.

Why Are Native Groups Protesting Catholicism’s Newest Saint?

Nearly 250 years after Junipero Serra founded California’s first missions, questions linger about his legacy

1,000 years ago, Native Americans in the Southwest likely traded for cacao beans from far-away parts of Mexico and South America.

New Research

Early Americans Went to Great Lengths to Get Caffeine

Pottery shards reveal 1,000-year-old traces of caffeine in places where it wasn’t readily available

Ice patches that normally persist through the summer are melting in Yellowstone National Park.

Cool Finds

Melting Ice in Yellowstone is Revealing Ancient Artifacts Faster Than Researchers Can Handle

The tools, spears and even baskets from ancient Native Americans are emerging faster than archeologists can collect them

These islands in Peru are made by villagers, who form the "land" beneath their houses out of reeds.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit These Floating Peruvian Islands Constructed From Plants

The Uro people who live on Lake Titicaca have been building their own villages by hand for centuries

The hydrophobic bacteria that coat the ceilings of some dark lava caves produce a gorgeous golden sparkle.

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold

These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study

Navajo activist Delores Wilson opposes development on land she holds sacred: “You don’t want to anger the Holy Beings there.”

Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

A holy war is being fought over a proposal to build a $500 million commercial development, on the rim of America’s natural treasure

Trending Today

Columbus Day Is Now Indigenous People’s Day in Seattle And Minneapolis

Some cities seek to change the second Monday in October to a more politically correct, inclusive holiday

The painting called "Holy Ghost and His Companions" in Utah's Horseshoe Canyon

New Research

New Analysis Suggests Utah’s Famous Rock Art Is Surprisingly Recent

The impressive Barrier Canyon Style images hold clues to the identity of their mysterious painters

In 1794, President Washington commissioned a wampum belt for the Canandaigua Treaty

Illuminating the Treaties That Have Governed U.S.-Indian Relationships

These documents were both a cause and a salve for the fraught relations between the United States and Indian Nations

Chippewa men performing in an annual powwow held near Cass Lake, Minnesota.

Cool Finds

An American Tribe Wants a German Museum to Return Native American Scalps

The German Museums Association says that scalps are not subject to the same ethical guidelines that govern other human remains

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