Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Native American History

Turkey eggshells and bones from an offering 1,500 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico.

New Research

Researchers Dig Into the Juicy History of Taming the Turkey

Archaeologists talk turkey in two recent studies

Roughly 400 people attempted to mount the blockaded Backwater Bridge last night, resulting in another clash between protestors and police.

Trending Today

Police Spray Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters With Water and Tear Gas in Freezing Temperatures

Latest clash comes over access to a barricaded bridge

Cool Finds

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?

James Welch is featured on today's Google home page in honor of his birthday.

Google Makes Ledger Art to Celebrate Legendary Native American Author James Welch

In an exclusive interview with Smithsonian.com, artist Sophie Diao talks about what inspired today’s Google Doodle

Man Mound

Cool Finds

Get to Know Man Mound, One of 10 New National Historical Landmarks

The Interior Department has designated new landmarks including James Merrill’s house, a silent film studio and the only human-shaped effigy mound

Grant called “wars of extermination” “demoralizing and wicked” in 1873.

Secrets of American History

Ulysses S. Grant Launched an Illegal War Against the Plains Indians, Then Lied About It

The president promised peace with Indians — and covertly hatched the plot that provoked one of the bloodiest conflicts in the West

Esther Belin is a noted Native American poet and artist, but she is not in Wikipedia.

Cool Finds

Wikipedia Wants You to Improve Its Coverage of Indigenous Peoples

Why does the site that anyone can edit contain so little coverage of native people?

Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Oren Lyons, Ph.D., (right), and The Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chief Sidney Hill, examine a treaty at the National Museum of the American Indian

Trending Today

Why the U.S. Government Is Paying Half a Billion in Settlements to 17 Tribal Governments

That adds to 95 cases the U.S. has settled with native groups since 2012

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, overthrown by sugar plantation owners and U.S. troops in 1893

Trending Today

Rule Allows Native Hawaiians to Form Their Own Government

A rule by the Interior Department will allow indigenous Hawaiians to vote on creating a sovereign government similar to those of Native American tribes

The proposed pipeline is nearly 60 percent complete.

Understanding the Controversy Behind the Dakota Access Pipeline

What to know as protesters and the oil company continue to clash

Dennis Wiist inspects an eagle's foot at the National Eagle Repository in Commerce City, Colorado.

Inside a Remarkable Repository that Supplies Eagle Parts to Native Americans and Science

The repository, which has long provided feathers to tribes for traditional uses, also helps bird conservation researchers

Images revealed by scanning the Codex Selden

Cool Finds

Scan Reveals Rare, 500-Year-Old Mesoamerican Manuscript

Hyperspectral imagery reveals hidden Mixtec paintings and glyphs on the 16-foot, deer-hide Codex Selden

A view of the area of the ice-free corridor today

New Research

First Humans Entered the Americas Along the Coast, Not Through the Ice

Evidence mounts against the traditional story of early human migration through an ice corridor

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

A researcher examines inscriptions by 16th century Europeans in a cave on Mona Island

Cool Finds

Cave Graffiti Shows Natives and Europeans Had Early Dialogue in the Caribbean

Cave art from both Taíno people and Spanish explorers in a cave on Mona Island shows the two had some early cultural understanding

A squash seedling (though not one of the ancient squash)

Cool Finds

An Ancient Squash Dodges Extinction Thanks to the Efforts of Native Americans

Indigenous people carefully tended an ancient squash for thousands of years and now the seeds are seeing a resurgence in popularity

Andrew Jackson's official White House portrait by Ralph E.W. Earl.

What the Politics of Andrew Jackson’s Era Can Tell Us About Today

NPR correspondent Steve Inskeep speaks about his book Jacksonland and what it says about America’s democratic tradition

A trowel placed in a Native American oyster midden that dates to about 1,000 years ago shows the relative size of the shells. The average size of modern oysters is significantly smaller.

How Big Were Oysters in the Chesapeake Before Colonization?

A new multidisciplinary study reveals that yes, oysters were larger and more plentiful before European contact

A family photo taken near Noatak, Alaska

Cool Finds

An Archive of Native Americans Portraits Taken a Century Ago Spurs Further Exploration

Edward S. Curtis’ photography is famous, but contemporary Native American artists go beyond stereotypes

Neil Puckett, a Texas A&M University graduate student, surfaces with the limb bone of a juvenile mastodon.

Underwater Finds Reveal Humans’ Long Presence in North America

Stone tools and mastodon remains help show that the Americas were peopled more than 14,000 years ago

Page 18 of 21