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Native Americans

The cactus spines, bound together with yucca leaves, are still stained with black ink

Cool Finds

These 2,000-Year-Old Needles, Still Sharp, Are the Oldest Tattooing Instruments Found in the Southwestern U.S.

Originally excavated in 1972, the pronged cactus-spine tool languished in storage for more than 40 years before its true purpose was recognized

Artifacts on display at Don Miller's farm in 2014. For more than seven decades, Miller unearthed cultural artifacts from North America, South America, Asia, the Caribbean, and in Indo-Pacific regions such as Papua New Guinea.

The F.B.I. Is Trying to Return Thousands of Stolen Artifacts, Including Native American Burial Remains

Five years after the F.B.I.’s six-day raid on a rural Indiana home, the agency is turning to the public for help identifying and repatriating the artifacts

New Research

Lake Sediment and Ancient Poop Track Environmental Changes at Cahokia

The research reveals the largest pre-Hispanic settlement north of the Mexican border experienced flood and drought near its end

Cool Finds

3,000-Year-Old Quinoa Found in Ontario

The batch of charred grain is the farthest north a now-extinct version of the crop has been found

On an 1870 cover of Harper's Weekly, President Ulysses S. Grant is shown greeting the Oglala Chief Red Cloud who came to visit him in Washington, D.C.

Ulysses Grant’s Failed Attempt to Grant Native Americans Citizenship

In a forgotten chapter of history, the president and his Seneca Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ely Parker, fought for Native American rights

Inupiat hunters set out with harpoons to catch seals during the spring hunt of June 13, 2005, on the Chukchi Sea near Shishmaref, Alaska.

‘The End of Ice,’ and the Arctic Communities Already Grappling With a Warming World

A new book highlights the changes endured by inhabitants of the Arctic, serving as a harbinger of what’s to come in lower latitudes

The Key Marco Cat was unearthed at Marco Island off Florida’s southwestern shore in the late 19th century.

This Hand-Carved Panther Statuette Embodies a Lost Civilization’s Harmony With Nature

Calusa Indians harnessed the bounty of Florida’s estuaries with respect and grace

The bony growths found in pre-Hispanic skulls in Panama suggest communities were diving for oysters and pearls thousands of years ago.

Panama

Skulls With ‘Surfer’s Ear’ Suggest Ancient Pearl Divers in Panama

Thought to occur mainly in cold-water environments, a new study shows “surfer’s ear” bone spurs can grow even in the tropics

Of Gods and Heroes by Jeffrey Veregge, 2018 (detail featuring Colleen Wing and Misty Knight)

This Artist Reenvisioned Marvel Superheroes in a Traditional Native American Style

Jeffrey Veregge uses formline, more typical of paintings and totem poles, to create a heroic mural

Two of the recovered artifacts feature depictions of winged serpents

Authorities Recover Three Moundville Artifacts Stolen in Devastating 1980 Heist

Nearly four decades, ago, the theft claimed 264 Native American items dating back 800 years from the Erskine Ramsey Archaeological Repository

Two high schoolers from Akron, Ohio, stumbled upon the tool while sifting through sediment during a dig at the estate

Cool Finds

Students Unearth 6,000-Year-Old Stone Axe at Mount Vernon

The tool, which was likely used for cutting or carving wood rather than as a weapon, was crafted during 4000 B.C.

Carbon-dating techniques have now identified this ancient maize cob at about 950 to 1,000 years old.

What Ancient Maize Can Tell Us About Thousands of Years of Civilization in America

It took millennia, but America’s founding farmers developed the grain that would fuel civilizations—and still does

Tlingit artist Arthur B. Nelson’s Devil Fish Halibut Hook, 2012, is an impressive example of a contemporary wooden halibut hook designed to be a piece of art rather than a functional example of halibut fishing equipment. The carving depicts raven, frog, octopus, and human spirits.

The Traditional Wooden Halibut Hook That’s Still Snagging Fish Off Alaska

An Indigenous method of catching halibut on the northwest coast of North America mixes expert craftsmanship with spirituality—and the fish are biting

Buffaloes at Rest recalls a time when bison were plentiful. When the print was created in 1911, only about 1,350 remained.

The Bison Returns to the Great American Plains

After years of fierce debate, the West’s greatest symbol will again roam the countryside

A monument in lower Manhattan commemorates the "sale" of Lenape lands to the Dutch.

The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland

Nearly 400 years after the alleged “sale of Manhattan,” some Lenape strive to reawaken their cultural heritage on the islands where their ancestors thrived

The decision to remove the statue came September 12, 2018, when San Francisco’s Board of Appeals voted for it to be carted off to a storage facility.

San Francisco’s ‘Early Days’ Statue Is Gone. Now Comes the Work of Activating Real History

The racist sculpture’s end comes at a “tipping point for the politics of Native American memory,” says the director of the American Indian Museum

Headdress frontlet, ca. 1820–40, by a Tsimshian artist, British Columbia.

Finally, a Native American Exhibition in the Met’s American Wing

91 of the objects on display were gifted to the museum on the condition that they be contextualized within the framework of America’s art history

The Cahokia Mounds along the Mississippi River in Illinois is the site of the largest pre-Colombian Native American city built in the United States.

How the Remnants of Human Poop Could Help Archaeologists Study Ancient Populations

Undigested molecules persist in soil for hundreds or even thousands of years, acting as biomarkers that show the ebbs and flows of bygone civilizations

The show honors the "living legacy” of Native peoples (above: Idalis Ramírez Rojas and her daughter Ingrid of eastern Cuba) in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and on the U.S. mainland.

This Culture, Once Believed Extinct, Is Flourishing

A new exhibition explores the cultural heritage of the Taíno, the indigenous people of the Caribbean

Nadya Kwandibens' “10 Indigenous Lawyers” is one of the featured works in "Resilience," a nation-wide billboard campaign that will be seen by thousands of people every day.

Unprecedented Billboard Campaign Puts Spotlight on Indigenous Artists in Canada

“Resilience” features artwork by 50 indigenous women supersized on billboards throughout Canada—from British Columbia’s coast to Newfoundland’s eastern tip

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