Native Americans

Cool Finds

Navajo Nation Library Wants to Digitally Preserve Thousands of Hours of Oral Histories

The library is looking for help protecting its tapes

December 28, 2016

Native Americans Saw Buffalo as More Than Just Food

The relationship between some Native American tribes and the American buffalo was a sacred one

December 28, 2016

Canada

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

December 23, 2016

Trending Today

Goodbye, Barrow, Alaska. Hello, Utqiagvik

The most northerly city has officially reverted back to the Inupiaq name for the settlement on the Arctic sea

December 2, 2016

New Research

Researchers Dig Into the Juicy History of Taming the Turkey

Archaeologists talk turkey in two recent studies

November 23, 2016

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

Revisiting Indian Nations of the Chesapeake

November 21, 2016

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

November 21, 2016

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?

November 21, 2016

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

November 18, 2016

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

November 11, 2016

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

November 2016

Cool Finds

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

October 11, 2016

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?

September 30, 2016

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

September 29, 2016

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

September 28, 2016

Understanding the Controversy Behind the Dakota Access Pipeline

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

September 14, 2016

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

September 6, 2016

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

August 24, 2016

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

August 11, 2016

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

July 27, 2016