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Native Americans

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What’s Cooking: Turkeys at the Smithsonian

For decades, Native American groups requested the return of artifacts and human remains. Though there were occasional repatriations, the protests either fell on deaf ears or tribes lacked the financial and legal support necessary to complete the process.

The Road to Repatriation

The National Museum of the American Indian works with Native Tribes to bring sacred artifacts home again

A canoe Doug Chilton and other Tlingit artisans crafted using techniques mastered by their Alaskan ancestors

Spirit of the Sea

Tlingit artisans craft a canoe that embodies their culture’s oceangoing past

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Spoken Word Comes to the Smithsonian

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On Climate Change: American Indian Museum’s Call to Consciousness

Navajo frybread cooks in an iron frying pan.

Frybread Recipe

A recipe from Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions

A frybread meal at a Navajo powwow.

Frybread

This seemingly simple food is a complicated symbol in Navajo culture

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Cartoons Draw on American Indian Culture

James Luna

James Luna is known for pushing boundaries in his installations, where he engages audiences by making himself part of a tableau

“Strong Medicine” Speaks

Recollections from the matriarch of a once hidden tribe

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Ben Nighthorse Campbell: Not Retired

You may know Ben Nighthorse Campbell as a Colorado Senator who was elected in 1993 and served until 2005. But add master jeweler to the list

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Sculpting Her Vision

A photo gallery of Nora Naranjo-Morse’s inspiring outdoor designs

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Sitting Bull’s Legacy

The Lakota Sioux leader’s relics return to his only living descendants

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Tongue Tied

Some 200 Native American languages are dying out and with them valuable history

“I always knew strongly who I was and what I was supposed to do,” says Wiki (here at the mouth of the Klamath River on the Yurok Indian reservation in Northern California).

Making the Grade

Yurok Indian Geneva Wiki is helping other young Native Americans “develop their best selves”

Ojibwa tribe members gather 50,000 pounds of wild rice each fall on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota (Ryan Stevens "knocks" grains into a canoe while James Frederick poles).

Going With the Grain

On Minnesota lakes, Native Americans satisfy a growing hunger for “slow food” by harvesting authentically wild rice the old-fashioned way

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An Evolving Ritual

The National Powwow showcases a mixture of tradition and competition

Adhering to tradition is a way of life among the Zuni Indians of northwestern New Mexico, whether it's dryland farming or wedding ceremonies. "The Zuni's complex social web seems to hold people," says Dennis Tedlock. "Their religion and language provide...ethnic identity."

The Zuni Way

Though they embrace computers and TV, the secret of the tribe’s unity lies in fealty to their past

Zuni or not, every woman is obliged to pitch in for the Sha'lako corn-grinding ceremony. During the religious festival, says Morell (far right), "people are expected to set aside all feelings of ill-will and hostility."

Mystery and Drama

Virginia Morell, author of “The Zuni Way,” on the mystical ceremonies of the Zuni pueblo

When completed, the Crazy Horse Memorial will dwarf neighboring Mount Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore

With a Native American superintendent, the South Dakota monument is becoming much more than a shrine to four presidents.

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