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American Indians

Indigenous people
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A colorful drawing of Native Americans on horses.

Pictures From a Genocide

An astonishing new show of Native American ledger drawings brings a historic crime into focus.
by Jerry Saltz via Vulture on February 16, 2024
A Native American man wearing a cowboy hat.

Abbot Appointee Slams Brakes On American Indian/Native Studies Course

The course was getting a first read after years of review. Then, the Texas Board of Education needed more time to assess it without “drama or controversy.”
by Josephine Lee via The Texas Observer on January 30, 2024
Cover of Ned Blackhawk's book; a pole with feathers attached is next to the title, "The Rediscovery of America"

The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Native History

Over the past year, two prominent historians have invited readers to rethink the master narrative of US history.
by Gregory D. Smithers via H-Net on January 11, 2024
A faux Brazilian village constructed for Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici on the banks of the Seine in Rouen, France, and inhabited by fifty Tupinambá people who were forcibly brought there from Brazil, 1550.

The Discovery of Europe

A new book investigates the indigenous Americans who were brought to or traveled to Europe in the 1500s—a story central to the beginning of globalization.
by Álvaro Enrigue via New York Review of Books on December 28, 2023
Collage of American Indian film characters.

Native Americans on the Silver Screen, From Wild West Shows to 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

How American Indians in Hollywood have gone from stereotypes to starring roles.
by Sandra Hale Schulman via Smithsonian on October 12, 2023
California assemblyman and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe James Ramos, Governor Gavin Newsom, and tribal leaders.

Reclaiming Native Identity in California

The genocide of Native Americans was nowhere more methodically savage than in California. A new state initiative seeks to reckon with this history.
by Ed Vulliamy via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
A 1613 engraving of the July 1609 battle between Samuel de Champlain, his men, their Native allies, and Mohawk soldiers.

The Rediscovery of America: Why Native History is American History

Historian Ned Blackhawk’s new book stresses the importance of telling US history with a wider and more inclusive lens.
by David Smith via The Guardian on May 8, 2023
Two Pueblo people hold an American flag at the Ceremonial Cave of the Frijoles Canyon in New Mexico.

Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

It is impossible to understand the U.S. without understanding its Indigenous history, writes Ned Blackhawk.
by Ned Blackhawk via Time on April 26, 2023
Tillie Black Bear and Bill Clinton.

Tillie Black Bear Was the Grandmother of the Anti-Domestic Violence Movement

The Lakota advocate helped thousands of domestic abuse survivors, Native and non-Native alike.
by Mona Gable via Smithsonian on April 25, 2023
Production of Oklahoma! where actors in brightly colored clothing dance a square dance in front of a set of rural architecture and farmland.

Behind 'Oklahoma!' Lies the Remarkable Story of a Gay Cherokee Playwright

Lynn Riggs wrote the play that served as the basis of the hit 1943 musical.
by Jennie Rothenburg Gritz via Smithsonian on March 30, 2023

How a Tourist Attraction Displaying the Open Graves of Native Americans Became a State-Run Museum

Although the exhibit closed in 1992, the Dickson Mounds Museum is still grappling with its legacy.
by Logan Jaffe via ProPublica on February 1, 2023
Graduates at Northwest Indian College, featuring their land acknowledgments on their graduation regalia.

Land Acknowledgments: Helpful, Harmful, Hopeful

Treating the practice of land acknowledgment seriously requires more than just getting the names right.
by Elizabeth Ellis, Rose Stremlau via Perspectives on History on October 5, 2022
Yellow book cover reading "The Dawn of Everything" in red text.

As Deep as it is Vast: An Introduction to "The Dawn of Everything" in Early America

A new book provides a framework that engages with “big history” or “deep history” while avoiding explanations that flirt with forms of determinism.
by Gordon Sayre, Robbie Ethridge, Keith Pluymers, Sean P. Harvey, Barbara Alice Mann, Daniel Richter via Commonplace on October 4, 2022
Delegates from 34 tribes in front of Creek Council House, Indian Territory, in 1880.

We Have Always Been Global: Tribal Nations in the Democratic Slide

In the 19th century, Native American nations were early pioneers in constitutional democracy.
by Noah Ramage via Perspectives on History on June 21, 2022
Lithograph portrait of William Franklin

Governor William Franklin: Sagorighweyoghsta, “Great Arbiter” or “Doer of Justice”

The actions of one New Jersey royal governor demonstrate a rare case of impartial justice for Native Americans.
by Joseph E. Wroblewski via Journal of the American Revolution on April 7, 2022
Patricia Hearst in front of SLA flag, 1974; CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

American Captivity

The captivity narrative as creation myth.
by Ed Simon via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2022
Michikinikwa ("Little Turtle") statue by Douglas Hyde.

Native Prohibition in the Federal Courts

Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Congress enacted several laws restricting the sale of alcohol to Native Americans.
by Winston Bowman via Federal Judicial Center on March 1, 2022
Activists with a sign saying "No More Stolen Sisters" march for missing and murdered Indigenous women at the Women's March California 2019 on January 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Sarah Morris/Getty
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Colonial Traffic in Native American Women

“European and Indian men—as captors, brokers, and buyers—used captured and enslaved women to craft relationships of trade and reciprocity with one another.”
by Matthew Wills, Juliana Barr via JSTOR Daily on December 13, 2021

New England Once Hunted and Killed Humans for Money. We’re Descendants of the Survivors

The settlers who are mythologized at Thanksgiving as peace-loving Pilgrims were offering cash for Native American heads less than a generation later.
by Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana, Adam Mazo via The Guardian on November 15, 2021
Nurse Harriet Curley takes the pulse of a patient at Sage Memorial Hospital on the Navajo Indian reservation in 1949. (AP)

How Native Americans Were Vaccinated Against Smallpox, Then Pushed Off Their Land

Nearly two centuries later, many tribes remain suspicious of the drive to get them vaccinated against the coronavirus.
by Dana Hedgpeth via Washington Post on March 28, 2021
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Exhibit

Native Pasts

This exhibit showcases the cultural, political, and environmental histories of American Indians, from ancient civilizations to contemporary activism.

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