A historian of astronomy writes about the role of astronomical events in Indigenous cultures − and also the exploitation of their sacred traditions in present times.
Stonehenge during winter solstice sunset
Chuta Kooanantkul/Shutterstock
The monument’s ancient connection to the skies may run even deeper than we realised.
The Fort Randall hydropower dam in South Dakota flooded thousands of acres of Native American land when it was built in 1952.
Harry Weddington, USACE/Wikipedia
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently ruled that it won’t approve energy projects on Native lands without tribal consent. But many more applications are pending.
Indigenous artifacts from the northwest coast of North America on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
U.S. laws on the repatriation of Indigenous artifacts and remains still uphold inequities in the relationships between Indigenous people and the agencies holding their materials.
Dogs have lived with Indigenous Americans since before they came to the continent together 10,000 years ago. A new analysis reveals the lineage of one 1800s ‘woolly dog’ from the Pacific Northwest.
Native American children are still disproportionately represented in the U.S. child welfare system.
grandriver/E+ via Getty Images
Native American families have endured generations of systematic child removal, but the grief, loss and trauma that birth mothers still experience have been largely overlooked.
Students become more emotionally engaged with history when it’s presented in an interactive way, research shows.
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Rather than have students memorize names and dates, this history curriculum invites students to grapple with real-life issues faced by people from the past.
Native Americans depicted at the first Thanksgiving feast, in a 1960 film about the Pilgrims’ first year in America.
AP Photo
A scholar of Native American and Indigenous rhetorics writes about the harm done to Native American nations through colonization and what can be done to reduce it.
The Teo Kali, an Aztec cultural group, participates in a sunrise “Unthanksgiving Day” ceremony with Native Americans on Nov. 24, 2005, on Alcatraz Island.
Kara Andrade/AFP via Getty Images
The origins of the Indigenous People’s Thanksgiving Sunrise Ceremony, held on the traditional lands of the Ohlone people, go back to 1969, a pivotal moment of Indigenous activism.
Cranberries grow on vines in sandy bogs and marshes.
Lance Cheung, USDA/Flickr
Cranberries add color and acidity to Thanksgiving menus, but they also have many interesting botanical and genetic features.
An Osage man on the Arkansas River sometime between 1910 and 1918 – about a decade before the Osage Reign of Terror.
Vince Dillion/Oklahoma Historical Society via Getty Images
The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.
A bison restoration project in Oklahoma on lands of the Cherokee Nation, one of the largest Native American tribes.
AP Photo/Audrey Jackson
Efforts are being made to develop the capacity of Native tribes to manage bison and bison habitats. An Indigenous scholar explains their sacred significance.
The first encounters between European settlers and Native Americans are captured on a wood engraving in this 1888 image.
DigitalVision Vectors
Popular culture often describes scalping − the forceful removing of a person’s scalp − as an indigenous practice. But white settlers accelerated this form of violence against Native Americans.
The Serpent Mound in Ohio.
Krista Backs via Worldhistory.org
A pipeline that has carried Canadian oil and gas across Wisconsin and Michigan for 70 years has become a symbol of fossil fuel politics and a test of local regulatory power.
Water spills over the Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
The largest dam removal project is moving forward on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. Tribal nations there have fought for decades to protect native fish runs and the ecology of the river.
A water pump outside a home on the Navajo Nation in Thoreau, N.M.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By a narrow margin, the Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a case over water rights in the drought-stricken US Southwest.
Wiping away tears, Nita Battise, vice chairperson of the tribal council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, reacts to the Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that gives Native American families priority in adoptions and foster care placements of tribal children.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images