Category: Native American

At Indian Pueblo Kitchen, a Story Told in Feast Day Stew and Frybread

What is indigenous food, exactly? Monique Fragua is an expert on that question, a topic that delights her both personally and professionally. Born and raised in northern New Mexico’s Jemez Pueblo—where the rest of her extended family still lives—Fragua is the chief operating officer of commercial operations at Albuquerque’s Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). That…


Preserving Western Heritage Through Art

The American West and its heritage are solidified through the expression of artists and their works. The call of the West is strong, and these artists preserve the ideals and visions through paintings, furniture, jewelry, and other crafts. Western furniture designs, in particular, are influenced by the Wild West imagery of ranches, cowboys, and horses,…


Illinois Senior Refuses to Remove Religious Symbols; Denied Graduation Ceremony

Nimkii Curley grew up hearing the stories of his grandparents and great grandparents, all survivors of the Federal Indian boarding school system which purposely erased Native American culture in generations of children, spanning 150 years, in an effort to take Native American land. His Navajo grandfather, 90, lives with Curley, 17, and his parents and…


US Government Admits It Used Schools as Tool to Erase Culture, Seize Native American Land: Report

Erasing culture, pulling children away from their parents, and disregarding the emotional needs of children. These tactics could be pulled from today’s headlines, but they are the tried-and-true education policies the United States has admitted to using for 150 years as a tool to force the assimilation of Native Americans, and specifically to acquire Indian…


Zion National Park, Full of Formidable Landscapes Borne of Nature’s Dramatic Forces

There are extraordinary places in North America where the forces of time and nature have carved monoliths that form mysterious, sacred temples. These places captivate human beings from all walks of life by providing a connection to the grandeur and creative power of the natural world. Zion National Park in southern Utah has magnetized, and…


Honoring Tradition through the Art of Native American Kayak-Making

“If you hunt something, how can you love it? How can you both love an animal and hunt it?” These words of National Geographic photographer and indigenous kayak craftsman Kiliii Yuyan reverberated in my mind as I floated down the Cedar River in Iowa on my last kayak trip of the year. It was early,…


Tribe Grapples With Missing Women Crisis on California Coast

YUROK RESERVATION, Calif.—The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast. But things escalated when Emmilee Risling was charged with arson for igniting a fire in a cemetery. Her family hoped the case would force her…


DNA From Sitting Bull’s Hair Confirms Living Great-Grandson’s Ancestry

WASHINGTON—A sample of Sitting Bull’s hair has helped scientists confirm that a South Dakota man is the famed 19th century Native American leader’s great-grandson using a new method to analyze family lineages with DNA fragments from long-dead people. Researchers said on Wednesday that DNA extracted from the hair, which had been stored at the Smithsonian…


California Teacher Placed on Administrative Leave After Video Emerges of Her Wearing Faux Native American Headdress and Dancing in Class

A teacher at a Riverside, California school has been placed on administrative leave after a video emerged showing her wearing a faux Native American headdress while dancing and chanting in front of her class. Video footage of the clip, which was filmed in the classroom and shared on Twitter, shows the John W. North High School teacher waving…


Drug Distributors Strike First Opioid Settlement With Native American Tribe for $75 Million

The three largest U.S. drug distributors will pay more than $75 million to resolve claims they fueled an opioid epidemic in the Cherokee Nation’s territory in Oklahoma, marking the first settlement with a tribal government in the litigation over the U.S. addiction crisis. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin on Tuesday said the settlement, which…