Indigenous History and Rights & Tribal Sovereignty

Administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site

Thursday's National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts, will honor Indigenous people who've suffered centuries of racism and mistreatment. It's the 52nd year the event has been observed.

The annual celebration is a good time to reflect on efforts made throughout the year to support and advance Native American communities.

One fifth of the world’s languages will be dormant or dead by the end of the century, scientists warn. And the pandemic made it worse

The American Indian Museum puts the 150-year-old Fort Laramie Treaty on view in its "Nation to Nation" exhibition

A Minneapolis community seeks to counteract centuries of federal policies that have put its people at a disadvantage.

Democracy’s indigenous origins in the Americas.

A growing movement recasts the second Monday in October as a day to appreciate the history of Indigenous communities. That visibility, say Native Americans, can help us see what else needs to change.

One of the criticisms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is that it puts a huge burden of proof on Tribes, which may not have access to the necessary records.

The announcement followed a 14-month campaign to stop the move out of state of the histories of 272 federally recognized tribes as well as all federal records generated in the Pacific Northwest, including military, land, court, tax and census documents.

Shumla leaders said they completed the first phase of their Alexandria Project, having documented 233 rock art sites along the Lower Pecos.

A librarian has developed citation templates for oral teachings shared by members of Indigenous communities.

Two men who falsely claimed to be tribal members sold counterfeit Native American art at galleries in downtown Seattle, officials said. Both are separately facing federal charges.

Official Web Site of theTohono O'odham Nation We are pleased to present to you, the members of the Tohono O'odham Nation and Internet communities, the official website of the Tohono O'odham Nation! With this site, we want to open a window to our world to educate others about our history, culture, governance, and other aspects […]

The official site of the Navajo Nation.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) required federal agencies and museums to (1) identify their Native American human remains and other objects, (2) try to culturally affiliate them with a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, and (3) repatriate them under the terms in the act. The National NAGPRA office, within the Department of the Interior's National Park Service (NPS), facilitates the government-wide implementation of NAGPRA. GAO was asked to determine, among other things, the (1) extent to which agencies have complied with their NAGPRA requirements, (2) actions taken by National NAGPRA, and (3) extent of repatriations reported by agencies. GAO reviewed records for eight key agencies with significant historical collections, surveyed agencies to obtain repatriation data, and interviewed agency, museum, and tribal officials."

NAGPRA, Bureau of Reclamation - Managing water and power in the West

This page contains links to American history relating to Native Americans. During November we celebrate Native American/Alaskan Native Heritage Month. Check out these statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as the reference links below.

The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York.

The Phoenix Indian Center is the oldest American Indian non-profit organization of its kind in the United States. The Center was formed in 1947 as an outgrowth of Native people moving to urban Phoenix not only to sell their crafts and goods but as a result of U.S. Government public policy. The Federal Government’s Indian Relocation Act (PL 959) created a mass migration of American Indians from rural, reservation settings to large scale cities across the United States during the 1950-1960s. The Act was an attempt to assimilate American Indians into the prevailing non-Indian city life culture and remove their practice of Native culture and traditions through the break-up of reservation systems. As a result, several Indian Centers were formed in the major “relocation” cities across the country. These Centers were crucial in providing a place for American Indians to connect and socialize with other Indians and to receive various necessary services as they were removed to live city-life. Phoenix was designated as one of the original “relocation cities.” Today, well over 125,000 American Indians reside off-reservation in Maricopa County, ranked second by county with largest number of American Indians (U.S., Census Bureau’s 2006-2008 American Community Survey (ACS). The Phoenix Indian Center has evolved over its years of existence, adding several programs and services for job readiness/employment, prevention, youth, cultural revitalization, and community engagement. Each year the Center reviews the needs for our ever growing American Indian population in the metropolitan Phoenix area and seeks funding to offer more services to address these needs. As the Center evolves, one thing remains true – we provide a safe, supportive environment for American Indian people looking for opportunity in this dynamic but unfamiliar and often challenging urban setting.

Providing national leadership to end violence against American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.

The authors of five recent books in the field of Indigenous women’s history wish to restore Indigenous women to history, as Ella Deloria did more than seventy years ago. The voices and experiences of Indigenous women are so often muted and marginalized in standard written historical sources, but now historians of Indigenous women are intent on providing a more complete presentation of Indigenous women as multidimensional, complex and active agents of history.

Our stories are rooted in the earth and lie within our hearts. Our stories tell about our interrelationship with all that surrounds us—our four directions, elements, seasons, generations, and Holy Beings. Our stories describe the events, beliefs, and values that make us who we are and bring meaning and clarity to ourselves, our families, our communities, and our cultures. Threads from all our stories bind us together as Bilá ashdláí “five-fingered people” and can help us remember our shared histories, explain our present circumstances, and imagine our futures. Together, by making and sharing our stories with each other, we can heal our communities one story at a time. nDigiDreams performs media production and conducts community-based digital storytelling training workshops. We believe our diverse cultures, identities, histories and stories hold enormous strength and beauty and we seek to train and empower indigenous individuals and communities with new media tools to realize optimal health and wellness.

Profile First language/s: English, Navajo, Pueblo, Apache, other native languages Religion/s: Christianity, native religions Native Americans, the indigenous peoples of…

Working for Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation for Boarding School Survivors and Descendants.

A national Indigenous (First Nations, Metis & Inuit) alliance to bring together cross-disciplinary professionals, para-professionals, Indigenous knowledge keepers and Indigenous grass-roots com…

IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs - is a global human rights organisation dedicated to promoting, protecting and defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Since 1968, IWGIA has cooperated with Indigenous Peoples' organisations and international institutions to promote recognition and implementatio

The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (ILPDC) is the hub of communication between Leonard Peltier and his program coordinators, the general public, government officials, political and tribal leaders, the media, and his supporters worldwide. We are in daily contact with Leonard who is currently imprisoned at USP Coleman, Florida.