This was a widely held imperialist belief in the 19th-century that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. The Oregon Country The spirit of “Manifest Destiny” pervaded the United States during the Age of Reform—the decades prior to the Civil War. John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the influential United States Magazine and Democratic[…]
Jackson’s goals put the government in conflict with the more than 125,000 Native Americans who still lived east of the Mississippi. Native Americans and the New Republic From the time the first colonies were settled in America, relations between the Native American Indians and white settlers ranged from respected friends to hated enemies. Into the[…]
Creative Commons Welcoming tribes to conquering settlers. By Josh Stewart / 04.17.2017 Genocide is the systematic destruction of peoples based on ethnicity, religion, nationality, or race. It is the culmination of human rights violations. There are numerous examples of genocide throughout history, some being more infamous than others. For example, Hitler and the Jewish Holocaust is probably[…]
How colonists cloaked violence beneath a veneer of gentility and conquered peoples held to religion to preserve their sense of community. Interview of Dr. Jennifer Graber by Daniel Gorman, Jr. / 09.17.2018 Graber: Associate Professor of Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin Gorman: PhD Candidate in History, University of Rochester The following was[…]
The Little Bighorn Battlefield, Lodge Grass, Montana / Photo by Acroterion, Wikimedia Commons The battle is also known as “Custer’s Last Stand” and the “Battle of the Greasy Grass.” Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 11.12.2018 Public Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Background Overview The ‘Battle of the Little Bighorn’ was one of the most famous battles[…]
Dance bonnet and scalplock of an Omaha Indian / Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons The legacy and impact of photographs that make for some uncomfortable viewing. By Allison C. Meier / 03.22.2018 Photographs, and how people are presented in them, can impact health and survival. In the 19th century, such photographs and artistic depictions of indigenous people as primitives[…]
Portrait of Assuz, a San Carlos Apache Indian, c 1898 / Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons The pictures are striking and iconic, but the story behind them is far from black and white. Here, we profile 19th-century photographer Frank Rinehart’s remarkable portrayal of Native Americans. By Allison C. Meier / 03.22.2018 The 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in[…]
Dance is a unique way of passing on cultural stories to a younger generation. Aaron Hawkins/Flickr.com Many Native languages are dying, and their loss has deep and profound implications for our world. By Dr. Rosalyn R. LaPier / 06.15.2018 Associate Professor of Environmental Studies The University of Montana Alaska has a “linguistic emergency,” according to the Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker. A report warned earlier this year that all[…]
Blessing from the Medicine Man, Howard Terpning®, 2011 / The Greenwich Workshop, Inc. Native American concepts of health and wellness have sustained diverse peoples since ancient times. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 08.04.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Medicine Ways: Traditional Healers and Healing Introduction Many traditional healers say that most of the healing is done by[…]
Looking at at a group of white slaveholders who adopted Southeast Indian boys (Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw) into their plantation households in the decades following the US Revolution. By Dr. Dawn Peterson / 09.14.2017 Assistant Professor of Early North American and U.S. History Emory University In 1811 a prominent Choctawwoman named Molly McDonald placed her eleven-year-old son[…]
Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 07.06.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Introduction Geronimo (Chiricahua, Goyaałé; “One Who Yawns”; often spelled Goyathlay in English) (June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who long warred against the encroachment of the United States on tribal lands. Geronimo embodied the very essence of the Apache values—aggressiveness and courage in the face of[…]
The First Salmon ceremony being performed. U.S. Department of Agriculture , Public Domain Indigenous people from around the world revere certain traditional foods as sacred. By Dr. Rosalyn R. LaPier / 06.15.2018 Associate Professor of Environmental Studies The University of Montana The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling, on June 11, that asked Washington state to remove culverts that block the migration of salmon.[…]
The unfinished Crazy Horse memorial in Custer County, South Dakota. Bernd00/Wikimedia Commons More than a century after he died, the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, who famously fought General Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn, is thought of as transcendent force. By Dr. Henry Adams / 10.29.2017 Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History Case Western Reserve University[…]
It’s not too late to explore our ancient history, and we can begin by grasping a better understanding of tribal perspectives on landmarks, place names, and the historical people and events that make them significant. / Photo by DEA/F. BARBAGALLO/De Agostini/Getty Images The ancient history of this country is often overlooked. Here are landmarks significant to[…]
A woman holds Pope Francis’ head during his meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples at the Vatican on Feb. 15, 2017. L’Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP Pope Francis, defending Native American protests on the North Dakota pipeline issue, said indigenous cultures have a right to defend ‘their ancestral relationship to the Earth.’ By Dr. Rosalyn R. LaPier / 02.16.2017 Associate Professor of Environmental Studies[…]
Sam Oozevaseuk Schimmel, 18, has grown up in both Alaska and Washington state. He is an advocate for Native Alaskan youth. / Photo by Kiliii Yuyan, NPR More than 50 years after the federal government forced hundreds of Native Alaskans into boarding schools, their descendants are haunted by — and trying to overcome — residual trauma.[…]
Cherokee Heritage Museum / Photo by Wesley Fryer, Wikimedia Commons How many Native Americans died on the Trail of Tears? By Dr. Ellen Holmes Pearson Professor of History University of North Carolina, Asheville The “Trail of Tears” refers specifically to Cherokee removal in the first half of the 19th century, when about 16,000 Cherokees were forcibly[…]
By Dr. Susan Stebbins Professor of Cultural Anthropology State University of New York at Potsdam Introduction When most of us who now live in the United States and Canada learn about the history of our homeland, material starts with Christopher Columbus’s landing on islands in the Caribbean in 1492. Little attention is given to the[…]
Basketry bowl with checkerboard and arrow head motif / Mint Museum Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 04.25.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief 1 – The New World 1.1 – Introduction Indigenous visual arts traditions in the Americas span thousands of years, representing cultures from Mesoamerica to the Arctic. The New World refers to the western hemisphere,[…]
Overview of Pueblo Bonito / Photo by John Wiley, Wikimedia Commons By Dr. P. Scott Corbett, et.al. Professor of History Ventura College Introduction In Europe supported by Africa and America (1796), artist William Blake, who was an abolitionist, depicts the interdependence of the three continents in the Atlantic World; however, he places gold armbands on the[…]
In the 19th century, federal policy shifted from a policy of extermination and displacement to assimilation. The passage of the Civilization Fund Act in 1819 allocated federal funds directly to education for the purpose of assimilation, and that led to the formation of many government-run boarding schools. / Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images. More than a century ago, the last[…]
Sculptural ceramic ceremonial vessel that represents a dog, c. 100-800 C.E., Moche, Peru, 180 mm high (Museo Larco). This spotted dog is represented in several scenes of Moche art accompanying Ai Apaec, the Moche mythological hero. By Dr. Sarahh Scher / 08.27.2016 Visiting Lecturer in Art History Salem State University A Complex Culture Moche architects and artists[…]
By Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank / 08.09.2015 Assistant Professor of Art History Pepperdine University Wanted: stunning view Cliff dwellings, Ancestral Puebloan, 450–1300 C.E., sandstone, Mesa Verde National Park, (photo: Steven Zucker, CC: BY-NC-SA 2.0) Imagine living in a home built into the side of a cliff. The Ancestral Puebloan peoples (formerly known as the Anasazi) did just that in some of[…]
Photo by Ivor Molleema, Florida Department of State In an unprecedented discovery, archaeologists identify a site where prehistoric people once buried their dead—now submerged beneath the waves. By Megan Gannon / 02.28.2018 Venice is Florida’s unofficial capital of fossil hunting. Divers and beachcombers flock to this city on the Gulf Coast, mostly seeking palm-sized teeth[…]
Direct genetic traces of the earliest Native Americans have been identified for the first time in a new study. The genetic evidence suggests that people may have entered the continent in a single migratory wave, perhaps arriving more than 20,000 years ago. 01.03.2018 The data, which came from archaeological finds in Alaska, also points to[…]
Wakeah Jhane’s mother and little sister in family heirloom cradleboard / Photo provided by Wakeah Jhane Native women are once again embracing the cradleboard because it’s both artistic and utilitarian. By Chelsey Luger / 01.02.2018 There are strollers and swings, high chairs and play yards, vibration seats and musical floor mats. When it comes to devices[…]
“Greg is the first Native man I ever heard talk in such depth about what happened to him. He let us know that we can no longer be silent.” All photos by Mary Annette Pember By Mary Annette Pember / 12.28.2017 By the numbers, Native Americans reliably top lists of violence, poverty, unemployment, and addiction in the United States. Taken alone,[…]
By Dr. E.M. Rose / 11.21.2017 Visiting Fellow, Department of History Harvard University Two of the most famous Native Americans in early colonial history may well have met in London. Matoaka, nicknamed Pocahontas, who lived near the Jamestown settlement in Virginia and Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, who greeted the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, were[…]
Bessie Black Horn created the Many Hands shirt around 1910 to commemorate the “multiple handshakes” that her husband, Chief Daniel Black Horn, had with European dignitaries. / Photo by Daniel Black Horn By Dr. Stephen E. Nash / 05.11.2017 Archaeologist and Historian of Science Denver Museum of Nature & Science In late 2013, I got[…]
To Hopi traditionalists—Hopis who practice traditional culture—the humble one-seed juniper tree has deep cultural meaning. / Photo by Mark Sykes In the American Southwest, the loss of juniper trees at the hands of mining and development could cost the Hopi a crucial part of their heritage. By Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa (left) and Dr. Chip Colwell[…]