November 1, 2023 - Spotlight on Native Americans Heritage and History

From every background and tribal nation, Native American Indians are a vital part of history. It’s essential to spotlight Native American legends, listen to Native voices, learn about tribal diversity, and support initiatives that seek to address the challenges faced by Native Tribes and Indigenous people while celebrating their cultural heritage.

The U.S. began recognizing Native American Heritage Month as a week-long observance in 1986 and was expanded to a month-long commemoration in 1990.

National Museum of the American Indian—Calendar of Events

100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History

From Squanto to Sacagawea, Sitting Bull to Crazy Horse, Ramona Bennett to Louise Erdrich and many more, readers will be introduced to artists, activists, scientists, and icons throughout history.

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The Wisdom of the Native Americans

These thought-provoking teachings from respected Native American leaders and thinkers provide a connection with the land, the environment, and the simple beauties of life. This collection of writings from revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons on living and learning.

Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present

Celebrate the lives, stories, and contributions of Indigenous artists, activists, scientists, athletes, and other changemakers in this beautifully illustrated collection. From luminaries of the past, like nineteenth-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis—the first Black and Native American female artist to achieve international fame—to contemporary figures like linguist Jessie Little Doe Baird, who revived the Wampanoag language, Notable Native People highlights the vital impact Indigenous dreamers and leaders have made on the world.

Joy Harjo—the first Native to serve as Poet Laureate. She is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World

After 500 years, the world’s huge debt to the wisdom of the Native Americans has finally been explored in all its vivid drama by anthropologist Jack Weatherford. He traces the crucial contributions made by the Native Americans to our federal system of government, our democratic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology, and in this astonishing, ground-breaking book takes a giant step toward recovering a true American history.

The History of the American Indians

Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage

The first paths to freedom taken by runaway slaves led to Native American villages. There, Black men and women found acceptance and friendship among our country’s original inhabitants. Though they seldom appear in textbooks and movies, the children of Native and African American marriages helped shape the early days of the fur trade, added a new dimension to frontier diplomacy, and made a daring contribution to the fight for American liberty.

Black Alqonquin Indians in Providence, Rhode Island

I’m Not Black—I’m Indian: The Miseducation of Black Americans

From whispered stories of American Indian heritage, author Legendary Topcatz guides us through the rich cultural traditions that have shaped these communities. Discover the profound connections between indigenous cultures. The essence of American Indian heritage runs deep. We uncover the undeniable influence of Aboriginal American culture.

Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America

In 2012, Matika Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set out on a Kickstarter-funded pursuit to visit, engage, and photograph people from what were then the 562 federally recognized Native American Tribal Nations. Over the next decade, she traveled 600,000 miles across 50 states—from Seminole country (now known as the Everglades) to Inuit territory (now known as the Bering Sea)—to meet, interview, and photograph hundreds of Indigenous people. The body of work Wilbur created serves to counteract the one-dimensional and archaic stereotypes of Native people in mainstream media and offers justice to the richness, diversity, and lived experiences of Indian Country.

**Ada Elizabeth Deer, Menominee Indian Tribe**

Making a Difference: My Fight for Native Rights and Social Justice by Ada E. Deer

This stirring memoir is the story of Ada Deer, the first woman to serve as Head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Deer begins, “I was born a Menominee Indian. That is who I was born and how I have lived.” She proceeds to narrate the first 83 years of her life, which are characterized by her tireless campaigns to reverse the forced termination of the Menominee tribe and to ensure sovereignty and self-determination for all tribes.

Deer grew up in poverty on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, but with the encouragement of her mother and teachers, she earned degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Columbia University. Armed with a first-rate education, an iron will, and a commitment to justice, she went from being a social worker in Minneapolis to leading the struggle for the restoration of the Menominees’ tribal status and trust lands.

Having accomplished that goal, she moved on to teach American Indian Studies at UW–Madison, to hold a fellowship at Harvard, to work for the Native American Rights Fund, to run unsuccessfully for Congress, and to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs in the Clinton administration.

Spirit Wheel: Meditations from an Indigenous Elder

I stand in the midst of creation’s wheel

And watch in wonder the quiet majesty of its turning.

We are in the care of a love without limit or definition

Under the protection of a love that never looks away. Steven Charleston

When the Spirit speaks to him in his daily prayers, Choctaw elder and spiritual explorer Steven Charleston takes a pen and writes down the messages. This stunning collection of more than two hundred meditations introduces us to the Spirit Wheel and the four directions that ground Native spirituality: tradition, kinship, vision, and balance. The life we inhabit together has been called many things by Indigenous people: the Spirit Wheel, the hoop of the nations, the great circle of existence, the medicine wheel.

New Native Kitchen: Celebrating Modern Recipes of the American Indian

Native Americans: A Captivating Guide to Native American History and the Trail of Tears, Including Tribes Such as the Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations

Cherokee Mythology: Captivating Myths and Legends of a Native American Tribe

In Cherokee myth, as in other Indigenous American traditions, the whole of creation is alive and able to communicate like humans and with the human beings who share their environment. Cherokee myths explain how the world came to be the way it is and impart important lessons about Cherokee cultural values.

Geronimo: A Life from Beginning to End

The legendary Geronimo led one of the last great Apache uprisings against American expansionism. The lands of the Apache tribe comprised what is today part of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, and Geronimo was one of the last who dared to stand up to the powers that encroached on the Native American way of life.

Native American History

Accurate & Comprehensive History, Origins, Culture, Tribes, Legends, Mythology, Wars, Stories & More of The Native Indigenous Americans

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale

A young boy searches for his father, but before he can claim his heritage, he must first prove his worthiness by passing through the four ceremonial chambers: the kiva of lions, the kiva of snakes, the kiva of bees, and the kiva of lightning. Striking in its simplicity and grace, Arrow to the Sun vividly evokes the Native American reverence for the source of all life—the Solar Fire.

To the American Indian: the Unique Personal Account of a Yurok Native American Woman of Northern California

Lucy Thompson (or to give her the correct Yurok name Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah) was notable among authors since she was the first Native American woman ever to write a book and have it published in the English language.

Native American Survival Skills: How to Make Primitive Tools and Crafts from Natural Materials

In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians

Today, some two million American Indians inhabit the United States, less than 1% of the nation’s population. Their origins have always been viewed from a 500-year-old perspective—from the point of view of the Europeans who “discovered” the New World. Yet the true story of the American Indians begins some seventeen thousand years ago—and it is past due for a telling that shows Indians as they are, rather than as westerners wish them to be.

Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World (Audible Audiobook)

Whispers of Wisdom: Native America’s Timeless Teachings

This is a treasure trove of engaging rhymes and captivating facts that will have children wanting to learn more. With beautifully designed pages, this book is perfect for parents, teachers, and anyone who loves to learn.

Spotlight On America: Native Americans

Experience in-depth views of specific events surrounding the early Native Americans.

Indian Basket Weaving

This work covers all of the basic techniques: preparation of the reed, splicing, introduction of color, shaping, finishing, and more. It also includes descriptions of a great variety of weaves—Lazy Squaw, Mariposa, Taos, Shilo, and others—each accompanied by specific instructions. With over 100 illustrations, this book is an excellent resource for crafters and those interested in Native American Culture.

Beadwork Techniques of the Native Americans

Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Chippewa

The Cherokees: A Captivating Guide to the History of a Native American Tribe

They were also the first Native American tribe to have a written constitution and the first Native American tribe to have a newspaper. And the list goes on and on. The Cherokee is one of the most fascinating Indigenous tribes in the United States of America. The Cherokee managed to assimilate themselves within the U.S. And yet, they were sent far across the country, exiled from their ancestral homelands.

National Geographic Kids Encyclopedia of American Indian History and Culture

More than 160 tribes are featured in this outstanding new encyclopedia, which presents a comprehensive overview of the history of North America’s Native peoples. From the Apache to the Zuni, readers will learn about each tribe’s history, traditions, and culture, including the impact of European expansion across the land and how tribes live today.

Features include maps of ancestral lands; timelines of important dates and events; fact boxes for each tribe; bios of influential American Indians such as Sitting Bull; sidebars on daily life, homes, food, clothing, jewelry, and games; Did You Know facts with photographs; and traditional Native stories. The design is compelling and colorful, packed with full-color photographs.

Atlas of Indian Nations

Organized by region, this encyclopedic reference details Indian tribes in these areas: beliefs, sustenance, shelter, alliances and animosities, key historical events, and more. Told through maps, photos, art, and archival cartography, this is the story of American Indians that only National Geographic can tell.

Great Speeches by Native Americans

Graced by forceful metaphors and vivid imagery expressing emotions that range from the utmost indignation to the deepest sorrow, these addresses are deeply moving documents that offer a window into the hearts and minds of Native Americans as they struggled against the overwhelming tide of European and American encroachment.

Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North America

This superb, fully illustrated reference offers the most up-to-date and essential facts on the identity, kinships, locations, populations and cultural characteristics of some 400 separately identifiable peoples native to the North American continent, both living and extinct, from the Canadian Arctic to the Rio Grande.

The Native American Cookbook Recipes From Native American Tribes

Native American delicacies have shaped American culture as a whole. Today’s society owes much of what it has learned about food and the natural American resources to the early Native Americans. Included in this book are many recipes that cover a wide range of Native American cooking. Some recipes are tradition while others have been redeveloped over the years to include new ways of cooking and include new spices and ingredients. The recipes in this collection have been chosen in a way to stay true to the Native experience.

Margaret P. Moss is the first and only American Indian to hold both nursing and juris doctorates.

American Indian Health and Nursing by Margaret P. Moss, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota)

The first book to examine the profound disparities in American Indian health through a nursing lens and how they can be remedied. The book addresses the roots of American Indian nursing, including coverage of indigenous knowledge and traditional approaches to health and healing. It examines current issues surrounding American Indian nursing, nursing education, and health care within 10 distinct American Indian cultural populations, including a crucial discussion of the health care needs of American Indians living in urban areas.

Native American Moccasins: A Craft Manual

The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America.

Spirits of the Earth: A Guide to Native American Nature Symbols, Stories, and Ceremonies

Much of the ancient knowledge that has been passed down from Native American medicine men, or shamans is in danger of being lost. Bobby Lake-Thom, a Native American healer known as Medicine Grizzly Bear, has sought to preserve this powerful heritage by sharing his wisdom and experience learning from the world around us.

The History of Native American Life and Culture

On a Profound Exploration of Native American History, Including Tribes like the Cheroke, Seminole, and the Impact of the Trail of Tears

The History of the American Indians

American Indian Tribal Governance: A Critical Perspective

Tribal college professor emeritus Stephen Wall marshals his broad understanding of both Indigenous and Western legal traditions as well as nearly a half century of experience interfacing with tribal governments.

Native Americans Have Always Been in America: The Reverse Migration Theory

Trail of Tears: A History from Beginning to End (Native American History)

In the early 1800s, the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Choctaw—were living in lands allocated to them by the United States government in present-day Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In general, the Native American people lived in peace with the increasing numbers of white settlers coming to these areas, though there were occasional conflicts as settlers took lands that belonged to the tribes.

A Deep Guide To The Indian Wars: The American Indian Wars, Little Bighorn, and Wounded Knee

A Comprehensive Guide to the Complex History of Native American Conflicts and Cultural Clashes

They Called it The Craze: The Truth of the Circumstances Leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre

Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places

Scholar and anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes of a wide range of sacred places in Native America. From the “high country” of California to Tennessee’s Tellico Valley, from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Rainbow Canyon in Arizona.

Native American Tribes: Five Civilized Tribes of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek & Seminole Nation

This remarkable collection of five books takes you on a profound exploration of their ancient origins, their encounters with European settlers, their struggles during forced removal, and their enduring spirit of resilience and renewal.

Survival Skills of the Native Americans: Hunting, Trapping, Woodwork, and More

Encyclopedia of Native American Bow, Arrows, and Quivers

Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes

Native Peoples of the Southeast

Who were the first people to call the southeastern United States home? Long before Europeans came to the region, American Indian nations lived off the rich and varied land. These peoples had different languages, governments, and cultures. Their traditions and heritage were shaped by the climate and terrain of the American Southeast.

Native American Landmarks and Festivals: A Traveler’s Guide to Indigenous United States and Canada

Edward S. Curtis Portraits of Native Americans | 2024 Monthly Calendar

The collection of Curtis portraits in this calendar recognizes the dignified spirit of Native Americans.

Make a Beautiful Way: The Wisdom of Native American Women

Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Navajo

Native American Style Seed Bead Jewelry

A Beginner’s Guide to Native American Herbal Medicine: 75 Natural Remedies for Wellness and Balance

Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends

This wonderfully appealing anthology gathers more than 130 Native American legends, many told to the authors by elder storytellers and tribal historians. Organized by region—with tales from the Northwest, Southwest, Great Plains, Southeast, and Northeast—the legends are drawn from many tribes, including the Wasco, Aleut, Apache, Yosemite, Cheyenne, Sioux, Hopi, Navajo, Chippewa, Cherokee and others.

Crafts and Skills of the Native Americans: Tipis, Canoes, Jewelry, Moccasins, and More

Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution

Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law

In the early 1970s, the federal government began recognizing self-determination for American Indian nations. As sovereign entities, Indian nations have been able to establish policies concerning health care, education, religious freedom, law enforcement, gaming, and taxation. Yet these gains have not gone unchallenged. Starting in the late 1980s, states have tried to regulate and profit from casino gambling on Indian lands. Treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather remain hotly contested, and traditional religious practices have been denied protection. Tribal courts struggle with state and federal courts for jurisdiction.

David E. Wilkins and K. Tsianina Lomawaima discuss how the political rights and sovereign status of Indian nations have variously been respected, ignored, terminated, and unilaterally modified by federal lawmakers as a result of the ambivalent political and legal status of tribes under western law.

American Indians, American Justice

Baffled by the stereotypes presented by Hollywood and much historical fiction, many other Americans find the contemporary American Indian an enigma. Compounding their confusion is the highly publicized struggle of the contemporary Indian for self-determination, lost land, cultural preservation, and fundamental human rights—a struggle dramatized both by public acts of protest and by precedent-setting legal actions. More and more, the battles of American Indians are fought—and won—in the political arena and the courts.

American Indians, American Justice explores the complexities of the present Indian situation, particularly with regard to legal and political rights. It is the first book to present an overview of federal Indian law in language readably accessible to the layperson. Remarkably comprehensive, it is destined to become a standard sourcebook for all concerned with the plight of the contemporary Indian.

Indians of the Pacific Northwest

The cultures of the Pacific Northwest tribes were as diverse as their lands. Coastal peoples, such as the Makahs, hunted whales in huge wooden canoes thirty-five feet long. Near Puget Sound they developed an advanced technology and a stylized art in carved wood. Whites were shocked by the head flattening practiced by some coastal peoples and by the potlatch ceremony, in which they gave away their possessions. Farther inland, along the Columbia River, tribal economies centered around the salmon. The smoked fish was traded all over the region. On the east the horse transformed the way of life of the Shoshonis, Nez Percés, Kalispels, and Blackfeet. Each spring they crossed the Rockies to hunt the buffalo and fight for control of the hunting territory.

Handbook of the Indians of California, with 419 Illustrations and 40 Maps

The Indians of California, in their ethnographic present, offered the widest cultural range to be found in any area of the United States. In the north they approximated the cultures of the Northwest Coast; in the center they developed distinctive, elaborate cultures based on local food supplies; and in the south and east they approximated the more primitive desert groups — all in all showing a host of adaptations within a relatively small geographical area.

Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine

This book documents the generations of Native peoples who for twelve millennia have moved through and eventually settled along the rocky coast, rivers, lakes, valleys, and mountains of a region now known as Maine. Arriving first to this area were Paleo-Indian peoples, followed by maritime hunters, more immigrants, then a revival of maritime cultures. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Native peoples in northern New England became tangled in the far-reaching affairs of European explorers and colonists. Twelve Thousand Years reveals how Penobscots, Abenakis, Passamaquoddies, Maliseets, Micmacs, and other Native communities both strategically accommodated and overtly resisted European and American encroachments. Since that time, Native communities in Maine have endured, adapted when necessary, and experienced a political and cultural revitalization in recent decades.

The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground

The Lakota Indians made their home in the majestic Black Hills Mountain range during the last millennium, drawing on the hills’ endless bounty for physical and spiritual sustenance. Yet the arrival of white settlers brought the Lakotas into inexorable conflict with the changing world, at a time when their tribe would produce some of the most famous Native Americans in history, including Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse. Jeffrey Ostler’s powerful history of the Lakotas’ struggle captures the heart of a people whose deep relationship with their homeland would compel them to fight for it against overwhelming odds, on battlefields as varied as the Little Bighorn and the chambers of U.S. Supreme Court.

The Rights of Indians and Tribes

This book addresses the most significant legal issues facing Indians and Indian tribes today, including tribal sovereignty, the federal trust responsibility, the regulation of non-Indians on reservations, Indian treaties, the Indian Civil Rights Act, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Indian Nations of North America

Walk with the indigenous people who settled North America —and with their descendants, whose more than 500 tribes range from the Arctic Circle across the Great Plains and to the Eastern Seaboard. Lakota, Cherokee, Navajo, Haida: these groups and many others are profiled in engaging entries and portrayed in magnificent images and maps that authentically evoke each tribe’s history and character.

Organized into eight geographical regions, this encyclopedic reference gives fascinating details about key tribes within each area: their beliefs, sustenance, shelter, alliances, interaction with nature, historic events, and more. Learn about the spiritual and cultural traditions of Native Americans across the continent…investigate how and when each tribe came into contact with Europeans, and how their lives changed. This is the definitive, insightful reference on Native Americans —captivating and informative for all who appreciate history, diverse cultures, stunning images, and the artistry of maps.

The North American Indian: The Kwakutil

The North American Indian: The Hopi

The North American Indian: The Asparoke and Hidatsa

The North American Indian: The Tewa

The North American Indian: The Yakima, Klickitat, Salish Tribes, and Kutenai

The North American Indian: The Teton Sioux, Yanktonai, and Assiniboin

The North American Indian: The Piegan, Cheyenne, and Arapaho

American Indian Education

Before Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous peoples spoke more than three hundred languages and followed almost as many distinct belief systems and lifeways. But in childrearing, the different Indian societies had certain practices in common—including training for survival and teaching tribal traditions. The history of American Indian education from colonial times to the present is a story of how Euro-Americans disrupted and suppressed these common cultural practices, and how Indians actively pursued and preserved them.

American Indian Business: Principles and Practices

American Indian business is booming. The number of American Indian– and Alaska Native–owned businesses increased by 15.3 percent from 2007 to 2012―a time when the total number of US businesses increased by just 2 percent―and receipts grew from $34.4 million in 2002 to $8.8 billion in 2012. Despite this impressive growth, there is an absence of small businesses on reservations, and Native Americans own private businesses at the lowest rate per capita for any ethnic or racial group in the United States.

This book provides an accessible introduction to American Indian businesses, business practices, and business education. Its chapters cover the history of American Indian business from early trading posts to today’s casino boom; economic sustainability, self-determination, and sovereignty; organization and management; marketing; leadership; human resource management; tribal finance; business strategy and positioning; American Indian business law; tribal gaming operations; the importance of economic development and the challenges of economic leakage; entrepreneurship; technology and data management; business ethics; service management; taxation; accounting; and health-care management.

Modern Day Native American Indian Family

The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

This book documents the continuing vitality of American Indian traditions and the crucial role of women in those traditions.

Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations

This book explores the promises, diplomacy, and betrayals involved in treaties and treaty making between the United States government and Native Nations. One side sought to own the riches of North America and the other struggled to hold on to traditional homelands and ways of life. The book reveals how the ideas of honor, fair dealings, good faith, rule of law, and peaceful relations between nations have been tested and challenged in historical and modern times. The book consistently demonstrates how and why centuries-old treaties remain living, relevant documents for both Natives and non-Natives in the 21st century.

American Indian Thought: Philosophical Essays

This book brings together a diverse group of American Indian thinkers to discuss traditional and contemporary philosophies and philosophical issues. Covers American Indian thinking on issues concerning time, place, history, science, law, religion, nationhood, and art. Features newly commissioned essays by authors of American Indian descent.

Native American Indian Women Celebrating their Cultural Heritage

Teaching Children about Native Americans

Spotlight on Native American Indians Heritage and History