In a country with so much diversity, around 8.75 million people identify, at least partially, as American Indian or Alaska Native. 

In Minnesota, a state with more than 100,000 of those residents, the Dakota people have the largest presence. 

Shelley Buck, who has devoted her life to her culture and tribe, serves as the president of ...

When Muskogee High School refused to grant a Native American student her diploma because she attached an eagle feather to her graduation cap, the decision sparked outrage across the U.S.  

Yet 27 years later, some Oklahoma schools still try to stop Native students from wearing items of religious and cultural significance on graduation day. Schools in Broken Arrow, Caney Valley, Latta, Moore, Norman and Vian have all faced...

As Wendsler Nosie finished his evening prayers sitting before a mesquite fire, a ceremonial yucca staff festooned with eagle feathers by his side, he gazed sternly toward a distant mesa where mining companies hope to extract more than 1 billion tons of copper.

That mine could help address climate change by helping the United States replace fossil fuels and combustion engines with renewable energy and electric cars. But to Nosie, a former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, it’s the latest insult in a bitter history. The tribe considers the rolling hills and hidden canyons...

At its first official meeting of 2023, the Seneca Nation Council unanimously approved a resolution condemning New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s veto of a bill that would have protected unmarked burials of Native American ancestors from unintentional excavation.

The resolution from the weekend council session denounces Hochul’s veto of the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act, saying it “demonstrates an utter disregard for the...

The salmon were late and the nets were empty.

Two weeks had passed since the Yakama Nation opened its ceremonial and subsistence spring fishing season on the Columbia River. Randy Settler and Sam George had spent $400 on gas for their boats, and had just two fish so far to give to their tribe for ceremonies.

This year’s salmon fishing was forecast to be better than last year’s. But it was the slowest start to a season that Settler could remember. It was also his first season without his mother, Mary Goudy-Settler, who died in October 2021.

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The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada is headed back to Federal Court on January 5th as the lawsuits against the project near completion, but project opponents are raising the alarm that Lithium Nevada Corporation has already begun work on the proposed mine.

Lithium Nevada’s workers at Thacker Pass have begun digging test pits, bore holes, dumping gravel, building fencing, and installing security cameras where Native Americans often conduct ceremonies. Lithium Nevada also conducted “bulk sampling”...

 Moana Meadow was 22 when her grandmother died in a hospital room, sitting up, eyes open, gripping the hands of her family members.

“Her spirit left her body like that. In an instant,” she said. “I wasn’t religious, but her spirit felt like it was hovering in the room for 15 minutes. There was this energy, pulsating. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

The event, though painful, left an imprint on Meadow and convinced her to pursue the life of an interfaith chaplain so she could accompany others who were dying.

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The Pikuni Traditionalists Association, a group representing the cultural and religious interests of the Blackfeet Tribe, has appealed a ruling reinstating a federal oil and gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine.

Today’s appeal represents the latest development in a 40-year saga over federal energy permitting in a 165,000-acre region of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest that’s often described as the spiritual homeland of the Blackfeet Tribe.

The Badger-Two Medicine features in Blackfeet creation stories, supplies tribal members with...

Shana Bushyhead Condill is a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and has always considered Western North Carolina and the Smokies home. Because her father traveled to work in “Indian Country” across the U.S., she was born in Montana, then lived in Oklahoma and Wisconsin until she went to Illinois Wesleyan University.

“My parents took me to museums for as long as I can remember, and we have always enjoyed history in general,” she says. “For whatever reason, I never considered museum work until my English professor brought in a speaker named Danyelle Means (Oglala...

Earlier this fall, leaders of the Native American Church of North America (Nacna) made a historic trip to Washington DC to meet with lawmakers about the need to protect peyote – and, with it, the faith of hundreds of thousands of Native people.

Over the course of three days, they sat down with more than 20 lawmakers, federal officials and representatives from the Biden administration. In each meeting, they distributed photos to better illustrate the grim situation: huge swaths of land, in an area of southern ...

A cherished, century-old Acoma shield was stolen from the pueblo in the 1970s. Decades later, it showed up in a French auction catalog.

Congress last week sent a bill to President Joe Biden’s desk that aims to crack down on the export of Native American patrimony, defined as objects with lasting historical or cultural significance.

The law — known as the Safeguard Tribal...

Ashkia Trujillo loves his Native American roots and enjoys sharing his culture and history with others.

But on Sunday morning, Ashika woke up to a surprise.

“After our stay at this hotel, I noticed that our truck had been broken into and vandalized. And, you know, a lot of our possessions and belongings were taken,” Trujillo said.

Source: Native American regalia...

In what they call a “holy war” to save their sacred site in Arizona known as Oak Flat, the Apache people have gathered in prayer with other Native American tribes, even those they’ve historically been pitted against, such as the Akimel O’odham, or River People, of the southwestern United States.

They’ve formed a coalition of Native peoples named Apache Stronghold and bonded with Christians and other religious leaders as they seek to stop the land from being transferred to Resolution Copper, a company owned by the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

Now, at a...

Ryan Mackey quietly sang a sacred Cherokee verse as he pulled a handful of tobacco out of a zip-close bag. Reaching over a barbed wire fence, he scattered the leaves onto the pasture where a growing herd of bison — popularly known as American buffalo — grazed in northeastern Oklahoma.

The offering represented a reverent act of thanksgiving, the...