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American Indian Movement Interpretive Center

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Official American Indian Movement Interpretive Center Website. Including news and events from AIM and other Native American Organizations- Minneapolis, MN

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Survival Schools:The American Indian Movement and Community Education in the Twin Cities by Julie Davis

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Survival Schools:The American Indian Movement and Community Education in the Twin Cities by Julie Davis

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The first history of two alternative schools founded by AIM in the Twin Cities in 1972—and their role in revitalizing Native culture and community

In 1972, motivated by prejudice in the child welfare system and hostility in the public schools, AIM organizers and local Native parents started their own community school. The story of these schools, unfolding through the voices of activists, teachers, and families, is also a history of AIM’s founding and community organizing—and evidence of its long-term effect on Indian people’s lives.

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In the late 1960s, Indian families in Minneapolis and St. Paul were under siege. Clyde Bellecourt remembers, "We were losing our children during this time; juvenile courts were sweeping our children up, and they were fostering them out, and sometimes whole families were being broken up." In 1972, motivated by prejudice in the child welfare system and hostility in the public schools, American Indian Movement (AIM) organizers and local Native parents came together to start their own community school. For Pat Bellanger, it was about cultural survival. Though established in a moment of crisis, the school fulfilled a goal that she had worked toward for years: to create an educational system that would enable Native children "never to forget who they were."

While AIM is best known for its national protests and political demands, the survival schools foreground the movement's local and regional engagement with issues of language, culture, spirituality, and identity. In telling of the evolution and impact of the Heart of the Earth school in Minneapolis and the Red School House in St. Paul, Julie L. Davis explains how the survival schools emerged out of AIM's local activism in education, child welfare, and juvenile justice and its efforts to achieve self-determination over urban Indian institutions. The schools provided informal, supportive, culturally relevant learning environments for students who had struggled in the public schools. Survival school classes, for example, were often conducted with students and instructors seated together in a circle, which signified the concept of mutual human respect. Davis reveals how the survival schools contributed to the global movement for Indigenous decolonization as they helped Indian youth and their families to reclaim their cultural identities and build a distinctive Native community.

The story of these schools, unfolding here through the voices of activists, teachers, parents, and students, is also an in-depth history of AIM's founding and early community organizing in the Twin Cities-and evidence of its long-term effect on Indian peoples' lives.

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In the late 1960s, Indian families in Minneapolis and St. Paul were under siege. Clyde Bellecourt remembers, "We were losing our children during this time; juvenile courts were sweeping our children up, and they were fostering them out, and sometimes whole families were being broken up."

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The official website of the Pueblo of Zuni, the zuni people welcome you to indulge in our heritage, and view the beautiful scenery zuni has to offer.

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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Assimilation with Education after the Indian Wars

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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Assimilation with Education after the Indian Wars

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Includes Lesson Plan

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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Assimilation with Education after the Indian Wars - Teaching with Historic Places (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened in 1879 and operated for nearly 30 years with a mission to "kill the Indian" to "save the Man." This philosophy meant administrators forced students to speak English, wear Anglo-American clothing, and act according to U.S. values and culture. The Carlisle model spawned 24 more off-reservation schools.

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American Indian Cultural Support Organization 

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American Indian Cultural Support Organization 

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Has many resources, "Safe surf" website

The American Indian Cultural Support organization is dedicated to preserving our various Nations sovereignty, legal rights, lands, and cultures.

We do this in many ways, but one of those ways is to assist with making living conditions better. When we can, we supply food, clothing, school supplies, arts and crafts supplies in order to meet the minimum daily needs of existence and to encourage education/learning.

Our continuing goals are to make the public aware of the needs of our people and the injustices which attempt to strip away our sovereignty, cultures and lands. To increase public awareness of demeaning Mascots used by the media and sports industry and to affect changes in these areas.

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American Indian Cultural Support main page

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A not for profit organization dedicated to helping Native Americans in keeping their culture intact, and in assisting in any way we can.

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Article form the Southern Ute website on the Bear Dance.

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Photos of 'survival school' in Minnesota, founded by AIM members as an alternative to assimilationist public schools

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Photo Gallery of the historic American Indian Movement's Red School House in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Information from the Chickasaw Nation on their regalia, including before and after European contact.

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the Chickasaw Nation is economically strong, culturally vibrant and full of energetic people still dedicated to the preservation of family, community and heritage.

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How Alaska Native Women Are Healing From Generations Of Trauma

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How Alaska Native Women Are Healing From Generations Of Trauma

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Video from AJ+ about Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone, a young Alaska Native woman reviving the art of traditional tattooing and dancing.

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How Alaska Native Women Are Healing From Generations Of Trauma | [Our Fight To Survive, Pt. 3] | AJ+

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We Shall Remain: Utah Indian Curriculum Project

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We Shall Remain: Utah Indian Curriculum Project

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Teaching guides and lesson plans for teaching the history, culture, and current issues of Utah’ s American Indian tribes in the fourth and seventh grade Utah history classes and high school social studies classes.

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Utah American Indian Digital Archive: Homepage

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When Europeans first arrived in what we now call Utah, they met five culturally rich and diverse Indian nations who already called this land home. This website is designed to help students and teachers explore these five tribes- the Utes, Paiutes, Northwestern Shoshones, Goshutes, and Navajos- which are a vital part of Utah's past and present.

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Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools

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Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools

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The boarding school experience for Indian children began in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first Indian boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. These schools were part of a plan devised by well-intentioned, eastern reformers Herbert Welsh and Henry Pancoast, who also helped establish organizations such as the Board of Indian Commissioners, the Boston Indian Citizenship Association and the Women's National Indian Association.

The goal of these reformers was to use education as a tool to "assimilate" Indian tribes into the mainstream of the "American way of life," a Protestant ideology of the mid-19th century. Indian people would be taught the importance of private property, material wealth and monogamous nuclear families. The reformers assumed that it was necessary to "civilize" Indian people, make them accept white men's beliefs and value systems.

Boarding schools were the ideal instrument for absorbing people and ideologies that stood in the way of manifest destiny. Schools would quickly be able to assimilate Indian youth. The first priority of the boarding schools would be to provide the rudiments of academic education: reading, writing and speaking of the English language. Arithmetic, science, history and the arts would be added to open the possibility of discovering the "self-directing power of thought." Indian youth would be individualized. Religious training in Christianity would be taught. The principles of democratic society, institutions and the political structure would give the students citizenship training. The end goal was to eradicate all vestiges of Indian culture.

By the 1880s, the U.S. operated 60 schools for 6,200 Indian students, including reservation day schools and reservation boarding schools. The reservation day school had the advantage of being relatively inexpensive and caused the least opposition from parents. The reservation boarding school spent half a day teaching English and academics and half a day on industrial training. Regimentation was the order of the day and students spent endless hours marching to and from classes, meals and dormitories. Order, discipline and self-restraint were all prized values of white society.

The boarding schools hoped to produce students that were economically self-sufficient by teaching work skills and instilling values and beliefs of possessive individualism, meaning you care about yourself and what you as a person own. This opposed the basic Indian belief of communal ownership, which held that the land was for all people.
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man"
At this juncture, it was felt that reservation schools were not sufficiently removed from the influences of tribal life. In the eyes of assimilationists, off-reservation boarding schools would be the best hope of changing Indian children into members of the white society. For Col. Richard Henry Pratt, the goal was complete assimilation. In 1879, he established the most well known of the off-reservation boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As Headmaster of the school for 25 years, he was the single most impacting figure in Indian education during his time.

Pratt's motto was, " Kill the Indian, save the man." Pratt believed that off-reservation schools established in white communities could accomplish this task. By immersing Indians into the mainstream of American life, the "outing" system created by Pratt had students living among white families during the summer. He hoped Indian youths would not return to the reservations but rather become part of the white community. Carlisle was the only off-reservation boarding school built in the East; all others were built in the West.

Carlisle and other off-reservation boarding schools instituted their assault on Native cultural identity by first doing away with all outward signs of tribal life that the children brought with them. The long braids worn by Indian boys were cut off. The children were made to wear standard uniforms. The children were given new "white" names, including surnames, as it was felt this would help when they inherited property. Traditional Native foods were abandoned, forcing students to acquire the food rites of white society, including the use of knives, forks, spoons, napkins and tablecloths. In addition, students were forbidden to speak their Native languages, even to each other. The Carlisle school rewarded those who refrained from speaking their own language; most other boarding schools relied on punishment to achieve this aim.

At the better boarding schools, students could attain a reasonable degree of English literacy in a relatively short period. At other schools, the method of teaching - an object card such as CAT shown to students, then written, pronounced and traced - failed to produce a comprehension of those words that had no equivalent in their Native tongue.

The Indian boarding schools taught history with a definite white bias. Columbus Day was heralded as a banner day in history and a beneficent development in their own race's fortune, as only after discovery did Indians enter the stream of history. Thanksgiving was a holiday to celebrate "good" Indians having aided the brave Pilgrim Fathers. New Year's was a reminder of how white people kept track of time and George Washington's birthday served as a reminder of the Great White Father. On Memorial Day, some students at off-reservation schools were made to decorate the graves of soldiers sent to kill their fathers.

Half of each school day was spent on industrial training. Girls learned to cook, clean, sew, care for poultry and do laundry for the entire institution. Boys learned industrial skills such as blacksmithing, shoemaking or performed manual labor such as farming. Since the schools were required to be as self-sufficient as possible, students did the majority of the work. By 1900, economic practicality became the goal and school curriculum slanted even further toward industrial training while academics languished.

The Carlisle school developed a " placing out system," placing Indian students in the mainstream community for summer or a year at a time where they could learn skills other than farming. While monitored carefully at Carlisle, other outing programs were often exploitive. At the Phoenix Indian School, girls became the major source of domestic labor for white families, boys were placed in seasonal harvest or other jobs unwanted by white or immigrant laborers and the students were unsupervised, learning very little from their outing experiences.

The Carlisle and Phoenix schools also had football teams, and Phoenix had a band that performed at summer parades and festivals. These activities were meant to support the idea that Indian people were capable of competing with whites.

Conversion to Christianity was also deemed essential to the cause. Indian boarding schools were expected to develop a curriculum of religious instruction, placing emphasis on the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and Psalms. Implanting ideas of sin and a sense of guilt were part of Sunday schools. Christianity governed gender relations at the schools and most schools invested their energy in keeping the sexes apart, in some cases endangering the lives of the students by locking girls in their dormitories at night - meaning they could not get out, even in the case of fire. There were, however, ritualized social activities such as dances and promenades.

Discipline within the Indian boarding schools was severe and generally consisted of confinement, deprivation of privileges, threat of corporal punishment or restriction of diet. In addition to coping with the severe discipline, Indian students were ravaged by disease at boarding schools. Tuberculosis and trachoma ("sore eyes") were the greatest threats. In December of 1899, measles broke out at the Phoenix Indian School, reaching epidemic proportions by January. In its wake, 325 cases of measles, 60 cases of pneumonia, and 9 deaths were recorded in a 10-day period.

Naturally, Indian people resisted the schools in various ways. Sometimes entire villages refused to enroll their children in white men's schools. Indian agents on the reservations normally resorted to withholding rations or sending in agency police to enforce the school policy. In some cases, police were sent onto the reservations to seize children from their parents, whether willing or not. The police would continue to take children until the school was filled, so sometimes orphans were offered up or families would negotiate a family quota. Navajo police officers avoided taking "prime" children and would take children assumed to be less intelligent, those not well cared for or those physically impaired.

Indian parents also banded together to withdraw their children en masse, encouraging runaways and undermining the schools' influence during summer and school breaks. An 1893 court ruling increased pressure to keep Indian children in Boarding schools. It was not until 1978 with the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act that Native American parents gained the legal right to deny their children's placement in off-reservation schools.

Some Native American parents saw boarding school education for what it was intended to be - the total destruction of Indian culture. Others objected to specific aspects of the education system, the manner of discipline and the drilling. Still others were concerned for their children's health and associated the schools with death. Resentment of the boarding schools was most severe because the schools broke the most sacred and fundamental of all human ties, the parent-child bond.

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Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools - American Indian Relief Council is now Northern Plains Reservation Aid

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The boarding school experience for Indian children began in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. These schools were part of a plan devised by...

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"An Indian Teacher Among Indians." by Zitkala-Sa

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"An Indian Teacher Among Indians." by Zitkala-Sa

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Thanksgiving | Native Americans | One Word | Cut

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American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), Dakota Sioux Indian

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American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin), Dakota Sioux Indian

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indigenous peoples of the americas (ethnicity)

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We invited Native Americans to respond to the word "redskin." These are their responses. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us! YouTube: http://cut.com/youtube Facebook: http://cut.com/facebook Instagram: http://cut.com/instagram Snapchat: @watchcut Produced, directed, and edited by https://cut.com Talent: Matt Michelle Jonathan Brooke Natasha Adria Kathryn Aeyana Cherry Columbia Walter Alec Katie Gracie Naomi Fredrick Ulysses Jonathon Music Clear Creek by Marmoset https://www.marmosetmusic.com/ Want to work with us?

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Reservation Word Associations - Present-Day Native Americans

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Reservation Word Associations - Present-Day Native Americans

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Reservation | Native Americans | One Word | Cut

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How American Indian Reservations Came to Be (Antiques Roadshow, PBS)

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How American Indian Reservations Came to Be (Antiques Roadshow, PBS)

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Treaties signed between American Indians and Colonial powers in the 17th and 18th centuries, and then between tribes and American officials in the late 18th and 19th centuries, resulted time and again in either the reduction of aboriginal lands or the relocation of Native Americans from their ancestral homes to designated areas where they lived and governed with limited independence.

The Indian Removal Act, signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, was an unprecedented legal maneuver that gave the president the power to make treaties with every tribe east of the Mississippi, ultimately forcing them to surrender their lands in exchange for territory in the West.

Prior to his presidency, Jackson was called "Sharp Knife" by the Indians he had battled on the frontier. In his political life afterward, he was a tenacious architect for the removal of Native Americans from the states and white settlements in the territories. He believed Indians had "neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire for improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear."

Native peoples who stayed in their original regions were compelled by the government to relinquish large tracts of the land they had once controlled and were made to live in small, often geographically isolated areas.

Tens of thousands of Native Americans were relocated to Indian Territory (to an area now part of Oklahoma) throughout the 1830s. Some tribes left without conflict, but many were ultimately driven by force from their ancestral land. In the North, Shawnees, Hurons, Ottawas, Miamis, Delawares, and others endured the journey west, while in the South, members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes were among the migrating masses. Most members of the Cherokee Nation were forcibly removed from parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama on what they called The Trail of Tears. Many became ill and thousands died during the arduous crossing.

Conflicts between Indian tribes defending their way of life and white Americans determined to move and change them continued throughout the 19th century.

The U.S. government's driving desire to incorporate new territories and continue its western expansion, justified as "Manifest Destiny," meant further displacement and hardship for most Native Americans.

The Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 authorized the creation of Indian areas in what is now Oklahoma. Native peoples were again forced to move to even smaller parcels of land now called reservations. The U.S. government had promised to support the relocated tribal members with food and other supplies, but their commitments often went unfulfilled, and the Native Americans' ability to hunt, fish and gather food was severely restricted. Illness, starvation, and depression remained a constant for many.

Throughout this time, the federal government's policies towards Native Americans and the sentiments of white Americans in general included a varying combination of paternalism, racism and greed. In addition to being moved to reservations, native peoples were subjected to an organized strategy of cultural annihilation. From the 1860s on through the beginning of the 20th century, Indian boarding schools were created with the mandate to indoctrinate indigenous children into white American culture, in an attempt to eradicate their indigenous ideologies and traditions. On top of being separated from their families and communities for long periods of time, the schools forbade the children from speaking their tribal languages, required them to wear American-style dress and hairstyles, and encouraged them to abandon their native religion for Christianity.

The Dawes Act of 1887 (also called the General Allotment Act) was created to further motivate Native Americans to assimilate into American culture. The act supported the American-held ideal of individual ownership of private property, rather than the communal tradition of indigenous peoples. Now, reservation land could be divided into allotments for individual Indians and families. The law also changed the legal status of Native Americans from tribal members to individuals subject to federal laws and terminated many tribal affiliations.

Near the end of his life, Red Cloud, one of the most important Lakota leaders of the 19th century and a veteran of treaty negotiations, recounted his experience dealing with the U.S. government over disputed lands: "They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it."

The 20th century slowly brought some progress for people living on Indian reservations. U.S. policy regarding the reservations began to turn around with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Sometimes called the Indian New Deal, tribal sovereignty and land management by tribes was encouraged. The Act outlined new rights for Native Americans, while also reducing some of the earlier privatization of their collective property.

The trials of life on many Indian reservations remain a complicated national issue today as Native Americans continue to cope with the effects of a legacy of forced relocation and the struggle to retain cultural traditions and languages.

Related

For more in-depth information on this topic, we suggest the following:

American Experience: We Shall Remain A provocative film and multi-media project on the essential role of Native peoples in American history.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. By Dee Brown, 1970.

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An Indian reservation is land reserved for and managed by a Native American tribe, its sovereignty limited by federal and state or local law. Today, there are roughly 300 reservations in the United States. But how and why did Indian reservations come to be?

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Life on the Reservations (ushistory.org)

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Life on the Reservations (ushistory.org)

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Geronimo (on the right) and his son waiting for a train that transported them and other Apache prisoners to Florida, in 1886.

After being forced off their native lands, many American Indians found life to be most difficult. Beginning in the first half of the 19th century, federal policy dictated that certain tribes be confined to fixed land plots to continue their traditional ways of life.

The problems with this approach were manifold. Besides the moral issue of depriving a people of life on their historic land, many economic issues plagued the reservation. Nomadic tribes lost their entire means of subsistence by being constricted to a defined area. Farmers found themselves with land unsuitable for agriculture. Many lacked the know-how to implement complex irrigation systems. Hostile tribes were often forced into the same proximity. The results were disastrous.

The Dawes Act

Faced with disease, alcoholism, and despair on the reservations, federal officials changed directions with the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. Each Native American family was offered 160 acres of tribal land to own outright. Although the land could not be sold for 25 years, these new land owners could farm it for profit like other farmers in the West.

A wedding, such as that of Kitty Medicine-Tail and Bear-Goes-to-the-Other-Ground at Crow Indian School in 1896, was just one of many civil proceedings confusing for government officials because of the many ways in which native Americans received English-language names.

Congress hoped that this system would end the dependency of the tribes on the federal government, enable Indians to become individually prosperous, and assimilate the Indians into mainstream American life. After 25 years, participants would become American citizens.

The Dawes Act was widely resisted. Tribal leaders foretold the end of their ancient folkways and a further loss of communal land. When individuals did attempt this new way of life, they were often unsuccessful. Farming the West takes considerable expertise. Lacking this knowledge, many were still dependent upon the government for assistance.

Many 19th century Americans saw the Dawes Act as a way to "civilize" the Native Americans. Visiting missionaries attempted to convert the Indians to Christianity, although they found few new believers.

"Americanizing" the Indians

Land not allotted to individual landholders was sold to railroad companies and settlers from the East. The proceeds were used to set up schools to teach the reading and writing of English. Native American children were required to attend the established reservation school. Failure to attend would result in a visit by a truant officer who could enter the home accompanied by police to search for the absent student. Some parents felt resistance to "white man education" was a matter of honor.

In addition to disregarding tribal languages and religions, schools often forced the pupils to dress like eastern Americans. They were given shorter haircuts. Even the core of individual identity - one's name - was changed to "Americanize" the children. These practices often led to further tribal divisions. Each tribe had those who were friendly to American "assistance" and those who were hostile. Friends were turned into enemies.

The Dawes Act was an unmitigated disaster for tribal units. In 1900, land held by Native American tribes was half that of 1880. Land holdings continued to dwindle in the early 20th century. When the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide rates were higher for Native Americans than any other ethnic group in the United States. As America grew to the status of a world power, the first Americans were reduced to hopelessness.

Many of the great native American leaders traveled to Washington to negotiate treaties. How were they received? What were the results?
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Native American health care practices were considered inferior by government administrators and most treatment was given off the reservation in the late 19th century. For Alaskans, that meant traveling to Portland, Oregon.
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Right living is the only road to long living, or to useful living, and the hygiene of the school room, the dormitory and the workshop is of more vital importance to the Indian child than to the child of any race further advanced in civilization, and hence of greater physical stamina. -Martha Waldron, 1896.
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If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary, that eagles should be crows. -Sitting Bull
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Life on the Reservations [ushistory.org]

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Geronimo (on the right) and his son waiting for a train that transported them and other Apache prisoners to Florida, in 1886. After being forced off their native lands, many American Indians found life to be most difficult.

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Heard Museum overview of Hopi Katsina Dolls.

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Hopi Katsina Dolls: 100 Years of Carving - FAQ

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While both the deeper meaning of a katsina doll and the material from which is carved - the root of the cottonwood tree - is unchanged through the centuries, carvers have transformed the outward representation of a katsina doll over time.

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Taken from Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States.

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"Kill the Indian, Kill the Death" by Wendy Harris (Rethinking Schools)

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"Kill the Indian, Kill the Death" by Wendy Harris (Rethinking Schools)

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Teaching about the residential schools

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From Rethinking Schools: "Kill the Indian, Kill the Deaf"

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A community dedicated to creating a world that works for all.

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Tecumseh's Speech to the Osages (Winter 1811-12)

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Tecumseh's Speech to the Osages (Winter 1811-12)

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Taken from Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States is a first-hand account from a Shawnee leader speaking to the Osages about the struggle against the colonists.

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For centuries, the United States government has taken Native American children away from their tribes, devastating parents and denying children their traditions, culture, and identity. First Light documents these practices from the 1800s to today and tells the story of an unprecedented experiment in truth-telling and healing for Wabanaki people and child welfare workers in Maine.

In 2015 the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that Native people in Maine continue to be targets of "cultural genocide." The commission is the topic of a documentary film, Dawnland, currently in postproduction and slated for release in early 2018.

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From We Shall Remain: The Utah Indian Curriculum Project.

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Annie is a young Navajo girl who refuses to believe that her grandmother, the Old One, will die. Sadly, Annie learns that she cannot change the course of life.

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"[In this] story of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas, living on an island in Lake Superior around 1847, Louise Erdrich is reversing the narrative perspective used in most children's stories about nineteenth-century Native Americans. Instead of looking out at 'them' as dangers or curiosities, Erdrich, drawing on her family's history, wants to tell about 'us', from the inside. The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' books." --The New York Times Book Review

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Written by: Melinda Crimmins

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North American Indian Timeline (1492-1999)

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North American Indian Timeline (1492-1999)

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Retrieved from Legends of America website

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Good springboard discussion for names, naming, identity, family, and cultural heritage

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Thunder Boy Jr. has 2,998 ratings and 640 reviews. Elyse said: Sherman Alexie is one of the authors here at the Bay Area Book Festival.Today is second d...

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Video created by the Southern Ute about the Bear Dance.

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Southern Ute Indian Tribe | Bear Dance Video

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Southern Ute Indian tribal members share their experience at a traditional dance that celebrates the arrival of Spring. The film maker John Ciletti captured the meaning and cultural value of the Ute social Bear Dance.

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Robert Jones Zuni Cochiti Pueblo Jeweler

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Robert Jones Zuni Cochiti Pueblo Jeweler

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Interview with a Zuni artist.

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Robert Jones Zuni Cochiti Pueblo Jewelry Artist

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Robert Mac Eustace Jones is a Native American Metal Smith from Zuni and Cochiti pueblo. In this video meet Robert, learn about how he is, some of his inspirations and experience some of his style.

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John G. Burnett’s Story of the Removal of the Cherokees

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John G. Burnett’s Story of the Removal of the Cherokees

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Taken from Howard Zinn's Voices of People's History of the United States, Burnett's Story of the Removal of the Cherokees is a first-hand account of the private's lived experience.

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How the young Indian artist finally fulfills his Dream-Vision is lovingly told and illustrated by Tomie dePaola, in words and pictures that capture the spirit and beauty of this dramatic legend.

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The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, John Bierhorst

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The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, John Bierhorst

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A retelling of the Iroquois creation story, in which the world as we know it today begins with a woman who fell from the sky and her two small children.

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The Abenaki story of the creation from the graphic novel DAWN LAND (October 2010), tells of human beings came to be. Spoken in the Western Abenaki language.

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The Upstander Project helps bystanders become upstanders through compelling documentary films and learning resources. Our films include First Light, the debut film in the series anchored by the feature film Dawnland, and Coexist.

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When a killing drought threatens the existence of the tribe, a courageous little Comanche girl sacrifices her most beloved possession--and the Great Spirit's answer results not only in much needed rain but a very special gift in return.

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Indian Boarding Schools in We Shall Remain (PBS)

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Indian Boarding Schools in We Shall Remain (PBS)

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Heavy content

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Indian Boarding Schools Clip from We Shall Remain

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Uploaded by Ellen Salmonson on 2016-01-09.

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Lends itself to discussion about culture, what we carry with us, and drawing upon culture to resist and as a form of resistance

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Shi-shi-etko has 212 ratings and 43 reviews. David said: I am reading a few indigenous books, thanks in part to my library, and this one is a good one. I...

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The People Shall Continue, Simon J. Ortiz

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The People Shall Continue, Simon J. Ortiz

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Traces the history of Indians of North America from the time of the Creation Story to the present. Extremely digestible for elementary students and above.

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Students thought a lot about the 'mystery' of the canoe and what it represented - did it symbolize culture? family connections?

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In this follow-up to her earlier Shi-shi-etko, children's author Nicola I. Campbell, who is of Interior Salish and Metis descent, returns to the residential school experience of Canada's First Nations peoples - a heartbreaking process in which native children were forcibly removed from their homes and families, and placed in abusive church-run boarding schools. As Shi-Shi-etko prepares to return to school for her second year, her younger brother Shinchi must confront his own first year away,...more

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In this follow-up to her earlier Shi-shi-etko , children's author Nicola I. Campbell, who is of Interior Salish and Metis descent, returns to the residential school experience of Canada's First Nations peoples - a heartbreaking process in which native children were forcibly removed from their homes and families, and placed in abusive church-run boarding schools.

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James Bruchac talks about the role that storytelling has played in his life, and the different directions that it has taken him.

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Photos before and after Carlisle: discussing forced assimilation

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Photos: Before and After Carlisle | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

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We were incredibly moved by the "Before and After" student photos we saw on our trip to Carlisle, PA. Here are a few of the most powerful images we came across in the archives.

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Between the Earth & Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places

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Between the Earth & Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places

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The silent stories of our ancient land and its native peoples are given voice in reverential prose poems and radiant paintings.

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The affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.

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Here is the inspiring story of the first efforts to save the buffalo, an animal sacred to Native Americans and a powerful symbol of the American west. From the foresight and dedication of individuals like Walking Coyote came the eventual survival of these majestic animals, one of the great success stories of endangered species rescue in United States history.

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The Raven Story

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, presents a telling of the Tlingit myth, "How Raven Gave Light to the World." The story is told by Shirley Kendall (Eagle Moiety), originally from the Alaskan village of Hoonah. It is illustrated with video of Native dancers and Alaskan scenery, as well as with images depicting Raven.

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This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, presents a telling of the Tlingit myth, "How Raven Gave Light to the World." The story is told by Shirley Kendall (Eagle Moiety), originally from the Alaskan village of Hoonah. It is illustrated with video of Native dancers and Alaskan scenery, as well as with images depicting Raven.

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Oral Traditions

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, features Cecilia Kunz, a Native elder from the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska, who describes how stories are passed on among her people. Although the Tlingit language is now written, and virtually all Tlingits are literate, they continue to pass on their stories orally. Cecilia Kunz illuminates how dance, clothing, traditional objects like totem poles, and events like potlatches all become means of transmitting and preserving stories.

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This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, features Cecilia Kunz, a Native elder from the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska, who describes how stories are passed on among her people. Although the Tlingit language is now written, and virtually all Tlingits are literate, they continue to pass on their stories orally.

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Chickasaw elders Pauline Brown and Rose Jefferson continue the tradition of hand-sewing Chickasaw regalia as a way to honor their ancestors. Pauline's mother and grandmother were both stomp dancers who wore the traditional ribbon dresses; many decades later, Pauline is using her skills to bring this culturally important piece of regalia to the current generation.

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Katsina Dolls of the Hopi at the Heard Museum Shops

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Hopi artist and Katsina carver Gerry Quotskuyva and Katsina buyer James Barajas talk about the making of and history of the Katsina doll.

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Cecil Calnimptewa, Jr., award-winning Hopi carver, describes katsinas and details his meticulous process for bringing these spirits to life. His carvings are highly sought by museums and collectors.

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National Museum of the American Indian: Artifacts

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National Museum of the American Indian: Artifacts

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Find collections of artifacts from specific Native American cultures

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National Museum of the American Indian : Search by Peoples/Cultures

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Smithsonian: National Museum of the American Indian

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Smithsonian: National Museum of the American Indian

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Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field

Tailyr Irvine's new photo essay explores the legacy of U.S. government regulations impacting Native Americans' most personal decisions.

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Home Page | National Museum of the American Indian

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NMAI is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere through partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life.

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Malian's Song - Jeanne Brinks Translation

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Malian's Song - Jeanne Brinks Translation

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The book, Malian's Song, is based on an eyewitness Abenaki account of Robert Rogers’ 1759 raid on the Abenaki village of St. Francis. For many years the only information about the raid included in history textbooks was based on Robert Rogers’official report. In 1959 ethnologist Gordon Day recorded Elvine Obomsawin Royce telling a very different story of the raid that had been passed down in her family for generations. Here Jeanne Brink, granddaughter of Elvine, reads an English translation of her grandmother’s story.

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In the words of a young Abenaki girl, Malian’s Song tells the true story of the deliberate English attack by British Major Robert Rogers on the St. Francis Abenaki community near Montréal in 1759. Jeanne Brink, a descendant of Malian living in Vermont, told the little-known Abenaki version of the brutal attack--which stands in direct contrast to Rogers’ surviving journal records--to the Vermont Folklife Center.  The only picture book to present this key piece of North American history from the Native American perspective,  Malian’s Song underscores the Abenaki people’s strength and fortitude in the face of unspeakable loss.

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When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans

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When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans

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A collection of poems written by young Native Americans, inspired by or matched with photographs of artifacts and people from the National Museum of the American Indian.

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When Sacred Otter and his son become trapped in a blizzard, the man dreams that he visits Storm Maker's tipi. Full-spread vertical views of the tipi's exterior and interior reveal Goble at his finest, intermingling texture, form and color.

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A leader of the Alcatraz Occupation discusses its successful tactics in reversing the federal policy of Indian termination
Adam Fortunate Eagle (Nordwall) is one of the last remaining leaders of the Alcatraz Occupation. In November 1969, 79 "opportunistic Indian[s]" (as per an FBI memo) disembarked on the recently decommissioned prison island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. They were protesting the plight of Native Americans throughout the United States, and their invasion of federal property lasted an impressive 19 months. This chapter of San Francisco's tumultuous sixties is perhaps underemphasized only because the other events of the period are so many. And yet the occupation, which lasted until June 11, 1971 (when the 15 remaining occupiers were evicted at gunpoint by federal agents), is now beginning to get its due. Some credit it with inspiring Native American activism all over the country for the rest of the decade. In particular, it provided an example of the strength to be found in forging pantribal political alliances, with the occupiers referring to themselves as the Indians of All Tribes. Like many activist movements, the occupiers' internal politics were complicated and at times bitterly divided. As often happens with nonhierarchical activist groups, the leader was effectively chosen for them by the media, to some resentment. Reporters settled on the telegenic Richard Oakes, a 27-year-old student at San Francisco State College and Mohawk father of six. While he certainly was one of most prominent figures on the island, he left in January 1971 after his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Yvonne, died from falling down a stairwell in one of the abandoned prison buildings. The mantle then fell to John Trudell (Santee Dakota), previously the occupiers' spokesperson on Radio Free Alcatraz. It was he who facilitated the dignified eviction later in 1971. LaNada Means Warjack, a UC Berkeley student, was also crucial in opening a bank account for the occupiers and managing its funds. Adam Fortunate Eagle's role was largely in laying the groundwork for the occupation. As chairman of the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland, and later as chairman of the United Bay Area Council of American Indian Affairs, Adam helped develop the political foundation for a pantribal identity as early as 1962. For 16 years, he was key in the organization of powwows, dances, a teen rock band, and other cultural events that brought the Bay Area's many Native Americans together across tribal lines. In November 1969, he organized for a small vessel to cruise around Alcatraz with several Native Americans on board in full ceremonial dress. Little more than a publicity stunt, it nevertheless grabbed the full attention of the regional press, gathering momentum for the real occupation. Once the occupation began, he never actually stayed on the island but played the "quartermaster," succeeding in raising $80,000 for the island in just a few months. Of the original four key figures to the occupation, only Adam was contactable. Oakes was fatally shot in Mendocino County a year after having left the island, and Trudell died in 2015. Means Warjack lives in Idaho. Fortunate Eagle lives on a reservation in Fallon, Nevada, ever since the FBI's COINTELPRO operations forced him into exile from his Bay Area home of San Leandro. He doesn't have a computer, so I was only able to reach him by letter. He refused to conduct the interview over the phone, so early on Labor Day morning, I recruited two friends (one of whom had a car) and we drove the five and half hours from Berkeley to meet him. Could you describe the community activism of the 1960s in the Bay Area? What made you and your fellow organizers feel it was worth doing, or that you could do it against so many odds?

The story of Alcatraz goes back longer than people realize. I start in 1933, when Hitler came into power and took over Germany. Now, one of the first things he did with the Jews was to get them to all provide the Nazi party with a list of their possessions. 1933. In 1943, the war was going on, 35,000 Native Americans were involved, including my own family. While we were fighting to defend our country, the country was plotting to steal the remaining 48 million acres. In 1943 the BIA put out a request to all federally recognized tribes to list the assets of their reservations - undeveloped resources. That sounds like Germany all over again, doesn't it? So the tribes gave the government a full listing of their resources and those tribes became known as the Council of Energy Resource Tribes.
In your memoirs, when you write about the proposal for what you wanted to do with Alcatraz you say that it wasn't unrealistic, because of the history of oppression of Native Americans, but that it was idealistic, perhaps because you knew that you were making huge demands.
Then in 1953, Zimmerman, the assistant commissioner, was instructed to draw up a list of tribes in sequence of termination. The hit list, alright? And in 1953, the government passed House Resolution 108, commonly known as the Termination Act, to abolish all reservations, abrogate all treaties, relinquish the federal and Indian relationship, and close down the BIA. To implement the termination policy, the government followed that up in 1958 with the Relocation Program. Under that program, the government took Indians off the reservation - they're going to terminate us, right? So they need to get rid of the Indians. That's the amazing thing to the government: They found out the reservations were full of Indians! Relocation passed into law and they started shipping Indians off the reservations to eight major cities in the United States. From 1958 to 1969 the government had relocated 210,000 Indians. Now I don't know if you know anything about the Trail of Tears of 1830 - all of the Indians to the east of the Mississippi were to be shipped to the West. Even though the Cherokees won their case in the Supreme Court, Jackson said, "Let the Supreme Court enforce their laws, I will enforce removal." Sounds like Trump again, doesn't it? He's going to go his own damn trail, no matter what the law says! Or what the people say! And "of the people, by the people, for the people" does not apply to American Indians. We've never had a voice in the laws that were promulgated on our behalf. It remains to this day a colonialist system. Does that justify the takeover of Alcatraz? Doesn't that just piss you off? [laughs]

Remember I said Alcatraz represents, symbolically, Indian reservations? We've always been held captive on the reservations. When all these reservations were established, all these Indian wars of the West you read about, culminated with Custer. His purpose was to push Indians onto the reservations. And if you didn't go, you'd die! They'd kill you. If you refused to go to a reservation, they'd shoot you and call you a renegade Indian. Justifiable homicide. Oh, gosh. You're getting me all worked up. [28-second pause]
What were the precise conditions of the '60s that made occupying Alcatraz possible, in terms of what other people were doing in their activism at the time?
Knowledge, to the oppressor, is a danger. Pol Pot of Cambodia put that into action by slaughtering millions of his own people, starting with the intellectuals. See, we're a dangerous people, that's why I'm an enemy of the state! I'm just reciting a very small portion of what happened leading up to Alcatraz.

I said the 1950s was the time of conformity. During the aftermath of WWII and under the Eisenhower administration. Conformity was the way of life because we're happy! The war was over! Now we got a whole bunch of new kids coming up. The baby boomers. Conformity was the way of life. The years that Bobbie and I got married in 1949 and we moved to the Bay Area in 1950 to start raising our family.

I studied to be a commercial artist at Haskell Institute. At the outbreak of the Korean War, I was a commercial artist at one of the largest commercial art studios in Kansas City. I was a professional artist until all four of my brothers were recalled into the military for service in Korea. My mother called me and said "Come out and spend what little time you have left before you're called." Now, Bobbie is pregnant with our first child. And we're in Kansas City. We're a long ways from the reservation. We kind of figured that "Hey, if I get called to service, I don't want Bobbie to be left alone in Kansas City having a baby." So that's when we decided to move. She was working as a secretary. I was a commercial artist. Boarding school kids! We took our savings and we hopped a plane. A Constellation. The Connie. Oh, it was a beautiful aircraft. Kansas City to Phoenix, Phoenix to San Francisco.

My mother lined up a temporary job for me. I wanted to be an artist, but I got a temporary job in termite control. During the 1950s I worked my way up from a helper, to crew foreman, to inspector; I went on to become manager, vice president of a company and then on to own my own company in the 1960s.
Do you think you could do it today?
In the late 1950s, we started to see the influence of Indians coming into the Bay Area. Veterans of Korea? Yes. But then a whole bunch of new guys. And we didn't know about Relocation then. Cy Williams, a Chippewa from Cass Lake, Minnesota, would come to the bowling alley where Bobbie and I were in the league. Cy and Aggie would sit in the audience there, and he talked to us, and would tell us about all the Indians in the Bay Area. We knew the beginnings of the powwows in the Bay Area because we were there. But then in 1962 Cy kept after me, he says, "Adam, we need leadership." There were all these diverse tribal groups at the Friendship House: The Sioux club, the Chippewa club, the Sports Committee, the United Paiutes, the Pomo Club [laughs] . . . All these different little groups came together and so I organized them in 1962. That got me on the trail. I was working my way up professionally, taking care of wife and family, but at the same time starting to give back.

Times they are a-changin' [grinning]. That's a simple answer to that. No. The circumstances of Alcatraz were unique. I gave you the outline of that: declared a surplus property. To an opportunistic Indian? Go for it. By that time, I had served as Chairman of the United Bay Area Council for American Indian Affairs for 6 years. I was experienced as a leader working with 12 affiliated tribal groups. I had my own mini United Nations of Native Americans right there in Oakland. I was chairman for 6 years and I went on to be chairman for a total 14 years in the Bay Area before I was exiled.

In 1975, the Indian Self-Determination Act gave the tribes more self-government, instead of relying on the BIA to be our middleman. They would rake off the government grant money before it went to the tribes - kind of like a finder's fee (there's another term that they don't use, not a finder's fee but to "cover administrative costs"). What was left went to the tribes for minimal health care services, education programs, basic things. Leading up to Alcatraz all of these were being cut back. They were putting the economic squeeze on the reservations, preparing them for termination. That's how they played it. So times they are a-changin'. We've got it pretty good now. With the Indian Gaming Act of 1980, we've got casinos now! Wouldn't have happened without Alcatraz. Via Indian termination and Relocation, and under the Nixon administration, we won the war! But they never told us. Alcatraz was in a way the last fight. And we won.
Why do you think you had so much community support for the occupation?
I mentioned Custer. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho wiped him out. But you know Custer went to the Little Bighorn with a bunch of Crow Indian scouts. See, the government used us against each other! Geronimo was captured because the government employed Apache scouts to lead them to him. Divide and conquer. A weird part of that Custer story reflects on us. I told you Bobbie's name: Kills Among Many. And you know I'm an adopted Crow. That's how I got the name. That's "Good eagle/lucky eagle/eagle that has a good life/fortunate eagle." I wanted to be different. Lucky Eagle, oh yeah we got lucky eagles out there on the reservation, but no Fortunate Eagles. Just one. My grandson got my name. In a naming ceremony. Going back to Custer, one of the scouts was named Curly. He went back to the steamboat to alert the captain that Custer had been wiped out. I'm an adopted Crow. His son and wife adopted me and later adopted Bobbie. And so by adoption, Curly the Crow scout is my grandfather, and he was with Custer on June 26, 1876. [laughs] See, we're connected with history in so many strange ways!
Why was it important that the Proclamation be funny, and that humor pervaded the occupation as a whole?
Satire and humor. We won the hearts and minds of all those liberal people in the Bay Area. Eleven million people and a lot of them were in support of us. It was the also the Sausalito Indian Navy. Those three skippers that brought the Indians onto the island November 20. And ever since then, boat owners would be coming around bringing us supplies. There were so many boat owners in the Bay Area, they overwhelmed the Coast Guard that blockaded us for only three days before they gave up. [laughs] Circle the wagons! They were bringing turkeys and food and everything. The generosity. I didn't live on the island because my mission was to help be the quartermaster. Money was going to provide for basic necessities that wasn't going to come out of goods donations. In a matter of months we raised about $80,000 - a lot of money in those days. I went on television programs, radio talk programs, civic groups, Christian groups to give talks, always saying send it to the Bank of California, the Indian account, never give it to me. I never touched any of that money. I never wanted anybody to get the idea that I was exploiting Alcatraz for personal gain. In all the years that I was involved, I never took any salary. I never received any compensation, it has never been my aim.
What's your advice, not only to Native American activists, but to others today?
Satire and humor win more friends than righteous anger or indignation. I call it action and reaction. The Proclamation makes a strong political historic statement utilizing humor to convey the message. In doing so, the public does not feel threatened. Satire and humor have long been the weapon of choice against the establishment. The occupation of Alcatraz stands as a prime example of protest using humor. Humor is the weapon of the downtrodden. Anger and hostility only serve to prolong the guilt complex of the dominant societies. If we'd gone "Argh, White Man, argh!" that would have got us nowhere! So bring him into the story, make him laugh! [laughs] The Black Panthers of Oakland, with their violent rhetoric, accomplished nothing.

Go in peace. [long pause] I don't know if I'm the person to give advice. If anything, go by example. Don't do as I say, but do as I do! With the fact that you're in our home now. You see all these beautiful things around you? When Bobbie and I started off, everything was in one suitcase. Now we had that training, we had the education. And so we went off to make a life for ourselves and our family, and by extension even affected the entire Bay Area community, and by extension, nationally! But nationally, the tribes don't understand about Alcatraz either. That's a sad thing. If it wasn't for Indians of All Tribes in ending Termination, where would the Indians be today? So I put out that hypothetical question. The conquest would have been complete.

But we achieved the impossible. We backed the government down. Now with the success of the casinos, the tribes, the economy, and the H.U.D. houses where before it was tarpaper shacks. Now we have H.U.D. houses, we have hot and cold running water. The economic and social development of our tribes has just expanded, I can't say how much, it just depends on each reservation, but in our case. Age was never a concern! It's what you can do that counts. Living on the Fallon Indian Reservation, I have lived in the shadows of history. Big shadow, huh?

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"Nationally, the tribes don't understand about Alcatraz either. That's a sad thing. If it wasn't for Indians of All Tribes in ending Termination, where would the Indians be today? So I put out that hypothetical question. The conquest would have been complete."

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Stolen Children | Residential School survivors speak out. 18 min video by CBC.

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Stolen Children | Residential School survivors speak out

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Zinn Education Project teaching materials

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Zinn Education Project teaching materials

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by Bill Bigelow
When you think about Superstorm Sandy, melting ice caps, wildfires in Australia,...

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By Bill Fletcher Jr.
The day went down in history as a powerful show of...

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by Bill Bigelow
When you think about Superstorm Sandy, melting ice caps, wildfires in Australia,...

Continue reading

By Bill Fletcher Jr.
The day went down in history as a powerful show of...

Continue reading

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by Bill Bigelow When you think about Superstorm Sandy, melting ice caps, wildfires in Australia,... Continue reading By Bill Fletcher Jr. The day went down in history as a powerful show of... Continue reading by Bill Bigelow When you think about Superstorm Sandy, melting ice caps, wildfires in Australia,...

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On Trails by Robert Moor: A book for teachers to read to better understand native people's relationship with land, nature and place.

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On Trails by Robert Moor: A book for teachers to read to better understand native people's relationship with land, nature and place.