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The Fort Washakie School and Community welcome you to our beautiful reservation.

Isen Tammen Newe Sokoppeh (This is Our Indian Land)

The Wind River Indian Reservation is the seventh largest reservation in the U.S. and home to four thousand Eastern Shoshone and nine thousand Northern Arapahos. Both groups are reviving languages and cultural and spiritual practices that used to be repressed or even outlawed by the U.S. government.

Explore the Wind River Indian Reservation

Happy Birthday to Rosie Harris

Native American Heritage Week 2022

TravelStorys Self-Guided Audio Tour

The tour follows US Hwy 287 from the Town of Lander, Wyoming, north to the Rte. 26 junction and features student-produced interviews and stories of the vast 2.2-million-acre Wind River Indian Reservation, highlighting the native Shoshone peoples who live there, the dramatic scenery, and wildlife of the region.

Here at the Fort Washakie School, students researched and wrote tour stories to interpret their culture and inform visitors. In these tours, virtual and onsite travelers experience a storied landscape, mixing fascinating stories of the people with interpretation of the native cultures and key sites to visit.

In Part One of the self-guided tour, travelers visit the historic town of Fort Washakie and the grave site of Sacajawea, the revered Shoshone guide who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition with her extensive knowledge of the rugged region and her language skills. Visitors can explore the Wind River Trading Company with historical exhibits and learn about Wyoming's largest Indian powwow and traditional celebration held in June.

Part Two of the tour loops east and highlights the Arapaho people, their history and stories, and regional geothermal features.

Explore This Tour Remotely

Padlet Page

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Indian Education - Fremont County School District #21

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Fremont County School District #21 is located in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, on the 3,374,272-acre Wind River Indian Reservation. In our three schools, we educate approximately 500 pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade students.

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The CIMCC Native STEM Maker Program demonstrates how Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are used in traditional lifeways, TEK application, and how they are incorporated in contemporary methods.

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FORCES THAT SHAPED THE LAND

"Over these seemingly changeless mountains, in endless succession, move the ephemeral colors of dawn and sunset and of noon and night, the shadows and sunlight, the garlands of clouds with which storms adorn the peaks, the misty rain-curtains of afternoon showers." -Fritiof Fryxell, The Tetons: Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape, 1966

The Teton Range is one of the youngest mountain ranges in the country, yet it contains some of the oldest rocks. Due to geologic forces, the valley floor is sinking, causing the Tetons to rise slightly. This movement results in the distinctive look of the mountains which appear to be erupting directly up from the flat valley floor. Several periods of glaciation shaped the more prominent topographic features of the valley. Although the last glacial event ended around 12,000 years ago, clues can still be seen in the landscape today. Large continental glaciers covered the valley floor, while mountain glaciers extended down through the Teton canyons to carve out lakes such as Phelps, Bradley, Taggart, Jenny and Leigh, at the base of the mountains. Timbered Island, the Potholes and the vast sage flats are all evidence of glacial activity. Most of the valley is covered with plains of sagebrush, the result of a wide glacial river that washed away sand and silt to leave behind larger river stone cobbles. These cobbles are of mixed geologic origin and come from the several mountain ranges surrounding the Jackson Hole valley.

EARLY HUMAN HABITATION

After the last major continental glacier receded, humans began to move into the valley. The earliest documented evidence of people in Jackson Hole are Folsom projectile points from the Paleoindian Period which date to about 11,000 years ago. Over the next several thousand years, many different indigenous groups would establish both campsites and transportation routes throughout the valley. These groups include but were not limited to: The Mountain Shoshone (also called Sheep-Eaters), Eastern or Plains Shoshone, Crow, Bannock, Blackfoot, Northern Arapaho, Gros Ventre and Nez Perce. Traces of their camps and transportation routes are still visible in the numerous archaeological sites on both the valley floor and in the high Tetons. These sites suggest that these groups used the valley seasonally, arriving in mid-May and following snowmelt into the mountains in late fall. They made good use of a wide range of the region's abundant food sources, following herds of elk, bison or bighorn sheep. Berries, tubers, roots and nuts - especially pine nuts from the white bark pine tree - were also part of their diet. Archaeological evidence suggests, and oral histories from the Shoshone confirm, that pine nuts would have been an important staple. Large family groups would have taken communal gathering trips into the mountains to collect and process this exceptionally nutritious form of fat and protein.

As technologies advanced in food processing and hunting, these seasonal populations expanded, as evidenced by the increased number of archaeological sites dating from later periods. Obsidian, a form of volcanic glass, became a popular material for all manner of tools. Because of its incredibly sharp nature and easy flaking properties, obsidian was an important resource, readily available locally, for producing spear points.

Soon the bow and arrow would replace the atlatl, an early form of throwing spear, as the primary hunting weapon. The sinew-backed bow, made from the horns of Rocky Mountain bighorn rams, is characteristic of the Shoshone and Crow Indians who used this area. Traded as far away as the Upper Missouri River valley, these incredibly powerful bows were recognized as the most powerful hunting weapon in North America prior to the introduction of European fire arms.

MOUNTAIN MEN AND FUR TRAPPERS

"Here we found a few Snake Indians comprising six men, seven women and eight or ten children, who were the only inhabitants of the lonely and secluded spot. They were all neatly clothed in dressed deer and sheep skins of the best quality and seemed to be perfectly contended and happy." - Osborne Russell, Journal of a Trapper 1832

In the early 19th century, fur trappers eager to exploit one of the valley's most valuable resources, beaver furs and other pelts, found their way into the remote valley of Jackson Hole. While the major centers of the fur trade were outside Jackson Hole, many significant routes passed directly through the valley. Towering over the Snake River and low valley, the Teton Range became an unmistakable landmark. According to one tradition the Tetons got their name from French fur trappers who noted their resemblance to large breasts. However, according to at least one Crow historian, the name derives from the Crow or Apsaalooke word for the mountains which sounds very similar to the French pronunciation of "Teton," and translates as "pointed and jagged."

John Colter, hunter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), is long thought to be the first Anglo-American to enter Jackson Hole. It is thought that his travels took him through the region of what is now Yellowstone National Park and probably along the shoreline of Jackson Lake during the winter of 1807-1808. However, his route is disputed today. In 1933, farmers in Idaho unearthed a stone resembling a human face with the words "John Colter 1808" carved into it. Some believe this carved stone serves as evidence that proves Colter's route through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole. Others believe the stone is a hoax.

Over the next four decades after the Lewis and Clark expedition, the fur trade continued to operate in the Rocky Mountain West. It would decline sharply after the early 1830s as beaver were virtually exterminated at this time. The disappearance of the beaver drastically changed the configuration of high country waterways, lakes and ponds. Originally sought after for men's fur hats and other fashionable articles of clothing, beaver fur fell out of favor and only the changing tide of Eastern fashion prevented it from disappearing altogether. By 1840, the fur trade was considered to have ended. Many of the fur trappers found new work as guides for research expeditions through the Rocky Mountains. These men had spent years in this rugged country and knew it well.

THE MOUNTAIN MAN RENDEZVOUS

"I defy the annals of chivalry to furnish the record of a life more wild and perilous than that of a Rocky Mountain Trapper" -Francis Parkman

Mountain men like David Jackson (for whom the valley is named), Jedidiah Smith, Jim Bridger and William Sublette would become synonymous with this rugged and isolated lifestyle. Wilson Price Hunt, in the employ of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, led a group of trappers up Wyoming's Wind River in 1811 and over what is now called Union Pass, crossing the Continental Divide and then heading down the Hoback River to its confluence with the Snake. The sight of the three most prominent peaks of the Teton Range cheered the company on:

"Here one of the guides paused, and, after considering the vast landscape attentively, pointed to three mountain peaks glistening with snow, which rose, he said above a fork of the Columbia River. They were hailed by travelers with that joy which a beacon on a seashore is hailed by mariners after a long and dangerous voyage." -Wilson Price Hunt, Overland Astorian, 1811.

While often portrayed as romantic figures, glorified for their skills in surviving in harsh and unforgiving terrain, in reality this occupation was extremely hazardous, and scarcely ever yielded a decent living. Trappers working alone or with a small group of partners were subject to attacks by hostile Indians, grizzly bears and other wild animals, often in arduous and dangerous conditions. Trapping took place in the fall and in the early spring when beaver pelts were at their most luxurious and desirable in the long cold months of winter. Often alone for months at a time, they would come together in the summers to sell their furs at outposts of some of the region's major fur companies at trade gatherings called "rendezvous." The rendezvous tradition of trading and selling furs was started in 1825 by General William Ashley's men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company - many were held in Wyoming's Green River country, near Lander, Wyoming, along the Utah and Idaho border, and Pierre's Hole in Idaho.

THE RAYNOLDS EXPEDITION OF 1860

During the period of 1840 after the end of the fur-trapping era, until 1860 there is little documented use of the valley. The next group to enter Jackson Hole came under Captain W.F. Raynolds' military mapping expedition, guided by veteran mountain man Jim Bridger. The reports of the beautiful and wild natural resources in western Wyoming during the fur-trapping era had not gone unnoticed by the U.S. Government.

"The objects of this exploration are to ascertain, as far as practicable, everything relating to the numbers, habits and disposition of the Indians inhabiting the country, its agricultural and mineralogical resources, its climate and the influences that govern it, the navigability of its streams, its topographical features, and the facilities or obstacles which the latter present to the construction of rail or common roads, either to meet the wants of military operations or those of emigration through, or settlement in, the country." -War Department, Office Explorations and Surveys, 1859.

The next wave of visitors to the valley would be in the form of Government survey parties sent to evaluate the natural resources for their potential economic value. Several expeditions would trace routes through Jackson Hole until the U.S. Geologic Survey was founded in 1879. The "age of discovery" in America is considered to have ended at this point.

MINOR PROSPECTS

It was during the time of exploration in the valley that news also spread east about the wealth of resources in the west, namely precious metals. Prospectors and miners began their journeys west on the heels of the explorers and scientists. Several prospecting attempts were made in Jackson Hole, however, many ended up fruitless. Minor traces of gold led to conflicting reports about the mining success in the valley and nearby regions. In 1870 there was a modest rush in the Wind River Range due to false reports. Few mining operations in Jackson Hole were successful, but the locations of the claims were closely guarded. Conflicting reports remain as to the total success of mining in the valley. The Whetstone Mining Company was founded on Whetstone Creek in the Teton Wilderness in 1889. The company built cabins, sluices, a sawmill and even a ferry. By 1897, the operation was shut down. Prospectors never found any fortunes in the valley, where small traces of gold were located, Jackson Hole was no match for the success of California and other areas of the west.

EARLY SETTLERS TO THE VALLEY

"When we were little kids and lived in those old log houses the wind howled right through those cracks! It blew so hard that our folks would have to keep an eye out to bring us back across the room where we'd been playing!" -Clark Moulton, Legacy of the Tetons

Despite the misfortune of the prospectors, the valley began to be settled by permanent residents around 1884. The first two Anglo-Americans to take up full-time residence in the valley were John Carnes and John Holland. They filed for adjacent homesteads on the south end of today's National Elk Refuge. Over the next decade, the homesteader population rose from 23 to 639 by 1900. By 1920, these numbers would more than double to 1,381 residents. These numbers only account for those living legally on the land, and those who participated in the government census. Homesteading was possible in the west through a series of Homestead Acts designed to encourage settlement through free land acquisition. The U.S. Government would grant 160-acre plots to those who qualified for the application process and paid a small fee of $10-15. A homesteader was an individual 21 years or older, the head of a household and someone who had never taken up arms against the United States government (the Civil War was in its first year when the Act was signed - the war ended in 1865.) Even women were allowed to file for a patent, providing they were single.

Homesteading in Jackson Hole was a careful balance of surviving the harsh winters, short growing season and unexpected, violent weather patterns. Droughts, mid-summer hail storms, and even the wildlife posed serious threats to the livelihoods of homesteaders who tried to raise cattle or hay. For many in Jackson Hole, 160 acres was simply not enough land to raise both cattle and the amount of hay needed to keep livestock and horses through the winter. Many were able to file for adjacent tracts through another Homestead Act, and others bought out neighbors who found the conditions too challenging. The many who persevered took great pride in their ranching operations, knowing they were solely responsible for their success. Some took creative routes to supplement their income, taking jobs with the Forest Service or the Reclamation Service reconstructing the Jackson Lake Dam. Women ran the local post office and taught at the small community schools to help make ends meet. Many ranchers found a new source of income in the increasing number of tourists traveling through the valley to see Yellowstone National Park. By offering a bed and food to the weary travelers, the ranchers began to rely less on cattle and haying operations.

THE DUDE RANCH COMES OF AGE

"Dude ranches boasted a classless society full of class, where the swagger of Western horsemen blended on equal terms with the swagger of adventurous, anti-conventional Eastern aristocracy. Everyone-ranchers, Jackson storekeepers, hired hands, dudes-were caught up in this society, involved in the intense feuds and friendships, the bitter causes (park extension and related problems), took sides, cheated on each other selling horses and playing poker, loved, hated, even married each other." - Nathaniel Burt, A Classless Society: Dude Ranching in the Tetons 1908-1955

The overnight travels of early tourists quickly evolved into stays lasting weeks at a time. Dude ranching was a natural progression in Jackson Hole from cattle ranching. For many, wrangling dudes brought in more income and relieved the economic pressures which too often resulted from the unreliable weather. Many dude ranches continued to run cattle in an effort to bring in more visitors with the lure of staying on and participating in the life of a genuine "working cattle ranch." Dudes would arrive in late spring, and stay throughout the summer, departing in early fall when the ranches closed for winter. Several dude ranches would also host big game hunters during the late fall months. With the picturesque mountains, sage brush plains and winding rivers ideal for fishing, Jackson Hole became a sought-after vacation destination. From 1908 when the first dude operation in Jackson Hole opened at the JY Ranch until 1929 and the Great Depression, the "golden age" of dude ranching was at its peak in the valley. Hundreds of dudes would visit the valley in the summer months, often out-populating those who lived in the town of Jackson year-round.

CHANGES IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM

"[The tourists] often ask, 'Where's Slippery Lake?' So we'd show them how to get on up to Slide Lake. They'll say, 'How long have you lived here?' We'll answer, 'Quite a while, our grandparents homesteaded. The Tetons were just little fellows when we come in. We watched 'em grow up!'" -Clark Moulton, Legacy of the Tetons

After the Depression and two world wars, vacations were changing in American society. With the advent of affordable family automobiles, railroads were quickly falling out of favor as the primary transportation routes across the country. Now families could drive themselves, at their own pace. A movement after World War II to "rediscover America" prompted many to abandon their traditional two-to-three-week long vacations staying in one place, in favor of road trips. Families could now see as many sites as they wanted, traveling in the comfort of their own vehicles. While dude ranching declined during this era, tourism boomed in Jackson Hole. Motels became the new wave of the future, and the Town of Jackson saw an increase in overnight visitors.

The allure of the Tetons continues to draw people to the valley today. The valley's recreational opportunities and abundant wildlife are rivaled by few other places in the country. Several dude ranches still operate, continuing to host guests from out of state, and around the globe. Others prefer to camp, or stay at one of many upscale hotels. While the valley looks different today than it did to its original inhabitants, or to the homesteaders, the history and heritage of these groups is not lost.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
For more information on the Motels and tourism in Jackson, please follow this link:
https://historyjackson.wpengine.com/on-the-trail-of-teton-countys-historic-tourist-accommodations/
Text by Samantha Ford, Turn Stone Research

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Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum Web Administrator

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A Brief History of Jackson Hole - History Jackson Hole

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF JACKSON HOLE FORCES THAT SHAPED THE LAND "Over these seemingly changeless mountains, in endless succession, move the ephemeral colors of dawn and sunset and of noon and night, the shadows and sunlight, the garlands of clouds with which storms adorn the peaks, the misty rain-curtains of afternoon showers."

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Eastern Shoshone Tribal Historic Preservation Office

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Eastern Shoshone Tribal Historic Preservation Office

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Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office

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Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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American Bar Association:  How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed

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American Bar Association:  How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed

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Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, many Native Americans living on reservations continued to be excluded from the democratic process. In 1948, Native Americans in New Mexico and Arizona successfully litigated their right to vote. Utah and North Dakota became the last states to afford on-reservation Native Americans the right to vote in 1957 and 1958, respectively. When the right to vote was finally secured, voter suppression laws kept Native Americans from voting and seeking elected office. In Arizona, for example, Native Americans could not fully participate in voting until 1970 when the Supreme Court upheld the ban against using literacy tests ( Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970)). Today, the right to vote continues to be challenged through the passage of new laws and practices that either fail to consider, disregard, or intentionally target Native American voters.

In order to understand the challenges faced by Native American voters, one must recognize the vast differences in experiences, opportunities, and realities facing on-reservation voters as compared to off-reservation voters.

I will never forget the Navajo grandmother who spoke only Navajo and could not vote after Arizona passed its voter ID law in 2004. She tried several times to obtain an Arizona ID on her own but was denied because she was born at home in a hogan, and the boarding schools changed her Navajo name to English. She lived in a modest home on the Navajo Reservation without electricity and running water, and lived a traditional lifestyle taking care of her sheep. She was embarrassed and devastated when she was turned away from the polls for not having an ID. Working with her, a team from the Indian Legal Clinic traveled five hours to meet her at multiple agency offices to obtain her delayed birth certificate; we then went to two separate Motor Vehicle Division Offices. The first one did not issue same-day photo IDs, and the other initially denied her request. The office rejected her delayed Navajo birth certificate, until I was able to intervene and demonstrate to them that it was an acceptable document. The system failed to consider her reality as a Navajo woman and failed to value her as a voter. Fortunately, she was persistent in exercising her right to vote, but not all voters are, nor should they have to be.

This example helps explain why voting can be difficulty for Native American voters. Turnout for Native Americans is the lowest in the country, as compared to other groups. While a number of issues contribute to the low voter turnout, a study conducted by the Native American Voting Rights Coalition found that low levels of trust in government, lack of information on how and where to register and to vote, long travel distances to register or to vote, low levels of access to the internet, hostility toward Native Americans, and intimidation are obstacles. Isolating conditions such as language barriers, socioeconomic disparities, lack of access to transportation, lack of residential addresses, lack of access to mail, and the digital divide limit Native American political participation. Changes to voting processes further frustrate the ability of Native Americans to vote.

As part of their socioeconomic reality, Native Americans face obstacles when making choices about feeding their families or expending resources that might affect their right to vote. This could include renewing their P.O. box, replacing an ID to update a residential address, or driving a considerable distance to register to vote or vote. Nationally, the poverty rate of Native Americans is 26.8 percent. Native Americans are more likely to work multiple jobs, lack reliable transportation, and lack adequate childcare resources, thus making voting pragmatically difficult.

An additional problem affecting many Native Americans is homelessness or near homelessness due to extreme poverty and lack of affordable housing on many reservations. A study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that between 42,000 and 85,000 people in tribal areas are couch surfers, staying with friends or relatives only because they have no place of their own. This lack of permanent housing impacts the ability of these tribal members to have a permanent physical address, yet this should not impede their ability to exercise their right to vote.

Nontraditional Addresses, Voter Registration, and Voter ID Laws

Something as simple as not having a residential address impacts all aspects of voting, including getting your mail, registering to vote, and complying with ever-increasing voter ID laws.

While 84 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, many Native Americans and Alaska Natives live in rural communities that lack residential addresses. Homes are usually described in terms of landmarks, crossroads, and directions. Numerous roads on reservations are unimproved dirt or gravel roads in poor quality and are often unnamed. After storms, many roads are impassable. Due to these poor conditions, the U.S. Postal Service does not deliver mail to the majority of the reservation residents at their homes.

Due to the lack of residential addresses, most residents rely on P.O. boxes in a nearby town or get their mail through a trading post or other location. Some reservation residents have to travel up to 70 miles in one direction to receive mail. In Arizona, for example, only 18 percent of reservation voters outside of Maricopa and Pima Counties have residential addresses and receive mail at home. The Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the United States-larger than West Virginia-does not have an addressing program, and most people live in remote communities. Similarly, many other reservations lack home mail delivery. On the Tohono O'odham Reservation, there are 1,900 P.O. boxes and some cluster mailboxes. Residents may check their mail every two weeks, and some only once per month.

Through no fault of the voter, the lack of a residential address can result in the political subdivision placing the voter in the wrong precinct, the voter's ID address not matching the voter rolls, and/or the voter not receiving election mail timely, if at all.

While many Americans can register to vote through the click of a button from the comfort of their homes, that is simply not the case for reservation residents. For reservation voters, there are few opportunities to register or update their voter registration due to location of voter registration services, the lack of residential addresses, and lack of broadband capability. Less than half of the homes on tribal lands have reliable broadband access. Even if a voter has access to broadband on the reservation, most online voter registration systems require a state ID to register to vote and do not accept tribal IDs. In Arizona, for example, an individual must have a state ID and a residential address on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles to register online, eliminating this option for most reservation residents.

Registering to vote online or driving somewhere to register to vote, or voting itself, can be logistically challenging if not economically infeasible. For example, in Arizona, the lack of residential addresses resulted in registered voters having their IDs rejected at the polls or being included on a suspense list, meaning the voter is not placed in a voting precinct. While county offices may offer in-person voter registration during normal business hours, this can be challenging for Native American voters who may live 100 miles or more from the county seat. Further, for some Native American and Alaska Natives, oral translations must be provided for voter registration and voting.

Voter ID laws further complicate this issue. Native Americans are less likely to have a form of ID compliant with voter ID laws requiring residential addresses because in addition to states failing to consider tribal IDs when passing these laws, there are also socioeconomic and institutional factors that keep reservation residents from obtaining IDs. Although many tribes issue IDs, not all tribal IDs include addresses. Even if a tribal member has an ID with an address, because reservation voters lack residential addresses, the ID may have a P.O. box or descriptive address. Nontraditional addresses do not fit into county database systems, resulting in counties reassigning addresses to voters. This may result in the ID being rejected due to insufficient poll worker training or because it does not match the residential address in the voter file. This has resulted in voters being denied a regular ballot because the address on their IDs did not match the addresses assigned by the counties for the voter registration database.

A voter ID law requiring a residential address went into effect in North Dakota right before the 2018 midterm elections that expressly excluded the use of P.O. boxes as residential addresses. Over 5,000 Native Americans lacked the requisite form of ID to vote, as no reservation had residential addresses. The tribes searched for solutions prior to Election Day. The North Dakota Secretary of State informed tribal leaders that voters could call the county 911 coordinator to receive an address. This was a meager solution given that most of the tribal reservations span multiple jurisdictions, creating inconsistencies and confusion for tribes. For Sioux County, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is located, the 911 coordinator is the county sheriff, which posed a deterrent for community members wary of law enforcement. When a Standing Rock Sioux tribal member called to determine her residential address, the sheriff told her that he was transporting prisoners and could not assign addresses that day. Another voter was assigned a residential address corresponding to a nearby bar, exposing that tribal member to fraud if he voted based on that address.

As a result, North Dakota tribes had to create emergency plans to produce residential addresses and corresponding IDs for their members. They kept their offices open for extended hours and began providing free IDs to tribal members, to the point where the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa's ID machine overheated. Although the Secretary of State never explicitly endorsed the tribes' plan, the tribes were left with no other options and had to undertake the extraordinary effort in order to ensure that their tribal members could vote.

While tribes took actions to issue free tribal IDs meeting the new requirements, they expended resources they did not have in order to assist their tribal members. Tribal members in North Dakota have high unemployment and poverty rates. At Spirit Lake, almost 50 percent of the tribal members live below the poverty line; and at Turtle Mountain, the unemployment rate is almost 70 percent. Native American voters living on reservations have the same constitutional right to vote as any other citizen. In this instance, tribal governments had to expend their own resources to ensure that tribal members could vote in state and federal elections.

Access to In-Person Polling Locations and the Vote-By-Mail Movement

If a Native American or Alaska Native voter living in a rural community overcomes the inherent barriers of nonstandard addresses, voter registration barriers, and manages to have the correct ID, the voter may be further burdened by the vote-by-mail system or the lack of available polling places. Voting by mail is often unreliable and not as accessible for Native Americans living on reservations as it is for off-reservation voters. Native American voters are less likely to have mail delivered to their homes, especially when living on tribal lands. Many on-reservation voters live in rural areas where it is common for mail to arrive late or not at all. Non-Hispanic whites are 350 percent more likely to have mail delivered to their homes than Native Americans in Arizona. The difficulties accessing mail make voting by mail difficult because traveling to the P.O. box to pick up your ballot and then returning it can be an all-day task; without a car, it may be impossible. Similar concerns exist for Alaska Native voters in rural villages who rely on shared P.O. boxes, and at times, mail delivery may take up to three weeks due to weather. In addition, many Native American languages are oral; therefore, language assistance to Native American voters requires in-person translations, which cannot be done through mail.

Because of increased urbanization, many people and policymakers do not understand why it can be difficult for individuals to get to a polling location or to vote by mail. For some, voting by mail has given them more choices and made voting more convenient. However, we need to think about the effects on minority and language minority populations when we eliminate or move polling locations because a right as sacred as voting should not be lost for minority populations in search of convenience for other populations.

The following examples illustrate how decisions made by elected officials affect the ability of Native voters to participate in the democratic process. In 2008, the Alaskan government eliminated polling locations for Alaska Native villages as part of a "district realignment" that resulted in voters having to travel by plane in order to vote. In 2016, the Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute Tribes in Nevada filed a lawsuit prior to the 2016 general election in order to get polling locations on the reservation. In 2016, San Juan County, Utah, switched a mail-only voting system and offered in-person early voting only in the majority white part of the county; the Navajo Nation sued to ensure in-person locations and compliance with the language assistance requirements under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.

For the Kaibab Paiute Tribe in Arizona, voters had to travel 280 miles one way in 2016 and 2018 in order to vote early in person. When Pima County closed early voting on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation in 2018, Pascua Yaqui voters reported that it took over two hours to participate in early voting using public transportation. Recently, the closure of polling locations on the Mandan Hidatsa Reservation in North Dakota resulted in voters having to travel 80-100 miles in order to cast a ballot. These examples demonstrate the extreme distances voters must travel and obstacles they must overcome in order to vote. The prevalence of these barriers undermines our democracy and contributes to low voter participation among Native Americans.

Native American Voting Rights Act

Congress introduced the Native American Voting Rights Act of 2019 (H.R. 1694; S. 739) to remove voting barriers and improve access to voting for Native American and Alaska Native voters. The legislation would provide resources and oversight to ensure that Native Americans have equal access to the voting process. In furtherance of the trust responsibility, the bill would require the Department of Justice to consult annually with tribes on voting issues. Key elements of the bill include improving access to voter registration sites and polling locations, approving the use of tribal IDs for election purposes, and requiring jurisdictions to consult with tribes prior to closing voter registration or polling locations on Indian lands. The bill explicitly states that a tribal ID need not include a residential address or expiration date for voting purposes. The bill would also create a Native American Voting Task Force grant program to provide much needed funding for voter outreach, education, registration, and turnout in Native American communities.

Conclusion

Legislation suppressing the right to vote purports to be neutral; however, in many instances it undermines the most basic right to participate in our democracy. The loss of the right to vote is the loss of a voice in the democratic process. We should do more to ensure that all Americans, including Native Americans, can exercise this right easily and with undue hardship.

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How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed

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Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, many Native Americans living on reservations continued to be excluded from the democratic process. In 1948, Native Americans in New Mexico and Arizona successfully litigated their right to vote. Utah and North Dakota became the last states to afford on-reservation Native Americans the right to vote in 1957 and 1958, respectively.

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Library of Congress:  Native American Voting Rights

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Library of Congress:  Native American Voting Rights

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Native American voting case, 1962

Navajo times. [volume] (Window Rock, Ariz.), 13 June 1962.

Almost forty years after the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, access to vote in United States elections was still contested for many Native Americans. Some states used address requirements to try and limit Native voting in U.S. local, state, and national elections. For example, in 1960 the losing candidate for Arizona's Lt. Governor, Joseph Montoya, claimed that votes from the Navajo Nation should not be counted because those voters lived on the Navajo reservation, outside the state's boundaries. Montoya brought his argument before the state courts. Eighteen months after the election, the Arizona State Supreme Court rejected his claim and upheld Native voting rights in this case.

It wasn't however, until the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the question of Native voting rights was addressed at the federal level. Even more federal legislation was later passed to further reaffirm and strengthen access to U.S. elections for Native Americans.

The Navajo Times started in 1959 as a monthly newsletter. The publication suspended for a few months in 1960 before re-emerging in August of that year as the Navajo Times, a twice-monthly newspaper run by the Navajo Tribe, with "Voice of Scenic Navajoland" printed under its masthead. The paper reported news of interest to the Navajo community, with the slogan "Published for...owned by...The Navajo People" appearing for many years.

Source Analysis

Note the date of the publication. What else is happening at the time related to voting rights for other groups, not just Native Americans?

What clues can you learn from this article about the state of voting rights for Native Americans at the time of this article?

What is significant about having a Navajo-owned newspaper report on voting rights for Native Americans as opposed to a non-Native publication? Why might a Native news publication be important?

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Native American Voting Rights | Voters and Voting Rights | Presidential Elections and Voting in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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What challenges have Native Americans faced in exercising voting rights?

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Visit vote.narf.org to learn more about the Native American Voting Rights Project and its current activities.
Background:

A History of Native Voting Rights

The right to vote is considered a fundamental right within our democracy; however, for Native Americans, the fight to obtain voting rights is couched in a long history of racism and struggle. When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1866, making all persons born in the United States citizens, Indians on reservations were specifically excluded. Michigan Senator Jacob Howard opined, "I am not yet prepared to pass a sweeping act of naturalization by which all the Indian savages, wild or tame, belonging to a tribal relation, are to become my fellow-citizens and go to the polls and vote with me..." (Congressional Globe. May 30, 1866). page 2895). There were pragmatic reasons, beyond racism, to keep Native Americans from voting; given their large numbers, votes by Native Americans at the time would have wielded significant political power.

It was more than half a century later that the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 ensured all Native Americans born within the United States citizenship. However, the Act did not automatically enforce the right to vote. While the Fifteenth Amendment declared that a citizen's right to vote could not be denied on account of race, many states were able to find other reasons to deny Native peoples the vote-residing on a reservation, tribal enrollment, taxation, and incompetency were all used as reasons for denying Native citizens in some states the right to vote. One outcome being that, thousands of Native veterans, including American Indian Code Talkers returning from World War II, found themselves prohibited from participating in basic civil liberties in the nation that they fought to protect.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally outlawed exclusionary practices that "deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." However, despite these protections and subsequent legislation, discriminatory practices continue to this day. Since its inception in 1970, NARF has worked on cases to ensure equal and fair access to voting for Native citizens. Repeatedly we have encountered voting rights abuses against Native Americans in Alaska, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and other states with significant Native American populations. In addition, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision striking down parts of the Voting Rights Act, numerous state legislatures have passed new election laws that impose significant barriers to Native voters.

The Native American Voting Rights Coalition

In January 2015, NARF proposed an ambitious new project: gathering voting rights advocates, lawyers, civil rights experts, and tribal advocates into one room to discuss current problems with voting in Indian Country and begin to develop solutions to these problems. Previously, individuals and organizations working to protect Native voting rights did so independently, with no coordinated strategy in place. Often, the work was reactive-in response to an immediate threat-rather than proactive or planned in advance of an election. That is what NARF's project was meant to change. Thus, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition (NAVRC) was formed.

The NAVRC includes, among others: Native American Rights Fund (NARF); National Congress of American Indians (NCAI); American Civil Liberties Union, Voting Rights Project (ACLU); Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR); Fair Elections Center; Western Native Voice; and Four Directions. NAVRC is organized into three working groups: legislation and policy issues (led by NCAI); litigation (led by NARF); and capacity building and education issues (led by LCCR).

The project's main goal is to remove barriers to Native American voter registration and voting, increase Native civic engagement, and foster a more informed and active Native electorate. With mounting evidence of voter suppression and violations of voting rights laws, NAVRC has accelerated its work.

Periodically, Native voting advocates in the coalition come together to discuss their ongoing fight for equitable voting access for Native communities. The meetings, which are organized by NARF, provide the group with the opportunity to talk about the challenges that they are facing and strategize on the most effective way to overcome those obstacles. Attendees share their frustrations, but more importantly, they gaine confidence through strategizing for success.

Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters

In 2017 and 2018, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition held nine public hearings to better understand how Native Americans are systemically and culturally kept from fully exercising their franchise. More than 120 witnesses testified from dozens of tribes across the country.

The final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, was released June 4, 2020, and provides detailed evidence that Native people face obstacles at every turn in the electoral process: from registering to vote, to casting votes, to having votes counted.

NARF released two updates to the Obstacles report in October 2021:

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Native American Voting Rights Project - Native American Rights Fund

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We fought for the Native American voting rights, and we will continue to fight until all Native citizens have equal opportunity to make their voices heard.

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This is a great video to share with students!

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Legacy of Trauma: The Impact of American Indian Boarding Schools…

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Season 2 of Native America is a groundbreaking portrait of contemporary Indian Country. Building on the success of the first season, this four-part Native…

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The US History of Native American Boarding Schools

https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/us-residential-schools

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(TW: abuse, sexual abuse, mental health, suicide)
Native American Boarding Schools (also known as Indian Boarding Schools) were established by the U.S. government in the late 19th century as an effort to assimilate Indigenous youth into mainstream American culture through education. This era was part of the United States' overall attempt to kill, annihilate, or assimilate Indigenous peoples and eradicate Indigenous culture.

The Native American assimilation era first began in 1819, when the U.S. Congress passed The Civilization Fund Act. The act encouraged American education to be provided to Indigenous societies and therefore enforced the "civilization process".

The passing of this act eventually led to the creation of the federally funded Native American Boarding Schools and initiated the beginning of the Indian Boarding School era. The duration of this era ran from 1860 until 1978. Approximately 357 boarding schools operated across 30 states during this era both on and off reservations and housed over 60,000 native children. A third of these boarding schools were operated by Christian missionaries as well as members of the federal government. These boarding schools housed several thousand children.

Native American Boarding Schools first began operating in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first on-reservation boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington. Shortly after, the first off-reservation boarding school was established in 1879. The Carlisle Indian School located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Henry Pratt. He modeled the boarding school off an education program he designed while overseeing Fort Marion Prison in St. Augustine, Florida. He developed the program after experimenting with Native American assimilation education on imprisoned and captive Indigenous peoples. Pratt served as the Headmaster of the Carlisle Indian School for 25 years and was famously known for his highly influential philosophy which he described in a speech he gave in 1892. He stated, "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

Attendance to the boarding schools was made mandatory by the U.S. Government regardless of whether or not Indigenous families gave their consent. Upon arrival, Native children were given Anglo-American names, bathed in kerosene, given military-style clothing in exchange for their traditional clothing, and their hair would be shaved off for the boys and cut into short bob styles for girls.

Education primarily focused on trades to make Native students marketable in American society. Male students were taught to perform manual labor such as blacksmithing, shoemaking, and farming amongst other trades. On the other hand, female students were taught to cook, clean, sew, do laundry, and care for farm animals. Standard academic subjects like reading, writing, math, history, and art were also taught, however, these subjects emphasized American beliefs and values. For example, students were taught the importance of private property, materialized wealth, students were forced to convert to Christianity, and celebrate American holidays such as Columbus Day. Richard Henry Scott eventually implemented a "Placing Out System" that placed Native students into American communities for a certain amount of time, varying from a Summer to a full year. These programs tended to exploit students and used them for domestic and physical labor.

Native students were not allowed to speak in their Native languages. They were only allowed to speak English regardless of their fluency and would face punishment if they didn't. The discipline enforced at these boarding schools was severe. Punishments varied and included privilege restrictions, diet restrictions, threats of corporal punishment, and even confinement. Additionally, Native students were neglected and faced many forms of abuse including physical, sexual, cultural, and spiritual. They were beaten, coerced into performing heavy labor. Their daily regimen consisted of several hours of marching and recreational time consisted of watching disturbing movies such as Cowboys and Indians.

Since they were used as forms of punishment, food and medical attention were scarce. This led to boarding schools becoming more susceptible to infections and diseases like tuberculosis, the flu, trachoma. Due to these conditions, Native students would become ill and die at these boarding schools often. In 1899, a measles epidemic spread through the Phoenix Indian School, experiencing rates as high as 325 cases of measles in addition to 60 cases of pneumonia, and 9 student deaths within 10 days. Parents were rarely informed of their children's deaths; some parents would learn of their child's death after they were buried in school cemeteries. Some students were buried in unmarked graves. Those that survived these inhumane conditions were scarred from the traumatic experiences for the remainder of their lives.

Although a majority of Native children were forced to attend these boarding schools, some parents chose to send their children because those were the only schools available to their children. However, several forms of resistance were performed in response to having their children pulled from their homes and forced to attend these boarding schools. Some forms of resistance included entire villages refusing to enroll their children in the boarding schools, coordinated mass withdrawals, as well as encouraging their children to run away from the school. Indian agents - individuals hired to interact with Indigenous communities on behalf of the U.S. Government - would retaliate by withholding rations and supplies to Indigenous communities. These agents were also responsible for seizing children from their families and their homes until boarding schools were filled.

While the Native American Boarding School era has ended, the U.S. government still operates a few off-reservation boarding schools. As of 2020, 7 boarding schools continue to be federally funded, 3 of which are controlled by Indigenous community leaders. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act was passed to decrease U.S. federal control of Native affairs and instead allowed for Native self-determination and self-governance. An example of this transition can be seen with the Santa Fe Indian School which was established in 1890 and originally implemented the Carlisle model. By the 1920s, the school began transitioning after Indigenous leaders fought to gain control over the school. It is currently managed by Indigenous leaders where the focus has switched to traditional arts, sovereignty, Native cultures, and community.

Native youth still face several challenges within the American education system. They rarely have access to curriculums that are culturally relevant to them and experience difficulties in the classroom at alarming rates. According to reports given by the Kids Count Data Center and The National Violent Death Reporting System, Native students are:

1.2 times more likely to be behind in 4th-grade reading and 8th-grade math

1.4 times more likely to be suspended from school

1.5 times more likely to die in a homicide or suicide

1.7 times more likely to experience two or more adverse childhood experiences

1.8 times more likely to attend a high-poverty school

2.0 times more likely to drop out of high school

The tragedies Native children faced during this era have impacted the lives of not only the children but also their families and communities. These impacts have caused Indigenous communities to experience deep-rooted ramifications in regards to mental health and the overall relationship between Native communities and the American education system. They are often displayed in the form of poverty, difficulties in the American education system, poor physical health, and poor mental health. Many Native students who survived the boarding school era went on to suffer from mental health and other related issues such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, a lack of cultural identity, and the development of negative stereotypes (i.e. lazy, alcoholics, etc.), to name a few. These traumatic experiences have been passed down from generation to generation and continue to impact Indigenous communities today.

Documentaries

Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools ()

Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York, 2009 ( Films for Action )

Literature

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila

Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928 by David Wallace Adams

They Called it Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School by K. Tsianina Lomawaima

Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School by Adam Fortunate Eagle

Websites
Additional Book Recommendations from The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

References

American Indian Relief Council. Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools - American Indian Relief Council Is Now Northern Plains Reservation Aid, American Indian Relief Council, www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boardingschools.

Bear, Charla. "American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many." NPR, NPR, 12 May 2008, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865.

Boone, Katrina. "America Has Always Used Schools as a Weapon Against Native Americans." Education Post, Education Post, 13 Dec. 2018, educationpost.org/america-has-always-used-schools-as-a-weapon-against-native-americans/.

Elliot, Sarah K. "Antiques Roadshow." PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 13 Apr. 2020, www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2020/4/13/early-years-american-indian-boarding-schools.

Little, Becky. "How Boarding Schools Tried to 'Kill the Indian' Through Assimilation." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Aug. 2017, www.history.com/news/how-boarding-schools-tried-to-kill-the-indian-through-assimilation.

Nabs. "US Indian Boarding School History." The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/.

Native Hope. The Issues Surrounding Native American Education, Native Hope, blog.nativehope.org/the-issues-surrounding-native-american-education.

Melissa is a 25 year old Dominican-American from Philly. She is part of the writing team at TIF and writes articles. She enjoys hiking, reading, relaxing with her cat and hopes to expand knowledge in climate change impacts on BIPOC communities and spread awareness through The Indigenous Foundation.

(TW: abuse, sexual abuse, mental health, suicide)
Native American Boarding Schools (also known as Indian Boarding Schools) were established by the U.S. government in the late 19th century as an effort to assimilate Indigenous youth into mainstream American culture through education. This era was part of the United States' overall attempt to kill, annihilate, or assimilate Indigenous peoples and eradicate Indigenous culture.

The Native American assimilation era first began in 1819, when the U.S. Congress passed The Civilization Fund Act. The act encouraged American education to be provided to Indigenous societies and therefore enforced the "civilization process".

The passing of this act eventually led to the creation of the federally funded Native American Boarding Schools and initiated the beginning of the Indian Boarding School era. The duration of this era ran from 1860 until 1978. Approximately 357 boarding schools operated across 30 states during this era both on and off reservations and housed over 60,000 native children. A third of these boarding schools were operated by Christian missionaries as well as members of the federal government. These boarding schools housed several thousand children.

Native American Boarding Schools first began operating in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first on-reservation boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington. Shortly after, the first off-reservation boarding school was established in 1879. The Carlisle Indian School located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Henry Pratt. He modeled the boarding school off an education program he designed while overseeing Fort Marion Prison in St. Augustine, Florida. He developed the program after experimenting with Native American assimilation education on imprisoned and captive Indigenous peoples. Pratt served as the Headmaster of the Carlisle Indian School for 25 years and was famously known for his highly influential philosophy which he described in a speech he gave in 1892. He stated, "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

Attendance to the boarding schools was made mandatory by the U.S. Government regardless of whether or not Indigenous families gave their consent. Upon arrival, Native children were given Anglo-American names, bathed in kerosene, given military-style clothing in exchange for their traditional clothing, and their hair would be shaved off for the boys and cut into short bob styles for girls.

Education primarily focused on trades to make Native students marketable in American society. Male students were taught to perform manual labor such as blacksmithing, shoemaking, and farming amongst other trades. On the other hand, female students were taught to cook, clean, sew, do laundry, and care for farm animals. Standard academic subjects like reading, writing, math, history, and art were also taught, however, these subjects emphasized American beliefs and values. For example, students were taught the importance of private property, materialized wealth, students were forced to convert to Christianity, and celebrate American holidays such as Columbus Day. Richard Henry Scott eventually implemented a "Placing Out System" that placed Native students into American communities for a certain amount of time, varying from a Summer to a full year. These programs tended to exploit students and used them for domestic and physical labor.

Native students were not allowed to speak in their Native languages. They were only allowed to speak English regardless of their fluency and would face punishment if they didn't. The discipline enforced at these boarding schools was severe. Punishments varied and included privilege restrictions, diet restrictions, threats of corporal punishment, and even confinement. Additionally, Native students were neglected and faced many forms of abuse including physical, sexual, cultural, and spiritual. They were beaten, coerced into performing heavy labor. Their daily regimen consisted of several hours of marching and recreational time consisted of watching disturbing movies such as Cowboys and Indians.

Since they were used as forms of punishment, food and medical attention were scarce. This led to boarding schools becoming more susceptible to infections and diseases like tuberculosis, the flu, trachoma. Due to these conditions, Native students would become ill and die at these boarding schools often. In 1899, a measles epidemic spread through the Phoenix Indian School, experiencing rates as high as 325 cases of measles in addition to 60 cases of pneumonia, and 9 student deaths within 10 days. Parents were rarely informed of their children's deaths; some parents would learn of their child's death after they were buried in school cemeteries. Some students were buried in unmarked graves. Those that survived these inhumane conditions were scarred from the traumatic experiences for the remainder of their lives.

Although a majority of Native children were forced to attend these boarding schools, some parents chose to send their children because those were the only schools available to their children. However, several forms of resistance were performed in response to having their children pulled from their homes and forced to attend these boarding schools. Some forms of resistance included entire villages refusing to enroll their children in the boarding schools, coordinated mass withdrawals, as well as encouraging their children to run away from the school. Indian agents - individuals hired to interact with Indigenous communities on behalf of the U.S. Government - would retaliate by withholding rations and supplies to Indigenous communities. These agents were also responsible for seizing children from their families and their homes until boarding schools were filled.

While the Native American Boarding School era has ended, the U.S. government still operates a few off-reservation boarding schools. As of 2020, 7 boarding schools continue to be federally funded, 3 of which are controlled by Indigenous community leaders. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act was passed to decrease U.S. federal control of Native affairs and instead allowed for Native self-determination and self-governance. An example of this transition can be seen with the Santa Fe Indian School which was established in 1890 and originally implemented the Carlisle model. By the 1920s, the school began transitioning after Indigenous leaders fought to gain control over the school. It is currently managed by Indigenous leaders where the focus has switched to traditional arts, sovereignty, Native cultures, and community.

Native youth still face several challenges within the American education system. They rarely have access to curriculums that are culturally relevant to them and experience difficulties in the classroom at alarming rates. According to reports given by the Kids Count Data Center and The National Violent Death Reporting System, Native students are:

1.2 times more likely to be behind in 4th-grade reading and 8th-grade math

1.4 times more likely to be suspended from school

1.5 times more likely to die in a homicide or suicide

1.7 times more likely to experience two or more adverse childhood experiences

1.8 times more likely to attend a high-poverty school

2.0 times more likely to drop out of high school

The tragedies Native children faced during this era have impacted the lives of not only the children but also their families and communities. These impacts have caused Indigenous communities to experience deep-rooted ramifications in regards to mental health and the overall relationship between Native communities and the American education system. They are often displayed in the form of poverty, difficulties in the American education system, poor physical health, and poor mental health. Many Native students who survived the boarding school era went on to suffer from mental health and other related issues such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, a lack of cultural identity, and the development of negative stereotypes (i.e. lazy, alcoholics, etc.), to name a few. These traumatic experiences have been passed down from generation to generation and continue to impact Indigenous communities today.

Documentaries

Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools ()

Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York, 2009 ( Films for Action )

Literature

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila

Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928 by David Wallace Adams

They Called it Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School by K. Tsianina Lomawaima

Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School by Adam Fortunate Eagle

Websites
Additional Book Recommendations from The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

References

American Indian Relief Council. Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools - American Indian Relief Council Is Now Northern Plains Reservation Aid, American Indian Relief Council, www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boardingschools.

Bear, Charla. "American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many." NPR, NPR, 12 May 2008, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865.

Boone, Katrina. "America Has Always Used Schools as a Weapon Against Native Americans." Education Post, Education Post, 13 Dec. 2018, educationpost.org/america-has-always-used-schools-as-a-weapon-against-native-americans/.

Elliot, Sarah K. "Antiques Roadshow." PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 13 Apr. 2020, www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2020/4/13/early-years-american-indian-boarding-schools.

Little, Becky. "How Boarding Schools Tried to 'Kill the Indian' Through Assimilation." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Aug. 2017, www.history.com/news/how-boarding-schools-tried-to-kill-the-indian-through-assimilation.

Nabs. "US Indian Boarding School History." The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/.

Native Hope. The Issues Surrounding Native American Education, Native Hope, blog.nativehope.org/the-issues-surrounding-native-american-education.

Melissa is a 25 year old Dominican-American from Philly. She is part of the writing team at TIF and writes articles. She enjoys hiking, reading, relaxing with her cat and hopes to expand knowledge in climate change impacts on BIPOC communities and spread awareness through The Indigenous Foundation.

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The U.S. history of Native American Boarding Schools - The Indigenous Foundation

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(TW: abuse, sexual abuse, mental health, suicide) Native American Boarding Schools (also known as Indian Boarding Schools) were established by the U.S. government in the late 19th century as an effort to assimilate Indigenous youth into mainstream American culture through education. This era

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The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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List of Indian Boarding Schools in the United States - The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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In August 2023, NABS released its latest research identifying 523 Indian boarding schools in the United States. This three-year project resulted in the largest known list of U.S. Indian boarding schools ever compiled to date. Download List of U.S. Indian Boarding Schools Explore Locations on Interactive Map 523 Total Indian…

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From wind River to Carlisle:  Indian boarding Schools in Wyoming and the Nation

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From wind River to Carlisle:  Indian boarding Schools in Wyoming and the Nation

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Sharp Nose was a sub-chief of the Northern Arapaho tribe during the tumultuous period after the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, when the subdued tribes were pushed onto reservations. In the 1870s, The Northern Arapaho were supposed to transform instantly from hunters to farmers, in the long-wintered mountains and foothills of what's now the Wind River Indian Reservation, surrounded by the newly carved Wyoming Territory. They were supposed to share resources with a tribe from a different cultural root whom they had recently fought against, the Eastern Shoshone. And the supplies promised by the federal government in fulfillment of treaties - both the tools to farm and the food to feed children - were sparse or non-existent.

Though Sharp Nose had been a respected warrior, he was not vainglorious in defeat, and attempted, like many tribal leaders, to ensure the survival of his people. To this end, he allowed his son, Little Chief, to be taken by train to a boarding school in faraway Pennsylvania, to learn "how to do as white men do" because, as he put it to an Indian agent, "there are not enough good men to show us how to plant and cultivate our crops." In a dictated letter to Richard Henry Pratt, the U.S. Army veteran of the Indian Wars who founded the school, Sharp Nose wrote: "We give our children to the Government to do as they think best in teaching them the right way, hoping that the officers will, after a while, permit us to go and see them."

But Sharp Nose would never see Little Chief again. The boy died in the infirmary at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1883, and was buried on the school grounds. Sharp Nose was in Yellowstone - guiding another chief, President Chester Arthur, on a fishing trip in the primitive park. In his tent, Sharp Nose cut off his long braids, a traditional sign of mourning. President Arthur would return east; but Sharp Nose had no means to travel and retrieve his son's body.

The children who died at Carlisle were buried in graves located near what is now called the Jim Thorpe Fitness Center - named after a graduate of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School who became a fabled football and Olympic athlete. The school was built on a military outpost that dated back to the American Revolution, and the boys at Carlisle, some of whom had accompanied their fathers during battles against the U.S. Army, were dressed in Army-style uniforms. On their way to play sports at Carlisle they would have had a view of a cemetery of their peers.

Today, the Carlisle Barracks, as it's called, is the U.S. Army's War College campus, and on guided tours there is little mention of the boarding school era ... except Thorpe, its most famous graduate. In 1927, the cemetery was moved to a less central location - a move that may have resulted in some careless scrambling of bones and grave-markers, as the Northern Arapaho would discover in 2017.
Assimilation, or cultural genocide?
There's little mention of Indian boarding schools in American history books, though there were hundreds of them a century ago. Many were located on reservations, and many were run by religious orders, subsidized by federal funds. Others were intentionally built far from tribal homelands, following the model of Carlisle, to separate kids from the isolation of reservations and from what schools' founders saw as the corrupting influences of traditional culture.

At the time Sharp Nose sent his son to Carlisle there were no boarding or day schools on the reservation, but that would soon change. In 1883, Episcopal minister John Roberts arrived at Wind River, and with the government Indian agent's approval began teaching children in his one room cabin on Trout Creek, where "boarding" children slept on the rug. Jesuits arrived a few years later, and when they found Roberts entrenched on the west side of the reservation, they built their mission and school, St. Stephen's, on the east side. In 1892, a government school went up near Fort Washakie, nicknamed "Gravy High" because of a staple food served in the dining hall. The government school was more severe in its methods - students were beaten for speaking their native languages, and military drills were part of the curriculum - but the religious schools also sought to reshape the tribes' children in the ways of white society.

Education as a tool to "assimilate" indigenous peoples into the society that conquered them is as old as colonization, and, compared to slavery and other methods of subjugation, suggests a more benign intent. There were "practical" reasons as well. After the Civil War ended at Appomattox, the exhausted Army found itself pulled west into a prolonged war of attrition against scattered Indian tribes. It was expensive: Civil War general and Senator from Missouri Carl Schurz calculated that the geographically distended war against Indians cost the country $1 million per Indian killed, whereas it cost $1,200 to school an Indian for eight years, and presumably "civilize" him.

Many of those who decried the erasure of Native Americans - whose numbers in North America plummeted from more than 5 million when Columbus arrived to fewer than 250,000 in the 19th century - saw education as a way to "save" Indians by re-making them in the image of their conquerors. As early as the 16th century, Jesuit missionaries began schooling Indian children in Florida, and later, in the 19th century, the federal government would divvy up reservations among denominations and help fund their parochial schools with something called the "Civilization Fund." That brought the Episcopalian Roberts Mission to Wind River, and the Catholic St. Stephens. But even with the salve of salvation, the aim was the same: By various methods, and in various locations, schools would be a weapon to, in the worlds of Carlisle founder Richard Henry Pratt, "kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

Carlisle, the boarding school where Little Chief and other Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone children were sent - along with children from as many as 140 other tribes - set the standard for Indian boarding schools. Life was highly regimented. Children who arrived in their finest traditional clothing, often bearing pipes and other gifts, were stripped of their tribal possessions and their hair was cut short. Their days were divided between academic classes - intensive English classes when they arrived, and then math, physiology, geography, and U.S. history - and a half day working at trade skills, such as carpentry and agriculture. The children also lived and worked for periods with white families in surrounding communities on "outings," ostensibly for them to experience a non-Indian family and workplace, but sometimes merely providing their hosts inexpensive farm and domestic labor.

Pratt was a complicated figure. His experience on the frontier, working with black Army units and Indian scouts, had convinced him of the intelligence and ability of people of color. At the same time, he was critical of tribal life and the reservations, and argued that only by separating children from their families and tribe could they be molded into successful American citizens, weaned of communal tribalism and converted to individualism, work ethic, and patriotism. If Carlisle graduation rates are any indication, the experiment failed: By 1909, 4,151 students had been to Carlisle, but only 532 had graduated. Pratt, whose confidence in his own ideas never wavered, would say that a diploma wasn't as important as the skills they now had to navigate the modern world.
The experiment fails
But many students - Little Chief, Horse and Little Plume from the Northern Arapaho among them - would never make it out of Carlisle. They would die there, of diseases like tuberculosis, measles and influenza. In 1881, the Superintendent of Indian Education reported that of 49 students brought to Carlisle in its first year, 10 had died. That figure may have understated the problem: chronically ill students were often sent home, so their deaths do not show up in Carlisle's records.

"The children were much more vulnerable to all the European diseases, just as Native people had been down the centuries," said Dr. Jackie Fears-Segal, a professor at the University of East Anglia. "They were also in a completely different climate. And they were surrounded by a different environment. And we know now, that anybody who is suffering emotional deprivation, their immune system is compromised."

Students were dying at the boarding schools on reservations, too, and Rev. John Roberts, noting the heavy death rate of pupils at the Wind River government school, asked the government to let the children have more time with their families. He noted that despite good food and exercise, "in school, they droop and die, while their brothers and sisters, in camp, live and thrive."

Roberts corresponded with Pratt, trying to convince him that Indian children would do better if schooled closer to home. Pratt, always blind to faults in his own vision, blamed the unhealthy condition of the children sent from Wind River. But it was becoming clear that the boarding school experiment - in this early form - was not succeeding.

Estelle Reel, who had been Wyoming's Superintendent of Public Instruction, became the national Superintendent of Indian Education in 1898, in charge of government Indian schools nationwide. Reel was a hard worker, who traveled extensively among reservations and met with tribal leaders all over the country. But she took office with little respect for Indian children's academic prospects, and she issued a massive "Course of Study for the Indian Schools" in 1901 that steered instruction at the boarding schools toward "practical" learning, like agriculture and manual tasks.

"Her expectations for them learning were very, very low," said Michelle Hoffman, a Wyoming education consultant and former superintendent at Wyoming Indian Schools. "They were wonderful artisans, they could weave baskets and do artwork...but not the book type of education."

That view of Indians, and the Pratt approach to civilizing them, would hold for another 30 years in federal programs for Indian education. Pratt would lose his job, and Carlisle would close in 1913, but other boarding schools - Haskell in Kansas, the Phoenix Indian School, Chemawa in Oregon, among them - would continue. Then, in 1928, the Rockefeller Foundation funded a study that became known as the Meriam Report, which exposed the dire conditions on reservations and the inadequacy of federal Indian programs, including the boarding schools.

"In nearly every boarding school one will find children of 10, 11, and 12 spending four hours a day in more or less heavy industrial work-dairy, kitchen work, laundry, shop," the report's authors wrote. "The work is bad for children of this age, especially children not physically well-nourished; most of it is in no sense educational ... At present the half-day plan is felt to be necessary, not because it can be defended on health or educational grounds, for it cannot, but because the small amount of money allowed for food and clothes makes it necessary to use child labor."

After the Meriam Report, the federal approach to providing education for Indians-a responsibility written into treaties with the tribes-changed for the better. The military models were discarded, day schools were supported, primers in English and native languages were written, and tribal cultural activities were included or encouraged on campuses.

But Indian education, like Indian programs generally, was chronically underfunded; facilities were often in poor shape (though maintained with student labor), and the caliber of teaching was often sub-par. In 1969, a Senate special subcommittee on Indian Education summed up its 4,500 pages of testimony and research in its simple title: "Indian Education: A National Tragedy - a National Challenge."

Boarding schools on and off the reservation began closing their doors, not just because of their poor reputation, but because improved roads and community growth gave reservation residents better access to local public schools. The boarding schools on the Wind River Indian Reservation were among the longest surviving: St. Stephens stopped boarding kids in 1939; Roberts' school for girls closed in 1949, and the Government Boarding School shut its doors in 1955.
Boarding schools today
Off-reservation schools dwindled as well, but a number survived, including Chemawa, in Oregon; Haskell, in Kansas (now a college); and Sherman Indian School, in Riverside, CA. In many reservation families, successive generations have availed themselves of parochial or government boarding schools, though younger family members say their grandparents rarely talk about the experience. The option comes up, though, when a child has problems or isn't performing well.

"In junior high, I wasn't making good decisions for myself," recalled Millie Friday, who runs the White Buffalo Youth Prevention program at Ethete on the Wind River Reservation, "so my dad just told me, he said, 'You can go to Lander Valley High School, or you can go off to boarding school.' I chose boarding school."

The boarding schools of today are a far cry from Carlisle, though they still suffer from chronic underfunding. Recent interviews with Wind River youth at Sherman Indian School, in Riverside, Cal., revealed a variety of reasons for their being there. Some wanted a fresh start after getting in trouble on the reservation; some had lost parents or had other family problems; some just wanted a change, closer to a big city like Los Angeles; and some thought the school gave them a better shot at college.

The Sherman campus is a sprawling, fenced enclave with abundant athletic fields and some striking artwork by students decorating the walls and grounds. There is a weekly pow-wow, regular sweats, and native language instruction, as well as college counselling and a robust vocational program with hydroponic gardening and industrial arts. But budgetary problems depress teacher pay, curtail mental health counselling, and hamstring course offerings (the only native language taught is Din'e, the Navajo tongue, despite dozens of tribes represented in the student body).

One Wind River boy, about to graduate after spending only his senior year at Sherman, struggled to describe his loneliness during a recent interview, but stood by his decision to board. "I was moving with some bad influences back home," he said, and then smiled shyly when asked how his grandparents would feel when they came to his graduation. Soon he would return to his reservation, intent on following a better path. A Bureau of Indian Education official, monitoring the interview, came up to him afterward and offered to write college letters of recommendation.

His grandparents, and other older reservation residents, know of the darker experiences of their predecessors at boarding schools, and the emotional remoteness that they inherited. There is debate in Native American communities about whether that boarding school legacy has left scars deep in their DNA; groups like the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition have campaigned for "truth and reconciliation" efforts in the United States, to acknowledge the historical trauma of the boarding school era.

"As educators and families from this (Wind River) community we are dealing with the effects in the form of generational and historical trauma," said Lynnette St. Clair, Indian education coordinator in the Fort Washakie, Wyo., schools. "It's not a pleasant place to be." St. Clair is one of many educators who are trying to incorporate traditional tribal values - particularly respect - into curriculum, but with the difficult twist of filtering those values through the new technology that young people use.

In 2017, elders and youth from the Wind River Indian Reservation, including relatives of Horse, Little Plume and Little Chief, traveled to the Carlisle Barracks. Yufna Soldierwolf, a Sharp Nose descendent, had led a persistent campaign by the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office to bring the remains of the boys home. After years of resistance, the U.S. Army relented.

Nelson White, one of the elders who traveled to Carlisle, said the decision to move them was fraught, but "their spirits were still here roaming around looking for help, so this is the way I take it, we're here with these children. They're still roaming around. With all this noise. I think it would be better for them to be back home."

And when hundreds of tribal members gathered as rider-less horses brought the boys to their resting places at Wind River, White was thinking of an awakening for contemporary youngsters. "Maybe we can use this here as a light being turned on...Maybe the kids will listen to us. Help us along. Get our language back and our secret ceremonies."

Resources

Primary sources
Archival Collections

Carlisle Barracks Inventory - Volume 1, Manuscripts. U.S. Army Military History Institute, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA.

"Carlisle Indian School History", Cumberland County Historical Society. Oral histories, government reports, correspondence, and an extensive photo collection on the Carlisle Indian School, some of which can only be accessed at the society's office in Carlisle, Pa., accessed May 23, 2019 at www.Carlisleindian.historicalsociety.com/resources.

"Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center", Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Another extensive archive of Carlisle related material, collecting publications, administrative papers, recordings, and photographs from a variety of sources, most of it accessible digitally, accessed May 23, 2019 at http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu.

"From Trout Creek to Gravy High: Boarding Schools at Wind River." An on-line exhibit at the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum. A largely anecdotal history of boarding schools on the Wind River Indian Reservations, using taped interviews now held at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyo., accessed May 23, 2019 at

https://jacksonholehistory.org/from-trout-creek-to-gravy-high-boarding-school-experience-at-wind-river/.

"Remembering Our Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience." Exhibit, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Ariz. Heard also has an extensive collection of documents and photographs related to boarding schools, focused on the Southwest. The call number for the exhibit materials in the Heard archives is RC 125. www.heard.org/exhibits/boardingschool.

Record Group 75 - United States National Archives, Suitland, Md. Records of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs hold records of Carlisle Indian School and other federally funded Native American boarding schools. Most of the records relate to individual students; the records are otherwise fragmentary. Some of this material is summarized in an unpublished dissertation by Carmelita Ryan, "The Carlisle Indian Industrial School", Georgetown University.

Interviews
Interviews quoted in this article were conducted by Caldera Productions, of Lander, Wyo., for the documentary "Home from School", scheduled for release in fall, 2019, and are used by permission:

Dr. Tsianina Lomawaima, Tucson, AZ

Nelson White, Wind River Indian Reservation.

Phyllis Gardner, Wind River Indian Reservation.

Dr. Jacqueline Fears-Segal, Carlisle, PA.

Millie Friday, Wind River Indian Reservation.

Yufna Soldierwolf, Wind River Indian Reservation.

Michelle Hoffman, Lander, WY

Lynette St. Clair, Wind River Indian Reservation

Secondary sources

Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928. Lawrence, KA: University of Kansas Press, 1995. The most definitive book to date on the history of Indian boarding schools in the United States, with a focus on Carlisle.

Bear, Charla. "American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many." National Public Radio, May 12, 2008. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1651865.

Child, Brenda. Boarding School Seasons. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

Drake, Kerry. "Estelle Reel, First Woman Elected to Statewide Office in Wyoming". Wyohistory.org, accessed May 23, 2019 at www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/estelle-reel.

Fowler, Loretta. Arapaho Politics, 1851-1978: Symbols in Crises of Authority. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

Hipp, Martha. Sovereign Schools: How Shoshones and Arapaho Created a High School on the Wind River Reservation. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2019

O'Gara, Geoffrey. "Home from School." Wyofile, Sept. 1, 2017, accessed May 23, 2019 at www.wyofile.com/home-from-school.

Yager, Sarah. "Making New Promises in Indian Country" The Atlantic, March 23, 2012.

Pratt, Henry. Battlefield & Classroom, Four Decades with the American Indian. Edited by Robert Utley. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

Stamm, Henry E. IV. People of the Wind River: The Eastern Shoshones, 1825-1900. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.

Yager, Sarah. "Making New Promises in Indian Country" The Atlantic, March 23, 2012, accessed May 23, 2019 at www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/making-new-promises-in-indian-country/254969.

Illustrations

The photo of the students in traditional dress at Carlisle was taken by the photographer John Choate, who died in 1902. Thanks to the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center at Dickinson College for information on the photographer.

The photo of the larger group of schoolboys with Sherman Coolidge and John Roberts is from the Baker & Johnston Photographs Collection at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming; the 1911 photo of the Shoshone girls is from the John Roberts papers at the AHC and the photo of the people at St. Stephens is from the AHC's St. Stephens Mission photo file. All are used with permission and thanks.

The J. E. Stimson photo of the U.S. government boarding school at Fort Washakie-"Gravy High"-is Stimson negative 660 from the Wyoming State Archives. Used with permission and thanks.

The Joseph K. Dixon photo of the unnamed schoolboy in uniform is from the collections of the Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum in Casper. Used with permission and thanks.

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From Wind River to Carlisle: Indian Boarding Schools in Wyoming and the Nation

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A century ago there were hundreds of boarding schools for American Indian children. Many were on reservations, and many were run by religious orders; there were three on what's now the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Others were intentionally built f

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Time Magazine:  The History of Native American boarding Schools is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals

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Time Magazine:  The History of Native American boarding Schools is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals

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The History of Native American Boarding Schools Is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals

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Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

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Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

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In June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.

Under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, the Department prepared a report detailing the U.S. law and policy framework of the federal Indian boarding school system and available historical records to develop the first official list of federal Indian boarding school sites and identify associated marked and unmarked burial sites. This report lays the groundwork for the continued work of the Interior Department to address the intergenerational trauma created by policies supporting the historical federal Indian boarding school system. It reflects an extensive and first-ever inventory of federally operated Indian boarding schools, including summary profiles of each school and maps of general locations of schools in current states.

Between 1819 through the 1970s, the United States implemented policies establishing and supporting Indian boarding schools across the nation. The purpose of federal Indian boarding schools was to culturally assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children by forcibly removing them from their families and Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian Community. Indian child removal coincided with Indian territorial dispossession. The report details the conditions experienced by attendees including manual labor and discouraging or preventing American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions, and cultural beliefs. While children attended federal Indian boarding schools, many endured physical and emotional abuse and, in some cases, died.

The investigation found that from 1819 to 1969, the federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 federal schools across 37 states or then territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii. The investigation identified marked or unmarked burial sites at approximately 53 different schools across the system. As the investigation continues, the Department expects the number of identified burial sites to increase.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting closures of federal facilities call for further investigation. Assistant Secretary Newland recommends next steps that will be taken in a second volume, aided by a new $7 million investment from Congress through fiscal year 2022.

For more information regarding the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, go to the Department's priority page.

Contact Us

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Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

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In June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element.

Indian boarding schools were founded to eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture. The first boarding schools were set up starting in the mid-nineteenth century either by the government or Christian missionaries. Initially, the government forced many Indian families to send their children to boarding schools. Later, Indian families chose to send their children to boarding schools because there were no other schools available.

At boarding schools, Indian children were separated from their families and cultural ways for long periods, sometimes four or more years. The children were forced to cut their hair and give up their traditional clothing. They had to give up their meaningful Native names and take English ones. They were not only taught to speak English but were punished for speaking their own languages. Their own traditional religious practices were forcibly replaced with Christianity. They were taught that their cultures were inferior. Some teachers ridiculed and made fun of the students' traditions. These lessons humiliated the students and taught them to be ashamed of being American Indian. The boarding schools had a bad effect on the self-esteem of Indian students and on the wellbeing of Native languages and cultures.

However, not all boarding school experiences were negative. Many of the Indian students had some good memories of their school days and made friends for life. They also acquired knowledge and learned useful skills that helped them later in life.

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Chapter 3: Boarding Schools | Native Words, Native Warriors

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Beginning in the late nineteenth century, many American Indian children attended government- or church-operated boarding schools.

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National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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US Indian Boarding School History - The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

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The truth about the US Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. There were more than 350 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the US in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools...

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Stop Crimes Against History on Tribal Lands

https://savehistory.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiuC2BhDSARIsALOVfBJG2yUvFzYbKQTFZbODzrq9NefVeOxZVDsDh8xKthadbNDKz64XVdQaAkWQEALw_wcB

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Our mission is to end archaeological resource crime on Tribal lands. Together, we can ensure that Native American history is preserved for future generations.

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Oregon State Government:  Understanding Tribal Sovereignty

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Oregon State Government:  Understanding Tribal Sovereignty

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What's Tribal Sovereignty and What Does It Mean for Native Americans?

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What's Tribal Sovereignty and What Does It Mean for Native Americans?

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This short explainer provides an introduction to tribal sovereignty and its importance to tribal nations and the daily lives of Native Americans in the U.S.

Tribal sovereignty, often viewed as a legal term, sits at the center of almost every issue affecting tribal nations existing within the United States' geographical borders.

In its most basic sense, tribal sovereignty - the inherent authority of tribes to govern themselves - allows tribes to honor and preserve their cultures and traditional ways of life. Tribal sovereignty also is a political status recognized by the federal government, protected by the U.S. Constitution and treaties made generations ago, and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although the concept might seem relatively straightforward, there has been considerable disagreement between Indigenous groups and American government agencies over what tribal sovereignty actually entails, its implications and how tribes and states can or should work together to serve their constituents.

States and tribes continue to battle over land and jurisdiction in areas such as law enforcement. Government officials still are trying to understand all the ramifications of last summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision in the landmark tribal sovereignty case McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Supreme Court justices affirmed that a giant swath of land in eastern Oklahoma the U.S. gave the Muscogee (Creek) Nation through treaties in the 1800s is, in fact, an "Indian reservation" and that the state of Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Jimcy McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation, for serious crimes that occurred on Muscogee (Creek) Nation land.

Attorneys and policymakers across the country predict the ruling's impact will extend well beyond Oklahoma and criminal prosecutorial matters.

Journalists planning to cover those impacts and tribal nations in general should have a basic understanding of tribal sovereignty and its significance to Indigenous people living in the U.S. Below, we provide important context.

We do not intend for this explainer to be exhaustive, but it is a starting point - and the first in a series of tip sheets, explainers and research roundups we'll publish over the coming year to help journalists improve their coverage of Native Americans. In our next piece, we'll take a much closer look at McGirt v. Oklahoma.

It's worth noting that while federal government officials and documents often refer to Indigenous people in the U.S. as "Indians" or "American Indians," the Native American Journalists Association has created a guide on Indigenous terminology.

Toward the bottom of this piece, we've gathered a variety of resources we think will help journalists, including links to academic papers on tribal sovereignty and a new website created by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the Native Nations Center at the University of Oklahoma.

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Some key things journalists should know about tribal sovereignty:

There are 574 federally-recognized American Indian and Alaska Native nations in the U.S., according to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each is a government entity with its own policies, processes and system of governance.

"Sovereignty for tribes includes the right to establish their own form of government, determine membership requirements, enact legislation and establish law enforcement and court systems," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Tribes set their own rules for who can join, so enrollment criteria vary from tribe to tribe. "Tribal enrollment criteria are set forth in tribal constitutions, articles of incorporation or ordinances," according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Tribes often require evidence of tribal lineage. For example, a tribe might require documentation demonstrating that the person seeking to enroll is related to a tribal member who descended from someone named on the tribe's base roll, or original list of members. Tribes may also require evidence of blood quantum. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs issues what's known as a Certificate Degree of Indian Blood, computed based on family lineage.

Knowledge of treaties is important to tribal coverage. The U.S. Constitution calls treaties "the supreme Law of the Land." Although they were negotiated generations ago - Congress stopped making treaties with tribes in the late 1800s - they remain relevant because they, among other things, outline the property rights and federal protections the U.S. agreed to give tribes in exchange for ceding millions of acres of their homeland.

The U.S. acquired much of its land through treaties, which "rest at the heart of both Native history and contemporary tribal life and identity," Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, writes in 2014 in the museum magazine. "Approximately 368 treaties were negotiated and signed by U.S. commissioners and tribal leaders (and subsequently approved by the U.S. Senate) from 1777 to 1868. They enshrine promises our government made to Indian Nations."

The U.S. Constitution outlines the federal government's relationship with tribes. "The Constitution gives authority in Indian affairs to the federal government, not to the state governments," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Just as the United States deals with states as governments, it also deals with Indian tribes as governments, not as special interest groups, individuals or some other type of non-governmental entity."

Attorneys commonly cite three historic court cases in legal challenges and legal analyses related to tribal sovereignty. In the 1832 case Worcester v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Cherokee Nation was not subject to state regulation. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the court, explains that the Cherokee Nation "is a distinct community occupying its own territory ... in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves ..."

Today, states have no authority over tribes unless Congress gives it to them. In 1953, for example, Congress enacted Public Law 280, allowing six states - Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin - to begin prosecuting most crimes occurring on tribal land. The federal law let other states decide whether they also wanted to make the change.

Additional resources

McGirt and Rebuilding of Tribal Nations Toolbox:This website, created by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and University of Oklahoma Native Nations Center, provides a broad array of resources, including a series of briefing papers examining the ramifications of the McGirt decision in areas such as taxation, criminal justice and child welfare.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty: This explainer, created by the Global Investigative Journalism Network and Native American Journalists Association, "explores what investigative opportunities exist for journalists regarding the bundle of issues known as 'Indigenous data sovereignty.'"

Shaawano Chad Uran, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation and former professor of American Indian studies at the University of Washington, explains sovereignty and its importance in Indian Country Today, September 2018.

Law journal articles, academic papers worth reading

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What's tribal sovereignty and what does it mean for Native Americans?

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This short explainer provides an introduction to tribal sovereignty and its importance to tribal nations and the daily lives of Native Americans in the U.S. Tribal sovereignty, often viewed as a legal term, sits at the center of almost every issue affecting tribal nations existing within the United States' geographical borders.

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US Department of the Interior Indian Affairs

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US Department of the Interior Indian Affairs

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Official websites use .gov
A.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

We maintain government-to-government relationships with Indian tribes, and facilitate support for tribal people and tribal governments. We promote safe and quality living environments, strong communities, self sufficient and individual rights, while enhancing protection of the lives, prosperity and well being of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Indian Affairs provides services directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts to 574 Federally recognized tribes with a service population of approximately 2.5 million American Indian and Alaska Natives. While the role of Indian Affairs has changed significantly in the last three decades in response to a greater emphasis on Indian self-governance and self-determination, Tribes still look to Indian Affairs for a broad spectrum of services.

This announcement follows the decision to designate the college as a voter registration agency under the National Voter Registration Act.

Resources will support Tribal fishing rights and economic development

Funding will provide Indigenous youth with opportunities to engage in meaningful public service projects on federal and Tribal lands.

Looking for U.S. government information and services?

Visit USA.gov

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Official websites use .gov A.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock (Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

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Tribal Nations & the United States: An Introduction | NCAI

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We are excited to announce the updated report is now published as of February, 2020. Questions? Email NCAIPress@ncai.org.

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Stand Strong

Protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways.

"We ask for nothing more, and will accept nothing less, than the U.S. government keeping the promises made to Native Americans." -NARF Executive Director John Echohawk

Featured:

At any given time, NARF staff are working with tribes on dozens of legal issues across Indian Country. For example:

Our Mission

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) holds governments accountable. We fight to protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise.

Learn More About NARF

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Protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways. "We ask for nothing more, and will accept nothing less, than the U.S. government keeping the promises made to Native Americans." -NARF Executive Director John Echohawk At any given time, NARF staff are working with tribes on dozens of legal issues across Indian Country.

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Native Knowledge 360 Educational Resources

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Native Knowledge 360 Educational Resources

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Native Knowledge 360° | Search NK360° Educational Resources

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Native Knowledge 360° is the National Museum of the American Indian's national initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. Discover standards-compliant, interactive teaching resources for all grade levels. Explore and search for new and timely instructionaland informational resources.

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Policy and Laws

What is the Allotment Act?

The General Allotment Act of 1887 (The Dawes Act) provided that the president, at his discretion, could allot (divide up) reservation land to Indians, with the title to be held in trust by the United States for twenty-five years. This law mandated the conversion of Indian lands that tribes previously held in common into small parcels open to individual ownership. It granted that full citizenship for Indians would accompany the allotment, and conferred citizenship upon two classes of Indians born within the limits of the United States: Indians to whom land allotments were made and Indians who had voluntarily taken up residence separate from any Indian tribe and who adopted the "habits of civilized life." Besides these two categories of Indians, Indian women who married citizens could become citizens beginning in 1880, and under the Act of November 1919, Congress made all Indian veterans who served in World War I U.S. citizens.

When were Native Americans granted U.S. citizenship?

Under the Indian Citizen Act (1924), all Indians born in the United States were declared citizens of the United States. By then, two-thirds of Indian people (women who married U.S. citizens, for example) had gained citizenship through laws enacted during the previous fifty years, such as the Allotment Act.

What is the Indian Reorganization Act?

In 1934, Congress passed the Wheeler-Howard Act (Indian Reorganization Act) to secure rights for Native Americans on reservations, ending the policy of allotment. Its main provisions were to restore to Native Americans management of their assets (mostly land), to prevent further depletion of reservations' resources, to build a sound economic foundation for Indian people on reservations, and to return local self-government to Native American tribes.

What is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978?

This act states the policy of the United States to "protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonial and traditional rites." The American Indian Religious Freedom Act is an important legal protection for Native rights to religious expression.

What is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)?

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990), or NAGPRA, is a federal law that provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items, human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. It empowers tribes to claim their human remains and cultural items from federal collections and non-Smithsonian museums.

How and why are Native arts protected?

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 is a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian arts and craft products within the United States. It makes it illegal to offer, display for sale, or sell any art or craft product "in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian tribe or Indian arts and craft organization, resident within the United States."

What is the Canadian Indian Act of 1876?

This is the Canadian federal legislation, first passed in 1876, that sets out certain federal government obligations and regulates the management of Indian reserved lands. The act has been amended several times, most recently in 1985. The Canadian constitution recognizes three groups of aboriginal people-Indian, Métis, and Inuit.

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Native Knowledge 360° | Frequently Asked Questions

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Native Knowledge 360° is the National Museum of the American Indian's national initiative to inspire and promote improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians. Check out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions by educators and students at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.

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Native Knowledge 360° | Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

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Educational resources, lesson plans, teacher training, and strategies to support positive change! Native Knowledge 360° is a national initiative to inspire and promote improved teaching and learning about Native America. #NK360

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Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

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The term "powwow" derives from Pau Wau, meaning "medicine man" in Narrtick, a language spoken by the Algonquian peoples in Massachusetts. English settlers began misusing the word to refer to the meetings of Indigenous medicine men, and later to any kind of American Indian gathering. American Indians have since reclaimed the term.

Nineteenth Century

For centuries, American Indian communities have conducted ceremonial gatherings. Modern powwows, however, derive from more recent ceremonies that began in the Plains area. In the late nineteenth century, the U.S. government seized swaths of land from the Lakota, Dakota, Blackfoot, and Ojibwa peoples in the Northern Plains and from Kiowa, Comanche, Pawnee, and Ponca peoples in the Southern Plains. This period of forced migration and upheaval resulted in great intertribal exchange and solidarity among Plains Indians.

Two intertribal traditions emerged during this period: the Drum Religion and the Grass Dance (or Helushka Society). The Drum Religion was a sacred drum ritual that fostered peace and friendship, while the Grass Dance was an adapted form of ancient warrior dances. Both emphasized the value of generosity and gift-exchange. As these were diffused throughout the Plains, other tribes amended and adapted them. They became homecoming celebrations, when families and communities separated by government removal could reunite. These were the precursors to modern powwow.

Twentieth Century

The word "powwow" began to appear in newspapers in the early twentieth century, advertising "authentic" Indigenous dance shows. Some performers put on exaggerated "war dances" to entertain pioneers traveling westward. These Wild West shows became a part of popular culture as non-Native spectators became infatuated with the "traditional" Native image. They sought out powwows that boasted the presence of elders, in order to ensure an "authentic" ceremony.

World War I and II brought warrior traditions back to the forefront of powwows, which became a place to celebrate and memorialize American Indian veterans. In the following years, the American Indian veterans organizations took an increasing role in organizing the events. Memorial Day powwows became major annual traditions, and veterans continue to be honored and celebrated at powwows.

In the 1950s, a series of Bureau of Indian Affairs programs again relocated thousands of Plains Indians to cities across the country. This mass migration created a proliferation of intertribal collaboration, akin to the intertribal alliances of the late 1800s. American Indians in urban centers created new communities and new spaces where they could connect with one another and their cultures. They founded community centers and organized powwows, sports leagues, and church events.

Many students were forced to attend government and Christian boarding schools with members of enemy tribes or groups they would have never met due to distance. During this forced assimilation, American Indian children who did not have Great Plains powwow dances in their culture learned that style of song and dance from their Great Plains classmates. They adopted the early ideology of what was to become the modern powwow.

As the culture urbanized, the number of powwows across the country exploded. Powwow circuits and traveling performance groups emerged. This period is associated with the rise of competition events in powwows.

Twenty-First Century

Today, powwows are held every weekend in the United States and abroad. They are hosted everywhere from reservations to cities, small venues to national stages, for local, intertribal, and international audiences.

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American Indian Powwows: Multiplicity and Authenticity - History

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Powwow is an adaptive, contemporary tradition that reflects tribal and intertribal history, culture, and community values.

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First Nations Educational & Cultural Center

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How the Powwow Began

The modern powwow and many styles of contemporary powwow dancing have their roots in the historic warrior societies of the Southern and Northern Plains. Over time, these dances, ceremonies, and gatherings have evolved from formal, tribal-based ceremonies into modern-day intertribal celebrations of culture, dance, song, crafts, food, and pageantry.

Today powwows are held across the United States and Canada, in small towns and in big cities. These quintessential social gatherings can take place anywhere - from community dance grounds to large arenas and convention centers.

The powwow has become a way that Native American people representing all tribal backgrounds can join together to share experiences, reconnect with old friends, and make new ones. It is an opportunity to reflect on time-honored traditions, while helping to educate future generations of dancers and singers.

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About First Nations Education Cultural Center Annual Powwow

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Experience Native American Powwows | Wind River Country

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Don’t miss out on the experience of the vibrant culture and traditions of Native American Powwows. Join the celebration of dance, music, and community.

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Experience the Power of Powwows in Wyoming

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Experience the Power of Powwows in Wyoming

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A powwow is a steady thump of beaters on a hide-covered drum, a cadence of mixed voices singing in Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, or Lakota, and the sweep and swirl of men and boys wearing brightly colored regalia. It's young girls with fringed shawls, older women dressed in buckskin and even tiny tots in beaded moccasins and creamy white buckskin outfits. Begun as a ritual gathering of spiritual leaders and medicine men, powwow is now a social event.

What is a powwow?

A powwow is an indigenous cultural event that features group singing and dancing, and each features a variety of dance styles. Men wearing traditional leather clothing and eagle feather bonnets, perform first, often mimicking the movements of animals or birds. They sometimes dance in a crouched position as though they are tracking or hunting. Women wearing traditional long deerskin dresses adorned with elk teeth, porcupine quills, beads or cowrie shells dance slowly and regally, taking small steps that cause the fringe on their gowns to sway in rhythm to the drum.

Most public powwows involve dancers from many tribes, and varying drum groups bring individual tribal songs to a gathering. They begin with a grand entry when dancers carry the Eagle Staff and American Flag into the dance arbor. As you would do at any other event where the American Flag is presented, you should stand during the Flag Song. In Wyoming, you can watch powwows across the state during the summer.

The history of powwows

Powwows new inated with the tribes that roamed the great plains from Canada to Texas. The dance evolved during the Wild West shows of Buffalo Bill Cody. They involved men in elaborate outfits with feather bustles at their hips and shoulders and brightly colored headdresses. These men leapt, twisted, spun and swirled in a fast-paced dance that showed their endurance and strength.

Female dancers also showed off fast footwork, as they leapt and spun in their brightly colored clothing featuring shiny sequins and long-fringed shawls that made them look like flying birds or butterflies. Other young women wore dresses ornamented with dozens of tin cones that jingled when they walked, giving them the name of jingle dresses.

Powwows today

Today's powwows involve either intertribal social dances or competitive dancing, and most gatherings are a combination of the two styles. During intertribal activities, people of all ages and genders, including both indigenous and non-indigenous, are welcome to enter the arbor and dance. In all cases, be sure to respect the dancers. Do not touch their outfits, and only take photos when the announcer gives permission to do so. The regalia these dancers wear can be a combination of heirloom clothing and modern recreation. Although some dance outfits may reflect a particular tribe in style, others combine traditions as the dancers keep their culture alive.

Young indigenous dancers say they participate in powwows as a way to honor their cultural traditions and because it makes them feel free and close to their elders. Each year, the drums are in place for several powwows across Wyoming. Larger events on the Wind River Reservation include the Chief Yellow Calf Memorial Powwow at Blue Sky Hall Ethete in late May, an Arapaho Housing/Drug Elimination Powwow at Blue Sky Hall in early June, the Northern Arapaho Powwow at the tribal powwow grounds near Ethete in early August, and the Shoshone Labor Day Powwow at Fort Washakie.

Other powwows in the state include the annual Plains Indian Powwow at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody in mid-June and a smaller demonstration at the Indian Village during Cheyenne Frontier Days the last full week of July.

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Experience the Power of Powwows in Wyoming | Travel Wyoming

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A powwow is a steady thump of beaters on a hide-covered drum, a cadence of mixed voices singing in Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, or Lakota.

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PowWows.com | Native American PowWow Culture | Articles, Calendar, Community

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Find a Pow Wow Near You Visit Now PowWows.com Experience | Learn | Celebrate Native American Culture

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Wyoming Humanities:  Plains Indian Sign Language

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Wyoming Humanities:  Plains Indian Sign Language

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Plains Indian Sign Language - Wyoming Humanities

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PISL was developed so Native Americans of different tribes can communicate with each other across the barriers of different languages. Learn more!

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b’A GUIDE TOPOWWOWHistory, Customs, and Etiquette’

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Federal ‘land grab’ advanced by Barrasso, Hageman angers tribes

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Wyoming’s congressional delegation did not consult Eastern Shoshone before advancing a bill that would give a non-tribal water district a derelict power plant within Wind River Indian Reservation.

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86K views · 70 reactions | United by a shared commitment to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity, we are proud to announce the launch of our Indigenous Council, co-led by Jason Baldes. Jason is the Executive Director of the Wind River @tribalbuffaloinitiative and a proud member of the Shoshone tribe. 🦬
🏆 Recently honored with the National Geographic 2024 Wayfinder Award, Jason’s incredible journey is also featured in the new PBS documentary, “The American Buffalo: A Story of Resilience.” 🎥 | Colossal Biosciences | Colossal Biosciences · Original audio

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United by a shared commitment to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity, we are proud to announce the launch of our Indigenous Council, co-led by Jason Baldes. Jason is the Executive Director of the…

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The Role of Buffalo in Native American Cultural Revitalization with Jason Baldes

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The Role of Buffalo in Native American Cultural Revitalization with Jason Baldes

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The Role of Buffalo in Native American Cultural Revitalization with Jason Baldes

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Jason Baldes on Buffalo and land Rematriation

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Jason Baldes on Buffalo and land Rematriation

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JASON BALDES on Buffalo and Land Rematriation /350

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part III

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part III

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Parks Program: Project Yellowstone talks with Dr. Shane Doyle — Part III

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The Significance of Indian Education for All - Dr. Shane Doyle

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The Significance of Indian Education for All - Dr. Shane Doyle

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The Significance of IEFA - Dr. Shane Doyle

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part II

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part II

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Parks Program  Project Yellowstone talks with Dr  Shane Doyle — Part II

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part I

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Parks Program:  Project Yellowstone Talks with Dr. Shane Doyle, Part I

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Parks Program: Project Yellowstone talks with Dr. Shane Doyle — Part I

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GIFTS OF THE LAND | A Guided Nature Tour with Robin Wall Kimmerer | The Commons KU

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Robin Wall Kimmerer - Mishkos Kenomagwen:  The Teachings of Grass

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Robin Wall Kimmerer - Mishkos Kenomagwen:  The Teachings of Grass

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Robin Kimmerer - Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass | Bioneers

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Northern Plains Treaties: Is a Treaty Intended to Be Forever?  Grade 9-12

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Northern Plains Treaties: Is a Treaty Intended to Be Forever?  Grade 9-12

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Developed by Native Knowledge 360

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North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems

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North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems

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North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), founded by James Beard award winners The Sioux Chef, is dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways. We imagine a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.

NĀTIFS has opened The Indigenous Food Labin the Midtown Global Marketon historic Lake Street in Minneapolis. The Indigenous Food Lab is a professional Indigenous kitchen and training center covering all aspects of food service; research and development; Indigenous food identification, gathering, cultivation, and preparation; and all components of starting and running a successful culinary business based around Native traditions and Indigenous foods.

Reclamation of ancestral education is a critical part of reversing the damage of colonialism and forced assimilation, and food is at the heart of this reclamation. NĀTIFS will drive sustainable economic empowerment and prosperity into tribal areas through a reimagined North American food system that also addresses the health impacts of injustice.

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North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems

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NĀTIFS, founded by The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman, addresses the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.

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Indigenous ways of life and traditions are highly connected to the environment and the foods it provides. Long before their contact with Europeans, Indigenous Peoples populated the Americas and were successful stewards and managers of the land.

Indigenous Andeans, for example, developed more than a thousand different species of potato, each of which thrived in its own distinct growing conditions. Along with potatoes, many other foods-including corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, yams, peanuts, wild rice, chocolate, pineapples, avocados, papayas, pecans, strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries, to name a few, are indigenous to the Americas. More than half of the crops grown worldwide today were first cultivated successfully and scientifically in the Americas by Indigenous People. Crops and other foods were exchanged along vast, distinct, and complex trade routes. American Indians traded, exchanged, gifted, and negotiated the purchase of goods, foods, technologies, domestic animals, ideas, and cultural practices with one another.

Many Native food systems were disrupted due to European settlement and the displacement of Native peoples from their lands. Then, for over a hundred years, the U.S. government issued foodstuffs to Native Americans. The food was unhealthy and substantially different from traditional diets. Unhealthy food, combined with uneven quality of and access to medical care, continues to leave many American Indians fighting an uphill battle for their health. Still, American Indians are working to restore their environments and original food sources through 2010 to promote a return to traditional foods and food practices. This is an example of food sovereignty, which means that a community chooses those foods they will use to sustain themselves and their cultures. Traditional foods support physical, mental, and spiritual health.

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Native Knowledge 360°-Native Life and Food: Food Is More Than Just What We Eat

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NK360° Helpful Handouts: Guidance on Common Questions provide a brief introduction to teachers about important topics regarding Native American life, cultures, and communities. Native Life and Food: Food Is More Than Just What We Eat explores Indigenous relationships with food. #NK360

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NICOA - National Indian Council on Aging

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Chef Sean Sherman has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting Indigenous food systems and Native food sovereignty.

Sean's cooking style is based on pre-colonial Indigenous food systems, using only ingredients that are native to North America. His menus are inspired by the seasons and the land, featuring traditional ingredients like bison, hand-harvested wild rice, cedar, and sumac. He draws on the knowledge and culinary techniques of his ancestors to develop innovative, nutritious, and flavorful dishes that incorporate wild game, fish, foraged plants, and heirloom grains.

Through his activism and advocacy, Sean is helping to reclaim and celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Indigenous communities around the world.

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Chef Sean Sherman | Indigenous food systems | foodways | Native people

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Sean Sherman is an award-winning chef, educator, author, and activist. A member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, Sean's personal mission is to revitalize Indigenous food systems and build awareness of the transformational potential of Indigenous foodways to restore the health, local economies, culture, and food sovereignty of Native people.

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Gather documents the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty.

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Food Sovereignty: Northern Arapaho Tribe 

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Food Sovereignty: Northern Arapaho Tribe 

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This is a research paper produced by a Northern Arapaho member and student at the University of Wyoming. It goes in depth about how food has evolved for the tribe before colonization and to now. There is great explanation in the causes of why the tribe's food system changed and how the Northern Arapaho people adapted and our now trying to relearn their own food sovereignty from the past. Be sure to take a glance at the references at the end of the paper as they are great resources as well! Enjoy!

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View of Restorying Northern Arapaho Food Sovereignty

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JAFSCD: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Publication of the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems

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Food Sovereignty: Northern Arapaho Tribe 

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Food Sovereignty: Northern Arapaho Tribe 

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This is a research paper produced by a Northern Arapaho member and student at the University of Wyoming. It goes in depth about how food has evolved for the tribe before colonization and to now. There is great explanation in the causes of why the tribe's food system changed and how the Northern Arapaho people adapted and our now trying to relearn their own food sovereignty from the past. Be sure to take a glance at the references at the end of the paper as they are great resources as well! Enjoy!

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View of Restorying Northern Arapaho Food Sovereignty

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JAFSCD: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Publication of the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems

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Every person is different. Every tribe is different. Everyone's Frybread is different!
Some of these indigenous foods/recipes are shared amongst family from generation to generation and not really shared anywhere else. (Think of it like the Krusty Krabs secret formula)
You are probably not going to find an exact recipe for any indigenous traditional foods. There are common recipes found on google or any search engine. Here is a YouTube video of Navajo Grandma who makes Navajo frybread. Enjoy!

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Navajo Grandma Fry Bread Dough Recipe Episode 2

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This website created by the USDA, first explains from an indigenous lens about the importance of the three sisters. After the indigenous perspective, a scientific or agricultural lens is explained in how these three plants work together!
*** These plants are also highly regarded in both tribes within the Wind River Reservation!

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The Carnegie Museum of Natural History broadens the classification from the specific Seneca Nation to that of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in its description of the Three Sisters.

Ngapo, T.M., Bilodeau, P., Arcand, Y., Charles, M.T., Diederichsen, A., Germain, I., Liu, Q., MacKinnon, S., Messiga, A.J., Mondor, M., et al. (2021). Historical Indigenous food preparation using produce of the Three Sisters intercropping system. Foods, 10, 524. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030524.

Hill, C.G. (2016). Pre-Colonial foodways. In Wallach, J.J., Swindall, L.R., & Wise, M.D. (Eds.) The Routledge History of American Foodways (pp. 9-22). London: Routledge Press.

This ancient style of companion planting has played a key role in the survival of all people in North America. Grown together, these plants are able to thrive and provide high-yield, high-quality crops with a minimal environmental impact. Corn, beans, and squash have a unique symbiotic relationship in a Native American garden. Corn offers a structure for the beans to climb. The beans, in turn, help to replenish the soil with nutrients. And the large leaves of squash and pumpkin vines provide living mulch that conserves water and provides weed control.

Dodson, M. (2001). Appendix: Ancient Companions. In Kuepper, G. & Dodson, M. Companion Planting & Botanical Pesticides: Concepts & Resources. https://attra.ncat.org/publication/companion-planting-resources/.

The Three Sisters system refers to the planting of corn, pole beans, and squash or pumpkins together in hills. The practice of planting more than one type of crop together is called interplanting. Although this planting system is not common in the United States today, it is in fact a well-thought-out growing method that is used extensively in other countries such as Mexico. Interplanting is corning back into favor for some crops because farmers are finding that large plantings of one crop can have some major disadvantages.... lnterplanting has many advantages. Iroquois farmers adapted this ecological planting method to meet the needs of their crops and their people. Interplanted crops are not as attractive to pests, while large plantings of one crop tend to have more pest problems. The hills provide support around the base of the plants, so they are not as prone to damage from wind. Also, interplanting helps create a uniform stand of corn. The corn forms a support for the beans, and the squash covers the soil. helping to control weeds. p. 3

Eames-Sheavly, M. (1993). The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois garden [PDF, 28 pages]. Ithaka, NY: Cornell University.

A recent study analyzed a similar intercropping practice termed milpa in Guatemala.

Seran, T.H. & Brintha, I. (2010). Review on maize intercropping. Journal of Agronomy, 9(3), 135-145. https://dx.doi.org/10.3923/ja.2010.135.145..

Hill, C.G. (2016). Pre-Colonial foodways. In Wallach, J.J., Swindall, L.R., & Wise, M.D. (Eds.) The Routledge History of American Foodways (pp. 9-22). London: Routledge Press.

Hill, C.G. (2020). Returning corn, beans, and squash to Native American farms. The Conversation. Iowa State University. https://theconversation.com/returning-the-three-sisters-corn-beans-and-squash-to-native-american-farms-nourishes-people-land-and-cultures-149230.

Hirst, K. Kris. (2020). The Three Sisters: The traditional intercropping agricultural method. https://www.thoughtco.com/three-sisters-american-farming-173034.

LaDuke, W. (2005). Recovering the sacred: The power of naming and claiming. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. https://archive.details/recoveringsacred00ladu.

Landon, A.J. (2008). The "How" of the Three Sisters: The origins of agriculture in Mesoamerica and the human niche. Nebraska Anthropologist, 40,110‐ 124. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebanthro/40.

Lopez-Ridaura, S., Barba-Escoto, L., Reyna-Ramirez, C. A., Sum, C., Palacios-Rojas, N., & Gerard, B. (2021). Maize intercropping in the milpa system. Diversity, extent, and importance for nutritional security in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 3696. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82784-2.

Lunsford, L., Arthur, M. L., & Porter, C. M. (2021). African and Native American foodways and resilience: From 1619 to COVID-19. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(4), 241-265. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.104.008.

McMillan, L. (n.d.). The Three Sisters. The Hand Lens. Specimen Stories. New York Botanical Garden. http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/the-hand-lens/explore/narratives-details/?irn=7503..

Mt. Pleasant, J. (2016). Food yields and nutrient analyses of the Three Sisters: A Haudenosaunee cropping system. Ethnobiology Letters,7(1), 87‐98. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.721.

Ngapo, T.M., Bilodeau, P., Arcand, Y., Charles, M.T., Diederichsen, A., Germain, I., Liu, Q., MacKinnon, S., Messiga, A.J., Mondor, M., et al. (2021). Historical Indigenous food preparation using produce of the Three Sisters intercropping system. Foods, 10, 524. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030524.

Parker, A.C. (1910). Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants. Albany, NY: University of the State of New York. https://archive.org/details/iroquoisusesofma00parkrich.

Seran, T.H. & Brintha, I. (2010). Review on maize intercropping. Journal of Agronomy, 9(3), 135-145. https://dx.doi.org/10.3923/ja.2010.135.145.

Xu, Z., Ki, C., Zhang, C., Yu, Y., van der Werf, W., & Zhang, F. (2020). Intercropping maize and soybean increases efficiency of land and fertilizer nitrogen use: A meta-analysis. Field Crops Research, 246(1), 107661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2019.107661.

Yanovsky, E. (1936). Food plants of the North American Indians. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Miscellaneous Publication, Number 237. https://archive.org/details/foodplantsofnort237yano.

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The Three Sisters of Indigenous American Agriculture

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The Carnegie Museum of Natural History broadens the classification from the specific Seneca Nation to that of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in its description of the Three Sisters. Ngapo, T.M., Bilodeau, P., Arcand, Y., Charles, M.T., Diederichsen, A., Germain, I., Liu, Q., MacKinnon, S., Messiga, A.J., Mondor, M., et al.

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On this site there is two videos about how to make a dish based off the three sisters. The cook does a wonderful job speaking on revitalizing indigenous foods from the past. Enjoy!

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Relish: Brian Yazzie’s Indigenous Ingredient-Rooted Three Sisters Dish

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Diné chef Brian Yazzie first stepped into the kitchen as a young child while living on the Navajo Nation in Arizona, a formative experience that ultimately turned his life around. “I started cooking at the age of seven, helping my mom in the kitchen.”

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The scientific & cultural impact of Indigenous knowledge of the past & present.

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Sarah Ortegon: Contemporary Eastern Shoshone Artist

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Sarah Ortegon: Contemporary Eastern Shoshone Artist

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Here is the official artist website for Eastern Shoshone artist Sarah Ortegon! Enjoy!

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9-minute YouTube Video about the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. Enjoy!

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Here is a website that presents multiple treaties the Eastern Shoshone tribe took part in. Enjoy!

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Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum

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TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE EASTERN SHOSHONES AND THE UNITED STATES

Introduction

The Eastern Shoshones, who live on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, have a long history of treaties and agreements with the United States government. In this section, you will learn about the history of treaties and agreements between Indian people and the Europeans who settled in North America., It is important to learn about the history of treaties and agreements to understand the treaties and agreements between the Eastern Shoshones and the U. S. government.

Even before the creation of the United States in 1776, European settlers/colonists in North America found themselves in need of trading partners and allies with American Indians. The colonists realized that the Indians vastly outnumbered them. In order to survive in a land that was the New World to the Europeans and an Old World to the Indians, the Europeans needed partners. They also wanted land if they were to establish their own communities. Even though all of the land in North America belonged to its original inhabitants, often Europeans did not understand this and European monarchs and governments made proclamations granting land to colonists. To resolve the issue of the land ownership, there were many negotiated agreements, or treaties, between colonial and Indian leaders. For example, in 1621 the leaders of Plymouth Colony (the colonial home of the Pilgrims and founded in 1620) agreed to live in peace with the local Wampanoag Indians. The Indians agreed to allow the Pilgrims to reside on former Indian lands. As they did with each other, European countries acknowledged Indian nations as sovereign nations and negotiated treaties with the Indian nations as sovereign nations. This is a very important facet in understanding treaties between Indians and colonists, and later, between Indians and the United States.

Over the next two centuries of European colonial expansion in North America, French, English, Swedish, Dutch, and other European colonies forged a variety of pacts with Indians. These pacts, or treaties as they are better known, generally established trade, friendship, and land transfer policies between the newcomers and the Indians. In more than a few cases, these treaties successfully established relatively long-lasting good relations between Indians and the settlers. Some treaties were long lasting. The treaty of 1621 between the Wampanoag Indians and the Plymouth Colony stood in place over 40 years and helped maintain peace. William Penn's treaties with the Delaware Indians helped keep good relations intact from the 1680s through the 1720s.

Of course, not all treaties were effective. As colonial immigration increased throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, many settlers ignored the treaties signed by their colonial leaders. They trespassed on Indian land-establishing farms and villages in territory reserved by the treaties for the specific use of Indians. Sometimes young Indian warriors ignored their tribal leaders and elders attacking these colonial farms and settlements. Overall, there are more cases of conflicts and warfare between Indians and settlers than mutual respect for land boundaries, open trade, and strong alliances.

Despite the relatively bleak experience of using treaties to maintain peaceful and beneficial relations, after its formation, the United States continued to try to forge treaties with Indian people. In some cases treaties emerged following warfare and conquest; in others, negotiation took place in order to prevent outbreaks of violence. Beginning with the Treaty of Greenville (Ohio) in 1795, most treaties accepted by the U.S. government contained the following: (1) The establishment of boundaries designating Indian land that was off-limits for settler expansion; (2) Trade agreements that said manufactured goods would be delivered by authorized dealers (often know as factors or traders) as a sign of friendship with Indians; (3) Mutual defense pacts, or alliances, to guard against hostile Indians or European nations; and (4) Laws to deal with criminal offenses committed by both Indians against U.S. citizens or citizens against Indians. Not every treaty contained all of these specific provisions, but most included at least two or three of them.

During the 1800s, land boundaries took on new meanings in treaties. In previous centuries, treaties acknowledged Indian ownership of lands that countries wanted to buy for their immigrant populations. In the 1800s, however, the United States instituted two new interpretations of land boundaries and ownership. First, from 1810 through the 1840s, the U.S. forced Indians to sell lands desired by its citizens and required Indians to move to other areas. The most famous examples of this policy were the treaties made with Indians of the southeastern areas of the United States where Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles gave up their lands under threat of force and moved to what is now Oklahoma-the infamous "Trail of Tears" in the 1830s.

The second policy shift regarding land boundaries emerged in the 1850s. This is when the U.S. used treaties to set up specified land reserved for Indians-the reservation system. These boundaries restricted Indians to their allotted geographical space, banned settlers from moving on to Indian lands, and set up new terms for trade and commerce. At the same time, the treaties tried to create corridors for westward migration of citizens, first by claiming the right of travel along the Overland Trail to Oregon and California, and later for the construction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.

It is very important to remember that the initial need for treaties was because the Indians outnumbered settlers in many parts of North America. This was also true even when the United States expanded to become a continental nation in the 1850s and 1860s. Although the U.S. claimed territories spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, Indians still outnumbered settlers in many parts of the country, especially in the Great Plains located between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The U.S. meet with little success with treaties that attempted to regulate or restrict Indian movements and confine tribes to specific regions. For years, well into the 1870s and 1880s, many Indian people of the Great Plains continued to try to live their lives without interference from the U.S.

But a flurry of treaties signed in 1855 with most of the tribes of Oregon and Washington set the stage for reservation creation. They also led to further negotiation over the next decade with Indians of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and the other lands abutting the Great Plains. In each of these treaties, no matter how restrictive they were for Indian peoples, the principle of sovereignty and government-to-government relations remained in the treaty language.

In 1872, the United States ended the practice of making treaties with Indians. What followed was known as agreements. For the most part, the agreements dealt with land cessions, or sales. Essentially, Indians sold much of their land in return for governmental support. Trade deals gave way to bargains struck for long-term promises for goods and services as well as for food. The U.S. was to provide Indians with cloth, farm implements, schools and teachers, and foodstuffs like beef, flour, and coffee. Sometimes the promises were kept; more often, they were not.

SHOSHONE TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS ON THE SITE

The treaties and agreements on this site are some of the most important documents in Eastern Shoshone history, and clearly establish the tribe as a sovereign entity. The first treaty of Fort Bridger, in 1863, created this legal status in terms of United States law, while the second, in 1868, clarified the terms of sovereignty. In 1878, the U.S. federal government violated Eastern Shoshone sovereignty when officials placed the Northern Arapahos on the Wind River Reservation, promising that it was to be temporary when it was not, and without compensating the Shoshones under the terms of the 1868 treaty. In two subsequent land cession agreements, in 1896 and again in 1904, the government illegally included the Arapahos in the negotiations. Finally, in 1937, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. federal government owed compensation to the Shoshones for the lands occupied by the Arapahos that re-established the sovereignty of the Eastern Shoshones.

Here are some questions to think about as you read the legal language of each treaty or agreement. Take the time to think about what is actually said.

Are there specified land boundaries or areas designated as Shoshone land?

Are there words suggesting peace?

What did the U.S. promise to do in each of the documents?

What promises did the Shoshones make?

How long were these promises in effect?

Resources for Teachers

Indian Land Tenure Foundation. Lessons of Our Land: Native American Pre-K through 12 Curriculum. 2015. Found online at http://www.lessonsofourland.org.

Jeneau, Denise. Social Studies Model Lessons: The Treaty Period - American Indian Perspectives. Montana Office of Public Instruction, n.d., found online at http://opi.mt.gov/PDF/IndianEd/Search/Social%20Studies/HS%20Treaty%20Period.pdf.

National Museum of the American Indian. Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations. Exhibition September 21, 2014-Fall 2018, Washington, DC. Found online at http://www.nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=934.

Oklahoma State University Library. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles K. Kappler. Found online at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler.

A United League Of Indigenous Nations Treaty - Draft. Found online at http://nwindian.evergreen.edu/pdf/papers/United%20League%20of%20Indigenous%20Nations%20Treaty.oct12.pdf.

TREATIES

Treaty with the Eastern Shoshoni
Treaty of 1863 Commentary by Hank Stamm
The 1863 Fort Bridger Treaty with the Eastern Shoshones represented part of a process to clear a corridor for safe travel for whites emigrating to the west and for railway and communication routes. This treaty came on the heels of two important events: first, the Homestead Act of 1862 created a mechanism to encourage white settlement in the western territories of the United States. Second, and more important to the Shoshones, the Bear River Massacre in early 1863 made it quite clear that the United States was prepared to go to great lengths to compel Shoshones west of Wyoming to comply with demands for passage.Nearly 400 Shoshones lost their lives at this encounter, including some members of the bands that adhered to the leadership of Chief Washakie. The treaty essentially sets the boundaries of the Eastern Shoshones to reflect their traditional base since the early 1800s, namely from the upper Snake River on the north, east to the Wind River Mountains, South into northern Colorado and Utah, and no further west than Salt Lake. It did not include the present-day boundaries of the Wind River Reservation, which lie east of the Wind River Mountains. The ratified 1863 treaty added one article and one amendment to the original document, as well as a new preamble. The additions are noted with brackets.View/Download the Treaty of 1863 in PDF format (14K)

Treaty with the Shoshone and Bannacks
Treaty of 1868 Commentary by Hank Stamm
Above all political documents, this one is the most important for the Eastern Shoshones. The Treaty of Fort Bridger, 1868, established the boundaries of the Wind River Reservation and guaranteed to the tribe a lasting relationship with the United States. Unlike the earlier Treaty of Fort Bridger, 1863, which merely described the outline of Shoshone Country, a territory that lay west of the Wind River Mountains, the 1868 Treaty gave the tribe the right to occupy what had been their hunting grounds and winter camps, but never their home. In effect, this document denied any claims to the Wind River valley made by competing tribes such as the Arapahos, Crow, or Oglala Sioux. There are a few interesting mistakes in spelling in this treaty, most notably the clerk recorded the words "Camas Prairie" as "Kansas Prairie" and agent Luther Mann gets recorded as Luther Manpa. Like most treaties with Indian peoples, this 1868 document clearly makes the point that the government wants the Indians to give up any sort of tribal allegiance and transform themselves into independent citizen farmers. Almost all the articles of the treaty are written with this objective in mind.View/Downloadthe Treaty of 1868 in PDF Format (18K)

The Brunot Cession Agreement
Brunot Land Cession of 1874
In part, due to the onset of the severe nation-wide depression of the Panic of 1873, it took the Congress of the United States over two years to ratify the cession agreement reached by Felix Brunot and the Shoshones. The agreement diminished the original reservation by nearly one-third and opened the ceded southern portion to white settlement. The delays in implementation, however, led to confusion concerning the delivery of the stock cattle over the specified five-year period, and of course, the government did very little to honor its part to prevent settlers from moving onto the ceded lands. Note that Chief Washakie was a direct beneficiary of this agreement, but in the context of Shoshone customs, it provided him a discretionary fund that allowed him to meet his obligations as a headman.CHAP. 2-An act to confirm and agreement made with the Shoshone Indians (eastern band for the purchase of the south part of their reservation in Wyoming Territory.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the agreement entered into on the twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, between Felix R. Brunot, commissioner on the part of the United States and the chief, head-men, and men of the eastern band of Shoshone Indians, in the words and figures following, be, and the same is hereby, confirmed, satisfied, and approved by the Congress and President of the United States; Provided; That the cattle furnished under this agreement shall be good, young American cattle, suitable for breeding purposes.Articles of a convention made and concluded at the Shoshone and Bannock Indian agency in Wyoming Territory, this twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, by and between Felix R. Brunot, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the chief, head-men, and men of the eastern band of Shoshone Indians, constituting a majority of all the adult male Indians of said band on tribe of Indians, and duly authorized to act on the premises, witnesseth:That whereas by article eleven of a treaty with the Shoshone (eastern band) and Bannock tribes of Indians, made the third day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, at Fort Bridger, Utah Territory, a reservation was set apart for the use and occupancy of said tribes of Indians in the following words: "The United States further agrees that the following district of country, to wit, 'commencing at the mouth of the Owl Creek and running, due south, to the crest of the divided between the Sweetwater and the Papo-Agie Rivers; thence along the crest of said divide and the summit of Wind River Mountains to the longitude of North Fork of Wind River; thence due north, to mouth of said North Fork, and up its channel to a point twenty miles above its mouth; thence in a straight line to head-waters of Owl Creek, and, along middle of channel of Owl Creek, to place of beginning,' shall be, and the same is, set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshone Indians herein named;"And whereas, previous to and since the date of said treaty, mines have been discovered, and citizens of the United States have made improvements within the limits of said reservation, and it deemed advisable for the settlement of all difficulty between the parties, arising in consequence of said occupancy, to change the southern limit of said reservation:
I. The Shoshone band or tribe of Indians (eastern band) hereby cede to the United States of America that portion of their reservation in Wyoming Territory which is situated south of a line beginning at a point on the eastern boundary of the Shoshone and Bannock reservation, due east to the mouth of the Little Papo-Agie, at its junction with the Papo-Agie, and running from said point west to the mouth of the Little Papo-Agie; thence up the Papo-Agie to the North Fork, and up the North Fork to the mouth of the canyon; thence west to the western boundary of the reservation.

II. The United States agree to pay to the Shoshone (eastern band) or tribe the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars; said sum to be expended under the direction of the President for the benefit and use by said Indians in the following manner, viz: On or before the tenth day of August of each year, for the term of five years after the ratification of this agreement, five thousand dollars shall be expended for the purchase of stock-cattle, and said cattle delivered to the Shoshones on their reservation. Second. The salary of five hundred dollars per annum shall be paid by the United States for the term of five years to Wash-a-kie, chief of the Shoshones.

III. Within the term of six months, and as soon as practicable after the ratification of this agreement, the United States shall cause the southern line of the Shoshone reservation, as herein designated, to be surveyed, and marked at suitable points on the ground, and until said line has been so surveyed and marked, the United States binds itself not to permit the intrusion of any white persons upon any of the agricultural or other lands within the limit of the district proposed to be ceded.

IV. This convention or agreement is made subject to the approval of the President and the ratification or rejection of the Congress of the United States.

Approved, December 15, 1874.
View/Download the Brunot Cession Agreement in PDF Format (12K)

1896 Big Horn Hot Springs Land Cession
Land Cession of 1896 Commentary by Hank Stamm
The 1890s saw three separate efforts to reduce the size of the Wind River Reservation. The only successful agreement was reached in 1896, when the United States acquired a section of land that contained the Big Horn Hot Springs, a series of naturally occurring springs of geothermal waters, at the northeast corner of the reservation. The total amount of land ceded was an area of 10 miles square (100 square miles). In 1897, the agreement was ratified, with an amendment that ceded 1 square mile immediately surrounding the springs to the State of Wyoming. The basis for this land transfer ostensibly came about from the efforts to control the development around the springs, which were rapidly attracting a tourist clientele.The Shoshones and Northern Arapahos were willing to concede the land primarily because the prime buffalo hunting grounds in the Big Horn Basin (north of the springs and west of the Big Horn Mountains) had been destroyed by a huge influx of cattle and sheep ranches beginning in 1879. Thus, they no longer travelled off-reservation to hunt in the Big Horn Basin. The most important feature of the agreement, however, is that the government made the Arapahos equal partners to the Shoshones in the rights to claim the reservation.The Arapahos originally were moved to the reservation in 1878, but only with the consent of the Shoshones, and up until the 1896, agreement they were never considered partners with the Shoshones concerning reservation ownership. This all changed because of this agreement. In the 1930s, the Shoshones eventually reached a settlement with the United States that compensated them for the loss of lands that were, in essence, given to the Arapahos. The negotiations over the 1896 agreement took an interesting twist, in that the government was forced to make concessions independently to both tribes in order to win their acceptance, as detailed in Article III. The record of the negotiations is found in the National Archives in Washington, DC.View/Download the Land Cession of 1896 Agreement in PDF Format (12K)

Land Cession of 1904
Land Cessation of 1904 Commentary by Hank Stamm
In 1904, local interests around the Wind River Reservation succeeded in getting what they had tried to do for years, beginning as early as the Brunot cession of 1872: to cut significantly the size of the reservation. Throughout the 1890s, first in 1891 and 1893, commissions met with the Shoshones and Arapahos and tried to convince them to slice the reservation in half. However, even when agreements were reached, for some reason the Senate did not approve them, so the deals collapsed. In 1897, a 10-mile square area had been lopped off the northeast corner to create the boundaries of the Big Horn Hot Springs, but the 1904 agreement literally cut the reservation in two, with a boundary line that ran roughly from the former northwest corner to the southeast corner. This was a hotly debated agreement among both the Indian tribes, and later, the principal signer for the Shoshones, George Terry, was murdered.The agreement was terribly lopsided it its provisions. Rather than paying the tribes outright for the cession, the United States planned on selling the ceded lands under the existing homestead, town-site, coal, and mineral laws, then compensating the tribes from the funds so derived from these sales. Moreover, the tribes had no control over the use of this fund: proceeds were to be used to build a reservation irrigation system, to fund a one-time only $50 per capita cash payment, to build and maintain various bridges, to build schools (thus shirking the responsibilities called for under the terms of the Treat of Fort Bridger, 1868), and to provide for a reservation welfare system.The agreement took place against a backdrop of renewed efforts to carry out the plans of the General Allotment Act of 1887 (the Dawes Act), which intended to place every Indian on individual plots of land. Then the unassigned portions could be freed from tribal control and opened up to white settlement. To a large extent, this is what happened, and within a few years, the towns of Riverton and Shoshoni emerged, especially when the U.S. government poured huge sums of money to create the Boysen Reservoir and the irrigation system that was necessary to allow farming in the arid lands of the Wind River Valley. Eventually, however, after non-Indian settlers claimed all the best land near the irrigable area, the tribes were able to re-claim most of the acreage lost in the 1904 cession.View/Downloadthe Land Cession of 1904 Agreement in PDF Format (22K)

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Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum Web Administrator

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Wind River Treaty Documents - Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum

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TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE EASTERN SHOSHONES AND THE UNITED STATES Introduction The Eastern Shoshones, who live on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, have a long history of treaties and agreements with the United States government. In this section, you will learn about the history of treaties and agreements between Indian people and [...]

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Talissa Abeyta: Eastern Shoshone Artist  

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Talissa Abeyta: Eastern Shoshone Artist  

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This is a contemporary Native artist. This is a website talking about her and her work. Enjoy!

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Special to the Wyoming Truth
From the walls of Underscore Art and Jewelry, an upscale gallery in Whitefish, Montana, colorful works by contemporary Western artists beckon locals and tourists alike. The art is sophisticated, thoughtful - conveying ties to the region felt by its creators.

But perhaps unequaled in both authenticity and heritage, Wyoming artist Talissa Abeyta's modern ledger paintings tell stories of her deep connection to the original inhabitants of the American West and her own connection to the land.

Young, accomplished and determined, Talissa Abeyta is a woman breaking barriers and rewriting the rules of a historic art form. Her work embodies the spirit of resilience through stories that resonate with today's generation while maintaining respect for the past.

Abeyta's work is mature, with a refined point of view belying the fact that she began pursuing a career in fine art just four years ago after having first studied architectural engineering. A painting class at Central Wyoming College in Lander made her realize an artist's life was her true calling, and she changed course midstream, graduating with an associate degree in art in 2019.

Art professor Matt Flint recognized Abeyta's painting ability from the start, and she continued to impress during her time at the school.

"At the end of the students' time at school, they have a show that they put together," he said. "Talissa brought in her first series of ledger art which was instantly well-received - I think she sold that show out. And as a student that's a pretty big feat, to be at that level of proficiency."

Flint continued to mentor Abeyta after she finished school, eventually helping her find gallery representation. Abeyta's paintings at the gallery command a serious price: Currently listed pieces range from $2,500-$7,800.

"It's been a whirlwind," Abeyta said of her rapid ascent as an exhibiting artist.

Heritage-inspired work

Abeyta, 33, was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation, where she still lives. She is a sixth-generation descendant of both Chief Washakie of the Eastern Shoshone and Wovoka of the Paiute; she's also part Northern Arapahoe. The two tribes - Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe - historic enemies, came to share the Wind River reservation through a series of contentious and complicated negotiations orchestrated by the U.S. government in the late 1800s.

Though she's an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe, Abeyta said her mixed heritage and experience attending off-reservation primary schools give her a unique view of her culture.

Abeyta said ledger art began somewhere around the 1860s as a way for Native American artists to continue telling visual stories despite a shortage of animal hides widely used as canvases at the time. There was a resurgence of the style in the 1920s and again in the 1960s. Since then, it's become a well-established tradition in Native American art.

While steeped in reverence for, and often featuring themes of traditional ledger art, Abeyta's work is unique in that her paintings are as likely to tell modern stories, incorporating portraits of more contemporary Native American figures such as prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, gold-medalist Jim Thorpe or even prominent tribal leaders of today.

That approach has garnered her praise, but also some criticism from more strict adherents to the style in what has sometimes been considered a "man's world."

"There have been a few times that I've actually been questioned about my style - even told as a woman, I had no business making ledger art," Abeyta said. "Historically, the elements in ledger art are a little bit more representational - more two-dimensional. But I've never made claims that I'm a traditional ledger artist. It's more of me just respecting that style and where it came from. Because it is a part of Native American culture that I love to celebrate."

When asked about obstacles she might face as a young Native American woman and artist, she exudes the quiet confidence of someone undaunted in the face of a challenge.

"People are free to think what they like, but I don't let those opinions affect me," she said.

When she started painting, Abeyta thought there wasn't enough modern representation of Native Americans in art.

"With ledger art specifically, a lot of it is traditional - stories of our history that have been told many times - which is beautiful. I respect that. But I also felt like we should see more of what we as a people are doing today," she said. "Ledger art is an art form that shows a sense of resilience. It's come a long way, and it's here now. It speaks to us as a people - the resilience of Native Americans is something I want everyone to see."

Flint is a big fan of Abeyta's ability to personalize ledger painting and make it contemporary while still respecting history.

"What's so unique and special about her work is that it's coming from this feminine perspective and also from this very current cultural idea," Flint said. "And she seamlessly mixes these two worlds."

Abeyta works in a studio space in her parents' home on the reservation. She shares the "Art Room" with her father, who makes regalia worn by tribe members in traditional ceremonies.

When discussing her process, Abeyta said she respects timing and inspiration. But those intangibles can often run up against real-world demands of deadlines and the responsibility of being a single mother to her 10-year-old daughter.

A busy year ahead

This spring, Abeyta is creating work that will be exhibited at Cheyenne Frontier Days in July and painting four new original pieces for an upcoming solo gallery show at Underscore. Her work also is part of "Grounded," a touring exhibition featuring a variety of art forms by 15 contemporary artists from Indigenous tribes traditionally based in the Great Plains region. The exhibition can be seen at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne through May 20; it will then move to cultural centers in Jackson, Worland and Rock Springs.

"Right now I'm a little bit behind. But I'm getting there," she said with a laugh.

Experimentation, like printing ledger elements onto a blank canvas, have allowed Abeyta to paint on a larger scale, which makes her work marketable in the competitive gallery world. She recently completed her first mural on the side of a bakery in Lander owned by Flint and his wife.

The mural was drawn from one of her original gallery pieces and depicts the history of both the Shoshone and Arapahoe.

"It's a way of saying this is who I am," Abeyta said. "Both cultures are so beautiful, but they are so different. The piece is actually Chief Washakie's war shirt design, because I wanted it to represent strength and the battles that he won. He was known to be a great one-on-one combat fighter, but he was also humble and down to earth. They called him the sweetheart of the West."

Wyoming roots and her love for her native land continue to inspire and guide Abeyta's work.

"Throughout the years, my perspective of home has helped me grow as an individual," she said. "A lot of people aren't that fond of saying they grew up around here. But my dad always told me that your home is where you will always go to regain strength. It's basically the heart. So that's why we come home - that connection to the people and the culture is a part of us. It's like missing a key element to your existence when you're away."

The Wyoming Truth is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news operation dedicated to helping the community and fighting for the rights of local citizens. To sign up for a free subscription, or to make a donation, please go to www.wyomingtruth.org. Other media outlets are free to run this article as long as they credit the "Wyoming Truth." If you have any tips about this issue or others, or for more information about the Wyoming Truth, contact us at info@wyomingtruth.org.

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WOMEN YOU SHOULD KNOW IN WYOMING: Native American Artist Upends Convention While Respecting Tradition - The Wyoming Truth

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By Bob Wooley Special to the Wyoming Truth From the walls of Underscore Art and Jewelry, an upscale gallery in Whitefish, Montana, colorful works by contemporary Western artists beckon locals and tourists alike. The art is sophisticated, thoughtful - conveying ties to the region felt by its creators.

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Audio Tour of the Wind River Indian Reservation 

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Audio Tour of the Wind River Indian Reservation 

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At the bottom of this page, is a self-guided audio tour of the Wind River Indian Reservation created by Fort Washakie Schools! Here you can pick a section of the reservation you want to learn about, and it displays pictures, a moving map, and an audio recording that explains the areas significance. Enjoy!

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The Fort Washakie School and Community welcome you to our beautiful reservation.

Isen Tammen Newe Sokoppeh (This is Our Indian Land)

The Wind River Indian Reservation is the seventh largest reservation in the U.S. and home to four thousand Eastern Shoshone and nine thousand Northern Arapahos. Both groups are reviving languages and cultural and spiritual practices that used to be repressed or even outlawed by the U.S. government.

Explore the Wind River Indian Reservation

Happy Birthday to Rosie Harris

Native American Heritage Week 2022

TravelStorys Self-Guided Audio Tour

The tour follows US Hwy 287 from the Town of Lander, Wyoming, north to the Rte. 26 junction and features student-produced interviews and stories of the vast 2.2-million-acre Wind River Indian Reservation, highlighting the native Shoshone peoples who live there, the dramatic scenery, and wildlife of the region.

Here at the Fort Washakie School, students researched and wrote tour stories to interpret their culture and inform visitors. In these tours, virtual and onsite travelers experience a storied landscape, mixing fascinating stories of the people with interpretation of the native cultures and key sites to visit.

In Part One of the self-guided tour, travelers visit the historic town of Fort Washakie and the grave site of Sacajawea, the revered Shoshone guide who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition with her extensive knowledge of the rugged region and her language skills. Visitors can explore the Wind River Trading Company with historical exhibits and learn about Wyoming's largest Indian powwow and traditional celebration held in June.

Part Two of the tour loops east and highlights the Arapaho people, their history and stories, and regional geothermal features.

Explore This Tour Remotely

Padlet Page

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Indian Education - Fremont County School District #21

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Fremont County School District #21 is located in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, on the 3,374,272-acre Wind River Indian Reservation. In our three schools, we educate approximately 500 pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade students.

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Indianz.Com - Native American news, information & entertainment

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Native American news, information and entertainment.

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NDNSPORTS – #1 Resource for Native American Sports News

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#1 Resource for Native American Sports News

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Native American facts, Indian news and American Indian service, plus Native history and culture.

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About Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids is an anthology edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. This collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope,...

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Native News Online - Home - Native News Online

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About Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids is an anthology edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith. This collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope,...

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Robert Martinez: Contemporary Northern Arapaho Artist 

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Robert Martinez: Contemporary Northern Arapaho Artist 

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Robert Martinez is a contemporary artist from the Northern Arapaho Tribe. Here is his artist website! Enjoy!

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This is the website of Robert Martinez. Shop for canvas prints, framed prints, posters, greeting cards, and more. People have always interested me. Having grown up on the Wind River Reservation as a part of many different cultures; Northern Arapaho, Chicano, and Anglo. Those differences and simi...

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Fourth Edition by Andrew Cowell, with Alonzo Moss, Sr., William C'Hair, Wayne C'Hair, Arapahoe Immersion School, and elders of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, 2012

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Eastern Shoshone Language Word Categories

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Eastern Shoshone Language Word Categories

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Eastern Shoshone Language Word Categories: Animals, Emotions, Food, Elements of Nature, Colors and many more.

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Arapaho language lessons, dictionary, pronunciation guide, examples of the language being used for everyday life, scanned bilingual curriculum materials and other resources helpful in learning this language.

Developed by University of Colorado Boulder

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Driving south of Ethete on the Wind River Reservation

This website was created to support the revitalization of the Arapaho language and be a helpful resource for Arapaho language learners. In addition to the Arapaho Lessons and Dictionary, this website also features a Pronunciation Guide, examples of the language being used for everyday life, scanned bilingual curriculum materials and other resources helpful in learning this language.

In order to learn most effectively, we suggest you follow the grammar lessons in order and that you practice speaking Arapaho with a partner using the prompts provided in the Speaking Arapaho section. One very helpful resouce is the list of the 100 Most Common Words in Arapaho, found on the Print Resources page. The examples of Dialogues will help you develop your listening and reading skills, so be sure to check them out too!

Young Arapaho dancers (photo courtesy of the Wind River Casino)

We have tried to make this website more accessible to students and teachers by making it mobile-friendly. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the contents or accessibility of this web page, please contact us at cowellj@colorado.edu.

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Driving south of Ethete on the Wind River Reservation This website was created to support the revitalization of the Arapaho language and be a helpful resource for Arapaho language learners. In addition to the Arapaho Lessons and Dictionary, this website also features a Pronunciation Guide, examples of the language being used for everyday life, scanned bilingual curriculum materials and other resources helpful in learning this language.

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Understanding the Importance of Language Revitalization

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Understanding the Importance of Language Revitalization

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WPR article with audible pairing- "Just keep saying it, we will understand": Elders compile Shoshone dictionary

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Shoshone Elder Ula Tyler has been a participant for the last two weeks in the tribe's efforts to create a dictionary with all six different clan dialects. Tyler was a Shoshone Language teacher on the Wind River Reservation for decades and has extensive knowledge of the language. She said some of her earliest memories are learning Shoshone with her mother.

From her years as a teacher, she would encounter students who were shy or were scared of messing up when trying to speak Shoshone, and she would try and encourage them.

"Keep saying it. You'll learn it. You don't have to be ashamed of it, it's our language. We will understand what you are trying to say," she said.

During the run of the project, Tyler was responsible for recording around 200 words in a single day.

The process is called Rapid Word Collection. There are group stations, typically two to three elders per group. Elders are assigned topics that range from as big as the universe or what to call different types of animals. And they think and talk with other elders about what words they know.

Robyn Rofkar is with the Shoshone cultural center in Fort Washakie. She applied to receive grant funding to put on the two-week-long event.

"And it's sad to say, but where, you know, every year, we lose more and more fluent speakers, which is like losing a whole Encyclopedia of knowledge. So time is of the essence. It always has been," Rofkar said.

There are about 200 fluent Shoshone speakers in the forty-five hundred member tribe and most of them are over the age of sixty. And since every Indigenous community was hit hard by the pandemic, the Shoshone have lost several very valuable speakers.

The reason the language is disappearing was that many were discouraged from speaking their native languages due to assimilation tactics like in Indian Boarding Schools, and it wasn't until 1978 when the Native American Religious Freedom Act was passed that protected traditional aspects of Indigenous culture including traditional language.

However, generations of Indigenous people have lost contact with their language.

Rofkar said now there is a growing number of younger Shoshone people who want to learn more, but may not have access to the language in a few years. The local schools have limited time for Shoshone Language Classes.

"We need to do more to help the younger generation be able to learn it," Rofkar said.

She said that once the dictionary is done, the cultural center wants to develop a phone app to help tribal members learn the language.

This issue has been worked on before but previous recordings seem to have disappeared. Their goal is to not let that happen again.

"[The] Eastern Shoshone tribe is the actual grantee of the grant and everything we do will be here, will be owned by the Eastern Shoshone tribe," she said.

The Language Conservancy, the non-profit helping put together the dictionary, does not own or copyright any of the work being done during the project, so future projects like creating an app will be completely under the Eastern Shoshone control.

William Meya is the director of The Language Conservancy and said that their organization has worked with over 50 endangered languages internationally, and said now is the time to collect words for the younger generation.

"So, there's not a lot of time left for Shoshone and we want to make sure that as much of the language is available for those young people that decide to learn it," Meya said.

Meya also said that puts the Shoshone language in a unique position because of the advanced age of many of the elders on the project, and Meya says that in the next five to 10 years many won't be available anymore.

"I was very surprised at the age of the speakers. Of course, they are excellent speakers and have a fantastic knowledge of their language, which is incredible, and a privilege to be a part of working with speakers that are 98 years old 91 years old, many in their late 80s," he said.

The workshop collected around six thousand words for the dictionary and accompanying app that should be released in the next year.

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"Just keep saying it, we will understand": Elders compile Shoshone dictionary

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The Eastern Shoshone tribe has reached out to a national language preservation nonprofit to help build a dictionary. Wyoming Public Radio's Taylar Stagner has more about how the Shoshone language is being passed down to the younger generation.

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Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Ethnobotany for Wind River Reservation Rangelands

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Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Ethnobotany for Wind River Reservation Rangelands

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View of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Ethnobotany for Wind River Reservation Rangelands

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Return to Article Details Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Ethnobotany for Wind River Reservation Rangelands

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science: Comparing and Applying Environmental Practices

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science: Comparing and Applying Environmental Practices

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science: Comparing and Applying Environmental Practices | The American Buffalo | PBS LearningMedia

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In this lesson, students will consider the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in understanding the relationship between the American buffalo and Central Plains tribes that has existed for over ten thousand years. Students will watch select documentary clips about the American buffalo, Native culture, and conservation approaches.

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Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education

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Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education

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Teaching material and lesson plans from the Native Climate team, the Teaching Native Waters program, and outside organizations which address climate change.

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The Native Climate education group works collaboratively with teachers, informal educators, and Indigenous knowledge holders across the Intermountain West to adapt climate education resources to be rooted in Indigenous practices and knowledge. Indigenous knowledge is the product of thousands of years of information sharing and observation, and it acts as an invaluable look into human's interaction with the environment. With a foundation in Indigenous practices, educators and education partners can use place-based, experiential learning to support climate resilience at the local and regional levels.

Education resources are shared via Native Climate's annual summits and workshops, as well as through opportunities designed specifically for K-12 educators. Through sharing these resources with Tribes, we aim to foster climate awareness and action among Native American youth, who will be leaders in the ongoing effort to build climate resilience. Resources will also be distributed widely to increase awareness of the impacts of the climate crisis on Native American communities and to encourage respect for Indigenous knowledge and practices among western scientists and the public.

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The Native Climate education group works collaboratively with teachers, informal educators, and Indigenous knowledge holders across the Intermountain West to adapt climate education resources to be rooted in Indigenous practices and knowledge. Indigenous knowledge is the product of thousands of years of information sharing and observation, and it acts as an invaluable look into human's interaction with the environment.

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Integrating Tribes and Culture Into Public Land Management

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Integrating Tribes and Culture Into Public Land Management

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AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION

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AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION

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Case Study: Wind River Tribes Create New Drought Monitoring Tools

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Case Study: Wind River Tribes Create New Drought Monitoring Tools

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The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have contended with periodic droughts, several of which have been particularly severe and impactful during the past two decades. Given their location in a semi-arid climate, the Tribes rely almost entirely on runoff from mountain snowpack for their water supply. Therefore, when this region experiences a below-normal winter snowpack, there is less water available during the summer.

After the drought of 2012 severely impacted the Tribes' water supply, the Tribal Water Engineer (TWE) wanted to find new ways to monitor conditions to help inform the Water Board's decision making on whether or not to declare a drought during the spring. So, the TWE and their non-tribal partners created climate and drought summaries, which they produced on a quarterly basis to better track climate conditions, including drought.

Drought and Climate Summaries and Dashboard Inform Decision Making

Inspired by the Navajo Nation, the TWE wanted to develop a climate and drought summary to be produced on a regular basis that described the evolving drought situation. The Tribes partnered with the High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who initially developed a summary prototype and shared it with the Tribal communities for feedback. The summary evolved through several iterations to become a 4-page document describing current climate, drought, and water conditions on the reservation, as well as future outlooks. After producing the summary quarterly for about a year, HPRCC staff trained several water technicians from the Office of the TWE to put the summaries together. The HPRCC and the TWE co-produced several summaries until 2017. To help with further monitoring of climate and drought conditions, HPRCC staff also developed an online climate decision dashboard containing links to near real-time climate and drought information to help provide easy access to relevant data.

The summaries and dashboard have helped inform decision making on the Wind River Reservation. In May, the TWE has to decide whether to declare drought on the reservation, which would curtail water use for irrigation. At that point in the year, the mountain snowpack is running off, which impacts the water supply available for that summer and fall. The TWE has not only used the summaries to declare drought for the reservation, but also distributed the summaries to communicate climate and drought outlooks to irrigators for water-use planning. The TWE also gathered information from the dashboard present at Water Board meetings.

Looking Forward

These tools have garnered interest from other tribal nations, which has resulted in subsequent partnerships to provide training on how to use climate information and produce climate summaries. Furthermore, widespread interest in the dashboard has led to the expansion of this tool to include other reservation areas throughout the Missouri River Basin.

Acknowledgements

The HPRCC and TWE led the work to develop and co-produce the climate and drought summaries and associated dashboard, and the HPRCC hosts and maintains the dashboard for the Tribes on their website. Staff from the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the Department of Interior's North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) also provided input on the initial design of the summary.

This work was partially supported by funding from NC CASC and NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) through a multi-year project to assess the effects of drought on the Wind River Reservation. This project was led by a team from the TWE, NDMC at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the NC CASC (which was located at Colorado State University at the time), and the University of Wyoming EPSCoR.

Learn More

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Case Study: Wind River Tribes Create New Drought Monitoring Tools

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The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have contended with periodic droughts, several of which have been particularly severe and impactful during the past two decades. Given their location in a semi-arid climate, the Tribes rely almost entirely on runoff from mountain snowpack for their water supply.

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Supporting Indigenous Conservation Priorities

Indigenous people have stewarded Greater Yellowstone's lands, waters, and wildlife since time immemorial. The exclusion of Native voices and perspectives within the Western conservation movement has caused harm to Indigenous communities and the ecosystem alike. Today, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition is working with Tribal partners to elevate Indigenous voices and protect the cultural, spiritual, and ecological integrity of Greater Yellowstone.

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Supporting Indigenous conservation in Greater Yellowstone - Greater Yellowstone Coalition

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The Greater Yellowstone Coalition is committed to supporting Indigenous conservation priorities in the region. We are working with Tribal partners to protect the cultural, spiritual, and ecological integrity of Greater Yellowstone and elevate Indigenous voices within the conservation movement. Join

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Managing Game on the Wind River Reservation

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Managing Game on the Wind River Reservation

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Elk, deer, moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn and other wild ungulates that migrate freely across Wyoming's vast landscapes also cross more than two million acres of tribal lands on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. Here tribal sovereignty, the political authority retained by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho since before Wyoming statehood, influences wildlife conservation dynamics.

The Shoshone and Arapaho have authority to manage game on the reservation under tribal regulations. The joint Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribal Game and Fish Department manages big game species. Since 1972, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have assisted the tribes with big game management. Within the reservation, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has a management role only on private property owned by non-Indians, such as the lands of the Riverton Reclamation Project.

The tribes were early to recognize the importance of undeveloped habitat for wildlife. In the late 1930s, decades before the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act, they created the Wind River Roadless Area, which prohibited development in a prime hunting ground encompassing 188,000 acres of the Wind River Range.
Game numbers fluctuate
Game populations on the Wind River Indian Reservation fluctuated under a variety of management regimes throughout the 20th century. In 1906, lands north of the Wind River were opened for non-Indian homesteading. For the next 35 years, the state of Wyoming regulated hunting seasons and harvest quotas north of the river. Pius Moss, an Arapaho elder, said this led to plentiful game in that area, particularly in the Owl Creek Mountains. Meanwhile, subsistence hunting by tribal members reduced game numbers south of the Wind River.

After 1939, wildlife management on the northern portion of the reservation returned to the tribes. Ungulates rebounded when the tribes instituted a game code in 1948, restricting harvest to one bull elk and one buck deer during a September-December season. In 1953, the tribes rescinded the code, defaulting to unrestricted harvest.

In 1979 and 1980, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Bruce Smith interviewed tribal members who said game numbers had further declined with 4-wheel-drive travel, high-powered rifles, and other factors. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and the Tribal Game and Fish Department counted low numbers during aerial surveys in the late 1970s. They recommended regulating hunting to boost game populations.

Leaders of both tribes drafted a new game code in 1979 to reinstate harvest quotas and hunting seasons. The concept grew controversial due to differing perspectives on tribal sovereignty, subsistence hunting rights, game conservation and the accuracy of wildlife surveys. The Shoshone Tribe adopted the game code and several Arapaho Business Council members supported it, but the Arapaho General Council, an assembly of tribal voters, voted not to adopt it. Ultimately a U.S. District Court ruling ended the stalemate between the tribes, and the code was implemented in 1984.

Today some who opposed the game code still feel it was unwarranted. Others assert the code restored migratory big game populations to numbers that allow sustainable harvest. As of 2017, the reservation was home to about 10,000 elk, an increase from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate of 2,550 in 1982. Today, 1,000 Shoshone and Arapaho tribal members actively hunt big game on the reservation.
Governmental, tribal wildlife agencies work together
In the decades following the enactment of the game code, the Tribal Game and Fish Department worked with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release pronghorn and bighorn sheep on the reservation to boost their numbers.

Northern Arapaho leaders started planning to reintroduce Yellowstone bison near Wind River Canyon in 2009, but ultimately the Arapaho General Council decided against it, largely due to concerns of potential brucellosis transmission to cattle. The disease can cause cattle to abort their young. In 2016 and 2017, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe reintroduced 20 bison to the reservation, the start of what some hope will one day become a much bigger herd of wild, free-roaming bison.

Through all these changes, migratory ungulates-and more recently grizzlies and wolves-have moved freely across the boundaries of the reservation and into the mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In 2018, the Tribal Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of Wyoming began mapping elk- and deer-migration corridors on the Wind River Indian Reservation in detail, gathering information that will aid management on these interconnected landscapes in the heart of Wyoming.

Recovery of Ungulate Herds

Migration Routes near Wind River

Resources

Sources

"Brucellosis." Cattle Today, Accessed Jan. 18, 2019 at http://cattletoday.info/brucellosis.htm.

Bureau of American Ethnology. 1899. "Plates CXVI, CXLVIII, CXXXIII, and CLXXIII." Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Part 2, 1896-97. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Cowell, Andrew, Alonzo Moss Sr., William C'Hair, Lloyd Dewey, and Mark Soldier Wolf. 2006. The Arapaho Project. Places and Placenames of the Arapaho: Culture on the Landscape. Boulder: University of Colorado, Northern Arapaho Tribe and Center for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the West. Online.

Encyclopedia Staff. 2018. "Colorado Gold Rush." Colorado Encyclopedia. Online.

Guinn, Manfred, Beatrice T. Haukaas, Roberta Engavo, and Reba Teran. 2009. Shoshone Language Dictionary: Geographic Areas. Fort Washakie: Eastern Shoshone Cultural Center.

Hnilicka, P. US Fish and Wildlife Service. Unpublished data.

Kauffman, M. University of Wyoming. Unpublished data.

Kauffman, M. J., J. E. Meacham, H. Sawyer, A. Y. Steingisser, W. J. Rudd, and E. Ostlind, editors. 2018. Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming's Ungulates. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, Oregon.

Little Bighorn College. 2012. Apsáalooke Place Names Database. Online.

Middleton, A. University of California, Berkeley. Unpublished data.

Morris, Meg. 2016. Bison Release, photograph. National Wildlife Federation Tribal Lands Conservation Program, Rocky Mountain Regional Center, Denver, CO. Photographed at the Eastern Shoshone Tribe Buffalo Pasture, Wind River Indian Reservation, WY.

Nabokov, Peter, and Lawrence L. Loendorf. 2004.

O'Brien, M.P. et. al., "Brucellosis Transmission between Wildlife and Livestock in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Inferences from DNA Genotyping. PubMed.gov, Accessed Jan. 18, 2019 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28118557.

Restoring a Presence: American Indians and Yellowstone National Park. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Rogers, Alan. 2016. Boys Climb a Fence to Get a Better Look at 10 Wild Bison, photograph, originally published November 3, 2016, in "Wild Bison Return to Wind River Reservation after 131-Year Absence." Casper-Star Tribune, Casper, WY.

Shaul, David L. 2012. Eastern Shoshone Working Dictionary. Online.

Shimkin, Demitri B. 1947. "Wind River Shoshone Ethnogeography." Anthropological Records 5(4): 254-288.

Smith, Bruce L. 2010. Wildlife on the Wind: A Field Biologist's Journey and an Indian Reservation's Renewal. Logan: Utah State University Press.

Stewart, Omer. 1957. Boundary of Shoshone Indian Territory, map after 1863 Map by Governor and Acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah Territory James Doty, Exhibit A in Petition for Docket 326 before the Indian Claims Commission, Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.

Illustrations

The photo of the mule deer was taken by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Used with thanks.

The map of migration routes and the graph of ungulate populations on the Wind River Indian Reservation are from pp. 132-133 of Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming's Ungulates, Oregon State University Press, © 2018 University of Wyoming and University of Oregon. Used with permission and thanks.

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Managing Game on the Wind River Reservation

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Tribal sovereignty, retained by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho since before Wyoming statehood,governs wildlife conservation on the more than two million acres of tribal lands on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Game populations have increased steadily since a tribal game code was adopted in 1984.

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Weaving Indigenous Knowledge with STEM Programs and Resources

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Weaving Indigenous Knowledge with STEM Programs and Resources

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Committed to delivering STEM-based programming underpinned by Indigenous knowledge systems so all youth in Canada can benefit

Professional Learning for Educators

Listen In

Join Monique on the journey of adapting Robin Wall Kimmerer's New York Time Bestselling book, Braiding Sweetgrass. Monique will share her process in writing the adaptation for Young Adults and young at heart, including how she chose what to include in the adaptation and how she and Nicole Neidhardt worked together to decide on the illustrations for each chapter.

Utilize Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Your Classroom

Weaving Indigenous Connections in Science: A Youth Perspective

Considering Indigenous Science: Broadening Your Approach

LIVE STEM - Nurturing our Relationship with the Land

Clothing4Climate: Water Unit

Lesson: Indigenous Career Stories

National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

The Importance of Role Models

A Journey of Passion, Purpose, and Personal Growth: Reflecting on My Path

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Weaving Indigenous Knowledge with STEM Programs and Resources

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Committed to delivering STEM-based programming underpinned by Indigenous knowledge systems so all youth in Canada can benefit Listen In Join Monique on the journey of adapting Robin Wall Kimmerer's New York Time Bestselling book, Braiding Sweetgrass.

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This timeline summarizes federal policy towards tribal nations in the last 150 years and offers sources for further exploration.

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This slideshow explores the last 150 years of indigenous history, illustrated by objects and photos from the Center's collection! (Note: for embedded video content to work, click "download a copy," open in PowerPoint, then click "enable editing" and "enable content.")

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Native Water Rights and Resources: Managing the Trust Asset Wind River Indian Reservation

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Native Water Rights and Resources: Managing the Trust Asset Wind River Indian Reservation

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A case study in the management and protection of tribal water resource assets

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Law and order codes of the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Nations

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Tribal Codes-Law and Order Code | Wind River Tribal Court

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Treaty Rights, Winters Doctrine and Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights

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Treaty Rights, Winters Doctrine and Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights

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To summarize my presentation, I focused on the history of the Wind River Reservation as an example of what colonization and failure to honor Treaties has done to Indigenous People, especially the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. As you read on, I hope you will learn about the history of water in the United States and on reservations, as well as what we're doing now to make positive changes for the future of Indigenous People.

When our ancestors signed Treaties, they were trying to protect our way of life. The Eastern Shoshone Treaty of 1863 established the Wind River Reservation of 44,000,000 acres that took up parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado.

Five years later, the Treaty of 1868 reduced the size to just 2,500,000 acres. The reasoning by the United States at the time for reducing the size of the Wind River Reservation was to protect the Shoshone people from lawbreakers. Penalize the rightful landowners, reward the violators of the Treaty and the law! This is backward colonizer/Christian thinking that has been a curse on Indigenous People since 1492.

Over the past 100 years, many U.S. federal acts, policies, and projects-stemmed in racism-have attempted to oppress our people and limit access to land and water. These include:

The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887

The Reclamation Act of 1902

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

The Rogers C. B. Morton Moratorium of 1973

On the Wind River Reservation, we have experienced additional difficulties, including:

That said, we want to celebrate the positives of some efforts, including:

The United States vs. Winters was a win for Tribal Nations. Under western water law and west of the Mississippi, this court case established the Winters Doctrine, which recognizes and enforces prior appropriation; Tribes have senior Treaty rights to water. First in time, first in right. These aren't just any old state water rights, these are Treaty rights, Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights, with the Winters Doctrine, is paramount for the protection of an extremely valuable trust resource, Indian water.

We can also be grateful to Interior Secretary Deb Halaand for lifting the Morton Moratorium on April 6, 2022, which previously prohibited Tribes from adopting Water Codes. Finally, it took an Indian woman to recognize the importance of the federal government's role in protecting Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights.

More recently, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition has been supporting the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho in their quest to reclaim 111,000 acres of homesteaded land on the Wind River Reservation that the Bureau of Reclamation declared was in "excess" in 1994. According to the Bureau, this land is no longer needed to fulfill the purpose of the Reclamation Act of 1902. And, according to the Act, land is supposed to revert back to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in trust for the Tribes. Luckily, we have been in recent discussions with the Department of Interior to bring resolution to this decades-old matter.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition is also asking the federal government to review the social, economic, and cultural injustice of Wyoming's Diversion Dam on the main stem of the Big Wind River and its related Wyoming Canal project. These irrigation systems have diverted water-life's most important natural resource-away from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people on the Wind River Reservation. It has been re-routing water to non-Indian people downstream for more than 100 years. We all deserve water. Water is a human right, and it is a Treaty right. Without access to water, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes have suffered immeasurably as a result. We want to help restore the Big Wind River and all of its cultural, spiritual, and economic attributes to the Tribes of the Wind River Reservation and its surrounding neighbors.

Overall, it is my belief that the United States must understand its role in honoring and recognizing Treaties. We are hopeful we will finally see welcome changes to support Indigenous Peoples' way of life. Improved access and use to Wind River's water is just one of the ways we can begin to do better for Indigenous People.

Hahou (thank you).

- Wes Martel, Senior Wind River Conservation Associate (Eastern Shoshone)
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the land of 49+ Indigenous Tribes who maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands, waters, wildlife, plants, and more.

To summarize my presentation, I focused on the history of the Wind River Reservation as an example of what colonization and failure to honor Treaties has done to Indigenous People, especially the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. As you read on, I hope you will learn about the history of water in the United States and on reservations, as well as what we're doing now to make positive changes for the future of Indigenous People.

When our ancestors signed Treaties, they were trying to protect our way of life. The Eastern Shoshone Treaty of 1863 established the Wind River Reservation of 44,000,000 acres that took up parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado.

Five years later, the Treaty of 1868 reduced the size to just 2,500,000 acres. The reasoning by the United States at the time for reducing the size of the Wind River Reservation was to protect the Shoshone people from lawbreakers. Penalize the rightful landowners, reward the violators of the Treaty and the law! This is backward colonizer/Christian thinking that has been a curse on Indigenous People since 1492.

Over the past 100 years, many U.S. federal acts, policies, and projects-stemmed in racism-have attempted to oppress our people and limit access to land and water. These include:

The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887

The Reclamation Act of 1902

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

The Rogers C. B. Morton Moratorium of 1973

On the Wind River Reservation, we have experienced additional difficulties, including:

That said, we want to celebrate the positives of some efforts, including:

The United States vs. Winters was a win for Tribal Nations. Under western water law and west of the Mississippi, this court case established the Winters Doctrine, which recognizes and enforces prior appropriation; Tribes have senior Treaty rights to water. First in time, first in right. These aren't just any old state water rights, these are Treaty rights, Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights, with the Winters Doctrine, is paramount for the protection of an extremely valuable trust resource, Indian water.

We can also be grateful to Interior Secretary Deb Halaand for lifting the Morton Moratorium on April 6, 2022, which previously prohibited Tribes from adopting Water Codes. Finally, it took an Indian woman to recognize the importance of the federal government's role in protecting Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights.

More recently, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition has been supporting the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho in their quest to reclaim 111,000 acres of homesteaded land on the Wind River Reservation that the Bureau of Reclamation declared was in "excess" in 1994. According to the Bureau, this land is no longer needed to fulfill the purpose of the Reclamation Act of 1902. And, according to the Act, land is supposed to revert back to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in trust for the Tribes. Luckily, we have been in recent discussions with the Department of Interior to bring resolution to this decades-old matter.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition is also asking the federal government to review the social, economic, and cultural injustice of Wyoming's Diversion Dam on the main stem of the Big Wind River and its related Wyoming Canal project. These irrigation systems have diverted water-life's most important natural resource-away from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people on the Wind River Reservation. It has been re-routing water to non-Indian people downstream for more than 100 years. We all deserve water. Water is a human right, and it is a Treaty right. Without access to water, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes have suffered immeasurably as a result. We want to help restore the Big Wind River and all of its cultural, spiritual, and economic attributes to the Tribes of the Wind River Reservation and its surrounding neighbors.

Overall, it is my belief that the United States must understand its role in honoring and recognizing Treaties. We are hopeful we will finally see welcome changes to support Indigenous Peoples' way of life. Improved access and use to Wind River's water is just one of the ways we can begin to do better for Indigenous People.

Hahou (thank you).

- Wes Martel, Senior Wind River Conservation Associate (Eastern Shoshone)
The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the land of 49+ Indigenous Tribes who maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands, waters, wildlife, plants, and more.

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Treaty Rights, Winters Doctrine, and Federal Reserved Indian Water Rights - Greater Yellowstone Coalition

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GYC's Wes Martel speaks on Treaty and water rights efforts in Greater Yellowstone.

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Tribal Government on the Wind River Reservation

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Tribal Government on the Wind River Reservation

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Tribal Government on the Wind River Reservation

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This site offers worksheets for younger and secondary students to assist them in analyzing primary source written documents, videos, maps, photographs, artwork, or artifacts.

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Español
Document analysis is the first step in working with primary sources. Teach your students to think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information to make informed judgments.
Follow this progression:
Use these worksheets - for photos, written documents, artifacts, posters, maps, cartoons, videos, and sound recordings - to teach your students the process of document analysis.

Don't stop with document analysis though. Analysis is just the foundation. Move on to activities in which students use the primary sources as historical evidence, like on DocsTeach.org.

The first few times you ask students to work with primary sources, and whenever you have not worked with primary sources recently, model careful document analysis using the worksheets. Point out that the steps are the same each time, for every type of primary source:

Meet the document.

Observe its parts.

Try to make sense of it.

Use it as historical evidence.

Once students have become familiar with using the worksheets, direct them to analyze documents as a class or in groups without the worksheets, vocalizing the four steps as they go.

Eventually, students will internalize the procedure and be able to go through these four steps on their own every time they encounter a primary source document. Remind students to practice this same careful analysis with every primary source they see.

Worksheet for Understanding Perspective in Primary Sources - For All Students and Document Types

This tool helps students identify perspective in primary sources and understand how backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences shape point of view.

Former Worksheets

These worksheets were revised in February, 2017. Please let us know if you have feedback. If you prefer the previous version of the worksheets, you can download them below.

Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.

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Español Document analysis is the first step in working with primary sources. Teach your students to think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information to make informed judgments. Use these worksheets - for photos, written documents, artifacts, posters, maps, cartoons, videos, and sound recordings - to teach your students the process of document analysis.

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This format is designed for Inquiry Based Lessons and provides an example on the process on the second page.

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This site offers non-Native educators insight into untold Native stories such as the fact many Native Americans live in two worlds: the predominant non-Indian world around them every day and the world of their own culture.

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To understand what Native American life is like today, we first need to understand what it used to be like. Read more about the life and history of Native Americans.

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This is pictorial collection of contemporary Native American life. It includes original photo essays, text essays and a digital library of contemporary Native photographers.

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A photography project looking at the evolution of Native American identity, rights, and representation, centering the Native voice.

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This site provides a rich array of educational content from Oceti Sakowin: The People of the Seven Council Fires to documentaries like Lost Bird of Wounded Knee. On this site, you will find engaging educational resources.

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On this site you will find engaging Native American educational resources.

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Play these games with your students!!

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"The games are an attempt to bring us back to a place of centeredness, a place of groundedness, a place of natural healing and natural competition. Anything that brings us back to those natural first connections is very healing in nature."

~ Billie Jo Kipp, Blackfeet Community College

When we open the blanket, all nations are invited to play.

International Traditional Games Society (ITGS) has been dedicated to the recovery and preservation of traditional native games since 1991.

Even from the onset, youth were a key part of this recovery. Involving local students in the search, ITGS uncovered 20 traditional Blackfeet games, which students then presented to the elders, who added important cultural depth and history behind the games.

Staying true to our roots, much of our efforts today utilize this process as a tool for youth to absorb a positive cultural identity and develop leadership skills that can transform personal self worth and impact an entire community.

STONE PEOPLE GAME

Stone People's Lodge game moves three river stones from one lodge to a new lodge, carefully placing the stones into the new lodge in the exact same way as the old home. Concepts: respect for stones, care in travel, making a new home. (Blackfeet game)

GUESSING STICKS

Guessing Sticks is a game played with three markers that are placed on the ground between 3 players. One member of the group holds all of the twigs in one bundle with both hands. Then, the holder quickly separates the twigs into two bundles, one in each hand. The other two people must guess how many twigs are in the hand closest to them. They must do this immediately, without hesitation. The players who are guessing must then count the twigs in their pile. If they have guessed (estimated) exactly right, they get a score stick. If neither estimates correctly then the play continues. All three counters must be won in order to win the game. After the counters have gone from the middle of the play area, they must be won from the other player. Estimation was an important skill for all tribes. (Chippewa)

GATHERING STONES

The Gathering Stones game is a transition game from European culture to American Indians during the boarding school days. Girls didn't have a bouncing ball and jacks when they went home for the summer so they would play "Jacks" with smaller stones to gather and a throwing stone that was larger. The game was more difficult and was played with both the left and the right hands. (Tribal youth)

RING THE STICK

Ring and Pin games were played extensively by Plains Indian people and west coast tribes. The goal is to place the ring over the end of the stick . It was important to develop the hand-eye coordination on both sides of the body by using right hand then left hand in competitions. (Little Shell)

KICKBALL

Kickball races were held throughout the Americas. Sometimes stones or sticks were kicked throughout the race. Race lengths varied from 30 yards to 300 miles. Concepts: focus, concentration, endurance, and eye-foot coordination. (Universal in Americas)

STICKS

The game of Sticks is played with 10 thin sticks about 6" long that are held in a player's fist with the bottoms of the sticks hidden in the lower fist. One stick is marked on the bottom. The idea of the game is to draw as many sticks as possible before getting the marked one. The winner of the game is the person who can draw the most sticks before getting the marked stick. This game is for developing pure intuition, until the person can identify the marked stick, then the game becomes the skill of observation. (Assiniboine)

MAKE STICK JUMP

Place the sticks in a line in the ground (outside) or in a cone on the floor (inside). Sticks should be placed 6 feet apart, but can be adjusted for age of participants. Players can take turns throwing a set number of rocks (or bean bags inside) at the sticks.The closest stick, if hit, is worth 1 point, second stick is worth 2 points, etc. up to 5 points. This activity was played by young children to practice hunting for small birds or small game. This was necessary when the adult hunters were gone a long time. (Blackfeet)

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"The games are an attempt to bring us back to a place of centeredness, a place of groundedness, a place of natural healing and natural competition. Anything that brings us back to those natural first connections is very healing in nature." ~ Billie Jo Kipp, Blackfeet Community College When we open the blanket, all nations are invited to play.

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This resource offers a wide variety of topics focused on Indian Law. This is an excellent resource for government educators. Some of the topics include Tribal Recognition, Education, Repatriation, Water Rights and Indian Land, Indian Child Welfare, etc.

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Indian Law Research Guide, National Indian Law Library, Native American Rights Fund (NARF)

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Here is a simplified version of Native American Hand Games with some historical background information!