NATIVE AMERICANS and FIRST NATIONS

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We Are A Horse Nation - short version
A documentary film that shares the voices of the Oceti Sakowin
(the Lakota, Dakota, & Nakota speaking tribal bands of the Great
Plains region), as they honor their relatives - The Horse Nation
(Sunka Wakan Oyate).

The Aztecs One of 27 similar activities from Snaith Primary School. Good graphics. Learn all about the Aztecs! Then try out the story starters, quizzes, printables, Sunstone Puzzle, and coloring pages!

Blackfeet camp at night. Montana. 1800s. Glass lantern slide by Walter McClintock.
Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Blackfeet stampeding bison over a cliff, in the days before horses.

Gifts of the buffalo. This graphic lists many of the gifts.
Not everything is listed, but the People used everything.
Waste not, want not.

Buffalo (Bison) Education from the InterTribal Bison Cooperative . From the original people of the bison comes this excellent educational resource. Learn the Traditional Uses of the Buffalo with a comprehensive printable .pdf chart. Learn why Buffalo Are Sacred. Learn buffalo facts, the Historical and Cultural Connection to the Buffalo and the awful Slaughter of the Buffalo. Find out about buffalo Meat & Nutrition, and recipes. Play the Buffalo Brain Busters game. Color in the fact-filled Coloring Pages for Kids.

In the USA, Native Americans of both genders got the right to vote in 1924, when they officially became citizens. It took until 1948 for all the states to finally let most Native people vote. The last state to fully guarantee voting rights for Native people was Utah in 1962.

Identity by Design from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. The artwork here is outstanding. Pages and pages of Native dresses, beadwork, and accessories over the last 200 years. Each dress has its own page which can be magnified. The site tells the story of how Native women are keeping their various tribal traditions alive through this fantastic artform. Click on the category header along the top of the screen, then use the white Next arrows to move around.

Lakota Winter Counts - An online exhibit from the Smithsonian. Who are the Lakota? What's a Winter Count? Who made them? What art media were used? Listen to Lakota elders explain the records of the years. See surviving winter counts from as far back as 1701. The gallery of winter counts is awesome. (To scroll right or left, put your mouse arrow in the upper left or upper right side of the picture.) Bonus: Native speaker pronounces Lakota words for you! Click on the tiny white words "Audio Glossary" that are underneath the main site.

Minnie Spotted Wolf This tough, 5'5" (165 cm) ranch hand from the Blackfoot Nation in northwest Montana set fence posts and broke wild horses before joining the US Marines in World War II. She was a heavy equipment operator, a truck driver, and a mechanic. When the war was over, she went home and taught school for 29 years, raised four kids, and kept working on the ranch. She could outride the young men of her people into her 50s. "Mom was proud of who she was. She wasn't in the military just for herself, but for the Indian people. She wanted others to know who she was and where she came from." Another hard-working, honest, no-nonsense American woman.

Moundbuilders Teacher's Guide for Native American Heritage Month. From the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum (AICCM) of Oklahoma. Excellent self-contained teaching unit ready to go! Amazing art, artifacts, in-depth discussion of various moundbuilding Native American cultures over 11,000 years, from prehistoric times to the 1500s. Lots and lots of art! Plenty of activities.

Native Americans and the U.S. Military Gives the history of Native Americans in all branches of service during the past century. Also lists the eight Native American Medal of Honor winners from World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. Information about Code Talkers of different nations.

Native Americans in the US Army Lots of links, videos, biographies, a Comanche Code Talker, and more. Includes Willing to Serve, a cross section of Native veterans and active-duty.

Native Americans in the US Navy Primarily about World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Biographies of famous Native sailors, including Commander Ernest Edwin Evans, USN, Medal of Honor, WW II. Also a nice PowerPoint about Native sailors past and present, including a Navy Seal Medal of Honor winner from Vietnam.

Lt Commander J C Waldron, USN. Commander, Torpedo Squadron 8,
USS Hornet (CV-8). Navy Cross (Posthumous). Killed in action, Battle of Midway.
Graduate of Rapid City High School, Class of 1920; US Naval Academy, Class
of 1924. His mother was a member of the Lakota Nation. He grew up on a ranch
near Pierre, South Dakota. He knew his old and slow aircraft stood little chance
against the fast and nimble Japanese fighters that would try to stop them.
He told his pilots:
"I want each of us to do his utmost to destroy our enemies.
If there is only one plane left, I want that man to go in and get a hit.
May God be with us all. Good Luck, happy landings, and give 'em hell."
Only one man survived. Lest We Forget

Old Color Photos of Native Americans collected by Paul Ratner "While making Moses on the Mesa, a film about a German-Jewish immigrant who fell in love with a Native-American woman and became governor of her tribe of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico in the late 1800s, I developed a passion for researching old photographs of indigenous people... Please enjoy this first collection of colorized photos. If you like them, you can find many more at our historical and photographic archive on Facebook." Click the link or log on to Facebook - Moses on the Mesa.

Let's Get 'Sirius' About the Dog Star, Sky's Brightest Twinkler from Indian Country Today Media Network. Facts about Sirius, but mostly tells how the star was regarded in Native American/First Nations cultures and in the myths of various tribal nations. Very good reading. If you don't see the star's photo on their site, click on the graphic.

Trail Of Tears Official title: "The Trail Of Tears: Government-Approved Ethnic Cleansing That Removed 100,000 Native Americans From Their Ancestral Lands" By Daniel Rennie, in All That's Interesting.
"The Trail of Tears refers to the perilous journey of the 'Five Civilized Tribes' of the Southeast who were forced by the U.S. government from their ancestral homelands to a designated zone in the west." Plenty of graphics, maps, and pictures detail the Indian Removal Act. "up to 100,000 Native Americans were relocated and over 15,000 lost their lives". They also lost their homes and their property.

Zitkala-Ša

Gene Swallow
·
Today’s Google Doodle
All of the elements in the artwork relate to Zitkala-Ša’s life in some way.
Her Nakota name translates as “Red Bird,” she wrote an opera relating
to the Sun Dance, and she was an accomplished musician—all reflected
within the Doodle. She also witnessed great upheaval and change
throughout her life, as symbolized by the tipis. The lettering for “Google”
is based on a beadwork design from one of her traditional dresses.
— Chris Pappan

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