Tribal and Governmental Resources
People and Tribes
Smithsonian Institution Resources - including exhibits, and readings
Pictures of Indians in the U.S. - presents nearly 200 photos and drawings of Native Americans (NARA)
The People... Native Americans offers more than 30 collections of photos, essays, and other resources for learning about American Indians; topics include daily life for Native American women, the Wounded Knee Massacre, Custer's Last Stand, and Pocahontas. Resources include a tribe locator, recordings of Native American music, and an exhibit of flutes. (Library of Congress)
American Southwest a travel itinerary of 58 historic places across Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico including forts built to protect mail routes and settlers, missions and churches, prehistoric cliff dwellings, trading posts, petroglyphs (from the petrified forest), pit house villages, and Indian villages home to the Anasazi, Sinagua, Zuni, and other Native American tribes. (National Park Service)
Vanished World, Enduring People - items from Cornell University Library's "extensive holdings of materials on American Indians:" photos and illustrations, images of treaties and documents, and other material highlighting people, places, tribes, and related topics like Maya ruins, Spanish exploration, and European encroachment and Native resistance.
Gran Quivira: A Blending of Cultures in a Pueblo Indian Village help students understand daily life and how it changed for the Pueblo Indians of Gran Quivira, the largest of the three Salinas pueblos located in central New Mexico. (National Park Service)
Tonto National Monument: Saving a National Treasure - the story of the Salado people, who thrived in the Arizona valley where Tonto Creek joins the Salt River (1050-1450 AD). The Salado culture combined customs of several American Indian groups. They channeled the river to create farmland in the desert. They built Pueblo-style buildings. They left no written records. This monument, established in December 1907, was among the first sites protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906. (National Park Service)
Knife River Indian Villages information and activities about the American Indians of the Northern Plains who lived in the area of the Knife River where it enters the Missouri. (National Park Service)
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest features more than 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to the American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest: the Northwest Coast and Plateau illustrating many aspects of life and work, including housing, clothing, crafts, transportation, education, and employment. (Library of Congress)
Culture
Native American Historical Places and Recreation Areas
National Museum of the American Indian
Pipestone area in the southwest corner of Minnesota that reflects a rich history of American Indian quarrying, prosperity brought by the railroad and mining enterprises, and a distinctive natural landscape about land still sacred to American Indians. (National Park Service)
Indian Mounds of Mississippi built between 100 B.C. and 1700 A.D. to bury important members of tribes and to serve as platforms for temples or residences of chiefs; highlighting 11 mound sites and includes itineraries and three essays that provide historical context for these sites. (National Park Service)
In Art
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images is one of the most significant and controversial representations of American Indian culture ever produced; issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930, the publication continues to influence the image of Indians in popular culture; over 2000 photos and narrative of customs and lifeways of 80 Indian tribes. (Library of Congress)
Campfire Stories with George Catlin: An Encounter of Two Cultures takes students on a virtual journey with the artist and ethnologist to meet Native Americans of the 1830s - his portraits, scenes of American Indian life, and writings depict cultures prior to U.S. expansion into tribal territories. (Smithsonian Institution)
Tracking the Buffalo: Stories from a Buffalo Hide Painting puts students in the role of historians as they examine a buffalo hide painting and click on areas that reveal clues to the painting's story to help students understand the role of the buffalo in the lives of the American Indians of the northern plains. (National Museum of American History)
Fighting and Unrest
The Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Collisions of Cultures looks at the decisive battle of the Creek War (1813-1814), where Andrew Jackson fought 1,000 American Indian warriors who were trying to regain autonomy; it examines the history of the battle and provides maps, images, and readings. (National Park Service)
The Battle of Honey Springs: the Civil War Comes to the Indian Territory illustrates how the war, when it moved to the rolling prairie of now eastern Oklahoma, divided Native Americans. It includes maps, soldiers' accounts of the battle, and illustrations. (National Park Service)
Law & Treaties
National Indian Law Library - federal and tribal info; current and some historical documents; 240 Tribal Codes and more than 200 constitutions
The Sioux Treaty of 1868 examines Native American sovereignty and the Constitutional power granted to the president and the Senate to make treaties with foreign nations; contains the Treaty and related documents, including a photograph of the Indian leader, Spotted Tail, with explanatory text, materials for teachers, and links to further resources accompany the documents. (National Archives and Records Administration)
Relocation and Assimilation
The Trail of Tears: The Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation tells about the removal of the Cherokee Nation from their ancestral homeland (NC, TN, GA, AL) to "Indian Territory" (now Oklahoma). After passage of the Indian Removal Act and the discovery of gold on Cherokee lands (1830), about 100,000 American Indians living between the original 13 states and the Mississippi River were relocated to Oklahoma. The trails they followed came to be known as the Trail of Tears. (National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places)
Indian Boarding Schools: Civilizing the Native Spirit -- Lesson, The Learning Page inivites students to explore the forced acculturation of American Indians through government-run boarding schools. In the late 1800s, thousands of Native American children were sent to live in these schools with the aim of changing their traditions and customs. Students examine that effort through photos, letters, reports, interviews, and other primary documents. (Library of Congress)
Reservation Controversies - 2 scenarios that help students understand issues related to American Indian reservations: 1. in 1973, the student plays the role of agent for a Comanche Indian reservation and 2. a contemporary scenario, the student is cast as a new congressional intern who has received a letter from the his congresswoman asking for help on issues related to casinos on reservations. (Library of Congress)
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