In 2005, Dustin Mater could not have fathomed he would be counted among the premiere Native American artists in the world. Today, his work is in Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, the Chickasaw Nation, adorning Pendleton blankets and in private collections spanning America.

The education of Native American children has evolved since Betty Robertson attended a Pine Ridge boarding school as a child.

Back then, speaking Lakota was taboo.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, honored five Native American and Alaskan Native artists last night in a reception at their home in Washington DC. In addition to honoring the artists, the Bidens displayed a framed print from each of the artists on the walls of their foyer and living room.

For many indigenous tribes, the eagle remains a steadfast symbol of strength and unity. This is why every year the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways estimateds 500 eagle feathers in their sacred and ceremonial collection receive needed attention in celebration of their 17th annual Eagle Feather Cleansing, Honoring and Feast.

The remarkable story of a young Cheyenne warrior woman in her early twenties, Buffalo Calf Road, spans a period of 3 years from 1876 until her death in 1879. During this time the Cheyenne were caught in the westward expansion of pioneers, miners and the army, all determined to colonize the land on the great plains occupied by native peoples. The Cheyenne and other native tribes endured attacks, massacres and forced removals to reservations.

The Ned A. Hatathli Cultural Center Museum at Diné College received the Museum Excellence Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM). Presented at the ATALM 2015 Guardians of Culture and Lifeways International Awards in Washington, DC, the award recognizes those who serve as outstanding examples of how Indigenous archives, libraries, museums, and individuals contribute to the vitality and cultural sovereignty of Native nations. Nonabah Sam, the museum's curator, accepted the award on behalf of the college.

The highlight of the four-day Tampa Seminole Cultural Exchange was the all-day and all-night cultural celebration Sept. 19, as Native teachers from several Tribes braved a rainy Florida day on the Lakeland property to dance, tell stories, instruct, eat, play stickball and share the precious culture that connects them all as Creek Seminole American Indians. In Lakeland, where the Seminole Tribe of Florida owns 900 acres just north of Interstate 4 in Polk County, Natives of all ages participated in a jamboree of unique traditions.

Passing on the skills of crafts and arts help keep traditions alive and culture shared.

On Tuesday evening, several women gathered at the United Keetoowah Band John Hair Museum and Cultural Center to learn about making tear dresses from Leona Bendabout.

All the participants could sew, but wanted to learn more about tear dresses.

Fourteen members of Chickasaw stickball teams competed in the 2015 World Series of Stickball in Choctaw, Mississippi, July 2 - 11. The tournament was part of the 66th Annual Mississippi Choctaw Fair.

Chikasha Toli' members Ric Greenwood, Jeremy Wallace, Gerald Hart, Levi Hart, Ace Greenwood and Chance Factor played with Bok Chito in the 35-and-older division, winning the World Series championship. Durell Cooper, who played in the 18-and-older division, made it to the second round.

Harry Manson broke racial barriers as a First Nations athlete in British Columbia at the turn of the 20th century.

Grandson Gary Manson's dining room is crowded with soccer trophies: stacked on shelves, on top of the fridge, wedged in between hand drums and beaded prayer banners. They are all products of his decades coaching men's soccer teams from the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island.

On the banks of the Rum River, Hailie Woodard stroked a canoe paddle in the water for the first time in her 16 years. Stepping carefully out of the wobbly boat, she sank into ankle-deep mud as she tried to fling clumps of wet wild rice seed on the water's edges.

It was true immersion learning.

"Escape" is a short film written, directed, and produced by teenagers from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe that focuses on the themes of poverty, substance abuse, and depression.

The 23-minute film was shot in the span of nine days around Towaoc, Colo. and recruited seventeen young filmmakers. Aided by award-winning producer, Alex Munoz, the teens were able to experience a new way of storytelling while expressing the tales of their homeland.

At a recent panel discussion on smart homes held at Toronto's Workshop, three of the four panelists had been on TreeHugger before: Janna Levitt, Paul Dowsett and Ted Kesik. Both Ted and Paul showed this image of what they considered to be a really smart house: a wigwam, as built by the Algonquin and Chippewa. And it is surprisingly* really sophisticated:

• It has an inner structure lined with birchbark.
• It has six inches of swamp moss insulation.
• It has an outer frame covered in elm, cedar of basswood bark.

"When I speak Lakota, I feel connected to all my relatives in the previous generations. I feel connected to my land. There's nothing to compare it to, the feeling of being Lakota in Lakota country, speaking Lakota." – TipiziwinYoung, Lakota language teacher, Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, North Dakota, from the film "Rising Voices."

Visitors to the Chickasaw Cultural Center will be transported to a time in American history before the American Revolution. A new exhibit now on display tells this story of Southeastern tribes through delicate beadwork that dates to the 18th century. The "1700s Beadwork of Southeastern Tribes" exhibit is assembled in the Special Collections Room in the Holisso Center on the Cultural Center campus. University of Aberdeen (Scotland) Head of Museums Neil Curtis oversaw and coordinated the exhibit.

The Comanche Homecoming Pow-wow is always held on the third weekend in July at Sultan Park in Walters, Okla. This is the Comanche Nation’s oldest celebration of all time. People come from all over during the hottest weekend of year, setting up their air conditioned RV’s and ready to contest, BUT that’s not how it’s always been.

Jackie McCann and Paul Mays expressed thankfulness following their first-ever win in this year's National Indian Taco Championship in Pawhuska.

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

American Indians Serve In The U.S. Military In Greater Numbers Than Any Ethnic Group And Have Since The Revolution

On this Memorial Day holiday, as we remember those who have given their lives in service to our country while protecting the freedoms and ideals we hold dear, many of our fellow Americans remain unaware of the major contributions Native Americans have made to our nation’s armed forces. In fact, American Indians serve in their country’s armed forces in greater numbers per capita than any other ethnic group, and they have served with distinction in every major conflict for over 200 years.

2015 "Native American 40 Under 40" Award Recipients

The National Center for American Enterprise Development (NCAIED) is pleased to announce its 2015 class of “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipients. This prestigious award is bestowed upon individuals under the age of 40, nominated by members of their communities, who have demonstrated leadership, initiative, and dedication and made significant contributions in business and their community. The winners will be honored during a gala at the Reservation Economic Summit (RES) New Mexico, taking place from November 16-19 at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Preserving Language

Living Traditions

Sealaska Heritage Institute Work Featured In 50 Humanities Projects That Have Shaped The Country

Sealaska Heritage Institute's work on the Tlingit language was chosen by a federal humanities agency as one of 50 projects in the country that has enriched and shaped American lives during the last half century.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) singled out SHI's efforts to document and revitalize the Tlingit language as part of its 50-year anniversary celebration and is featuring 50 projects on its "Celebrating 50 Years" website that represent the best of the work the agency has funded.

National Endowment For The Humanities
Celebrating 50 Years

The founding of the National Endowment for the Humanities sprang from a belief that the humanities are as critical as the sciences to the nation’s success. “Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens,” declares the legislative act that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed on September 29, 1965. The legislation continues, “It must therefore foster and support a form of education, and access to the arts and the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.”

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Participants On The
Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Walk Retrace Ancestors Footsteps

This year, the Wah-Zha-Zhi Cultural Center took over 80 people to the Oklahoma/ Kansas border for the annual Cultural Walk, which is a tribute to those Osages who made the long journey into present-day Oklahoma in the late 1800s.

Earliest Evidence Of Ancient North American Salmon Fishing Verified

Researchers in Alaska have found the earliest known evidence that Ice Age humans in North America used salmon as a food source, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

One Woman's Mission To Photograph Every Native American Tribe In The US

Three years ago, Matika Wilbur sold almost everything she owned, left behind her apartment in Seattle, and set out on the open road. The former high school teacher had one goal: to photograph members of each federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States

Masayumptewa Installed As National Park Superintendent At Hubbell Trading Post

On a cool, fall day under rustling cottonwood trees, Lloyd Masayumptewa was installed as new Superintendent, at the National Park Service, Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Arizona.

Masayumptewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe and paa is wungwa, is a farmer and rancher on the Hopi Reservation. He was joined by his mother, wife and sister at the Installation Ceremony.

The Four Legged

The Winged Ones

Native Americans Fight To Keep The Grizzly Bear On The Endangered Species List

Has the grizzly bear recovered enough in Yellowstone National Park to be removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act?

The federal government and some state agencies seem to think so. For more than a year now, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been moving toward delisting grizzly bears. There are about 750 bears living in and around Yellowstone, well above the 136 that lived there when the government protected the Yellowstone population in 1975.

Puffin Beaks Replicated For Alaska Native Parka

A twenty-first century technology has helped a group of skin sewers achieve a dream, the creation of a traditionally styled caribou-skin parka. A team of seamstresses supported by Kodiak’s Alutiiq Museum spent the past two years developing this garment. Their aim was to revitalize ancestral sewing arts while creating a parka for their tribal cultural center. The final step was to add decorative elements. Inspired the intricate handwork of an ancestral parka, they appliquéd, embroidered, fringed, and tasseled the modern garment, but they were not able to add puffin beaks.

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Denver Art Museum Strengthens Commitment to Native American Work

Early last month, the Denver Art Museum raised the curtain on "Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980," an exhibition featuring about 40 colorful, rarely seen artworks by a controversial figure who died in 2005. Mr. Scholder, who blended figurative and Pop Art influences into his own style, challenged the stereotypical depiction of American Indians as one-dimensional — showing them instead, for example, as real people with beer cans or draped in United States flags.

Alutiiq Museum Named State Repository

The Alutiiq Museum has been officially recognized by the State of Alaska as a Natural and Cultural History Repository. The designation certifies that the museum maintains the highest standard of professional practice and is an appropriate place for the long-term care of Alaska's patrimony. The Alutiiq Museum is the first repository in Alaska to achieve this status under a state law enacted in 2014. Alaska Statute 14.57.012 gives the Department of Education, through the Alaska State Museum, the ability to recognize qualified institutions as caretakers of Alaska's cultural and natural artifacts.

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Shoshonean Reunion XVI

This year, Comanche tribal members traveled to Elko, Nevada to participate in this year’s Shoshone Reunion. The event took place September 10-12.

Activities planned for this year’s reunion was a Sunrise Service and Flag Raising Ceremony every morning. This event kicked off each morning at the Elko Band Senior Arbor, which started that day’s events.

Prehistoric Boy May Be Native American 'Missing Link'

A prehistoric boy's DNA now suggests that ancient toolmakers long thought of as the first Americans may serve as a kind of "missing link" between Native Americans and the rest of the world, researchers say.