Osiyo, tsilugi: Hello and Welcome to Tribalpedia!
The information for each tribe was obtained from various sources including the Tribal websites, Wikipedia, and other educational sites involved in Native Indian history. We have condensed the material from all of these sources to make it easier for you to read. Note that not every tribe is listed. There are records for over 4000 Native American tribes, but only 513 are still recognized by the US Government. This is an ongoing project and information will be added on a continuing basis.
Scroll down for Museum Exhibitions
For Teachers, there are links to complete Lesson Plans with Answer Keys for the following Tribes:
Mohawk (Sky Walkers), Navajo, Shawnee, Sioux, Zuni
Tribes Located in the United States and Canada (Kwakiutl):
Acoma Pueblo
Anasazi
Apache
Arapaho
Blackfeet
Catawba
Cherokee
Chickasaw
Choctaw
Comanche
Crow
Delaware
Hawaiian
Hopi Pueblo
Iroquois
Kwakiutl
Laguna Pueblo
Lumbee
Lummi
Pawnee
Pequot
Pueblo Indians Part I-The History
Pueblo Indians Part II-The Pueblos
Quileute
S-Z
Seneca
Shawnee
Sioux
Tainos
Tohono O’odham
Wampanoag
Winnebago
Yakama (Yakima)
Zuni Pueblo
Alaskan Tribes: By Regional Organizations
Inuit
Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains By Charles Alexander Eastman (Sioux)
Note: Dowa Yalanne (Zuni: “Corn Mountain”) is sacred to the Zuni people. The mesa is a place for shrines and religious activities, and is closed to outside visitors.
Read more about Dowa Yalanne in our Zuni entry.
As always, thanks to Chuck Houpt
Honoring Indigenous People Every Day!
Christmas Across Indian Country🎄♥️
From the Smithsonian Museums
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Celebrations, memorials, and gatherings during the winter holiday season, , By Dennis Zotigh,December 23rd, 2021
“Native communities host traditional tribal dances, round dances, and powwows on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Among the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest special dances take place, such as buffalo, eagle, antelope, turtle, and harvest dances. The Eight Northern Pueblos of New Mexico perform Los Matachines—a special dance-drama mixing North African Moorish, Spanish, and Pueblo cultures—which takes place on Christmas Eve, along with a pine-torch procession.
🎄NATIVE SANTA!🎄😄
A UNIQUE NATIVE MEMORIAL♥️🎄
Chad Toehay (Kiowa, Osage, Comanche and Sac & Fox) is remembered by his sister Chay on a memorial ornament that is prominently displayed on her family Christmas tree. Photo used with permission from Chay Toehay-Tartsah.
BEAUTIFUL NATIVE ART 🎄
“The Birth of Jesus Christ” ledger drawing on 1930 sheet music of Away in the Manger, is reinterpreted by Umonhon artist Eddie Encinas.” Photo used with permission from Eddie Encinas
WISHING EVERYONE HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAYS! TRIBALPEDIA STAFF!🎄
NATIONAL MUSEUM of the AMERICAN INDIAN
Ancestral Connections
Ongoing Exhibit
New York, NYAncestral Connections explores how ten contemporary artists draw on aspects of their heritage—sometimes combined with personal experiences or tribal history—to create new and compelling works of art. Some have been shaped by their traditional homelands and landscapes, while others draw on traditional worldviews, lifeways, and artistic traditions or remembered ancestors. As a whole, the works illustrate how connections to Native culture, tradition, and history serve as a catalyst for contemporary Native artistic expression.
Marvin Oliver (Quinault/Isleta Pueblo, b. 1946), Our River’s Ancestors, 2014. Glass, ink. NMAI purchase from the artist, 2015. (26/9630)
Jeri Redcorn (Caddo/Potawatomi, b. 1939), Caddo Head Pot, 2005. Pottery, pigments. NMAI purchase from the artist, 2005. (26/5161)
For Additional Information Visit The National Museum of the American Indian
NOTE: Some of these are older exhibitions. Some may still be open to the public in 2023 please note the dates. They are all exquisite and timeless pieces of Native art. We love them!
NATIONAL MUSEUM of the AMERICAN INDIAN
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight
January 28, 2022–January 29, 2023
Washington, DC
Preston Singletary (Tlingit American, b. 1963), White Raven (Dleit Yéil), 2018. Blown, hot-sculpted, and sand-carved glass; steel stand. Courtesy of the artist.
Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight features works from internationally acclaimed artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit American, b. 1963), and tells the story of Raven, the creator of the world and giver of the stars, moon, and sun.
Through an immersive, multi-sensory experience, Raven takes visitors on a journey of the transformation of darkness into light. In addition to Singletary’s striking glass pieces, the exhibition features storytelling paired with original music, coastal Pacific Northwest soundscapes, and projected images.
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Honoring Indigenous People Every Day!
L. J. Vargas was born in 1979 and is of Taino Indian and Puerto Rican ancestry. He is a prolific artist and Landscape Designer currently working in Massachusetts.
A fetish is an inanimate object treasured because it is considered to be inhabited by an animal spirit, such as a wolf, badger, bear or eagle. Some fetishes come with strength or health bundles attached. The bundles may include herbs, leaves, arrow heads, rocks, and pieces of turquoise. Traditionally, fetish carvers have been the Zuni people, however, artists from other tribes have also created beautiful fetishes.
Bear Fetish: The Bear represents healing and protection. He is associated with the color blue and he is known for his curative powers. Characteristics associated with the bear are strength, courage, healing, adaptability and spiritual communion.
Taíno Perseverance NYC exhibit at National Museum of the American Indian
“The Indigenous peoples of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean are not extinct and they never were. ‘Todavía estamos aquí (we are still here)’: this is the powerful message of the modern Taíno movement and the foundation of “Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean,” a new exhibition presented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Latino Center.
“The term Taíno most directly refers to the diverse Arawak-speaking peoples of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) and their descendants.
Though the Indigenous peoples’ numbers greatly dwindled upon contact with European colonizers, they survived disease, enslavement and brutality. Currently, a Native heritage movement involving Taíno descendants is growing throughout the Greater Antilles and in diasporic Caribbean communities in the United States, such as the region around New York City.
The Moxum family have mixed Native roots. Mr. Norman Moxum is of Arawak-descent, and his wife, Yolanda Moxum, comes from a Miskito community in Honduras. Photo Credit- John Homiak.
These diverse groups have established robust networks that continue the proud legacies of their Native ancestors, and “Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean” provides a framework for understanding the growth of this movement in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the United States.”
The exhibition is presented in English and Spanish
“Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean” begins with an overview of Taíno cultures before European contact, where visitors encounter emblematic objects associated with aspects of Native political and spiritual life that would drastically change after European colonization. One particularly important series of objects identified in the exhibition are cemís. Considered living objects by Taíno peoples, cemís are stone, wooden or cotton artifacts used in ceremony to connect with deities, ancestors and forces of nature. In all, 31 objects from the museum’s collection serve as focal points for the exhibition, 19 of which date back to pre-contact (ca. A.D. 800–1500). The exhibition demonstrates how archaeological objects from the ancestral past inform and inspire the present-day Taíno movement.”
For more information, including associated events, visit The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
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R.C. Gorman
(July 26, 1931 – November 3, 2005) was a Native American artist of the Navajo Nation. Referred to as “the Picasso of American Indian artists” by The New York Times.
R.C. Gorman Navajo Gallery presents the largest collection of work by Navajo artist R.C. Gorman to be found anywhere. Although Gorman passed away in 2005, there remains a significant group of original oil pastel drawings, original lithographs, bronzes, paper castings, and giclees. His art legacy has continued through the generations.”
“R.C. Gorman was born in Chinle, Arizona, in 1931. This original lithograph, titled ‘Chinle Ruby Throated Hummingbird,’ is a tribute to the birthplace of the artist.
Follow the link to learn more about R.C. Gorman’s life and work in Taos. https://rcgormannavajogallery.com/
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Maxine Noel
Maxine Noel (born 1946) is a Canadian First Nations artist from the Santee and Oglala heritage. She was given the Sioux name Ioyan Mani (“walk beyond”).
She was born on the Birdtail Reserve in southwestern Manitoba. A self-taught artist, she first worked as a legal secretary in Edmonton and Toronto before becoming a full-time artist in 1979. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across Canada. She works with serigraphy, lithography, etching, painting and cast paper.
Her work is included in the collections of theCanadian Museum of History, the University of Western Ontario, the Canadian Native Arts Foundation in Toronto and the Whetung Ojibwa Centre. Read more about this wonderful Native artist wikipedia
Trinity, By Maxine Noel
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Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe,
Oct 29, 2022 – May 14, 2023
“Swirling abstractionism marks the work of artist Oscar Howe. Now an exhibition of his works will introduce new generations to one of the 20th century’s most innovative Indigenous painters…Howe, Yanktonai Dakota, (1915–1983) had dedicated himself to art and the preservation, relevance, and deep visual expression of his culture. He created art that was simultaneously modern and embedded in customary Očhéthi Šakówiŋ culture and aesthetics…In the 1950s and 1960s, Howe challenged the art establishment’s preconceptions of how Native American painting should ‘look,’ energizing a movement among Native artists to express their visions rather than conform to an established style…Over a 40-year career, Howe earned honors and awards, and first prizes in national competitions. As a student in Santa Fe, Howe exhibited works internationally in New York, London and Paris and was represented in more than 50 solo shows.”
Artist Oscar Howe, Yanktonai Dakota, sits in front of his paintings at South Dakota State University in March 1958. Howe, who died in 1983 at age 68, is considered one of the 20th century’s most innovative Indigenous painters. (Photo courtesy of the Portland Art Museum)
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Roger Sosakete Perkins
PowwowPop Art’ and Perseverance
Roger Sosakete Perkins, left, and his cousin Jack Martin sit in front of Sosakete Perkins’ Faith Keeper. (Photo courtesy of Sosakete Perkins)
The artist best-known for his vivid “Powwow Pop Art” style — in which he “reclaims” old images of Native Americans that were once used in advertising — has kept working, creating new pieces that reflect his concern. But it hasn’t been easy.
‘It is a beautiful space, but no one will show up,’ he said…’So many of our families are now suffering terribly from unemployment, lack of food for elders, lack of computers for kids in school who need them in order to study from home,’ he said. ‘This area is one of the most expensive areas in the U.S. in which to live, so many of us are in survival mode. We need our community centers, health centers, and powwows to help us all survive and thrive.’
Sosakete Perkins graduated from the American Indian Institute of Arts, and relocated to Northern California in 2006.
‘I use lots of imagery from companies and corporations who have used Native American images in order to sell their products,’ he said. ‘Basically, I am reclaiming our images that they expropriated without our permission, and reframing them in my own way.’
Sosakete Perkins’ artwork can be viewed on his Facebook page
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Honoring Indigenous People…Every Day!
National Museum of the American Indian
November 16, 2019–Fall 2021
New York, NY
“Since 1940, many Native artists have pushed, pressed, and expanded beyond narrow, market-driven definitions of American Indian art. Drawing from the National Museum of the American Indian’s rich permanent collection, Stretching the Canvas presents nearly 40 paintings that transcend, represent, or subvert conventional ideas of authenticity.”
Dick West (1912–1996, Southern Cheyenne), Spatial Whorl, 1949–1950. Oil on canvas. Gift of Dwight D. Saunders, 2004. (26:5102)
Some Featured Artists:
Tony Abeyta (Navajo, b. 1965)
Rick Bartow (Mad River Wiyot, 1946–2016)
Acee Blue Eagle (Muscogee [Creek]/Pawnee, 1909–1959)
Julie Buffalohead (Ponca, b. 1972)
T.C. Cannon: At the Edge of America
New York, NY
One of the most influential, innovative, and talented Native American artists of the 20th-century, T.C. Cannon embodied the activism, cultural transition and creative expression that defined America in the 1960s and 1970s…At the Edge of America celebrates Cannon’s creative range and artistic legacy through numerous paintings and works on paper, as well as his poetry and music.
Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes
New York, NY
This exhibition will feature a new narrative creation by the Salish artist known for his bold blend of Northwest Coast form line and pop-culture figures. This site-specific work will include an epic battle between Marvel characters and aliens invading the streets of New York City.