Reviews the movie "Lakota Woman," the story of Mary Crow Dog, a young woman who gave birth to her first child during the American Indian Movement's occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973. Although the majority of the crew and cast were Native Americans, many subtleties and nuances of American Indian culture were overlooked.…

Explains how the study of aboriginal cultures can aid in the understanding and appreciation of other cultures within North American society. The Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon cultures are examined. (GLR)

Part of the Mississippian culture, which featured the construction of large earthen mounds, Etowah (in northwest Georgia) was a major ceremonial center. Based on excavations and Creek and Choctaw oral traditions, daily life in this village is portrayed, including social structure, clothing, ornaments, ceremonies, burial practices, and warfare.…

Reviews a book on the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, suggesting that the author puts a white, European bias on the actual events, which encourages non-Indian young readers to think in limited ways about Indian people and keeps them from identifying with Indian people. (SM)

In Leslie Marmon Silko's novel "Ceremony", Rocky appears as Tayo's childhood friend and "brother" and also as a major part of Tayo's prisoner-of-war experiences in the Pacific during World War II. The interpretation of the novel presents both Rocky and Tayo as two men destroyed by the war, the former physically and the latter spiritually.

A nondescript rock shelter in Texas provides the evidence for shamanism in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel, "Ceremony". There, archaeologists found identifiable images of antlered human figures and entheogenic plant substances, which are medicinal plants, associated with shamanistic practices.

The U.S. has regulated liquor sales and consumption among Native Americans from the beginning of the republic until 1953. Forms of regulation have included fines and imprisonment for selling alcohol in Indian country, for introducing alcohol into Indian country, and for drinking alcohol if you were an Indian.

This essay specifically examines how the NMAI engages Native peoples from Latin America. In this article, the author argues that more than showcasing the diversity of Native cultures the museum is an important platform for reporting Indian and nation-state tensions and other struggles and victories. By situating the realities of Native peoples…

This investigation examines an elementary social studies methods course taught on an American Indian reservation through a state university. Data were collected from American Indian pre-service teachers over four years through taped interviews, classroom observations, and a review of homework and in-class assignments. A Freirean critical pedagogy…

American Indian women have been consistently involved in leadership throughout indigenous history. Their leadership provides a strong, nurturing influence passed down from generation to generation. In the U.S. society, this type of leadership style is recognized among contemporary authors of leadership manuals as relational and is attributed to…

Water burial is a way to return a body to its key primal element. It revives and transforms both the soul and the person. Sometimes water burial leads to a new life floating in a womb. Sometimes it disperses to provide a moist and nutrient-rich medium for a vast variety of other lives, making a contribution to the much larger whole. In this…

Maintains that academic historians are frustrated about their ability to reach different publics. Describes the National Park Service's public history activities. Concludes that exciting opportunities exist for academic historians in research and presentation of U.S. history. (CFR)

Presents methods for motivating, developing, and applying a lesson on genocide as it relates to the American Indian. Argues that according to the United Nations Genocide Convention, the U.S. government's actions toward the Indians constitute genocide. Includes a list of quotations pertinent to the subject which can be used as a student handout.…

Describes the results of an archaeological dig of a 2000-year-old Woodland Period Indian village. Goes on to include quotes regarding Indians from early colonial inhabitants in an attempt to blend ethnohistorical evidence of Indian trade and wars with archaeological evidence gained from the dig. (JDH)

Describes a research project which resulted in publication, "The Julian Tribe," and showed how lost Micmac tribal heritage was reconstructed from church, census, county, provincial, and federal records when no tribal printed or secondary accounts or oral tradition remained. (NEC)