History

The U.S. government took land from the Oglala Lakota people in South Dakota for a World War II bombing range. Eight decades later, this tribe is still left with the perilous task of cleaning it up.

During World War II, Japanese troops overtook Attu Island and took its Aleut inhabitants to Japan. The descendants of those prisoners are reuniting and reclaiming their culture.

Jennie Ross Cobb, the first known Native American female photographer, captured some of the earliest images of life in a Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory.

When the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower four centuries ago, they knew far less about the local Indians than the Indians knew about them.

Indigenous women fought and served on many fronts.

Native languages helped the Allies alter the course of both World Wars.

Indigenous leaders who sought to make and keep peace between Native and other nations.

Smithsonian online collections offer rare glimpses into Indigenous life from the earliest days of photography to today.

Washington state has rewritten its school curriculum to include the history of the Indian tribes so prominent in its landscape by drawing on the growing resources of Native Knowledge 360˚, NMAI’s national educational initiative.