Indigenous peoples of the Americas: cultural areas
Credit: World Book map

People in the United States observe Native American Heritage Month each year in November. During this period, many Native tribes celebrate their cultures, histories, and traditions. It is also a time to raise awareness of the challenges Indigenous people have faced in the past and today, along with their contributions to the United States as its first inhabitants.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the first people who lived in North America or South America, and their descendants. Indigenous means original or native. Indigenous people had been living in the Americas for thousands of years before any Europeans arrived. They formed hundreds of tribes with many different ways of life.

Scholars called anthropologists, who study human culture, classify the hundreds of North American Indigenous tribes into groups of tribes with strong similarities. These groups are called culture areas. The culture areas of Canada and the United States are (1) the Arctic; (2) the Subarctic; (3) the Northeast, often called the Eastern Woodlands; (4) the Southeast; (5) the Plains; (6) the Northwest Coast; (7) California; (8) the Great Basin; (9) the Plateau; and (10) the Southwest.

Arctic cultural area
Credit: World Book map

Most Arctic peoples lived in small bands along the seacoast, moving often in search of food. Seals were the primary food. Sealskin was widely used for making shelters and boats, clothes, tools, and other goods. Arctic peoples adapted to the modern world while preserving much of their traditional way of life.

Subarctic cultural area”
Credit: World Book map

The Subarctic was thinly populated. Tribes consisted of small bands, related through marriage. Food was often scarce, and the people moved about hunting and gathering wild plants, berries, and nuts. Most Subarctic peoples live in areas set aside for them, called reserves in Canada and reservations in the United States.

Northeast cultural area
Credit: World Book map

In the Northeast, the Iroquois and most Algonquian groups lived mostly by growing corn, beans, and squash. Some of the northernmost groups depended more on hunting, gathering, and fishing. Many tribes now live in Oklahoma and various Western states. Many Iroquois became leaders in the struggle for the rights of Indigenous people in Canada and the United States.

Southeast cultural area
Credit: World Book map

The adequate rainfall and long growing season enabled Southeastern peoples to grow large quantities of corn. They traveled either on foot or in wooden dugout canoes. Women had much power and influence among most Southeastern groups. Today, Southeast tribes try to maintain a balance between traditional and modern ways of life.

Plains cultural area
Credit: World Book map

When the Spaniards brought the horse to the Plains in the 1600’s, a new way of life appeared. On horseback, the Plains peoples could follow the great herds of buffalo. Nearby tribes, and those forced westward by the advancing white people, quickly adopted the Plains way of life. Communication across tribes led to the development of the Plains sign language.

Northwest Coast cultural area
Credit: World Book map

Among tribes of the Northwest Coast, a few families had great influence in each village because of their ancestry and wealth. Totem poles, carved from tree trunks, became more common with the iron tools brought by the white traders. Totem poles showed the social rank and ancestry of a family or individual.

California cultural area
Credit: World Book map

Tribes in the California area consisted of one or a few villages of extended families. Acorns were the most important food. Women gathered acorns, washed them, and pounded them into flour. The women then cooked the flour to make acorn mush or bread. The Pomo were famous for their basket making.

Great Basin cultural area
Credit: World Book map

The tribes of the Great Basin consisted of many small bands. Each band had a home territory near a lake or a stream that provided a reliable supply of water and fish. Pine nuts were the most important single source of food. Today, many Indigenous people of the Great Basin live as ranchers and farmers.

Plateau cultural area
Credit: World Book map

The tribes living in the Plateau consisted of bands of extended families. During the summer, bands traveled their territory in search of food. In the winter, they lived in villages. Plateau peoples mainly ate wild bulbs and roots, berries, and salmon and other fish. Today, many Plateau peoples live on reserves or reservations.

Southwest cultural area
Credit: World Book map

The early peoples of the Southwest included several tribes. The Pueblo tribes had one of the most highly developed civilizations in North America. They were excellent craftworkers. Most Pueblo lived in villages and farmed along rivers that provided water for irrigation. The Navajo, a hunting and gathering tribe, are today one of the largest Indigenous groups in the United States. The Navajo have become noted for weaving blankets and rugs and making silver jewelry.

For the first time in 233 years, Native American, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian all in U.S. House. From left to right: Reps. Kaialiʻi Kahele, Mary Peltola and Sharice Davids.
Credit: Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele via Twitter

People in the United States observe Native American Heritage Month each year in November. During this period, many Native tribes celebrate their cultures, histories, and traditions. It is also a time to raise awareness of the challenges Indigenous people have faced in the past and today, along with their contributions to the United States as its first inhabitants.

Representation is important. For centuries, Indigenous Americans have not been represented in powerful positions in the United States government. This fall, that changed. When Representative Mary Peltola was elected as representative for Alaska. Peltola became the first woman and first native Alaskan to serve in the role. She joined the ranks of seven Indigenous Americans in Congress. This session also marks the first time a native Hawaiian, Native American, and Native Alaskan have served together. Representative Kaiali‘i Kahele a native Hawaiian for Hawaii, Representative Sharice Davids of the Ho-Chunk nation for Kansas, and Peltola celebrated the monumental accomplishment with a photo together.

Four years ago, Sharice Davids and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland became the first two Indigenous women elected to Congress. The recent increase in representation will allow issues affecting the Indigenous communities more airtime in front of Congress, a path to better solutions.

For example, Congress members will have the power to voice concerns regarding how the federal government interacts with Indigenous Americans day to day. The Supreme Court met to debate a case involving the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law that requires the government to notify tribes if an Indigenous child is removed from a home and give preference to tribe members for foster placement of the child. Also in the news, the Cherokee nation is asking Congress to fulfill a 187-year-old promise of seating a Cherokee delegate permanently in Congress. The promise was made in the Treaty of New Echota signed in 1835.

The other Indigenous Americans currently serving in Congress include Representative Tom Cole of the Chickasaw nation for Oklahoma, Representative Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan for the Northern Mariana Islands, Representative Markwayne Mullin of the Cherokee nation for Oklahoma, Representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen for American Samoa, and Yvette Herrell of the Cherokee nation for New Mexico.

Code talkers were Indigenous Americans who used their languages to help the United States military communicate in secret. This black-and-white photograph shows two Navajo code talkers operating a radio during World War II (1939-1945). The Navajo language was unknown to the Germans and Japanese and proved impossible for them to decipher.
Credit: NARA

On November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I (1914-1918), the United States observes Veterans Day honoring men and women who have served in the United States armed services. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day to remember the tragedies of war and appreciate peace achieved by the armistice (truce). In 1938, Armistice Day was made a federal holiday. Congress renamed the day Veterans Day to honor all United States Veterans in 1954. Around the world, the anniversary of the end of World War I is a day to remember those who have died in war. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand observe Remembrance Day on November 11. The United Kingdom observes Remembrance Day on the Sunday closest to November 11.

November is also Native American Heritage Month, a time to observe the cultures, histories, and traditions of Indigenous Americans. Many Indigenous Americans have served in the United States armed forces, contributing to the United States’ success in World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945). Most notably, Indigenous Americans called the Code Talkers developed and used codes that enabled the United States and its allies to communicate globally without enemy interference.

The Code Talkers were small groups of Indigenous Americans who served in the United States armed forces in World War I and World War II. Code Talkers developed and used codes in Indigenous American languages to send secret messages, helping the United States and its allies win both wars.

The engineer Philip Johnston suggested the United States Marine Corps use Navajo language as a code during World War II. He grew up on a Navajo reservation and knew that the Navajo language is unwritten, difficult to decipher (decode), and unknown to most people who are not Navajo. In 1942, the United States Marine Corps recruited 29 Navajo men to develop the code. The code talkers used familiar wards to represent U.S. military terms. For example, bombs were called eggs in Navajo. They also created a new phonetic alphabet with Navajo words.

Similarly, in World War I, 19 Choctaw men had served in the U.S. Army, sending and receiving messages based on the Choctaw language. During World War II, 17 Comanche men used their language for code in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Zitkála-Šá, Indigenous American educator
Credit: Photograph by Gertrude Kasebier; Mina Turner, National Museum of American History/Smithsonian Institution

People in the United States observe Native American Heritage Month each year in November. During this period, many Native tribes celebrate their cultures, histories, and traditions. It is also a time to raise awareness of the challenges Indigenous people have faced in the past and today, along with their contributions to the United States as its first inhabitants.

As a storyteller, teacher, playwright, politician, and violinist, Zitkála-Šá fought every boundary placed before her. Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a member of the Yankton Sioux or Yankton Dakota. Born in 1876, she became an influential leader in the United States, fighting for women’s rights, the Indigenous right to citizenship and voting, and the end to the Indigenous boarding school system.

When Zitkála-Šá was about eight years old, she left the Yankton reservation to attend White’s Manual Labor Institute in Wabash, Indiana. She was required to cut her long hair and any trace of her culture. She learned to read, write, and play the violin. Zitkála-Šá did not return home until 1887. She received a scholarship to Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Before she graduated, Zitkála-Šá began teaching music at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. A gifted musician, she studied violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1899. In 1900, Zitkála-Šá accepted an invitation to travel and play with the Carlisle school’s band across the United States and at the Paris Exposition, a world’s fair.

It wasn’t long until Zitkála-Šá started using her storytelling and writing skills against the Indigenous boarding school system that employed her. The Carlisle school sent Zitkála-Šá back to the Yankton Reservation in 1900 to gather more students. There, she found her community in poverty, with run-down houses and white settlers living on her people’s land. She returned to Carlisle and began writing about Indigenous life and culture. She translated Indigenous stories into English and Latin. She criticized the Indigenous American boarding school system in essays published in the magazines Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Magazine. In 1901, she wrote the short story “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” about a student’s loss of identity and was fired from the Carlisle school.

She returned to the reservation and began writing stories for her collection of Sioux tales and legends, Old Indian Legends (1901), while working as a clerk for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office at Standing Rock. In 1902, she married Captain Raymond Talesfase Bonnin. They moved to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah and had a son named Raymond Ohiya Bonnin in 1903.

Several years after moving to Utah, Zitkála-Šá picked up another medium. After befriending composer William F. Hanson, the pair wrote the first Indigenous American opera. Sun Dance (1913) was based on the then-outlawed Indigenous religious ceremony Sun dance.

After completing the play, Zitkála-Šá leaned more into her political work. She joined the Society of American Indians, which preserved Indigenous traditions while fighting for full U.S. citizenship. Zitkála-Šá lectured across the country about Indigenous culture and the right to be recognized as American citizens and to vote. Her American Indian Stories, a collection of essays on Indigenous treatment in America and in Christian boarding schools, was published in 1921.

Her efforts were partially rewarded when the Indian Citizenship Act passed in 1924. The act granted citizenship to Indigenous people, but poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence and intimidation were used to prevent many Indigenous people from voting. Of course, Zitkála-Šá and her husband continued to work for Indigenous rights and started the National Council of American Indians in 1926. She continued to work for the rights and cultural preservation of Indigenous people until her death. She died in Washington, D.C., on January 26, 1938. Zitkála-Šá is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first Indigenous American woman in space in October 2022 aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA

Nicole Aunapu Mann is an American astronaut and Marine Corps test pilot. Today, October 5, 2022, Mann became the first Indigenous (native) American woman in space. Mann and three other astronauts launched on National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). While aboard the ISS, Mann will serve as a flight engineer. Mann is a member of the Wailacki people of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. The Round Valley Indian Tribes is a confederation of tribes designated to the Round Valley Indian Reservation in Mendocino County, California.

In 2013, the NASA chose Mann to be an astronaut. Mann completed astronaut training in July 2015. She led the development of the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) launch facility, the Orion crewed spacecraft, and Space Launch System (SLS), built to carry the Orion craft into space. NASA selected Mann to serve as mission commander on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission on the Crew Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station. SpaceX is a private company that owns and operates the rocket and spacecraft used in the mission. A Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch the mission’s Crew Dragon capsule.

Mann joined the United States Marine Corps in 1999 as a second lieutenant. She reported to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, for flight training in 2001. Mann became a Navy pilot in 2003 and began her operational flying career in 2004.  Mann deployed twice to Afghanistan and Iraq, completing 47 combat missions. After her deployments, she completed Navy Test Pilot School and served as a test pilot for many types of naval aircraft.

Nicole Victoria Aunapu was born in Petaluma, California, on June 27, 1977. She enrolled in the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1995. Mann earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1999. She completed a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from California’s Stanford University in 2001. In 2009, she married Navy pilot Travis Mann.

Wilma Mankiller, shown in this photograph, served as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. She was the first woman elected to that position.
Credit: © Peter Brooker, Rex Features/Presselect/Alamy Images

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.

Wilma Mankiller led the Cherokee Nation as its first woman principal chief. The Cherokee are one of the largest Indigenous tribes in the United States. As chief, Mankiller restructured the tribal government to better balance the distribution of power between men and women. She also increased tribal membership and improved the tribe’s health, education, and housing programs. In addition, Mankiller took an active role in nationwide social movements to fight the oppression of women and Indigenous people.

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born on Nov. 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. When she was 12, her parents moved the impoverished family to a housing project in San Francisco under a federal Indigenous relocation program. Wilma married Hugo Olaya in 1963 and pursued a career as a social worker. In 1969, Mankiller became involved with a civil rights organization called the American Indian Movement (AIM). That year, protesters with AIM occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The group was protesting the breaking of treaties and the violation of Indigenous human rights by the federal government. Mankiller visited the protesters and raised money for their support. Her participation in AIM inspired her to become involved in bettering the lives of the Cherokee people.

Mankiller returned to Oklahoma with her two children in 1976, following a divorce. She worked as the community development director of the Cherokee Nation. She married Charlie Soap, a Cherokee community developer. Mankiller served as deputy chief of the Cherokee under Principal Chief Ross O. Swimmer. In 1985, Swimmer resigned to become assistant secretary of Indian affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Mankiller became principal chief of the Cherokee.

Mankiller stepped down as chief in 1995 due to poor health. However, she remained an important advisor in Cherokee affairs. Mankiller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. Her books include the autobiography Mankiller: A Chief and Her People (1993) and Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women (2004). She died on April 6, 2010. The U.S. Mint announced in 2021 that Mankiller would be one of five women commemorated on the quarter in their American Women Quarters series.