Visitors to the Yakama Indian Reservation in south-central Washington State can't help but notice Mount Adams. Known as Patu, or snowtopped mountain, and Xwayama, or golden eagle, in the Sahaptin language of the Columbia Plateau, the 12,276-foot peak stretches more than a mile above the forested ridges of the Cascade Range. Images of the mountain…

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is in need of several thousand houses to alleviate overcrowding and improve living conditions. The United States government has failed to provide appropriate or sufficient housing and other individuals and organizations that have attempted to build homes for the Lakota have met with widely varying results. This paper…

The federal policy of termination against Native Americans was on a high roll from 1946 to 1954. The policy received explicit expression in House Concurrent Resolution 108, passed in 1953, which stated that "Indians should be made subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other…

Among the Haudenosaunee, the clan system is an ancient tradition of matrilineal descent that has maintained the social, political, economic, and spiritual cohesion of the people for centuries. Following the American Revolution and the relocation of large numbers of Haudenosaunee people from America's traditional homelands in what is now New York…

The harvest of the Great Lakes primary forest stands (ca. 1860-1925) transformed the region's ecological, cultural, and political landscapes. Although logging affected both Indian and white communities, the Ojibwe experienced the lumber era in ways that differed from many of their white neighbors. When the 125,000-acre Bad River Reservation was…

American Indian adults have the highest smoking rate of any racial group in the nation. By the turn of the 21st century, smoking rates for the general adult population were reported to be 24%. Among adolescents in the United States, 34.8% of high school students reported they currently smoked in 1999. In comparison, American Indian adults report…

The American Indian tribal nations and communities have long experienced health status worse than that of other Americans. Although major gains in reducing health disparities were made during the last half of the 20th century, most gains stopped by the mid-1980s. Consequently, health disparities continue to exist with marked variation across…

Can storytelling--a revered teaching tradition in many Native American cultures--be used to generate enthusiasm for science and technology among indigenous children and address the achievement gap that exists between Indian and non-Indian children? The Tribal Youth Science Initiative (TYSI) is an innovative new media project for young people, ages…

Hurricane Katrina traumatized the city of New Orleans and the Gulf South. It filled most Americans and global citizens with grief and rage in the late summer of 2005. As the world watched, feeling powerless to help the many thousands of suffering people, at first stunned and then furious over the ineptitude of government response to this…

The map is a primary tool in geographic research, and the discipline of geography has experienced a significant methodological transformation during the last three decades with the development and now near ubiquity of geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The introduction of this technology into Indian country has spurred a debate over…

In the spring of 1977, members of the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), along with the Coalition for Navajo Liberation, barraged the Secretary of the Interior and the chairman of the Navajo Nation with petitions calling for a halt to the proposed construction of several coal gasification plants on the Navajo Reservation in northwestern New…

Western New York's Allegany Seneca Reservation was a troubled place. John Peirce, one of many Allegany chiefs, could only lament in 1821 how a political situation had spiraled out of control: "war had risen amongst them." Within a span of a few years, Quakers operating a schoolhouse on Seneca lands had ripped apart the Allegany people.…

Reiterates and summarizes the main findings of an assessment report prepared by Thomas Stanton on commitments and failures in HUD's (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Indian housing programs. (ERB)

In the 1960s an increasing number of Native Americans began to express the need for an Indian college or university. Three major developments of the decade inspired them. The first was the rise of Indian activism in the 1960s. The second major development was the package of socioeconomic reforms of the Great Society, inaugurated by President…

Reports significant increases, 1965-85, in the prevalence of type II diabetes and related complications among Warm Springs Reservation (WSR) tribes. Compares WSR diabetes rates with those of other reservations. Discusses developmental phases of diabetes in American Indian communities and recommendations for community diabetic control programs.…