National Geographic | Native American Heritage Month

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CELEBRATING NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE

PHOTOGRAPH BY KILIII YÜYAN

North America's Native nations reassert their sovereignty: 'We are here'

All over Turtle Island—a common Indigenous name for North America—its original inhabitants are methodically reasserting control over their land, laws, and how they live.

RECLAIMING THE LAND

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GREIM / AGE FOTOSTOCK

The real story behind the man who kept peace with the Pilgrims

In 1620, the Wampanoag Ousamequin—popularly remembered as Massasoit—faced an unprecedented three-tiered crisis: a devastating epidemic, attacks by local enemies, and the arrival of Englishmen. The traditional Thanksgiving story ignores this context and tells a false version of history. Here's what really happened.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE 'FIRST' THANKSGIVING

A REALITY CHECK ON THE PILGRIMS: The story you were taught in school doesn't square with the facts +

COURTESY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

This little-known Native American society was once as powerful as the Aztecs and Incas

The Spiros were once "the single most powerful group ever to exist" in North America. Why have so few heard of them?

WHO WERE THE SPIROS?

PHOTOGRAPH BY TULSA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

The untold story of Sequoyah, the Native American state that almost existed

Oklahoma is no stranger to tussles over who can claim it. But for one moment, it looked like there might be a solution.

THE NATIVE AMERICAN MYSTERY WOMAN OF SAN NICOLAS

HOLLI HARMON/HOLLIHARMON.COM

Her castaway tale captured 19th-century imaginations and inspired the novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. But the details of the Lone Woman's life, archaeologists are now discovering, were built on a foundation of shifting sand—and everything we thought we knew about her is wrong.

WHO WAS THE LONE WOMAN?

REMEMBERING THE LONG WALK

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAKOTA MACE

After the U.S. seized their lands more than 150 years ago, the Diné (Navajo) people trekked across more than 300 miles to an internment camp in eastern New Mexico. Photographer Dakota Mace shares these stories from the Long Walk.

SEE THEIR STORIES

READ MORE ON NATIVE HISTORY AND CULTURE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACK MITCHELL, GETTY IMAGES

She was an Osage dancer. She was also America's first prima ballerina. Here is the story of how Maria Tallchief refused to abandon her Osage Nation roots—and came to symbolize a new era for American ballet.

How Tecumseh fought for Native lands—and became a folk hero

They were taken from their families as children. Can that trauma be healed?

At long last, the American buffalo has come home

Go inside the close-knit world of Native American rodeo

Murder. Greed. Conspiracy. What really happened in Osage County?

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