.American Indigenous Studies

Welcome to the American Indian Digital History Project, a Digital History Cooperative founded to recover and preserve rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs, and archival materials from all across Native North America.

In 1985 the American Indian Studies Research Institute (AISRI) was founded at Indiana University to serve as an interdisciplinary research center for projects focusing on the native peoples of the Americas. AISRI was founded in part on the premise that to fully understand and describe the language, culture, or history of a people, the study of any one of these topics must be informed by work in the others.

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Below are listed some resources for learning more about Dakota people, about US-Indian relations nationally and in Minnesota, and about specific sites highlighted in the Bdote Memory Map.

American Indians in Minnesota
60,916 Minnesotans are American Indians or Alaska Natives. Although they are the original people in Minnesota, today they only account for 1.1 percent of the population. The Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis has the third largest urban American Indian population in the United States. The largest portion of the multiracial U.S. population list their race as mixed American Indian and White.

Views at an Indian boarding school, location unknown. Includes views of students and staff, school activities, exterior and interior views of facilities. 58 images, circa 1900

The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Inc. (GLITC) shall be a diligent advocate for the advancement and promotion of tribal nations and communities by honoring the seventh-generation perspective.

Since its founding in 1929, the Heard Museum has grown in size and stature to become recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, world-class exhibitions, educational programming and its unmatched festivals. Dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art, the Heard successfully presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitions that showcase the beauty and vitality of traditional and contemporary art. The Heard Museum sets the standard for collaborating with American Indian artists and tribal communities to provide visitors with a distinctive perspective about the art of Native people, especially those from the Southwest.

The Center provides legal assistance to indigenous peoples of the Americas to combat racism and oppression, to protect their lands and environment, to protect their cultures and ways of life, to achieve sustainable economic development and genuine self-government, and to realize their other human rights.

Teaching Resources

In Minnesota, there are seven Anishinaabe (Chippewa, Ojibwe) reservations and four Dakota (Sioux) communities. Find links to the web sites of those communities that have web sites. Also included are links to other valuable resources.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organization, and the oldest and largest organization made up of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments and their citizens to advocate on their behalf. NCAI’s mission is to advocate for the protection of treaty rights, inherent rights, and other rights guaranteed to tribes through agreements with the United States and under federal law; to promote the common welfare of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and to promote a better understanding of Indian peoples.

Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) provides educators and students with new perspectives on Native American history and cultures. Most Americans have only been exposed to part of the story, as told from a single perspective through the lenses of popular media and textbooks. NK360° provides educational materials, virtual student programs, and teacher training that incorporate Native narratives, more comprehensive histories, and accurate information to enlighten and inform teaching and learning about Native America. NK360° challenges common assumptions about Native peoples and offers a view that includes not only the past but also the vibrancy of Native peoples and cultures today.

Our Mission: To lead in the pursuit of understanding and addressing the ongoing trauma created by the U.S. Indian Boarding School policy. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in June 2012 under the laws of the Navajo Nation.

A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

etween 1776 and 1887, the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America's indigenous people by treaty and executive order. The Invasion of America shows how by mapping every treaty and executive order during that period. It also contains present-day federal Indian reservations.