2021 Culture and Tradition News Stories
What it means to curate for my Native American community (Hyperallergic) 12/29/21
Federal grants to help tribes preserve Native languages (AZ Mirror) 12/28/21
Wounded Knee Massacre 131 years ago: We remember those lost (Native News Online) 12/22/21
2021 Media picks from Native News Online staff writer Jenna Kunze (Native News Online) 12/20/21
A grim, long-hidden truth emerges in art: Native American enslavement (ArtDaily)
Painting grandma: Diné artist, Starbucks produce mural that honors elder (Navajo Times) 12/21/21
Lakota lawsuit over hair cutting heads for trial (The Omaha Daily Record) 12/18/21
The dead's right to remain buried: New York tribal members advocate for bill to protect unmarked graves (Native News Online) 12/17/21
In 'Covered With Night,' Nicole Eustace explores differing views of justice, grief in early America (WBUR) 12/16/21
Including Indigenous interpretations: Montana librarians learn through cultural lens (Insitute of Museum and Library Services) 12/16/21
A final battle over a massacre in the Pequot War proves indecisive (WSHU) 12/15/21
Language, history, and traditions: Preserving tribal cultures across the United States (Institute of Museum and Library Services) 12/15/21
Sitka Tribe’s shellfish lab honored for safeguarding traditional foods (Alaska Public Media) 12/14/21
Decolonize your media this holiday season with these podcasts, TV shows, and books (Native News Online) 12/10/21
Letter: CTDOT and historic office defend handling of Native American artifact (CT Post) 12/9/21
Native New York: Dispelling the myth of the sale of Manhattan & more (Native News Online) 12/8/21
Penobscots don’t want ancestors’ scalping to be whitewashed (Indian Country Today) 12/8/21
‘New Native Kitchen’: Navajo chef’s traditions with modern flair (KCRW) 12/8/21
Killsback’s two-volume Cheyenne history wins second national book prize (Indianz) 12/6/21
ANCSA 50: The next generation of shareholders (Indian Country Today) 12/6/21
Indian Affairs announces funding for Living Languages Grants (Red Lake Nation News) 12/6/21
Emerging Indigenous artists are mixing tradition with an urgent, organized message (Jefferson Public Radio) 12/5/21
North American museums face a reckoning on Indigenous rights (The Art Newspaper) 12/2/21
Five LGBTQ & two-spirit Native American people who are making the world a better place (LGBTQ Nation) 11/30/21
Federal committee says University of Alabama must return historic objects to tribes (KGOU) 11/30/21
Fraudulent Native artist charged with violating Indian Arts and Crafts Act (Indianz) 11/24/21
Native American chefs share Thanksgiving recipes (NYC on the Cheap)
Native Americans are unapologetically threading their way through the music industry (WUFT) 11/22/21
Fraudulent claims of indigeneity: Indigenous nations are the identity experts (The Conversation) 11/22/21
Indigenous artist joins board of Desert X (Indian Country Today) 11/21/21
Read and watch Secretary Haaland's historic remarks on the power of Indigenous representation on the 52nd anniversary of the Alcatraz Island Occupation (Native News Online) 11/20/21
Four cultural centers that are opening up the conversation about Native American art and identity (BeLatina) 11/18/21
Overview of the National Indian Law Library (Houston Area Law Librarians Blog)
First Native American restaurant in Northern California opens: Wahpepah's Kitchen in Oakland, CA (Native News Online) 11/16/21
Documentary 'Bounty' confronts colonial death warrants against Indigenous people (WBUR) 11/15/21
Cherokee Nation, Shawnee Tribe join to designate cultural preserve in Northeast Oklahoma (Indian Country Today) 11/15/21
Native authors share their culture through stories about Indigenous people in Maine (Portland Press Herald) 11/14/21
Hopi at crossroads of maintaining language for elected posts (Indian Country Today) 11/14/21
For Indigenous festival musicians, identity and representation matter (Native News Online) 11/14/21
Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell inducted into the National Native American Hall of Fame (The Durango Herald) 11/13/21
Uncovering Native history in Badlands National Park (National Geographic) 11/11/21
Why I'm thankful for Indigenous resistance (Seattle Front Porch) 11/10/21
11 influential Native American artists (Artsy) 11/9/21
Cheyenne River Youth Project announces Native American Heritage Month art classes, Main University, and Thanks for Kids Dinner (Indian Country Today) 11/9/21
Native American Heritage Month gives us an opportunity to get past the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Indian (Native News Online) 11/7/21
Native American maps (and ideas) that shaped the nation (Library of Congress) 11/4/21
One of America’s last remaining Native birchbark canoe builders launches elaborate 16-foot hunting boat constructed at Northwestern: ‘We don’t just take, we give back.’ (Chicago Tribune) 10/29/21
Red Nation film festival: Native film festival founder focuses on telling Native stories onscreen (Native News Online) 10/29/21
Native American heritage month: Celebrating individuals and exploring history (Library of Congress) 10/28/21
SU Indigenous students find Columbus statue ‘offensive and threatening’ (The Daily Orange) 10/26/21
Tribal leader support for caregivers and elders ensures cultural longevity (Native News Online) 10/25/21
Book spotlights Native American women who lived on Mackinac Island (Detroit News) 10/24/21
Anatomy of a sampler: Peggy Fontenot’s ‘Self-Assimilation’ (Santa Fe New Mexican) 10/22/21
Schatz secures $600K in federal funds to educate visitors on Native Hawaiian culture (Hawaii News Now) 10/20/21
Stream these Indigenous-made films from the Portland Film Festival (Portland Mercury) 10/20/21
In Minneapolis, a thriving center for Indigenous art (The New York Times) 10/20/21
Indigenous mapping workshop encourages sovereignty through cartography (Native News Online) 10/15/21
Seattle is seeing a surge of Indigenous public art (Crosscut) 10/11/21
Native Americans take over the writers' room and tell their own stories (NPR) 10/11/21
A new cookbook by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people (The New York Times) 10/11/21
New Mexico 'wrapped around indigeneity' (Indian Country Today) 10/9/21
In exhibition at Brown, Wampanoag artist draws on tradition to celebrate Indigenous rights (News from Brown) 10/7/21
Native journalism pioneer: Gary Fife still going strong (Indian Country Today) 10/4/21
Cowlitz comic releases Comedy Central video: 'How to cope with your team changing its Native American Mascot' (Native News Online) 10/2/21
‘It’s the future’: Fiber artists dispel myths with blended wool-hemp weaving (Navajo Times) 9/30/21
The time of the Indigenous critic has arrived (High Country News) 9/29/21
Exploring the Afro-Indigenous experience (Indian Country Today) 9/28/21
‘Peace Circle’ commemorates 1843 Treaty of Bird’s Fort at Grapevine, Texas (Indianz) 9/28/21
Indigenous artists stake their claim at Yellowstone National Park (The Art Newspaper) 9/27/21
The only Native American 'In America': Korina Emmerich is the only Indigenous designer included in the Met's new exhibition on American fashion (The Cut) 9/23/21
Call for submissions: WIPO photography prize for Indigenous peoples and local community youth 2021-2022 (WIPO)
Cultural Survival announces 3-day virtual language conference restoring and protecting our Native languages and landscapes (Cultural Survival) 9/21/21
Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Eagle Heart co-producing film on present-day fight for Black Hills (Native News Online) 9/21/21
In Nevada, sundown town history has cultural impacts for Washoe tribal members (Wyoming Public Media) 9/17/21
'Like auctioning off the Sistine Chapel': An auction house sold an Osage cave containing important prehistoric art for $2.2 million (Artnet) 9/16/21
'We gave them a lot of authority to guide us': How the Native tribes of Oklahoma are helping shape the new First Americans Museum (Artnet) 9/15/21
North Dakota Native makes her debut with children's book about Indigenous culture, bullying (Native News Online) 9/14/21
Indigenous languages are a bedrock of Alaska Native culture, but they are disappearing fast (Anchorage Press) 9/10/21
A pioneering exhibit will showcase contemporary Indigenous architecture (Metropolis Magazine) 9/7/21
Juneau Lingít artist’s beadwork featured on Native comedy series ‘Reservation Dogs’ (Alaska Public Media) 9/2/21
An artistic invitation to rise up (Indian Country Today) 9/1/21
Montclair art exhibit: 'How color changed Navajo textiles' (Patch) 8/26/21
We all know Columbus didn't discover America--so how did he become a symbol of its founding? (LitHub) 8/25/21
Monument honoring tribes to be placed where Junipero Serra statue was toppled last summer (Native News Online) 8/25/21
Arizona recognizes National Navajo Code Talkers Day as a state holiday (Navajo-Hopi Observer) 8/24/21
IMLS invests $5.5 million in library services for tribal communities, Native Hawaiians (Institute of Museum and Library Services) 8/19/21
California Senate approves measure to make Native American Day a paid holiday (Native News Online) 8/18/21
Vision Maker Media announces 2021 public media fund made-for-television film projects (Red Lake Nation News) 8/16/21
History must be taught, not forgotten (Indian Country Today) 8/13/21
The disturbing history of how conservatorships were used to exploit, swindle Native Americans (The Conversation) 8/13/21
How Native students fought back against abuse and assimilation at US boarding schools (The Conversation) 8/12/21
New books cover CSKT’s history from 1900 to 1920 (Char-Koosta News) 8/12/21
Oregon museum taps Indigenous community for riverfront project (Indian Country Today) 8/10/21
Indigenous communities are still fighting for the return of their ancestors (Vice) 8/9/21
‘Reservation Dogs' is 'a real story about real people' (Indian Country Today) 8/9/21
Why don't Indigenous children buried at Carlisle and other former Indian boarding schools qualify for repatriation under NAGPRA? (Native News Online) 8/8/21
Is travel next in the fight over who profits from Native American culture? (The New York Times) 8/3/21
'We're not stoic': Book traces the history of Native Americans in history (KQED) 7/30/21
Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians join to protect, preserve Cherokee language, culture (Indian Country Today) 7/28/21
Lawsuit over Oakland community sweat lodge leads to pushback from Native elders group (Native News Online) 7/26/21
Chef Sean Sherman's new restaurant is an homage to Indigenous food (Wide Open Eats) 7/26/21
Author Julian Aguon confronts climate catastrophe and American empire with radical intimacy (Inlander) 7/19/21
Lost lives, lost culture: The forgotten history of Indigenous boarding schools (The New York Times) 7/19/21
Alaska Natives’ complicated identities (Indian Country Today) 7/15/21
Native in the arts spotlight: Visual artist Andrea Carlson talks about her Chicago "You are on Potawatomi Land" mural (Native News Online) 7/15/21
Maine bicentennial event canceled after tribes oppose Columbus replica ship’s inclusion (Bangor Daily News) 7/9/21
Patricia Marroquin Norby is bringing a Native perspective to the Met (New York Times) 7/9/21
National Museum of the American Indian repatriates two objects to the Siksika Nation (Smithsonian) 7/9/21
New prison reform initiative aims to create restorative culture, uplift Indigenous voices and practices (Native News Online) 7/8/21
Will the mass robbery of Native American graves ever end? (LMT Online) 7/8/21
Shipping sage and praying on Zoom (Indian Country Today) 7/4/21
More than bones and science: Stolen Chickasaw remains finally returning home to rest (Native News Online) 7/3/21
Youth art center breaks ground (Lakota Times) 7/1/21
Documentary about Indigenous Catholics short on accuracy, long on spin (Indian Country Today) 6/29/21
Statement from Indigenous linguists and language scholars on boarding and residential Schools (Indian Country Today) 6/29/21
Indigenous comedy in the spotlight (Indian Country Today) 6/29/21
New museum exhibit puts Dakota language at head of class (The Bismarck Tribune) 6/26/21
Native artist addresses 'need for healing' in new work for Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (Minneapolis Star Tribune) 6/25/21
Peace medal returned to Seneca after 116 years (Indian Country Today) 6/23/21
Shawnee reclaim the great Serpent Mound (Indian Country Today) 6/22/21
The museum building an incubator for Native food businesses (Civil Eats) 6/21/21
Highway signs commemorate historic Pawnee villages in Nebraska (Omaha World-Herald) 6/21/21
Native burial grounds found by historians (Indian Country Today) 6/20/21
Juneteenth from a Black Indigenous perspective (Cultural Survival) 6/18/21
Shoshone Bannock tribal member, Dr. LaNada War Jack speaks live with ABC Channel 7 San Francisco on new documentary of Alcatraz occupation (Indian Country Today) 6/18/21
UCLA and Tongva community host traveling Lummi totem pole (UCLA News) 6/17/21
Wilma Mankiller’s greatness minted onto 2022 quarter (Indian Country Today) 6/15/21
Minnesota novelist Louise Erdrich wins Pulitzer for personal story of 'persistence and survival' (Minneapolis Star Tribune) 6/11/21
Academy Award-winning actor Wes Studi will be keynote speaker at RES 2021 (Native News Online) 6/10/21
Indigenous arts and culture leader retires (Indian Country Today) 6/9/21
Mining for lithium, at a cost to Indigenous religions (High Country News) 6/9/21
Two-spirit pride stories (Indian Country Today) 6/9/21
Indigenous languages being revitalized in Wisconsin in efforts to reclaim, maintain identity (Wisconsin Rapids Tribune) 6/8/21
Restoring the Seneca Nation's history (Indian Country Today) 6/2/21
‘Our words are power’: Connecticut indigenous women writers to talk about culture and representation in Arts & Ideas event (Hartford Courant) 6/1/21
Diné historian strengthens history of traditional matriarchal leadership (Sedona Biz) 5/31/21
Coalition wants 'misleading' statue removed at NSU (Tahlequah Daily Press) 5/24/21
Lawmakers focus on justice reform, racist mascots (Indian Country Today) 5/24/21
Petroglyph vandalism is not a victimless crime (High Country News) 5/24/21
Colonization’s dark history puts heavy burden on tribes seeking repatriation of remains, objects (Alaska Public Media) 5/21/21
Bill would prohibit export of sacred tribal items (The Cordova Times) 5/20/21
Cherokee Nation breaks ground on historic Durbin Feeling Language Center (Native News Online) 5/19/21
St. Paul businessmen help return century-old birchbark scroll to Minnesota’s Ojibwe tribe (Duluth News Tribune) 5/18/21
History comes full circle as historic medal is returned to the Seneca Nation Monday (WIVB) 5/17/21
Private museums could face NAGPRA scrutiny (Indian Country Today) 5/16/21
GUEST EDITORIAL: American culture rests on Native American culture (The Post Star) 5/15/21
In focus: Retelling the history of Indigenous people (Publishers Weekly) 5/14/21
A new spin on a classic video game gives Native Americans better representation (NPR) 5/12/21
Martin Scorsese movie 'Killers of the Flower Moon' delves into tragic Osage tribal history (The Oklahoman) 5/9/21
Red Jacket Peace Medal returned to Seneca Nation after more than a century (Niagara Frontier Publications) 5/7/21
Spokane Tribe says no to Native American mascots (Spokane Public Radio) 5/7/21
Descendant of Native American civil rights pioneer calls on Harvard to return tomahawk (WGBH) 5/6/21
'Journey of the Freckled Indian' (Indian Country Today) 5/4/21
Indigenous media suffer from lack of funding, representation (Cultural Survival) 5/4/21
National Native American Hall of Fame announces the 2021 class of inductees (Indianz) 5/3/21
New beaded art exhibit features Native American artists from Great Basin (Reno Gazette Journal) 4/29/21
Schatz, Murkowski introduce bipartisan bill to support Native American languages (Indian Country Today) 4/29/21
Poet Laureate launches project to commemorate Indigenous communities (The Columbia Chronicle) 4/28/21
A 1722 murder spurred Native Americans' please for justice in early America (Smithsonian Magazine) 4/28/21
Inslee signs law regulating use of Native-American mascots (Everett Herald) 4/26/21
10 queer Indigenous artists on where their inspirations have led them (New York Times) 4/23/21
American Indian composer & pianist Jerod Tate shares culture (Lakota Times) 4/22/21
5 Oklahoma places to visit to learn about Native American cultures (The Oklahoman) 4/22/21
Louise Erdrich takes home Aspen Words Literary Prize for 'The Night Watchman' (NPR) 4/21/21
'Rutherford Falls' boss on building diverse Native American team for Peacock comedy (Stamford Advocate) 4/21/21
An archaeology society hosted a talk against returning Indigenous remains. Some want a new society (Science Mag) 4/19/21
After past missteps, History Colorado includes Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in a Sand Creek Massacre exhibit (Denverite) 4/19/21
Indiana University, tribal nations complete Angel Mounds repatriation (Mirage News) 4/16/21
Saving Indigenous subsistence lifeways (Indian Country Today) 4/16/21
How did a self-taught linguist come to own an Indigenous language? (The New Yorker)
Blood quantum and the white gatekeeping of Native American identity (California Law Review Blog)
‘A bridge between cultures’ (Indian Country Today) 4/14/21
‘Race against time’: Pandemic propels fight to save Native American languages (Politico) 4/13/21
Loveland artist: Sculpture tells ‘untold story’ of Native American influence on women’s suffrage (Loveland Reporter-Herald) 4/9/21
Indigenous actor joins ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ cast (Indian Country Today) 4/7/21
Seven Generation Thinking: Indigenous traditions in North America emphasize resilience; engineered timber is helping realize those principles (The Architect's Newspaper) 4/6/21
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Language Program utilize virtual classes amid COVID-19 pandemic (Indianz) 4/5/21
RezTok: Indigenous storytellers find stronger voice on popular platform (Indianz) 4/5/21
Mississippi returns hundreds of Native Americans' remains to Chickasaw Nation (Smithsonian Magazine) 4/2/21
Native American women Wikipedia edit-a-thon (Smithsonian - NMAI)
As the country reckons with race, will tribal nations lead the way? (High Country News) 3/30/21
A reckoning on Native American remains and cultural objects (The Harvard Gazette) 3/30/21
Cultural pathway to connect historic Cherokee sites in downtown Tahlequah (The One Feather) 3/30/21
Arizona declares holiday to honor Native code talkers (Indian Country Today) 3/29/21
Out of hibernation: MONAH comes roaring back (Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette) 3/28/21
Native Americans say next week's mascot bill part of momentum for change (Colorado Politics) 3/24/21
Radio diary: Keeping the Wampanoag language alive (WBUR) 3/23/21
Oneida architect draws inspiration from Indigenous heritage, including on Alcatraz Island (Green Bay Press Gazette) 3/23/21
Indigenous identity at the heart of San Antonio City Council race (Indianz) 3/22/21
Mars findings cataloged in Navajo language (The Eagle) 3/21/21
'Firekeeper's Daughter' forges a new path between cultures and genres (NPR) 3/20/21
Irish stand with Native Americans in revitalizing culture, language in bond dating to Great Potato Famine (Wisconsin Rapids Tribune) 3/17/21
Indigenous Roots presents new “Reclaimed Spaces” graffiti exhibit (MN Daily) 3/17/21
Kiowa actor ‘stood a little straighter’ after landing role as a chief of his tribe (Cronkite News) 3/16/21
Newly formed Cherokee National Historical Society conducts inaugural meeting (Indian Country Today) 3/16/21
Women's History Month profile: Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Nation Chief (Diversity Inc) 3/15/21
Museum preserves Tonkawa heritage (Norman Transcript) 3/15/21
Countering the fetishization of Indigenous art (Frieze) 3/15/21
Terrebonne Parish School Board sold precious Native American icon behind Houma Tribe's back, lawsuit says (Louisiana Record) 3/12/21
Indigenous eating (Flathead Beacon)
Opinion: The Jeep Cherokee is not a tribute to Indians. Change the name. (The Washington Post) 3/7/21
The places that inspired the work of poet and activist Suzan Shown Harjo (National Trust for Historic Preservation) 3/5/21
A role model to Native women (South Platte Independent) 3/3/21
Animated short 'Kapaemahu' could make history at the Oscars (Native News Online) 3/3/21
How an Indigenous tribe is preserving ancestral lands by cultivating heritage sugar (Food & Wine) 3/1/21
Vision Maker Media celebrates Women's History Month in March with online film event and panel discussion featuring prominent Indigenous women leaders (Yahoo Finance) 3/2/21
What's old is new: The return of Peacemaking (Indian Country Today) 3/1/21
Panelists explain how patriarchies altered two-spirit, Native cultures (Tahlequah Daily Press) 2/26/21
Podcast: Native American voices on the air in the early days of radio (Radio Survivor) 2/23/21
Dancing for the People (Indian Country Today) 2/19/21
Tomaquag Museum offering 'Literature and Author Conversations' series, free virtual programs (The Westerly Sun) 2/18/21
Legislation would ban use of Native American mascots, logos, team names (Columbia Basin Herald) 2/17/21
Lily Gladstone cast in upcoming Martin Scorsese film (Indian Country Today) 2/16/21
Indigenous fine dining … but make it curbside (Indian Country Today) 2/16/21
Pagosa's past: Government treaties and the Utes (Pagosa Sun) 2/16/21
Student draws from own Native American background, spotlights Trail of Tears in musical tribute to lives lost, experiences suffered (Central Jersey) 2/15/21
Indigenous feminism is our culture (Stanford Social Innovation Review) 2/11/21
$1.6 million grant will support digitization of Native American oral histories (Smithsonian Magazine) 2/11/21
How Indigenous oral tradition is guiding archaelogy and climate history in Alaska (Discover Magazine) 2/8/21
Native American artists to discuss artworks in virtual series (Grand Rapids Magazine) 2/5/21
Block Museum receives large grant to plan exhibit made by Indigenous artists (Daily Northwestern) 2/4/21
Indigenous archaelogy plows forward, despite anthropology's checkered past (Berkeley News) 2/4/21
Professor explores Black freedom on Native land (Pittwire) 2/4/21
Native American designer Dewayne Dale Jr. is taking back the moccasin after years of cultural appropriation (Footwear News) 2/3/21
Confronting the blind spot in the great American protest song 'This Land Is Your Land' (Northwest Public Broadcasting) 2/3/21
A children's book award lifts up a Native American illustrator--and a message (Nonprofit Quarterly) 2/2/21
Archaeologists identify famed fort where Indigenous Tlingits fought Russian forces (SIT News) 1/31/21
Native stories: Grant to help SF Independent Film Festival support Indigenous creativity (Albuquerque Journal) 1/29/21
How COVID-19 threatens Native languages (West River Eagle) 1/28/21
Sundance Film Festival goes 'Beyond Film' with Tulsa Race Massacre, Native storytelling at Oklahoma Satellite Screen (The Oklahoman) 1/28/21
Waganakising Odawa leaders’ formative role in Michigan history (Traverse City Record Eagle) 1/24/21
Indigenous fashion is more than tradition (Vogue) 1/23/21
Five Native films you should be streaming in 2021 (Tribal College Journal) 1/21/21
'Indigikitchen': Cooking show connects people to their ancestral recipes (MSN News) 1/19/21
The Capitol rioter dressed as a Native American is part of a long cultural of history of 'playing Indian.' We ignore it at our peril (Artnet News) 1/18/21
Yearlong celebration of Cherokee syllabary planned (Indianz) 1/11/21
Colorado Office of Film recognized for highlighting native voices (South Platte Independent) 1/6/21
How Native artisans in Alaska bring innovation and humor to their craft (Smithsonian Magazine) 1/2021
Tlingit artist designs video game artwork (Indian Country Today) 1/6/2021
