The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are native to the Southeastern United States and members of the Muskogean linguistic family, which traces its roots to a mound-building, maize-based society that flourished in the Mississippi River Valley for more than a thousand years before European contact. They are a federally recognized indian tribe.
On their journey westward in 1804, Lewis and Clark came upon the Ponca Tribe. Lewis and Clark reported that the tribe, once a part of the Omaha Tribe, separated and lived along a branch of the Red River near- Lake Winnipeg. However, the Sioux forced the Poncas, as well as many of the smaller plains cultures, to relocate to the west bank of the Missouri River in the early 1700's.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was both the first woman deputy chief and the first woman principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
Oh Redman To My Beloved People and All Native Americans Oh Redman tall and proud, watch him take his stand. To protect his humble people, and their mighty sacred land.Continue to Oh Redman – Native American Poetry →
Students, parents, teachers and all people interested in Native American and local history will have an opportunity to experience the Muscogee and Cherokee cultures up close Friday, Nov. 5 at the Tennessee Riverpark’s West Pavilion. The Chattanooga Indigenous Resource Center and Library (CIRCL) will host the Native American Gathering at the River, an interactive, educational program ex ploring the cultures, both past and present, of the people who first inhabited the region.Continue to Native American Gathering Educational Program On Nov.…
Nearly every day, some determined person with pale skin and blue eyes comes to Lela Ummerteskee from far away, ready to fulfill a dream and register as an American Indian.
Not everyone has a rock-solid pedigree. The tribal enrollment officer for the Cherokee Nation has been presented with everything from an X-ray of a head purporting to show Indian cheekbones to scraped-off patches of skin -- all offered as proof that a distant ancestor was Native American.
Continue to Native American Roots, Once Hidden, Now Embraced →