Blog

Familiar places across Arizona and the Four Corners carry Diné names too. A sign at the Museum of Indigenous People offers another way to know the landscape and the people whose language continues to describe it.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day has particular meaning at MIP. Explore the history of the observance, the museum’s Smoki past, the 1990 Hopi protest, and the relationships helping shape the museum today.

Since Ryneldi Becenti became the WNBA’s first Native American player in 1997, Native women have continued to establish important firsts across the league.

A photograph by Jesse L. Nusbaum preserved the faces of a Jemez Pueblo woman and child, but not their names. Their image opens a larger conversation about photography, Indigenous representation, and what the historical record chose to remember.

September is Suicide Prevention Month. Learn about suicide rates affecting Indigenous communities, the importance of connection and hope, and Native-focused support resources in Arizona and nationwide.

The Navajo Art and Rug Fall Auction is a two-day, live and in-person event hosted by the Museum of Indigenous People in Prescott, Arizona, on Sept. 11-12, 2026. The event features Indigenous art and cultural works on Friday and Navajo rugs and related works on Saturday. Admission and bidder registration are free.

Ontario is more than the name of a lake and province. Rooted in the Indigenous languages of the Great Lakes, it was recorded by Europeans as early as 1641 and has endured despite centuries of colonial renaming.

Often called a Navajo wedding basket, a Diné ts’aa’ carries teachings that extend far beyond one ceremony. Explore its center, pathway, colors, and finished rim.

Taté Walker is a Two Spirit Mniconjou Lakota writer whose poetry confronts colonial expectations while exploring identity, kinship and responsibility. Their collection The Trickster Riots was featured in the Museum of Indigenous People’s 2023 Native Voice exhibition.

The story of Lori Ann Piestewa, the Hopi soldier whose name is carried by one of Phoenix’s most recognizable mountains.

Discover Gordon Lewis’s Apache Gaan figures at a Prescott museum, the Mountain Spirit Dance, federal suppression of Native ceremony, and the tradition’s survival.

In 1785, Toypurina helped bring Native communities together in a planned uprising against Mission San Gabriel. Her story reveals a larger history of Indigenous resistance to Spanish control over land, ceremony, and community life in California.

Born near Four Peaks and taken from his Yavapai family as a child, Wassaja became Dr. Carlos Montezuma, a physician, publisher, and outspoken defender of Native rights and Fort McDowell land and water.

Powwows are living Native gatherings shaped by generations of song, dance and cultural exchange. Learn about their history and how visitors can attend respectfully without treating participants or their traditions as attractions.

Hopi artist Abel Nash uses watercolor, family pottery designs, and cultural symbolism to carry generations of knowledge into the present.

Thirty Tribal Nations share the Colorado River Basin, and many hold some of its oldest water rights. As new rules take shape in 2026, the fight is about more than water. It is about sovereignty, culture, infrastructure, and who has the authority to decide the river’s future.

Border construction in 2026 damaged an ancient O’odham geoglyph, altered a mountain sacred to Kumeyaay and Kumiai communities, and placed Lower Pecos rock art at risk. The conflict raises a difficult question: can the United States secure its border without destroying the Indigenous history it is also responsible for protecting?

Federal officials are reconsidering protections covering approximately 336,400 acres around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The proposal could reopen federal public lands to mineral leasing and mining claims after decades of Tribal advocacy and bipartisan efforts to protect the Greater Chaco landscape.

Can tribal nations be fully sovereign if another government controls criminal jurisdiction and sacred lands? Explore Native sovereignty, Oliphant, Bears Ears, Chaco Canyon, and treaty rights.

Lacrosse returns to the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, but its story began long before the modern Games. Indigenous nations, especially the Haudenosaunee, shaped one of North America’s oldest team sports.