Blog

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

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.

Diné scientist Reagan Wytsalucy is restoring the Southwest peach and reconnecting Native communities with a food nearly erased by forced removal.

The Tour de France is known as one of the world’s ultimate endurance tests. But who are the Native American, First Nations, and Indigenous cyclists who have reached cycling’s biggest stage?

Learn how Ojibwe inventor Olivia Poole drew from cradleboard knowledge to create the Jolly Jumper, a lasting Indigenous contribution to modern baby care today.

The World Cup is more than a global soccer tournament. This article explores how Indigenous and First Nations cultures were represented through ceremony, language, host Nation recognition, and Native soccer athletes whose stories stretch from early First Nations teams to MLS records and World Cup history.

Akimel O’odham, Tohono O’odham, and Western Apache foodways show how Indigenous communities developed distinct approaches to farming, gathering, and thriving in the Southwest.

Case That Changed U.S. History. Elouise Cobell, also known as Yellow Bird Woman, exposed decades of mismanaged Native trust funds. Her work led to a $3.4 billion settlement and forced the U.S. government to confront systemic failures while creating lasting opportunities through land restoration and education for Native communities.

Once the largest Indigenous nation in northwest Mexico, the Opata people endured colonization, devastating disease, and forced assimilation — yet their story never ended. Through figures like Francisca Acuña and living traditions such as the fariseo ceremony, Opata identity persists across Sonora and southern Arizona, hidden in plain sight. The Museum of Indigenous People is proud to share it.

Hopi/Tewa potters Dot and Emerson Ami demonstrating traditional pottery techniques at the Museum of Indigenous People. Live pottery firing demonstration by Native artists using traditional methods.

Dr. Lois Ellen Frank (Kiowa), an award-winning chef, scholar, and educator, has helped bring Native American cuisine into the national conversation. Through research, cookbooks, and teaching, she highlights traditional Indigenous ingredients such as corn, beans, squash, and wild rice while exploring the cultural knowledge behind Native food traditions and the growing movement to reclaim Indigenous food sovereignty.

Eudora Montoya of Santa Ana Pueblo played a vital role in reviving one of the rarest traditions in Pueblo pottery. At a time when Santa Ana pottery had nearly disappeared, she preserved its methods, taught others, and helped ensure the art form would survive. Her work stands as a powerful reminder that cultural knowledge depends on those willing to protect it and pass it on.

Mary Golda Ross (Cherokee, 1908–2008) was the first known Native American woman to work as an aerospace engineer. As a founding engineer of Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works division, she contributed to early research on satellites and interplanetary flight paths to Mars and Venus. Her work helped shape the foundations of the U.S. space program and continues to inspire Native scientists today.

Severa Gutierrez-Tafoya of Santa Clara Pueblo was a master ceramic artist and matriarch of a renowned family of potters. Active for nearly 60 years, her work and firing techniques helped inspire the revival of polished blackware pottery. Though often overlooked during her lifetime, her artistry and influence continue through generations of Pueblo potters.

Angel Starr is an Omaha and Odawa artist and an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Through Fox Way Designs, she creates ribbon clothing and jewelry from beads, bone, porcupine quills, and birch bark, bringing family history, community, and Native creativity into everyday life.

Diné speaker Sarah Hendricks visited the Museum of Indigenous People to share the tradition of Navajo sheep raising and its place in Diné culture and family life. Part of the museum’s Education Series, her presentation showed how sheep raising connects generations through land, knowledge, and tradition. With family members there to support her, the event honored living Indigenous knowledge and the strength of Navajo women, families, and cultural continuity today for museum vi