Links to the Library
Resources for Research
Below are listed some of the research materials available on the Web.
- U. S. Census Bureau American Indian and Alaska Native Data and Links
Demographic information - Native American Facts for Kids
fact sheets about clothes, food, hairstyles, homes; background information about tribes; lots of links to other websites - Texas Indians
written for kids, with lots of information on the tribes who lived in Texas - U. S. Department of Defense: American Indian Heritage Month
Learn about Native Americans who served in the military - America.gov: American Indian Heritage Month Links
links to federal agencies' sites - Fourth and Fifth Grade Student Research Sources
links to sites with about Native American arts, crafts, houses, artifacts, clothing, legends
Classroom Activities
- Education World
Offers activities such as games, puzzles, rug making, cooking - Smithsonian Education Teaching Resources
links to information about buffalo hide paintings, textiles, indigenous geography, music, a Sioux diary - TeacherVision
lesson plans, quizzes, math, drama, art, music, more - Native Americans in the Olden Times
Written for elementary school children. Discusses daily life of various tribes in the United States and Canada. - Guide to Selecting Children's and YA Books About Native Americans

Megasites
The Following web sites will give you lots of links to information about Native Americans.
- San Antonio Public Library's Native American
This is a master list, with links to web sites that cover dozens of topics, ranging from tribal directories to languages to beadwork to clothing to pottery to....! - Index of Native American Resources on the Internet
A virtual library with links to sites covering culture, languages, artists, museums, music, movies, books and more. - Native American Sites on the Internet
From the Cumberland County (NJ) AVA Center. Includes links to sites about food, games, culture, mythology, art, symbols, languages, more.
Local Tribes
Historical information about the tribes that lived in the San Antonio area
- Tonkawa
A brief essay about the Tonkawa, a central Texas tribe - Texas Indians: The Wichita
a brief essay - Handbook of Texas Online: Chayopin Tribe
a brief essay - Native Peoples of the South Texas Plains During Early Historic Times
a lengthy essay, with illustrations, from the University of Texas' Texas Beyond History - A Shared Experience: Coahuiltecans
from a book by Mario L. Sanchez
Local Organizations
- American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions
an organization that seeks to preserve the culture of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation and other indigenous people of the Spanish colonial missions in south Texas and northern Mexico
Places to Visit
- National Museum of the American Indian
With sites in New York City, Maryland, Washington, DC. - Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
In Indianapolis - Institute of American Indian Arts
In Santa Fe - The Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art
At the University of Oklahoma - Kwahadi Museum of the American Indian
In Amarillo - Museum of Western Art
In Kerrville - Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site
In Alto, Texas - Tigua Cultural Center
In El Paso - National Register of Historic Places
list of historic sites around the country
Welcome to...
National American Indian Heritage Month
In 1990, President Bush proclaimed November as "National American Indian Heritage Month." This was not the first such celebration, however; in 1915, the Boy Scouts of America celebrated a "First Americans Day," the Congress of the American Indian Association proclaimed the second Saturday of May to be "American Indian Day." In the first half of the twentieth century, several states, including New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, recognized an American Indian Day. In 1976, President Ford signed legislation declaring Oct. 10-16 "Native American Awareness Week."More about National American Indian Heritage Month
Learn more about the background of Native American Heritage Month
- Library of Congress
learn about the history of Native American Heritage Month, find out what the Library of Congress is doing to celebrate, explore images from the Library's collection - Presidential Proclamation: National American Indian Heritage Month, 2008
you can also search the index for older proclamations - Law Library of Congress:
history of the legislation that led to the National American Indian Heritage Month - United States Senate: Celebrating National American Indian Heritage Month
a very brief essay of the holiday, but links to biographies of Native Americans who have served in the Senate
Suggested Books
Here are some of the great books written about Native Americans.
Books by Native Americans
The Plague of Doves - by Louise Erdrich
The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water - by Michael Dorris
Moving backward in time, Dorris's critically acclaimed debut novel is a lyrical saga of three generations of Native American women beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets.
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Native American - Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian
Subject Guide |
Links: Profile & Guides |
Native American Heritage Photos
Movies about Native Americans
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Begins powerfully with the Sioux triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn and goes on to center on three powerful men. Charles Eastman is a young, Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor. Sitting Bull is the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, dignity and sacred land. Senator Henry Dawes is one of the men responsible for the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale work to improve the lives of the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant for kinder Indian treatment.
Skinwalkers
The Navajo Tribal Police investigate the murder of a medicine man. At the crime scene is a partially completed pictograph. One clue sends a chill through a young officer: the arrow used in the killing has a tip of human bone, a sign that a Navajo spirit - a "skinwalker" - is at work.
Smoke Signals
Victor and Thomas have lived their entire lives on the same Indian Reservation but couldn't be more different. When Victor is called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip. The catch: Victor has to take Thomas along for the ride.
The Business of Fancydancing
Former Spokane Reservation best friends, Seymour and Aristotle have taken different paths when they are brought together for the funeral of an old friend. Both went off to college; one is now a successful poet, the other returned home embittered. Tensions and resentments flare as they meet again.
We Shall Remain
They were charismatic and forward thinking, imaginative and courageous, compassionate and resolute. At times they were arrogant, vengeful and reckless. For hundreds of years, Native American leaders from Massasoit, Tecumseh, and Tenskwatawa, to Major Ridge, Geronimo, and Fools Crow valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture. Sometimes, their strategies were militaristic, but more often they used what influence they had in a diplomatic, political, legal, as well as spiritual way. Tells the history of the United States from the Native American perspective.
Windtalkers
A battle-weary Marine is assigned to guard - and ultimately befriends - a young Navajo soldier who has been trained to be a code talker. This code, the Navajo code, and the men who knew the code, were to be guarded as they went into action. It was the unspoken duty of the Marine to kill the Navajo soldier before he could be taken prisoner of war by the Japanese. This is the one wartime code that was never broken by the enemy.



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