Saint Joseph of the Lake Church and Cemetery, one of this year's featured historic places Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society

The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the history and culture of American Indians and Alaska Natives during National American Indian Heritage Month. This month is dedicated to recognizing the intertribal cultures, the events and lifeways, the designs and achievements of American Indians and Alaska Natives. As part of the observance, this site showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units. Join the National Register in paying powerful tribute to the spirit of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and their contributions to our history.

Historic view of Navajo National Council Chamber, Window Rock, AZ Photo courtesy of Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ, from National Historic Landmark collection

Navajo Nation Council Chamber
Window Rock, AZ
Center of government for the Navajo Nation and a symbol of the New Deal revolution in federal Indian policy during the 1930s.

Saint Joseph of the Lake Church and Cemetery Menominee, WI
Community center for the South Branch Menominee and a place for the preservation and continuation of their traditional life-ways.

Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall
Sitka, AK
Home to the original chapter of an organization representing the interests of Alaska natives.

Long deserted cliff dwellings of the ancient Salado people, now Tonto National Monument, are featured in one of the TwHP lesson plans for National American Indian Heritage Month. Courtesy of Tonto National Monument

Teaching with Historic Places
This program offers a series of award-winning lesson plans that use places listed in the National Register to enliven the study of history, social studies, and geography. TwHP has seven ready-to-use lesson plans, available for free downloading, that examine different aspects of American Indian history. Titles include:

• ~NEW~ Tonto National Monument: Saving a National Treasure
  Learn about one of the nation's most important conservation laws--the Antiquities Act of 1906--and how its passage protected important cultural sites such as Tonto National Monument, which preserves remnants of the Salado culture prior to European contact.
• The Trail of Tears: The Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
  Understand the factors that contributed both to the forced removal of the Cherokees off their homelands and to painful divisions within the tribe.
• The Battle of Honey Springs:
  The Civil War Comes to the Indian Territory
  Learn how the Civil War created fierce conflicts among American Indian nations who had been moved across the Mississippi River.
• The Battle of Horseshoe Bend:
  Collision of Cultures
  Consider the complex political and cultural differences that existed between European Americans and American Indians during the early 19th century and learn how these conflicting views ultimately affected the Creeks.
• The Battle of Oriskany: "Blood Shed a Stream Running Down"
  Learn how New York's Mohawk Valley became the setting for a fierce Revolutionary War battle that pitted residents of the area, including the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, against each other.
• Gran Quivira: A Blending of Cultures in a Pueblo Indian Village
  Examine the changing lifeways of the inhabitants of this village from the 7th century to the arrival of the Spanish in the early 17th century.
• Knife River: Early Village Life on the Plains
  Discover the complex culture and trading economy of the Hidatsa and Mandan tribes in North Dakota during the 18th century, as seen by anthropologists and artists.
• The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Documenting the Uncharted Northwest
  Learn how the 1804-1806 expedition effectively opened the Northwest to the influence of the United States, established relations with numerous American Indian nations, and gathered useful scientific documentation about the West.
• San Antonio Missions: Spanish Influence in Texas
  Explore a group of 18th-century missions in modern San Antonio to learn about Spanish influence on native peoples and the patterns of Texas culture.
  

Earthlodge at Knife River Indian Villages, featured in the Lewis and Clark Expedition travel itinerary National Park Service photo courtesy of Knifer River Indian Villages National Historic Site

National Register Travel Itineraries
Travel to historic places that convey the rich cultural heritage of our American Indian population with inspiring stories of their perseverance across America.

Lewis and Clark Expedition
The places highlighted in this itinerary reflect the numerous American Indian groups the explorers met during their Corps of Discovery. These places also tell the stories of Sacagawea and tribes like the Mandan, Hidatsa and Nez Perce who provided invaluable assistance to the explorers.

• American Southwest
  American Indians were the first explorers and settlers of the Southwest. Learn more about their distinctive cultures they established here.
• Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
  Taino and Carib Americans Indians inhabited this region before the arrival of the Europeans. Learn more about their lasting legacy on these islands.
• Pipestone, Minnesota
  This itinerary features historic places in Pipestone County, located in the south west corner of Minnesota. This area reflects a rich history of American Indian quarrying, prosperity brought by the railroad and mining enterprises, and a distinctive natural landscape. See specifically Pipestone Indian School Superintendent's House and Pipestone National Monument.
• Indian Mounds of Mississippi
  This guide to the American Indian Mound sites of Mississippi provides a compact source of information on these impressive landmarks of the ancient past. The mounds bring travelers face to face with a rich legacy of American Indian cultural achievement.
• Along the Georgia-Florida Coast
  Along the Georgia-Florida Coast uses the area's historic sites, buildings, structures, objects, and districts to reveal many of the most important developments in America's past, including encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples. See specifically Indian Key.
• Three Historic Nevada Cities: Carson City, Reno, Virginia City
  Learn about the period in our history when Nevada's American Indian children were forced to attend schools like the Stewart Indian School.
  
  

Featured Park 2005: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument Aztec Ruins National Monument Bandelier National Monument Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (previous feature) Big Cypress National Preserve Big Hole National Battlefield Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Canyon de Chelly National Monument Cape Krusenstern National Monument Casa Grande Ruins National Monument Chaco Culture National Historical Park Colonial National Historical Park Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Effigy Mounds National Monument (previous feature) El Malpais National Monument Everglades National Park Fort Bowie National Historic Site Fort Laramie National Historic Site Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Fort Smith National Historic Site Fort Stanwix National Monument Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Grand Portage National Monument Great Smoky Mountains National Park Hohokam Pima National Monument Horseshoe Bend National Military Park Hovenweep National Monument Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Katmai National Park and Preserve Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Kobuk Valley National Park Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Lava Beds National Monument Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Mesa Verde National Park (previous feature) Montezuma Castle National Monument Natchez Trace Parkway Navajo National Monument Nez Perce National Historical Park Northwest Alaska Areas Ocmulgee National Monument Pea Ridge National Military Park Pecos National Historical Park Petroglyph National Monument Pipestone National Monument Piscataway Park Poverty Point National Monument Russell Cave National Monument Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Shiloh National Military Park Sitka National Historical Park Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve Tonto National Monument Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (previous feature) Tumacacori National Historical Park Tuzigoot National Monument Walnut Canyon National Monument Washita Battlefield National Historic Site Whitman Mission National Historic Site Wupatki National Monument Yosemite National Park Yucca House National Monument

Presidential Proclamation: National American Indian Heritage Month 2005

American Indian History Month 2004, 2003 and 2002
For more information about American Indian properties listed in the National Register, please visit this past feature.

Indian Health Service
Visit the Bureau of Indian Affairs website which provides a calendar of events and further links, including a Brief History on the Creation of a National American Indian Heritage Month.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation: Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
Visit this website for more information on the 1992 U.S. Congress adoption of amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act (P.L. 102-575) that allow federally recognized Indian tribes to take on more formal responsibility for the preservation of significant historic properties on tribal lands.

Tribal Preservation Program
Learn more about the National Park Service (NPS) Tribal Preservation Program that assists Indian tribes in preserving their historic properties and cultural traditions.

Online Museum Exhibits
Discover American Indian artifacts from Chaco Canyon, Hubbell Trading Post and Bandelier National Monument in online exhibits of the NPS's Museum Management Program.

Archeology Program
The NPS Archeology Program encourages public interest in and stewardship of the sites contributing to our national heritage. See especially their features on The Earliest Americans, Ancient Architects of the Mississippi and Coso Rock Art.

Applied Ethnography Program
The NPS Applied Ethnography Program is concerned with living communities and the resources that are important to these groups. The program's role in the National Park Service includes providing information about groups who "assign significance to places closely linked with their own sense of purpose, existence as a community, and development as ethnically distinctive peoples."

Library of Congress: Built in America (HABS/HAER)
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States, including sites related to American Indian history and culture. Searches on keywords like "American Indian," or on a specific tribe like the Cherokee, will provide information on an array of associated sites. Most of the site records have publication-quality drawings, photographs and historical data.

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
The National NAGPRA Program develops regulations and guidance for implementing NAGPRA, provides training, assists Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations and museums with the NAGPRA process, and manages a grants program.

National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians, founded in 1944, is the oldest, largest and most representative national Indian organization serving the needs of a broad membership of American Indian and Alaska Native governments.

American Indian Heritage Foundation
The American Indian Heritage Foundation builds bridges of understanding and friendship between Indian and non-Indian people.

Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
The newly opened Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian fosters, protects and promotes an understanding of Native American cultures by collaborating with indigenous peoples across the Western Hemisphere. Visit the American Indian Heritage Month calendar of events.

Department of the Navy--Naval Historical Center
American Indians have participated with distinction in United States military actions for more than 200 years. The Navy highlights their involvement online in: 20th Century Warriors: Native American Participation in the United States Military.

American Indian Policy Center
The American Indian Policy Center has put together a resources list that provides access to information about US tribal relations, enrollment, sovereignty, and treaties. It also provides access to more information from the Center.

Index of Native American Resources on the Internet
Native American Resources on the Internet provides a wealth of links to learn more about Native Americans on the internet.

NativeWeb: Resources for Indigenous Cultures Around the World
Developed by a group of historians, independent scholars, and activists, NativeWeb offers a gateway to more than 4,000 historical and contemporary resources relating to more than 250 separate nations.

Navajo Nation Council Chamber | Saint Joseph of the Lake Church and Cemetery
Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall | Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
American Indian Feature Page | NR Home


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