Native Americans Some years ago I was hired to write scripts for a series of video documentaries about different groups of Native Americans. Even a "good education" did not prepare me for this eye-opening experience. I believe that a non-Indian person of good conscience can not learn this history without being saddened, sickened, and angered. The only relief is that the U.S. government (and other groups) did not totally succeed in eradicating all Indians (yes, it's okay to say the "I"-word) or their cultures. Efforts are underway, mostly by Indians, to recapture and retain as much of their heritage as possible.

* Shown here is the "Key Marco Cat", a wooden cougar figure from an Indian site at Key Marco, on Florida's southwest coast. The 16th-century figure stands 6-inches high, and is part of the collections of the National Museum of Natural History. Pictures of the Key Marco Cat have been published many times, recently on a U.S. postage stamp. Photo by Victor Krantz. (c) 1993 Smithsonian Institution. (Caption text from Smithsonian; see links below for more information.)

The interest in Indian topics by non-Indians is sometimes a ticklish subject. Some people use the guilt trip to punish themselves for some unrelated personal anxiety. Others attribute near-divine mystical attributes to all Native Americans, a sort of superficial notion that, by stereotyping, continues to deny Indians their dignity. My goal is simply to help raise consciousness for some people, the way a happenstance writing assignment did for me. Native American political and social issues are still with us and will always be, and if nothing else, the information available through these links can help us all be more sensitive and better-informed.

Note: This site provides a large page devoted to Indians of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley.

• * The Chief Joseph Brant Mask was once used to illustrate this page. Here's why it's gone -- and why I chose the Key Marco Cat to illustrate this page instead.
• On a somewhat related note, American Indian Mythology and the Use of Computers is a brief preliminary report on that topic from SIGGRAPH.
• With a tight presidential race, Indians are in the national spotlight. Native Vote 2004 is a non-partisan effort to raise Indian participation in the electoral process. Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation, former two-time Ralph Nader running mate Winona LaDuke, and others have endorsed John Kerry for President.
• The National Museum of the American Indian website requires a graphical web browser, but is worth visiting for its unique exhibits.
• When I first published this page in 1996, Paula Giese single-handedly ran a colorful and very outspoken website at Fond du Lac Tribal Community College. About a year later, she passed away, and eventually the college erased all her work from its site. For years I assumed it to be lost, but I recently learned that web designer and kindred spirit Karen Strom has republished all of Paula's pages. Even without ongoing maintenance, Native American Indian Resources is a great accomplishment and deserves a look.
• NativeTech: Native American Technology and Arts explores many aspects of Indian craft and technology, debunking some Indian stereotypes. It also provides a huge body of related resources.
• Karen Strom (see reference above) provides a great collection of Native American Cultural Resources on the Internet and a listing of Home Pages for Individual Native Americans, formerly housed at the University of Massachusetts.
• This Week in North American Indian History brings Native American history to life, with references throughout the year. It also provides an extraordinary collection of other informational links, alphabetized within categories.
• The "Internet Public Library" at the University of Michigan offers a Native American Authors website, with information about both contemporary and historical writings.
• The American Indian Heritage Foundation continues moving things around. Some of the links previously listed here have gone, at least temporarily. But it continues to offer useful information, and hopefully will restore some of the missing resources in future updates.
• Click here to download The Great Law of Peace, the agreement that bound the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. (ASCII text, Zip compressed format, 28K)
• The story of the real Pocahontas is one of several profiles of notable Native American women available at the Native American Art and Education Center.
• The Smithsonian used to have many Native American photos online. But as of this revision, its online image archive seems to offer almost nothing from that collection. If that situation changes, you'll find out about it here.