Do you want to learn more about Native peoples of the Midwest?

Consult Books

On the Moundbuilders

A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff. “Native American Literature,” in The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, eds. Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher, and Andrew Cayton, 2007. The author profiles Indian authors who grew up in and wrote about the Midwest from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. Authors of life histories, autobiographies, and fiction include Black Hawk, Sam Blowsnake, Mountain Wolf Woman, George Copway, Andrew Blackbird, Simon Pokagon, Charles Eastman, Gerald Vizenor, Ray A. Young Bear, Susan Power, E. Donald Two-Rivers, and Roberta Hill.

Alice Berkson and Michael D. Wiant. “Discover Illinois Archaeology,” Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology, 2004. This brief overview of archaeology in Illinois includes essays by leading archaeologists on life during the eras that archaeologists have named Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland (what the “Indians of the Midwest” website refers to as the era of Ceremonial Centers), Mississippian (what the “Indians of the Midwest” website refers to as the era of Political- Ceremonial Centers), Prehistoric, and American colonial.

Robert A. Birmingham and Leslie E. Eisenberg, Indian Mounds of Wisconsin, 2000. An excellent discussion of Wisconsin archaeology, covering the Woodland stage mound complexes, including the effigy mounds, and the Mississippian Mound Tradition, including Aztalan. Also included is information on mound centers that the public can visit.

Robert A. Birmingham and Lynne G. Goldstein. Aztalan: Mysteries of an Ancient Indian Town, 2005. A well illustrated discussion of life at Aztalan.

Robert L. Hall. An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual, 1997. This work helped pioneer attempts to show links between Native belief systems prior to and after contact with Europeans.

James R. Jones and Amy L. Johnson, “Early Peoples of Indiana,” Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 2008. This is a short description of the archaeology of Indiana, with information about important sites, the work of archaeologists, and the laws that protect historic sites. The authors include information on the Woodland (including Hopewell) sites and the Mississippian sites (including Angel Mounds).

Bradley T. Lepper. “Great Serpent” in Timeline (Sept.-Oct. 1998). This is an excellent discussion of how archaeologists determined the approximate date of the Serpent Mound.

Bradley T. Lepper. Ohio Archaeology, 2005. This is an excellent overview, beautifully illustrated and clearly written. It covers the Paleo-Indian to the contact periods.

George R. Milner. The Moundbuilders, 2004. A clearly written overview of the archaeology of the eastern United States, including the Midwest. It is well illustrated and covers the Woodlands and Mississippian eras.

Douglas R. Parks and Robert L. Rankin. “Siouan Languages,” in Handbook of North American Indians: Plains, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie, vol. 13, pt. 1, 2001. Linguists Parks and Rankin discuss the history of Siouan languages.

Timothy R. Pauketat. Cahokia, 2009. This well-written book describes Cahokia and its history.

Paul Radin. Winnebago Hero Cycles, 1948. This study of oral traditions was used by archaeologists, including Robert Hall, to interpret the art of the political-ceremonial centers (Mississippian sites).

Richard F. Townsend, ed. Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, 2004. This is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book that supports the catalog of an exhibit of the same name. On the Indians of the Midwest website, the discussion of ceremonial centers draws from “Hopewell Art in Hopewell Places” by Mark F. Seeman and “The Newark Earthworks” by Bradley T. Lepper. The discussion of political-ceremonial centers draws heavily from “The Cahokia Site and Its People” by Robert L. Hall, “The Cahokian Expression” by James A. Brown, “People of Earth, People of Sky” by F. Kent Reilly III, “Art, Ritual, and Chiefly Warfare in the Mississippian World” by David H. Dye, and “World on a String” by George E. Lankford. Townsend provides an excellent overview in “American Landscape, Seen and Unseen.”

N. H. Winchell, comp. The Aborigines of Minnesota, 1906-11. This volume includes survey maps of many of the mounds and earthworks in the state. This work is comparable to I. A. Lapham, Antiquities of Wisconsin, 1855 and Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, 1848.

On the fur trade era

Gary Clayton Anderson. Kinsmen of Another Kind, 1984. Anderson gives a good overview of Dakota history during the eras of the fur trade and American expansion and addresses Dakota perspectives on frontier history, 1650-1862. He provides an excellent discussion of the Sioux Conflict, highlighting the grievances that led to the violence. The author also explains how a new way of life emerged from the relations between the French and Indians.

Bert Anson. The Miami Indians, 1970. A history of the Miami from about 1700 to 1812.

David R. M. Beck. Siege and Survival, 2002. An excellent discussion of Menominees during the fur trade era.

Nancy Bonvillain. The Huron, 1989. A brief history of the Wyandot, written for the general reader. It includes the migrations of various groups of Wyandot.

Colin G. Calloway. The First Americans, 2nd ed., 2004. An excellent textbook that covers the fur trade era in the Midwest.

Colin G. Calloway. One Vast Winter Count: The North American West before Lewis and Clark, 2003. The author provides an excellent, clearly written synthesis of the research on the history of the Great Lakes region up to about 1800. The multiethnic society and culture that resulted from the fur trade is discussed, incorporating the pioneering research of Richard White (The Middle Ground, 1991), which was largely written for specialists.

James A. Clifton. The Pokagons, 1683-1983, 1984. A history of the Pokagon division of Potawatomi living in Michigan.

Raymond J. DeMallie, ed. Handbook of North American Indians, v. 13, 2001. The essay by Patricia Albers provides a good overview of Dakota history up to the present.

R. David Edmunds and Joseph L. Peyser. The Fox Wars, 1993. This is a narrative history of the conflict between the French and the Fox Indians. It also provides an excellent overview of Sauk and Fox history up to the mid-18th century.

R. David Edmunds, Frederick E. Hoxie, and Neal Salisbury. The People: A History of Native America, 2007. This is an excellent textbook that includes the Great Lakes region.

R. David Edmunds. The Potawatomis, 1978. A good history up to the time of removal in the 1830s.

Arrell Morgan Gibson. The Kickapoos, 1963. Historian Gibson’s work covers the fur trade to their residence in Oklahoma in the early 20th century.

Robert S. Grumet. The Lenapes, 1989. The author discusses the movement of some Delaware villages to Ohio in the 18th century, as well as their settlement in multiethnic communities. This work is written for a general audience.

James M. McClurken. Gah-Baeh-Jhagwah-Buk: The Way It Happened, 1991. This well illustrated book gives a brief overview of Ottawa history.

Lucy Eldersveld Murphy. A Gathering of Rivers, 2000. This is an excellent study of the Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, and other communities between 1737 and 1832. The book explains how Indians, Métis, and French communities adapted successfully to the frontier economy by cooperating and how the entry of American miners in the 19th century changed frontier society. Murphy also compares the economic adaptations of men and women, and Indians and Métis communities, and provides a good discussion of how historians try to incorporate Native perspectives.

Patricia K. Ourada. The Menominee, 1990. Written for the general public, this book gives an overview of Menominee history, including the fur trade era.

James Scott. The Illinois Nation, 1973. This is a sketch of the Illinois villages’ history from the 17th century up to the time they were terminated by the federal government in 1956. They signed a removal treaty in 1832 and settled in Kansas until they were forced to move to Indian Territory in 1867.

Susan Sleeper-Smith. Indian Women and French Men, 2001. This is a detailed account of social and cultural exchange between Native people and French traders, with special attention to the role of Indian and Métis women married to French traders. Many of these women were Catholic converts who used their kinship network and the church institution of godparenthood to support their families’ role in shaping the fur trade in the 17th into the early 19th centuries.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner, ed. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, 1987. The maps provide information on the history of the region from the time of European contact to the 19th century.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner. “The Glaize in 1792,” Ethnohistory 25, 1 (1978). This is an excellent description of a multiethnic community in Ohio. There was a French and English trading town and seven Indian villages. The residents included Anglo- and African-American captives.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner. The Ojibwa, 1992. A good summary of Ojibwa history, including the fur trade era. The book is written for the general reader.

Bruce Trigger, ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast, v. 15, 1978. Though dated, this is a major anthropological source on the history, language, and way of life of Native people in the northeast woodlands area. This work defines what this website refers to as “the Midwest” (and historians call the Old Northwest) as the Great Lakes-Riverine region, a woodlands area in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois where the indigenous peoples adapted to the environment in very similar ways. In addition to providing descriptions of the Algonkian-speaking groups living here at the time the Europeans arrived, the book sketches Iroquois-speaking Huron and Oneida, who entered the Great Lakes region from the east, and the “coastal” Delaware and Mahican who moved into the area.

Mary Lethert Wingerd. North Country, 2010. This is a well written and detailed history of interaction between Native people (Dakota and Ojibwa) and Europeans in the upper Mississippi and Lake Superior region.

On the American expansion era

David Adams. Education for Extinction, 1995. The author gives a comprehensive account of assimilation policy as it was implemented in Indian boarding schools, 1875-1928.

Gary Clayton Anderson. Little Crow, 1986. This is a biography of the Dakota chief who was a leader during the Dakota War of 1862 (also known as the Sioux Conflict).

Bert Anson. The Miami Indians, 1970. This history includes the Indiana and Oklahoma divisions of the Miami during the 19th century and beyond.

David R. M. Beck, Siege and Survival, 2002. This work tells the story of the Menominee’s successful struggle to remain in their homeland and hold on to their legal rights there.

David R. M. Beck, The Struggle for Self-Determination, 2005. This history covers the Menominee from 1854 to the end of the 20th century.

Nancy Bonvillain. The Huron, 1989. The author discusses Wyandot history during the removal and resettlement in Oklahoma.

Thomas A. Britten, American Indians in World War I, 1997. This is a study of the soldiers and the Indian home front during the war. The author references experiences of Ojibwa, Winnebago, Menominee, and Oneida soldiers.

Colin G. Calloway. The First Americans, 2nd ed., 2004. This is an excellent textbook that includes a good discussion of American expansion.

James A. Clifton. The Pokagons, 1683-1983, 1984. This book is the only history of the Michigan Potawatomi during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Sarah E. Cooke and Rachel B. Ramadhyani, comp. Indians and a Changing Frontier: The Art of George Winter, 1993. This volume contains a good essay by R. David Edmunds on the Miami and Potawatomi in the 1830s, as well as commentary on the art of Winter.

Gregory Dowd. A Spirited Resistance, 1992. In this study of Indian revitalization movements, including the ones led by Pontiac and Tecumseh, the author focuses on the integration of religious and political ideas in the efforts to form a wider ethnic identity, that of “Indian” that would serve the goals of independence.

R. David Edmunds. Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership, 1984. This is a biography of Tecumseh and a description of the society in which he lived.

R. David Edmunds, Frederick E. Hoxie, and Neal Salisbury. The People: A History of Native America, 2007. This is an excellent textbook that includes discussion of the Great Lakes region.

Arrell Morgan Gibson. The Kickapoos, 1963. Historian Gibson covers the American expansion through the Kickapoo’s residence in Oklahoma in the early 20th century.

Robert S. Grumet. The Lenapes, 1989. This work provides a history of the Delaware in Ohio, their exodus into Indiana, and their removal from Indiana to Missouri.

William T. Hagan. The Sac and Fox Indians, 1958. This history covers the treaty era and reservation life.

Laurence Hauptman. Between Two Fires, 1995. This is a general study of Indian participation in the Civil War. Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters was an Indian unit of Ottawa, Ojibwa, Delaware, Huron, Potawatomi, and Oneida that fought for the Union.

Laurence M. Hauptman and L. Gordon McLester III, eds. Oneida Indian Journey, 1999. This collection of essays examines the Oneida’s efforts to leave New York and settle in Wisconsin and Ontario from 1784 to 1860. The authors include both Oneida and non-Oneida writers.

Joseph B. Herring. Kenekuk: the Kickapoo Prophet, 1988. This is a history of the Vermillion Band of Kickapoo, from along the Wabash and Vermillion Rivers in Indiana and Illinois, and their leader Kenekuk. Kenekuk (1790-1852) was the leader of a new religion embraced by the Kickapoos and others in the 1820s. This religion buttressed the band’s effort to remain in their homeland. Kenekuk’s strategy was to help the Kickapoo retain their lands and identity without resort to warfare. Frontier Americans viewed Kenekuk’s people as cooperative, and they were accepting of them as neighbors. This group of Kickapoo were removed to Kansas in 1832, and there Kenekuk continued his strategy. Today this group of Kickapoo still have a reservation in Kansas.

Frederick E. Hoxie. A Final Promise, 1984. Historian Hoxie discusses the federal government’s assimilation policy from the 1880s to the 1920s. He argues that this policy reflected ideas and events in American society at large.

Rebecca Kugel, To Be the Main Leaders of Our People, 1998. This is a history of Minnesota Ojibwa politics from 1825 to 1898. The author makes extensive use of documents that contain the Ojibwa’s viewpoints on the events of the time.

Melissa L. Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy, 1994. This is a detailed history of the reservation economy, 1889-1920, and the role that Ojibwa and Métis members of the reservation community played subsequent to allotment. The author gives an excellent analysis of the impact of allotment, as well as the federal government’s competency policy and “racial” approach to Ojibwa identity. Meyer documents the fraud that accompanied the loss of land and resources, sometimes with the complicity of the federal government, ostensibly the trustee for these resources.

Roy W. Meyer. History of the Santee Sioux, rev. ed., 1993. This is a detailed history of the various Minnesota Santee villages up until the late 1980s.

Roger Nichols, Black Hawk and the Warrior’s Path, 1992. A brief biography of Black Hawk that provides context for his actions and the reactions of others to him.

James W.Oberly. A Nation of Statesmen, 2005. The author focuses on the political strategies that enabled the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans to relocate to Wisconsin, resist termination, and achieve various political goals from 1815 to 1972.

Stewart Rafert. The Miami Indians of Indiana, 1996. A good history of the Indiana Miami and their struggles in Indiana.

James Scott. The Illinois Nation, 1973. This historical sketch covers the treaty era and the Illinois people’s removal to Kansas, then Oklahoma, where they organized a tribal government, successfully pursued claims against the United States, and were terminated under protest in 1956. They were federally recognized as a tribe again in 1997.

Bruce Trigger, ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast, v. 15, 1978. This source briefly discusses the history of the tribes in the Midwest up to the early 1970s.

Stephen Warren. The Shawnees and Their Neighbors, 1795-1870, 2005. An excellent history of the Shawnee in Ohio and after removal.

Mary Lethert Wingerd. North Country, 2010. This is a detailed and well written history of the Ojibwa and Dakota and their interactions with Americans in Minnesota up to the 1860s.

On the sovereignty era

Grant Arndt. The Making and Muting of an Indigenous Media Activist — American Ethnologist 37, 3, 2010. Anthropologist Arndt provides biographical information and discusses Charles Round Low Cloud’s “Indian News” column (1930-49) as a vehicle for activism. Low Cloud challenged racial oppression in the 1930s. Arndt also shows how non-Indians muted indigenous media activism.

David R. M. Beck, The Struggle for Self-Determination, 2005. This history of the Menominee covers the 20th century.

Alison Bernstein. American Indians and World War II, 1990. The author discusses the soldiers, the homefront, and the post-war activities of veterans. Also mentioned is the work of Michigan Ojibwa and Wisconsin Oneida in using their languages to develop code for the armed services.

Paul Boyer. Native American Colleges. 1997. A good review of the establishment and accomplishments of tribal colleges.

Colin G. Calloway. The First Peoples, 2nd ed., 2004. An excellent textbook that includes a discussion of contemporary issues.

George Pierre Castile. To Show Heart: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1960-1975, 1978. Anthropologist Castile provides a clear discussion of the War on Poverty programs and the development of self-determination in Indian communities.

Brenda J. Child. Boarding School Seasons, 1998. Based largely on letters written between the Indian students and their relatives, this book gives a good picture of the boarding school experience.

Brenda J. Child. “Wilma’s Jingle Dress: Ojibwe Women and Healing in the Early Twentieth Century,” in Albert L. Hurtado, Reflections of American Indian History, 2008. Historian Child discusses the origin of the jingle dress society.

Charles E. Cleland, The Place of the Pike, 2001. Written with the cooperation of the Bay Mills Indian Community, this well-illustrated book includes a history of the struggle for hunting and fishing rights.

James A. Clifton. The Pokagons, 1683-1983, 1984. A brief but scholarly treatment of the history of the Potawatomi Indians of southwest Michigan and northern Indiana to the early 1980s.

James A. Clifton, George L. Cornell, and James M. McClurken, People of the Three Fires, 1992. Written for a general audience and appropriate for the classroom, the authors provide an overview of the history of the Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwa of Michigan up to the present.

Daniel M. Cobb. Native Activism in Cold War America, 2008. Historian Cobb presents a detailed history of American Indian efforts to support tribal sovereignty.

Stephen Cornell. The Return of the Native, 1988. Sociologist Cornell’s work is a history of Indian activism from the fur trade era to the 1970s.

Bill Dunlop and Marcia Fountain-Blacklidge, The Indians of Hungry Hollow, 2004. These Ottawa and Chippewa authors tell about growing up in an Ottawa community in Michigan.

R. David Edmunds, Frederick E. Hoxie, and Neal Salisbury. The People: A History of Native America, 2007. This textbook includes the Great Lakes region and encompasses the beginning of the 21st century.

Donald L. Fixico. Termination and Relocation, 1986. The author gives an overview of the history and effect of these federal policies on Indian communities.

Donald L. Fixico. The Urban Indian Experience, 2000. Historian Fixico provides a general overview of the relocation program and of Indian life in cities.

Michael J. Goc. Reflections of Lac du Flambeau, 1995. This is a well illustrated account from 1745-1995.

Maude Mitchell Kegg. Portage Lake: Memories of an Ojibwe Childhood, 1993. This account, in both Ojibwa and English, is by an elder from the Mille Lacs community.

James La Grand. Indian Metropolis, 2002. An excellent study of Indian migration to Chicago and the Indian community there from 1945-1975.

Susan Lobo and Kurt Peters, eds. American Indians and the Urban Experience, 2001. This collection of essays includes papers on Indians in Chicago by Terry Straus and Debra Valentino and by David R. M. Beck.

Patty Loew. Indian Nations of Wisconsin, 2001. The author provides a cultural and historical sketch of each of the tribes in Wisconsin.

Nancy Oestreich Lurie, Wisconsin Indians, 2002. A brief account of the history of the Native peoples in Wisconsin. It includes discussion of termination, relocation, the struggle for hunting and fishing rights, environmental issues, and the efforts of tribal governments to exert sovereignty.

James M. McClurken. Gah-Baeh-Jhagwah-Buk: The Way It Happened, 1991. The book is a well illustrated history of the Odawa to the 1980s.

Roy W. Meyer. History of the Santee Sioux, rev. ed., 1993. The author discusses life in the Minnesota Santee communities in the 1930s to the 1980s.

Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Against the Tide of American History: The Story of the Mille Lacs Anishinabe, 1985. This history includes the self-determination era.

Larry Nesper. The Walleye War, 2002. Anthropologist Nesper’s work is an excellent study of the sovereignty movement among Ojibwa.

James W. Oberly. A Nation of Statesmen, 2005. Oberly’s history of the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation community continues into the 1970s.

Patricia K. Ourada. The Menominee, 1990. A clearly written history of the Menominee from prior to contact to the present. It is written for a general audience.

Thomas D. Peacock, ed. A Forever Story: The People and Community of the Fond du Lac Reservation, 1998. This well illustrated book was written by members of the community.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. Diba Jimooyung: Telling Our Story, 2005. This is a history of the Saginaw Chippewa written by members of the community.

Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior. Like a Hurricane, 1999. A narrative history of the political movement that advocated for Indians in the late 1960s and 1970s. It includes information on the history of the American Indian Movement.

George Spindler and Louise Spindler. Dreamers Without Power, 1971. This study of the Menominee in 1951-61 was a misguided attempt by anthropologists to describe the extent to which Menominee life had changed. The Spindlers tried to describe continuity and change in terms of degrees of assimilation. They categorized individuals in terms of how much they differed from a “traditional” baseline culture. Menominees were described as “native-oriented” (similar to Indians in the past), transitional (on the way to being like non-Indians), and “acculturated” (similar to non-Indians). This approach was subsequently discredited in anthropology. A few years after the Spindlers’ study, Menominees they described as transitional and acculturated were at the forefront of the struggle to restore Menominee tribalism and were supporters of Menominee cultural renaissance. They had essentially replaced their elders, in point of fact Spindlers’ native-oriented Menominee. The Spindlers had ignored the Menominee’s own definition of identity, instead relying on arbitrarily selected “traditional” traits that they believed native-oriented Menominees possessed.

Wayne J. Stein. “Tribal Colleges and Universities,” in Handbook of North American Indians: Contemporary, v. 2, 2008. This article discusses the philosophy of the founders of native-controlled colleges and the goals and achievements of the tribal college movement. In 2007 there were 36 tribal colleges in the United States, 8 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Terry Straus and Grant P. Arndt, eds. Native Chicago, 1998. This volume contains a group of interesting and comprehensive essays on the early history of Indians in Chicago, the history of the Chicago Indian community in the 20th century, and contemporary issues of relevance to the Chicago Indian community.

Helen Hornbeck Tanner. The Ojibwa, 1992. A clearly written history of the Ojibwa from prior to contact to the present. It is written for a general audience.

Veronica E. Velarde Tiller. Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country, 2005. This reference work provides statistics about population, land ownership, employment and education, as well as a historical sketch for all the American Indian tribes.

Jack Utter. American Indians: Answers to Today’s Questions, 2nd ed., 2001. The author answers frequently asked questions about American Indians.

Linda Sue Warner and Gerald E. Gipp, eds. Tradition and Culture in the Millennium: Tribal Colleges and Universities. 2009. A good overview of the tribal college movement and its repercussions.

David E. Wilkins. American Indian Politics and the American Political System, 2002. A good overview of relations between the United States and tribal nations.

Angela Cavender Wilson, “Grandmother to Granddaughter: Generations of Oral History in a Dakota Family,” in Major Problems in American Indian History, eds. Albert L. Hurtado and Peter Iverson, 2nd ed., 2001. This essay, by a Wahpatonwan Dakota woman, discusses the importance of oral tradition to Native identity.

View Videos

“The Dakota Conflict” 1993 (58 mi.) and “Dakota Exile” 1996 (60 mi.). Produced by Kristian Berg/KTCA-TV. “Dakota Exile” examines the federal and state efforts to drive the Dakota from Minnesota following the Dakota Conflict and discusses the lives of the Dakota who returned and still live in Minnesota. “Dakota Conflict” examines the causes and events of the “ Sioux Uprising” of 1862 from the perspectives of both settlers and Indians.

“Eastman Johnson’s Ojibwe Portraits.” 1997. 30 mi. Produced by Lorraine Norrgard/WDSE-TV. Artist Eastman Johnson traveled to Grand Portage in 1857 and created a series of drawings that depicted Ojibwa people and culture. Thomas O’Sullivan, Curator of Art and the Minnesota State Historical Society, and Carl Gawboy, Ojibwa artist, discuss the importance of Johnson’s work.

“Fallen Timbers.” 2000 (50 mi.). This History Channel production is a docu-drama that focuses on the post-Revolutionary struggle over the Ohio country. It establishes the importance of the battle at Fallen Timbers in United States history and in United States-Indian relations.

“In the White Man’s Image.” 1990 (55 mi.). This PBS video tells the history of Carlisle Indian School. It includes some interviews with alumni.

“Myths and the Moundbuilders.” 1981 (59 mi.). This is a Documentary Educational Resources video made for the Odyssey series. It can be rented or purchased. The video shows archaeologists at work, drawing conclusions from excavations and artifacts about the life of people who once lived at the tens of thousands of earthen mounds throughout the central United States.

“Ojibwe:Waasa-inaabidaa ‘We Look in All Directions’.” 2002. This series features the Ojibwa culture in six hour-long programs, each of which spans nearly five hundred years of history, from pre-contact to contemporary times. Episode 1 focuses on the Ojibwa’s relationship with the natural world, and Episode 2 traces the Ojibwa beginnings as independent bands and discusses decision-making past and present. Episode 3 discusses the traditional Ojibwa seasonal subsistence cycle. Episode 4 examines the role of traditional healing and its relationship to health today, and Episode 5 focuses on kinship and education in Ojibwa culture. Episode 6 examines the importance of oral tradition and recent efforts to reinvigorate Ojibwa language programs. All six of these episodes can be viewed by following this link: www.ojibwe.org

“The Oneida Speak.” 2008. (57 mi.). Produced by Michelle Danforth/Wisconsin Public Television. In 1939-41 several Oneida elders were interviewed by oral historians commissioned by the Works Progress Administration. This program reenacts several of these narratives and provides commentary from contemporary Oneida historians and cultural preservationists. The following site provides a trailer and information on how to purchase the video. http://visionmaker.semkhor.com/product.asp?pf_id=ONEI08-E&s=visionmaker#more

“Pontiac.” 1996 (50 mi.). This is a well-executed History Channel docu-drama about Pontiac’s 1763 independence movement. Produced by Gary Foreman, this video features historically accurate clothing and weaponry.

“Tecumseh.” 1996 (50 mi.). In the same series as “Pontiac,” this History Channel docu-drama tells the story of Tecumseh’s movement culminating in his death during the War of 1812.

“Tecumseh’s Vision.” 2009 (1 hr.) The second episode in the five-part We Shall Remain series, this documentary tells the story of Tenskwatawa and his older brother, Tecumseh. The use of actors and actresses in reenacted scenes brings this historical period to life.

“The War That Made America.” 2006 (4 60-mi. programs). This is a PBS production that tells the history of the French and Indian War and provides background on the 18th century frontier world. Part 1 covers the beginning of the war. Part 2 follows the war to New York. Part 3 focuses on the increasing dominance of the British. And, Part 4 deals with the increasing tension between the British and the colonists. The role of Indians in frontier politics and war is central to the program.

“Wounded Knee.” 2009. 60 mi. The fifth episode in the five-part We Shall Remain series, “Wounded Knee” documents the political and economic forces that led to the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1960s and 70s. The episode can be seen along with the other four episodes on the PBS website.

Use Online Sources

Colonial Michilimackinac
http://www.mackinacparks.com/colonial-michilimackinac/
Located in Mackinac City near the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, this park system includes Colonial Michilimackinac, a reconstructed 1715 fur trading village and military outpost. Visitors can see reenactments and interactive displays. The following link also provides historical and archaeological information and photographs of items in the museum. http://www.mackinacparks.com/history/

Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota
http://www.nps.gov/grpo/index.htm
Located on the north shore of Lake Superior, this National Park Service site preserves an important center for both fur trading and Ojibwa culture. A reconstructed fur trade depot offers a view into the activities of the North West Company. Also on site is the Grand Portage Heritage Center, which features exhibit galleries about Ojibwa culture and the fur trade. This heritage center is a collaboration between the National Park Service and the Grand Portage Band.

Indian Burial and Sacred Grounds Watch
http://www.ibsgwatch.imagedjinn.com/learn/learn2.htm#parks
The Indian Burial and Sacred Grounds Watch distributes information such as newspaper and web articles on sites that might be considered sacred to Indian people. The link above provides a list of sites in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources – Indian Mounds
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/marapr03/mpmounds.html
Maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, this website provides bsic information on mound sites in Minnesota as well as links to individual sites.

North West Company Fur Post
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/nwcfp/index.htm
The North West Company Fur Post is a reconstructed post from the winter of 1804-05. It is located in Pine City, Minnesota, near the site of the original trading post. Costumed guides help recreate activities at the post, and there is a reconstructed Ojibwa encampment. The website offers a brief historical account of the post and fur trading in the region, information for visitors, and photographs of the site.

Ohio Exploration Society – Indian Mounds
http://www.ohioexploration.com/mounds.htm
This group provides basic archaeological and historical information on many of Ohio’s mound sites, as well as visitor information and photographs of mounds.

Potawatomi Trail of Death Association
http://www.potawatomi-tda.org/
This website provides a brief historical account of the “Potawatomi Trail of Death,” or forced removal in 1838, as well as links to scholarly sources. In addition, this site documents recent efforts to memorialize the “Potawatomi Trail of Death,” including the 150th Anniversary in 1988 and the 2008 “Commemorative Caravan.”

Sibley House Historic Site
http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/shs/index.html
Located in Mendota, Minnesota, the Sibley House Historic Site preserves the fur trade era residences of Henry Hastings Sibley, the American Fur Company’s regional manager, and Jean-Baptiste Faribault, trader and hotelier. The website offers information for visitors, as well as a brief history of the Sibley and Faribault houses.

“Wounded Knee.” 2009. 60 mi. The fifth episode in the five-part We Shall Remain series, “Wounded Knee” documents the political and economic forces that led to the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1960s and 70s. The episode can be seen along with the other four episodes on the PBS website. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the films/episode 5 trailer

Also, the tribes’ websites have very good information. These links are on the map on the Sovereignty page.

Visit Museums

Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society, Fort Wayne, IN. Here is a collection pertaining to Miami history: manuscripts, paintings, and objects. In addition, the 1827 home of Miami chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville is open to visitors.

Dickson Mounds Museum, Lewistown, IL. Here the “Peoples of the Valley” exhibit and the “Peoples of the Past” exhibit of life size dioramas provide a window into 12,000 years of human history in the Illinois River Valley. Included are Native societies, French Colonial communities, and 19th and 20th century Euro-American settlement history. The museum has hands-on exhibits, and on the museum grounds archaeologists have preserved three early Indian buildings. A branch of the Illinois State Museum, Dickson Mounds has exhibits from around the world, but its collections on Native peoples of the region are among the finest.

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN. The Eiteljorg is notable for its Miami exhibit.

Field Museum, Chicago, IL. “Ancient America” exhibit. This is a wonderful multi-media exhibit that includes the Midwest region, with a particular strength in collections from the Ohio ceremonial centers.

Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, MI. The museum has an award winning exhibition, “The Anishinabek: The People of this Place,” which features the Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe, who remain in Michigan today. On display are hundreds of artifacts representing decorative arts, clothing, weapons, and tools. Throughout the exhibit are video interviews with Anishinabek elders, parents, artists, and professionals.

Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH. The “Ohio’s Ancient Past” exhibit tells the story of 15,000 years of Native American history in Ohio. The museum’s large collection of artifacts is featured and there is an on-line exhibit.

Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI. The museum features Wisconsin archaeology, including an exhibit on Aztalan and exhibits of Indian social life and technology. Also, the “Tribute to Survival” exhibit features the modern powwow scene and contemporary American Indian life. The Native peoples of Wisconsin are represented here, and they worked with the museum on the exhibit.

Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston, IL. This museum has excellent exhibits and programs for children.

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