A Great American History

06/07/2026

It's not every day a person gets to see
a Lakota buffalo hide teepee ( tipi) dating
from the 1850's.
Thanks Oklahoma Historical Society.

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakata

02/24/2026

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.…

02/24/2026

The White Buffalo is a sacred symbol for many Native American tribes. Its rarity and unique coloring make it a sacred creature. Their strong stance represents strength, purity, and spirituality. When a white buffalo is born, it symbolizes hope and renewal. Its appearance is said to signal a time of abundance, plenty and a time of spiritual awakening. White Buffalo is a gift from White Buffalo Calf Woman ❤
(Art by LeFreik Art)

01/22/2026

**Native Americans – The First People of America**
Native Americans are the original people of North and South America, long before any outsiders arrived. In what is now the United States, they belong to many unique tribes and cultures — some still live today as proud, independent nations.
Most experts believe Native Americans came from Asia over 13,000 years ago, crossing a land bridge during the Ice Age. Some even say they arrived 40,000 years ago! Over time, these early people spread across the land, creating hundreds of different cultures.
The word “Indian” came from Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached India. But even before him, Norse explorers had reached North America around 500 years earlier. Many Native tribes believe they’ve always lived here, as told through their creation stories.
When Europeans arrived in the 1400s, over **50 million people** already lived in the Americas — including about **10 million** in the area that is now the U.S. What followed were years of change, struggle, and survival.
Today, Native Americans make up about **1.5% of the U.S. population**, proudly keeping their traditions, music, stories, and ceremonies alive.

01/22/2026

Why Isn’t This Map in the History Books
By the age of 10, most children in the United States have been taught all 50 states that make up the country. But centuries ago, the land that is now the United States was a very different place. Over 20 million Native Americans dispersed across over 1,000 distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups populated the territory.
The ancestors of living Native Americans arrived in North America about 15 thousand years ago. As a result, a wide diversity of communities, societies, and cultures finally developed on the continent over the millennia.The population figure for Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus was 70 million or more.
About 562 tribes inhabited the contiguous U.S. territory. Ten largest North American Indian tribes: Arikara, Cherokee, Iroquois, Pawnee, Sioux, Apache, Eskimo, Comanche, Choctaw, Cree, Ojibwa, Mohawk, Cheyenne, Navajo, Seminole, Hope, Shoshone, Mohican, Shawnee, Mi’kmaq, Paiute, Wampanoag, Ho-Chunk, Chumash, Haida.
Below is the tribal map of Pre-European North America.
The old map below gives a Native American perspective by placing the tribes in full flower ~ the “Glory Days.” It is pre-contact from across the eastern sea or, at least, before that contact seriously affected change. Stretching over 400 years, the time of contact was quite different from tribe to tribe. For instance, the “Glory Days” of the Maya and Aztec came to an end very long before the interior tribes of other areas, with some still resisting almost until the 20th Century.
At one time, numbering in the millions, the native peoples spoke close to 4,000 languages.
The Americas’ European conquest, which began in 1492, ended in a sharp drop in the Native American population through epidemics, hostilities, ethnic cleansing, and slavery.
When the United States was founded, established Native American tribes were viewed as semi-independent nations, as they commonly lived in communities separate from white immigrants

01/18/2026

Expansion & Division (1800–1860)
• Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled U.S. size.
• Disputes over slavery grew.
• New states formed as settlers moved west.

01/18/2026

4. Building a New Nation (1787–1800s)
• 1787: U.S. Constitution written.
• 1789: George Washington became first president.
• Expansion westward began.

01/18/2026

American Revolution (1775–1783)
• Colonists rebelled against British rule.
• 1776: Declaration of Independence.
• 1783: Britain recognized U.S. independence.