Indigenous peoples

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Canoe 'Parking Lot' in Wisconsin Dates Back 5K Years

16 ancient canoes emerge from Madison's Lake Mendota

(Newser) - Archaeologists have identified more than a dozen ancient canoes that Indigenous people apparently left behind in a sort of prehistoric parking lot along a Wisconsin lakeshore. The Wisconsin Historical Society announced Wednesday that archaeologists have mapped the location of 16 canoes submerged in the lake bed of Lake Mendota in...

Vatican Agrees to Return Indigenous Peoples' Artifacts

Groups made the request of Pope Francis during his 2022 visit to Canada

(Newser) - The Vatican returned 62 Indigenous artifacts to Canada on Saturday, including items such as an Inuit kayak, wampum belts, war clubs, and masks—many of which had been in Vatican museums for over a century. The artifacts were handed over to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which plans to...

White House Is Opening Up Drilling in Alaskan Wild

Trump administration move paves the way to drill for oil, gas in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

(Newser) - The Trump administration has finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation's environmental jewels. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision on Thursday that...

'Silent Genocides' Could Wipe Out 100 Groups in 10 Years

Logging, mining, and disease push isolated communities to the brink

(Newser) - Half of the world's uncontacted Indigenous groups could vanish within a decade unless urgent action is taken, according to a new report from Survival International. The advocacy group estimates there are at least 196 uncontacted groups worldwide, with the vast majority living in the Amazon rainforest. These communities, often...

Researchers Reverse Theory on Aussie Megafauna Extinction

They believe early Australians may have been 'the first paleontologists'

(Newser) - An ancient giant kangaroo bone from Australia's Mammoth Cave has long been cited as evidence that Indigenous Australians hunted megafauna to extinction. But a new study, powered by advanced technology, has turned that assumption on its head. Researchers used microCT scanning and radiometric dating to reexamine the bone, originally...

Indigenous Warning on Amazon Now Has Science to Back It Up

Study shows allowing native people to tend to parts of rainforest cuts down on diseases there

(Newser) - There's an idea that Indigenous people have lived by for thousands of years: Every time humans cut into the Amazon rainforest or burn or destroy parts of it, they're making people sick. Now, a new study in the journal Communications Earth & Environment adds to the scientific evidence...

Deep in the Amazon, an 'Alarming' Development
Deep in the Amazon, an
'Alarming' Development
in case you missed it
Aug 31, 2025 5:30 PM CDT

Deep in the Amazon, an 'Alarming' Development

Isolated Mashco Piro tribe members emerge in neighboring village, may soon clash with loggers

(Newser) - What the AP terms an "alarming" development has emerged regarding Peru's uncontacted Mashco Piro tribe, an Indigenous group hunkered down in the Amazon rainforest and that generally avoids contact with the rest of the world. Members of the tribe have popped up in a neighboring village to their...

Is Inflammation Really a Part of Aging?
Is Inflammation
Really a Part of Aging?
NEW STUDY
Jul 7, 2025 7:55 AM CDT

Is Inflammation Really a Part of Aging?

Indigenous groups show inflammation doesn't necessarily increase with age

(Newser) - A groundbreaking study of Indigenous populations on two continents is challenging the long-held belief that chronic inflammation is an unavoidable part of aging, raising new questions about the role of lifestyle and environment in how we grow older. Researchers analyzed blood data from nearly 2,800 adults across four...

Remote Tribe Sues NYT: We're Not Hooked on Porn

Amazon's Marubo tribe says newspaper story on their exposure to internet misrepresented things

(Newser) - An Indigenous tribe from the Brazilian Amazon has sued the New York Times, saying the newspaper's reporting on the tribe's first exposure to the internet led to its members being widely portrayed as technology-addled and addicted to pornography.
  • The Marubo Tribe of the Javari Valley, a sovereign community
...

In India, Women's 'Dream Maps' Push Back on Climate Change

Women in India's eastern state of Odisha map out dwindling resources, hoping for government aid

(Newser) - The Indigenous Adivasis have lived in the villages of India's eastern state of Odisha for millennia, continuing traditional practices of farming millet and rice and foraging leaves and fruit from the forest to make plates, the local brew, and more. With those practices under pressure from a changing climate,...

NZ Lawmakers Who Danced the Haka to Be Suspended

Maori party calls it 'the worst punishment handed down EVER in our history'

(Newser) - A year after taking part in a viral performance of the haka on the floor of New Zealand's House of Representatives, three Maori MPs now face lengthy suspensions. Parliament's privileges committee has recommended suspending the three members of the Te Pati Maori party for acting "in a...

Universal Human Behaviors Vanish With Cultural Trauma

The Northern Aché tribe appears to have lost the ability to dance, sing lullabies

(Newser) - Anthropologists have long believed the impulse to dance or sing a lullaby is universal. But a study focused on the Northern Aché, an Indigenous tribe of 800 in the forests of eastern Paraguay, is turning that assumption on its head. That's because the Northern Aché, who split from the...

For Indigenous, a Red Handprint Is a Solemn Reminder

Families push for answers on some 4.3K murdered or missing

(Newser) - A red handprint has become the symbol of a movement as Indigenous families across North America take to the streets and capitols, demanding lasting answers to the violence that continues to haunt their communities. With thousands of cases unresolved, advocates are pushing for solutions—and making sure the next...

Sentence Commuted, Activist Leaves Prison After 50 Years

Native American Leonard Peltier was given one of Biden's final commutations

(Newser) - Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, after former President Biden commuted his life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents, a decision that elated Peltier's supporters while angering law enforcement officials who believe he's guilty. For nearly 50 years, Peltier'...

Tribe to Reclaim a National Park Gateway

Yurok to gain 125 acres at southern entrance to Redwoods National and State Parks

(Newser) - Colonial settlers forced the Yurok Tribe from their ancestral homelands in modern day California during the 1800s while exploiting natural resources, from gold to lumber. "As the natural world became completely decimated, so did the Yurok people," Yurok descendent Rosie Clayburn tells CBS News . But in a sign...

Just One Mound Remains in 'Mound City'

And officials are working to transfer it back into Native American hands

(Newser) - What is now St. Louis was once home to more than 100 mounds constructed by Native Americans—so many that St. Louis was once known as "Mound City." Settlers tore most of them down, and just one remains. Now, that last remaining earthen structure, Sugarloaf Mound, is closer...

Aussie Senator Censured After Telling Charles, 'You Are Not My King'

Lidia Thorpe is censured in a 46-12 vote

(Newser) - Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month, the AP reports. The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues' disapproval of her conduct during the first visit...

Jamie Oliver Pulls Criticized Children's Book

Indigenous Australians accuse author of trivialization, stereotyping

(Newser) - A children's book written by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been withdrawn from sale after it was criticized for causing offense to Indigenous Australians. The Guardian reported Saturday that the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corp. blasted Billy and the Epic Escape, which was published earlier...

After Years of Waiting, Navajo Nation Is Powering Up

Challenges in electrifying every home on reservation continue

(Newser) - After a five-year wait, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumblings of an electrical crew reach their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation. In five days' time, their home would be connected to the power grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer...

Biden Making an Apology He Says Is Long Overdue

President to apologize to Indian nations for boarding school policy Friday in Arizona

(Newser) - President Biden will formally apologize on Friday for the country's role in forcing Indigenous children for over 150 years into boarding schools, where many were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, and more than 950 died. "I'm doing something I should have done a long time ago: To...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
Most Read on Newser