Native Americans

WELCOME!

Thanks for visiting Notes from the Frontier! This blog is for history lovers fascinated by the American West
and pioneer and Indian life on the frontier. I started this new blog in 2019 and it grew very quickly
to more than 100,000 readers! Today it has nearly 400 posts.
I spent many years of researching my just-released debut historical novel, Blood to Rubies
about Chief Joseph and his heroic struggle to save his people in 1877. (It's already bestselling and award-winning! Press the blue button below for more info.) During my research, I discovered that so much of what we'd been taught in history books and by Hollywood was just plain wrong. So I decided to start a history blog. And it's been a pure joy and a life's passion project for me.
We'll cover many topics: from "soiled doves" to slavery, firearms to freak show, home brew to homosexuality, tough men and tougher women, cowboys and Indians, childbirth and death, dreams and desperation, myths and the truth. And, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction!
It's sure to be a wild ride! So hang on to your hat and let's GIDDYUP!

SPECIAL NOTE: Go to the Directory to view more specific categories .

Here's me, author-to-be, Deborah Hufford, at 16 and the Dayton Rodeo Queen in Iowa (which was the U.S. National Rodeo of the Year that year! My childhood horse was named Sundance, and was a celebrity among all the children in my small farming town. He even carried the Iowa governor in our rodeo parade one year.

When Sundance died at the ripe old age of 30, our town newspaper ran his obituary. I was so lucky to have the best horse in the world 💙

Take a wild ride into America’s past.

Gall, The Mightiest Warrior

Elizabeth Custer said of the great Hunkpapa Chief: "I never in my life dreamed there could be...so fine a specimen of warrior as Gall."

5 min read

Tecumseh, The Great Shawnee Chief

The name is legion. One of America’s greatest generals was named after him. An early American folk hero and two U.S. Presidents admired him.

8 min read

Native American Moons

Nature spoke constantly to Native Americans and they lived by its pulse and power, its cadence and dominion.

7 min read

The Incredible Saga of Sacagawea

Sacagawea is one of the most famous figures in American history. Nearly all American school children and adults recognize her name.

9 min read

Native Warrior Women

We all know the immortal names of Pocahontas and Sacagawea, native women who played important roles in the formation of our early nation.

7 min read

America's First Indian General

One Native man reached the very highest echelons of white power and, in 1865, penned the final surrender terms of the Civil War.

6 min read

The True Story of Pocahontas

Few legends in American history embody the power and poignancy that Pocahontas does.

7 min read

Jamestown & Frontier Dramas with Native actor Kalani Queypo

JAMESTOWN is a PBS series now in it third year on public television.

5 min read

America's Earliest Cities were Native American & Spanish

As I dug further, I found that the TWELVE oldest cities in what is now the United States were Native American and Spanish.

7 min read

The Saga of Jackson Sundown

It turns out that Angela Swedberg is one of the leading Tribally Certified Indian Artisans in the country.

6 min read

In the Steps of Chief Joseph

Hundreds of riders on spotted Appaloosa horses, are saddling up to retrace the steps that Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce tribe took.

6 min read

In Honor of Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph’s saga is an “unparalleled story in the annals of the Indian's resistance to the greed of the whites.

7 min read

Native Body Painting: A Sacred Art

In Native American cultures, paint was power—spiritual power, physical power.

4 min read

Vanishing Americans

Edward Curtis was a famous American photographer and ethnologist who focused his work on the tribes of the American frontier.

6 min read

The Native American Military Tradition

Native American contributions to the U.S military have long been heralded.

3 min read

Indian Dogs

Before whites came to North America and native tribes integrated horses into their culture, dogs were common across the entire continent.

3 min read

Ira Hayes

According to military statistics, Native Americans have served in the military more per capita than any other ethnic group.

3 min read

The Day the Earth Wept

On this day 142 years ago, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe faced the end of his tribe's civilization as a free people.

2 min read