Native Life

Notes from the Frontier author's new novel coming soon!

For sound, please click the note icon in the bottom right of the video.

Special thanks to Oscar-Winning Dances with Wolves co-composer Peter Buffett for use of his spectacular music from 500 Nations.

Learn more about Blood to Rubies

Take a wild ride into America’s past.

4 min

Moccasins – Walk a Mile in Native Shoes

Moccasins were the traditional footwear of indigenous peoples of North America and were adopted as the footwear of early fur traders.

7 min

Native American Warshirts

War shirts are not only beautifully crafted garments. They are spectacular works of art and symbolized the very essence of a warrior.

5 min

Magnificent Animal Headdresses of Native Americans

They wore animal heads as ceremonial headdresses, and used the sources of their might—teeth, fangs, claws, rattles, testicles and beaks.

6 min

In Honor of a Magnificent Warhorse

In the history of human warfare, horses have paid nearly as great a price as men on the battlefield.

7 min

Native American Moons

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

7 min

Hunting Arrowheads

For those who have found an arrowhead before, there are few thrills like it.

7 min

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.

6 min

The Sacred Sun Dance

The Sun Dance is the most sacred ritual of Plains Indians, a ceremony of renewal and cleansing for the tribe and the earth.

7 min

"Every Dead Buffalo is an Indian Gone"

Once upon a time, before European whites ever set foot on the North American continent, 75-100 million buffalo roamed the land.

7 min

The Origin of Appaloosas

The origin of Appaloosas is....well....spotty. In fact, the history—and the DNA—of Appaloosas goes back millennia and across oceans.

4 min

Native Body Painting: A Sacred Art

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

6 min

Dances with Wolves - Part 2

Dances with Wolves was not only revolutionary for the western genre, it was a watershed for Native American actors and actresses.

4 min

Native Hair Traditions

Native American cultures across the continent have universally regarded hair as a life force and a spiritual source of identity.

3 min

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

Buffalo & Indians

The buffalo was considered sacred to Plains Indians as a main source of their spirit life and sustenance.