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TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is not as dead as some of its adversaries claimed after President Obama denied the presidential permit for the border-crossing section of the tar sands pipeline. The company’s plans for the South Dakota part of the pipeline are still in play after the South Dakota Public Utility Commission (PUC) denied a motion to throw out the company’s request to certify its expired permit.

The sponsor of a South Dakota bill that would allow businesses to deny services to same-sex weddings or any others that violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs,” told the Associated Press today that gay rights are taking the United States “down the road of Iran.”

NPR's Ombudsman recently released a report defending South Dakota's illegal seizures of Lakota children - implying that the illegal separation of Native American children from their families is not South Dakota's fault.

While people in Congress are concerned about the impact of the sequester on people who fly in airplanes and who visit the White House, they have no concern for Indian young people who have never flown in an airplane and who will never visit the White House because they are trapped in the cycle of poverty.

In 1606, guided by the Discovery Doctrine which declared that Christian nations had the right to conquer and rule all non-Christian nations, England gave a Royal Charter to the Virginia Company to develop a market in the New World for English commerce and for "Propagating of Christian Religion to such people, as yet live in darkness." The charter characterized Indians as living "in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God."

William Howard Taft served as President of the United States from 1909 to 1913. Like most American Presidents, Taft took office with little background in or awareness of American Indians. Yet during his term as a progressive Republican he impacted the lives Indian people.  
Administration of Indian Affairs:

In the United States, the administration of Indian Affairs is under the Department of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was appointed by the President to oversee Indian Affairs. President Taft appointed Robert Valentine as Commissioner of Indian Affa...

When the Pilgrims first arrived in New England in 1620, they viewed the area as an undeveloped wilderness. One of their first activities was to rob Indian graves, taking from them, among other things, maize (commonly known as corn). While the Pilgrims relied on the produce from Indian farms-corn, beans, and squash-for their survival they failed to either see or understand the well-developed Indian agriculture which they encountered. In the centuries since the Pilgrims began their invasions, historians, politicians, pundits, and others have been unaware of Indian agriculture.  
Abor...

Archaeology is the study of the past through material remains. One of the goals of archaeology is discovery and description. Discovery and description, however, is only the first step: archaeologists also seek to develop explanations. Understanding the past means that we should try to understand how people lived in the past and why changes occurred. Ultimately, archaeology seeks to understand human behavior. In addition, there is also a concern, some would say an obligation, of communicating archaeological insights to the general public. One way of doing this is through displays at museums and...

The French, unlike the English and the Spanish, saw Indians as trading partners. The French saw that their best opportunity for economic gain was to be found in the fur trade in which their Native American trading partners would retain their autonomy and provide them with furs. The French explorers quickly established trading relations with the Native nations. The best way for the French traders to establish trading relations was for the traders to marry into the Indian societies as traditional trade relied heavily upon kinship relations. Having married an Indian woman, the trader would have a...

Former Republican Senator Larry Pressler has issued a statement detailing why he plans to vote for President Barack Obama in November. The longtime politician and decorated Vietnam veteran, who voted for Obama in 2008 because of what he viewed as the Republican party’s drift “toward a dangerous path that put extreme party ideology above national interest,” said that the President’s stellar record of treating military families with respect was a major factor in his endorsement:

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the world of the American Indians who inhabited the Great Plains changed greatly. The first, and perhaps most significant, change began with the adoption of the horse following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The horse not only extended the hunting range of the Indian nations which already inhabited the Plains, such as the Blackfoot and Crow, but it also brought a number of newcomers into the area. The increased number of tribes on the Plains not only spoke different languages, but their languages were often totally unrelated.  
On the Plains, a sign ...