Indigenous Cultures

Explore the stories of Indigenous people and cultures around the world.

Photo Essay
Last Speakers

This series features tintype photographs of the remaining speakers of endangered Indigenous languages in North America.

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Film
The Hunt

A Native chef works with Indigenous foodways to promote processes of healing and recovery from historical trauma.

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Essay
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance

As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy.

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Film
Water Flows Together

Colleen Cooley, a Navajo river guide, reflects on the importance of acknowledging Indigenous land in outdoor recreation.

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Film
El Silbo

Residents of La Gomera, an island off of Morocco’s Atlantic coast, keep their traditional whistling language alive.

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Film
Awana

Meet Quechua women weavers in the remote town of Patacancha in the south of Peru.

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Film
The Medicine Man

A traditional curandero, or medicine man, in Northern Peru uses his extensive knowledge of native plants to treat various maladies.

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Film
The Canoe Maker

Master carver Joe Martin, one of the few traditional craftsmen left, makes dugout canoes used by his people, the Pacific Northwest Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations.

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Film
Karuk

Meet three Karuk tribal members in California, dedicated to speaking Karuk to stay connected to their people, their language, and the Klamath river.

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Film
Tolowa Dee-ni'

The sole fluent speaker of Tolowa Dee-ni’ in California works with his family to overcome generations of trauma and to preserve their language and traditions.

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Film
Recording Kawaiisu

In this film, meet two of the last fluent speakers of Kawaiisu, a Native language of the southern end of the Sierra Nevada in California.

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Film
Wukchumni

Five years after filming Marie’s Dictionary, Marie and her family share how they continue to teach Wukchumni classes to members of their community.

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Film
Marie's Dictionary

Marie Wilcox is the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni and created a dictionary to keep her language alive.

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Middle School
Grade Level: 6-8
The Importance of Indigenous Language Revitalization
Elementary School
Grade Level: 3-5
Indigenous Language Revitalization in California
Film
Lost World

This short film documents the impact of sand dredging on Cambodia's mangrove forests and the lives of the people who depend on them for survival.

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Film
Counter Mapping

A traditional Zuni elder in New Mexico works with artists to create maps based on ceremony, song, and connection to the land.

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Photo Essay
We Are Still Here

These photographs present portraits of contemporary Native Americans.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Today's Native America
Photo Essay
Mustang: Lives and Landscape of the Lost Tibetan Kingdom
Photographer Taylor Weidman reveals the traditions of a lost Tibetan Kingdom.
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Photo Essay
Mongolia's Nomads

Mongolian pastoral herders make up one of the world’s last remaining nomadic cultures.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Exploring Cultural Sustainability
High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Bearing Witness
Film
Yukon Kings

Yup'ik fisherman Ray Waska, who lives on the Alaskan Yukon Delta, teaches his grandchildren how to fish during the summer salmon run.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Resiliency Among the Salmon People
Film
I Am Yup'ik

A 16-year-old Alaskan Native leaves his tiny village to compete in a basketball tournament hundreds of miles across frozen tundra.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
The Value of Sports: Unifying a Community
Photo Essay
Kara Women Speak

The culture and livelihoods of Indigenous women of the Omo River Valley in Ethiopia are threatened due to a hydroelectric dam. 

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
On the Verge of Displacement
Photo Essay
The People of Clouds

The people and land of the Mixteca are one of the world's last bastions of traditional indigenous life in Mexico.

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Photo Essay
People of the Big Water

Learn about the Xikrin peoples of the Amazon Rainforest and the dam that is threatening their homes and subsistence lifestyle.

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Photo Essay
The Hadzabe of Tanzania

Learn about one of the last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers in the world.

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Essay
Speaking of Nature

This essay explores and affirms our kinship with the natural world.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Ancient and Modern Worlds
Photo Essay
Drokpa: The Nomadic Mountain People of Tibet

Photographer Diane Barker captures the changes taking place for the nomadic mountain people of Tibet.

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Film
Return of the Sun

A portrait of a modern Inuit family living in the fearsome North Greenland landscape.

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Photo Essay
Waiting to Move

These photographs capture a modern Inupiaq community in Alaska facing evacuation due to climate change.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
At-Risk Communities
Photo Essay
La Carretera: Life and Change Along Peru's Interoceanic Highway

These photos depict life in Peru and the impacts of progress on people and the environment. 

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Film
The Last Ice Merchant

Baltazar Ushca is the last ice merchant to harvest glacial ice from Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo.

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High School
Grade Level: 9-12
Valuing an Ancient Vocation
Silent Crescendo

Meet artist Slobodan Dan Paich, who creates simple drawings with tea and ink in a daily ritual.