The mood was one of celebration. The Yawalapiti, one of the 14 tribes living inside the Xingu National Park, were preparing a new “quarup,” a ritual held over several days to honor in death a person of great importance to them. In its original form, the quarup was a funeral ritual intended to bring the dead back to life. Today, it is a celebration of life, death and rebirth. From the very oldest to the very youngest, all the members of the Yawalapiti tribe participate in the preparations.

Seven years old and lounging in a tree listening to the radio, Baje Whitethorne Sr. wasn't aware of the lesson he was about to learn.
His grandfather called him down from the tree, saying it was time to go inside their home on the Navajo reservation and wait while the sun died and was reborn. There was going to be a solar eclipse.

Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans living along the Mississippi River bluffs relied on available herbs as medicine. Today, many of those native plants are endangered or threatened, but the C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa is making an effort to conserve traditional herbs.

As the killing of the rare white buffalo calf in Texas is becoming a national news story, more details are emerging about the circumstance’s of White Medicine Cloud’s death, and that of the sacred animal’s mother.

In what is believed to be an act of vandalism, the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre’s sacred purification lodge has been destroyed.