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© Maggie Steber
Chief Henry, a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, gets a kiss from a French woman during a visit to the top of the Great Smoky National Park in North Carolina. He was the most photographed American Indian until his recent death in 2008.
© Maggie Steber
On the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, a young Lakota Sioux man has to gain the trust of a wild horse in a drug rehab program. Many of the wild horses have been abused just as the Native kids often have been, which pushed them into drugs. The rehab program is tribal-run. Each youth works with a single horse until each gains the horse's trust.
© Maggie Steber
David Little Wounded, a full-blooded Lakota Sioux Indian, reaches out to pet wild mustangs on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, where wild mustangs have been reintroduced after an absence of 140 years. The horses were rescued from auctions for dog food and brought to the reservation to help reconnect young Indians with their ancient heritage. The horses were revered as "spirit dogs" who made it easier to hunt and move.
© Maggie Steber
A snowy day on the Cheyenne River Lakota (Sioux) reservation. The reservation has maintained and even adopted many wild horses to reconnect to a spiritual tradition the horse represents. The Sioux call the horses "spirit dogs." The wild horses, originally brought to this country by the Spaniards, dramatically changed the lifestyle of the Lakota, making it easier to follow the buffalo herds.
© Maggie Steber
Chief Arvol Looking Horse practices the moral teachings of the Lakota Sioux to his family members. He is the 19th keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which bestows the honor of spiritual leadership. Native American religious practices such as this were banned for generations by the U.S. government. In 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act guaranteed Native Americans the right to worship freely.
© Maggie Steber
Chief Arvol Looking Horse stands over a field near the Moro River in Green Grass, S.D., beating a drum during his daily prayers to his Lakota ancestors. Green Grass is a tiny community with traditional roots on the Cheyenne River Reservation where Lakota people live. The chief has that title because he is the keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota people and has been since he was 12 years old.
© Maggie Steber
A small full-blooded Sioux powwow goes well into the night outside the tiny town of Pine Ridge on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Unlike many larger powwows this one is more intimate, made up of full-blooded families in the area.
© Maggie Steber
Pearl Bearing, a full-blooded Lakota Indian, carries buckets of water from her well at her isolated home on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Pine Ridge is the poorest county in the U.S. and many Indians have no access to running water.
© Maggie Steber
Once a secret dance never performed for outsiders, these young Apaches have kept the secret dance alive on the White River Apache Reservation in Arizona. The painting of their bodies is done in private and out of sight of even other Native people. The White River High School that serves the reservation created the Indian Dance Club to educate their youth about traditions from the past and keep them alive as a vital part of their culture.
© Maggie Steber
Three young Sioux entrepreneurs take a walk in the grassy fields of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. The young men run a tribal-owned casino and hotel and were discussing plans to extend the casino facilities, including a lake marina, golf course and other attractions to draw people to the casino. They use the money to buy back tribal land that was taken illegally from the tribe by broken treaties with the U.S. government. They are modern warriors for their tribe.
© Maggie Steber
Marie Randall, a Lakota Sioux elder, prays over the land of her ancestors on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Marie is one of the last living oral storytellers of the tribe. Because stories were passed down to her, she knows where all the spiritual and sacred areas are located on the reservation. When the tribal government decided to lay a water pipeline to bring running water to isolated Lakota families spread across the reservation, they consulted Marie so as not to go through the sacred area. She always begins her consultations with prayers to the ancestors.
© Maggie Steber
Full-blooded Lakota Sioux man smokes a cigarette in a home he shares with several other men outside the town of Pine Ridge, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Sioux reservation.
© Maggie Steber
A young boy takes a break so his coach can tend to a bloody nose during an amateur boxing match in the basement of the coach's home on the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. Boxing has become a popular sport among the Native kids and also helps keep them out of trouble.
© Maggie Steber
Two young Cree cousins swim in a pristine lake on their reservation situated in the northernmost regions of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Cree people, isolated in the northern climes, were once poverty-stricken but the Canadian government made a pact with them to build a dam to create a source of hydropower on Cree land that now provides electricity all the way south to the U.S., thus allowing the tribe to build new homes, schools and hospitals for their people.
© Maggie Steber
Creek, Cherokee, Pawnee and other tribes are represented in this dance crew from Oklahoma who were invited to perform fancy dances during a Seminole Fair in Davie, Fla.
© Maggie Steber
Byron Billie and JoJo Dakota Osceola, both full-blooded Seminoles, changed into typical teen garb after winning awards for native costume at a Seminole cultural fair in Davie, Fla. Though immersed in mainstream youth culture, "I most definitely identify more with my Indian heritage," says Byron. JoJo hopes to become an attorney specializing in Indian law.
© Maggie Steber
Cast members savor success after their movie, "Edge of America," played to an enthusiastic audience at the 2004 Native Voice film festival in Rapid City, S.D. Chris Eyre, third from left, a Cheyenne-Arapaho, directed the film that stars James McDaniel, center, as an African-American teacher who coaches a girl's basketball team at the reservation high school. In the end, he learns more from the girls than they do from him--about overcoming differences and learning to respect yourself and others. It's not whether you win or lose, says Eyre, "but how you represent yourself and your community."
© Maggie Steber
Justin Muskrat learns the Plains Indians' Eagle Feather Dance from his Cherokee grandfather, Thomas. The elder Muskrat fashions buckskin and buffalo hide to fancy Plains dress; traditional Cherokee dress was simpler and earthier in color. "We mix up our Indian regalia and customs a lot," says Mushkrat. "But we've still got our old ways."
© Maggie Steber
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Wildcat at home in Big Hollow outside Tahlequah, Okla., capital of the western band of the Cherokee people. They are a full-blooded Cherokee-Creek family.
© Maggie Steber
Annie Wildcat, mother of the full-blooded Cherokee Wildcat family, looks at pennies given to her by her grandkids as their uncle and her son, Tommy Wildcat, teases them about how much they would pay for a painting of him dressed as Sequoyah, the great Cherokee intellectual.
© Maggie Steber
The Wildcat family kids and grandkids gather after supper in the yard between the two homes to play, talk and enjoy the early evening. The older gentleman is Tom Wildcat, the patriach of the family, and the grown children are his. The younger kids are his grandchildren. Three generations of Wildcats live in two side-by-side tribal homes in the countryside outside Tahlequah, Okla.
© Maggie Steber
A Wildcat cousin, daughter of one of the Wildcat sons, plays out in the family yard and sticks a feather in her hair.
© Maggie Steber
One of the many Wildcat kids plays a game of hide-and-seek in the woods near the family tribal-built home.
© Maggie Steber
Outside Tahlequah, Okla., Tommy Wildcat, son of Tom Wildcat, sits in the woods near his home in Big Hollow with one of his nieces as she plays nearby. Tommy is a dreamer and, like his family, lives in the traditional sense of dress, music, native spiritual beliefs and teachings about Cherokee traditions. He is full-blooded Cherokee-Creek.
© Maggie Steber
Tom Wildcat, patriarch of the Wildcat family, eats his dinner early before the rest of the family streams in from various jobs or chores. Mr. Wildcat is also the spiritual leader of his family and some of the traditional full-blooded culture in his community and is the stomp dance lead singer. The stomp dance, built around a tradition of fire, soup and peace pipe, starts the traditional ceremonies of dancing around the fire, singing ancient songs in Cherokee and Creek as people dance into the morning hours.
© Maggie Steber
In Park Hill, Okla., 3-month-old Skylar Wildcat gets a lift from his father, Lucas, at a Thanksgiving get-together. The Wildcat clan teaches its children the stories and songs of the Cherokee. When Skylar turns 1, the event--as with most family birthdays--will be celebrated with a stomp dance on the family's ceremonial grounds in the yard of Skylar's aunt.
© Maggie Steber
Tom Wildcat and his son, Luca, hunt for squirrels on their land outside of Tahlequah, Okla. The Wildcats are a full-blooded Cherokee-Creek family who live in a traditional manner and hunt on the land.
© Maggie Steber
The Wildcat family gathers at their humble home in Big Hollow, Okla., to celebrate Thanksgiving.
© Maggie Steber
Annie Wildcat, the matriarch of the Wildcat family, eats dinner at the kitchen counter while the rest of her family eats dinner at a table in the dining room. Annie prefers eating in the kitchen and has all her meals there, although she loves cooking for her family.
© Maggie Steber
Two sleeping Wildcat kids snooze in the early morning hours before their mother, Tammy, comes in to wake them up. Three generations of Wildcats live in two tribal-built homes on a plot well outside town near the woods where they hunt for food.
© Maggie Steber
The son of Joyce Wildcat does a backbend atop his mother's burned-out car in front of their tribal-built homes in Big Hollow, just outside Tahlequah, Okla., the Cherokee Indian capital.
© Maggie Steber
Joyce Wildcat stands in front of her burned out car in the yard of her family home in Big Hollow, Okla. She is a traditional full-blooded Cherokee-Creek and is the black sheep of the Wildcat family, always getting into trouble.
© Maggie Steber
Of all the Wildcats, Tommy Jr. - one of the twins of Tom and Annie Wildcat (his twin sister is Tammy) - is a dreamer. A flautist who goes to schools to teach non-Indian kids the traditional ways of the Cherokee people, Tommy dreams of hitting the road and taking his music to powwows around the country. He has begun to do that and rarely makes it back home these days. He has followed his dreams.
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