The Best Indigenous Peoples' Day Trivia Questions to Reframe How You See American History

Despite their hefty size, U.S. history textbooks tend to tell only one side of America’s story. From the widely recognized Navajo Nation to the Wampanoag, whose past is often reduced to a familiar Thanksgiving tale, Indigenous peoples and their perspectives have largely been left out.

October’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day and November’s Native American Heritage Month offer a chance to fill in those blanks and learn about the people, cultures, and events that shaped this country long before America’s 250th birthday. Observed on the same day as Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day was first officially proclaimed by a U.S. president in 2021.

These trivia questions explore those lesser-known chapters of American history, from Indigenous leaders and unsung innovators to living traditions and how the holiday came to be. Whether you’re a history buff or just looking to learn more about the tribal lands you live on, this Native American trivia test is full of facts that might just change the way you look at the past.

Tribal Sovereignty & Law

1. What holiday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day known as before?

Answer: Columbus Day

2. On what day of the year is Indigenous Peoples’ Day observed in the U.S.?

Answer: The second Monday of October

3. Which U.S. state was the first to officially replace Columbus Day in 1990?

Answer: South Dakota (as Native American Day)

4. Which U.S. president issued the first official presidential proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2021?

Answer: Joe Biden

5. Is Indigenous Peoples’ Day a federal holiday?

Answer: No

6. How many federally recognized tribal nations are in the United States today?

Answer: 575

7. What term refers to a tribe's inherent legal right to self-governance?

Answer: Tribal sovereignty

8. What landmark 2020 Supreme Court case reaffirmed that a large portion of eastern Oklahoma remains Native reservation land?

Answer: McGirt v. Oklahoma

9. What 1978 law protected the right of Native Americans to practice traditional religions and access sacred sites?

Answer: The American Indian Religious Freedom Act

10. What 1988 law allowed federally recognized tribes to establish casinos on reservations?

Answer: The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)

Indigenous Trailblazers

11. Which 19th-century Cherokee scholar created a written alphabet for his people?

Answer: Sequoyah

12. Which Indigenous leader famously said, "I will fight no more forever"?

Answer: Chief Joseph (of the Nez Perce)

13. Which Patuxet/Wampanoag figure helped early English settlers survive at Plymouth in 1621?

Answer: Squanto (Tisquantum)

14. Which Powhatan woman famously interacted with English colonists at Jamestown?

Answer: Pocahontas

15. What was Pocahontas’s real birth name before she was given the nickname Pocahontas?

Answer: Matoaka

16. Which Shawnee leader advocated for intertribal unity and led resistance against U.S. expansion in the Ohio Valley?

Answer: Tecumseh

17. Which Oglala Lakota chief led a military campaign forcing the U.S. to abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail?

Answer: Red Cloud

18. Which Native American tribe did the famous leader Geronimo belong to?

Answer: Apache

19. Who became the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history when appointed Secretary of the Interior in 2021?

Answer: Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo)

20. Which Wampanoag leader, known to colonists as "King Philip," led an anti-colonial war in 17th-century New England?

Answer: Metacomet

Native Lifeways & Culture

21. What material did the Pueblo peoples use to build their multi-storied homes?

Answer: Adobe

22. What traditional earth-and-timber structure, built facing east, serves as a traditional home for the Navajo?

Answer: A hogan

23. What stilt-legged, open-air platform dwelling with a thatched palmetto roof was built by the Seminole people?

Answer: A chickee

24. What bark-covered, multi-family shelter was built by Iroquois and Huron nations in the Northeast?

Answer: A longhouse

25. What cone-shaped tent covered in animal hides was used by nomadic Plains tribes?

Answer: A teepee (tipi)

26. Which Pacific Northwest Indigenous group is famous for carving towering wooden totem poles?

Answer: The Haida (as well as the Tlingit and Tsimshian)

27. What primary method did historical Indigenous cultures without written scripts use to pass down history?

Answer: Storytelling (oral tradition)

28. What is the name of a traditional Native American cultural gathering with music and dancing?

Answer: A powwow

29. What traditional shell beadwork was crafted by Eastern Woodlands nations to record treaties and stories?

Answer: Wampum (or wampum belts)

30. What major animals provided essential food, clothing, shelter, and tools to Plains tribes before being brought near extinction in the 19th century?

Answer: The buffalo (bison)

31. What hand-woven wool art form with bold geometric patterns is famously crafted by Indigenous weavers in the American Southwest?

Answer: Navajo rugs (or textiles)

32. What sacred musical instrument, often called the "heartbeat of Mother Earth," is central to traditional Native American songs and ceremonies?

Answer: A drum

Indigenous Innovations

33. What agricultural companion-planting technique combines corn, beans, and squash?

Answer: The Three Sisters

34. Which modern team sport—originally called stickball—was created by Indigenous peoples of North America?

Answer: Lacrosse

35. Active ingredients in aspirin were derived from willow bark, an ancient remedy used by Native healers containing what chemical?

Answer: Salicin

36. Which staple crop—domesticated from wild teosinte grass in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago—became a foundational food source across the Americas?

Answer: Corn (maize)

37. Which Native American language was used as an unbroken military code in WWII?

Answer: Navajo

38. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, what are the five most widely spoken Native American languages in the United States today?

Answer: Navajo, Cherokee, Zuni, Choctaw, and Hopi

39. What traditional winter shelter made of compacted snow blocks was developed by the Inuit in the Arctic?

Answer: An igloo

40. Which Indigenous tribe in Florida was known as the "Shell Indians" for building mounds out of marine shells?

Answer: The Calusa

41. What ancient Indigenous urban center near modern-day St. Louis featured Monks Mound and was once larger than contemporary London?

Answer: Cahokia

42. What lightweight watercraft, made of wooden frames covered in tree bark, was engineered by Indigenous peoples of the Northeast?

Answer: The birchbark canoe

43. Which FX comedy-drama series created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi made history with an all-Indigenous writing and directing team?

Answer: Reservation Dogs

Tribal Nations & History

44. What is the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)?

Answer: A democratic alliance of six Northeast nations that inspired principles in the U.S. Constitution.

45. Which Native American nation is the largest in the U.S. by enrolled membership today?

Answer: The Cherokee Nation

46. In which three states are the reservation lands of the Navajo Nation located?

Answer: Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah

47. In which state did the Seminole Tribe fight three wars and remain largely unconquered?

Answer: Florida

48. What famous clue did John White find carved into the abandoned Roanoke settlement in 1590?

Answer: "CROATOAN"

49. Which European-introduced disease killed millions of Indigenous people due to lack of immunity?

Answer: Smallpox

50. What 1830 law forced Southeastern tribes off their land, leading to the Trail of Tears?

Answer: The Indian Removal Act

51. What was the name of the famous 19th-century Pennsylvania boarding school designed to forcibly assimilate Native children?

Answer: Carlisle Indian Industrial School

52. What 1887 law broke up communal tribal lands into individual plots, severely reducing Native land ownership?

Answer: The Dawes Act (Allotment Act)

53. What 1876 battle, also known as Custer's Last Stand, was a major Native American victory over the U.S. military?

Answer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn

54. What 1864 attack involved a U.S. cavalry raid on a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment in Colorado?

Answer: The Sand Creek Massacre

55. What 1890 event in South Dakota marked the tragic military suppression of the Ghost Dance movement?

Answer: The Wounded Knee Massacre

More Mental Floss Trivia: