For Native Americans, as for all people worldwide, the family is the building block of the wider community. The APS collections contain many images of Native families, ranging from the Powhatan couple in Virginia depicted in a 1671 book to the large family of Mayor Muyuz of Chinautla in Guatemala, photographed three centuries later. Pictures showing multiple generations, such as a photograph of an Ojibwe grandfather, parents, and child in Minnesota from about 1900, demonstrate how cultural traditions are passed down through families.

Images portraying families and groups in front of their homes or other buildings are common, partly because there was more light outdoors for taking photographs. But these pictures also depict people in a wider context. For instance, a 1913 photograph of Iniupiat children in front of their log schoolhouse in Alaska records the physical environment. The image, however, also demonstrates the complex interplay between cultural continuity and social change.

The importance of land and place for Native communities is sometimes reflected in pictures. For instance, in the 1840s, Western artist George Catlin depicted the activity at the Pipestone Quarry in southwestern Minnesota. At this sacred site (now a National Monument), the Sioux or Dakota gathered to mine soft claystone to make pipes for prayer ceremonies.