| INTRODUCTION | | | | Native Americans in the Central Valley of |
| Traditionally, the very beginning of the United | | | | California and on the California coast, notably the |
| States’ history is considered from the time | | | | Pomo, were sedentary peoples who gathered |
| of European exploration and settlement, starting in | | | | edible plants, roots, and fruit and also hunted small |
| the 16th century, to the present. But people had | | | | game. Their acorn bread, made by pounding |
| been living in America for over 30,000 years | | | | acorns into meal and then leaching it with hot |
| before the first European colonists arrived. | | | | water, was distinctive, and they cooked in |
| When Columbus landed on the island of San | | | | baskets filled with water and heated by hot |
| Salvador in 1492 he was welcomed by a | | | | stones. Living in brush shelters or more substantial |
| brown-skinned people whose physical appearance | | | | lean-tos, they had partly buried earth lodges for |
| confirmed him in his opinion that he had at last | | | | ceremonies and ritual sweat baths. Basketry, |
| reached India, and whom, therefore, he called | | | | coiled and twined, was highly developed. To the |
| Indios, Indians, a name which, however mistaken | | | | north, between the Cascade Range and the |
| in its first application continued to hold its own, and | | | | Rocky Mts., the social, political, and religious |
| has long since won general acceptance, except in | | | | systems were simple, and art was nonexistent. |
| strictly scientific writing, where the more exact | | | | The Native Americans there underwent (since |
| term American is commonly used. As exploration | | | | 1730) a great cultural change when they obtained |
| was extended north and south it was found that | | | | from the Plains Indians the horse, the tepee, a |
| the same race was spread over the whole | | | | form of the sun dance, and deerskin clothes. |
| continent, from the Arctic shores to Cape Horn, | | | | They continued, however, to fish for salmon with |
| everywhere alike in the main physical | | | | nets and spears and to gather camas bulbs. They |
| characteristics, with the exception of the Eskimo | | | | also gathered ants and other insects and hunted |
| in the extreme North (whose features suggest | | | | small game and, in later times, buffalo. Their |
| the Mongolian). | | | | permanent winter villages on waterways had |
| GENERAL BACKGROUND | | | | semisubterranean lodges with conical roofs; a few |
| Origin and Antiquity | | | | Native Americans lived in bark-covered long |
| Various origins have been assigned to the Indian | | | | houses. |
| race. The more or less beleivable explanation is | | | | TRIBES: Carrier, Cayuse, Coeur D'Alene, Colville, |
| following. At the height of the Ice Age, between | | | | Dock-Spus, Eneeshur, Flathead, Kalispel, |
| 34,000 and 30,000 B.C., much of the world's | | | | Kawachkin, Kittitas, Klamath, Klickitat, Kosith, |
| water was contained in vast continental ice | | | | Kutenai, Lakes, Lillooet, Methow, Modac, Nez |
| sheets. As a result, the Bering Sea was hundreds | | | | Perce, Okanogan, Palouse, Sanpoil, Shushwap, |
| of meters below its current level, and a land | | | | Sinkiuse, Spokane, Tenino, Thompson, Tyigh, |
| bridge, known as Beringia, emerged between Asia | | | | Umatilla, Wallawalla, Wasco, Wauyukma, |
| and North America. At its peak, Beringia is thought | | | | Wenatchee, Wishram, Wyampum, Yakima. |
| to have been some 1,500 kilometers wide. A | | | | Californian: Achomawi, Atsugewi, Cahuilla, |
| moist and treeless tundra, it was covered with | | | | Chimariko, Chumash, Costanoan, Esselen, Hupa, |
| grasses and plant life, attracting the large animals | | | | Karuk, Kawaiisu, Maidu, Mission Indians, Miwok, |
| that early humans hunted for their survival. The | | | | Mono, Patwin, Pomo, Serrano, Shasta, Tolowa, |
| first people to reach North America almost | | | | Tubatulabal, Wailaki, Wintu, Wiyot, Yaha, Yokuts, |
| certainly did so without knowing they had crossed | | | | Yuki, Yuman (California). · The |
| into a new continent. They would have been | | | | Eastern Woodlands Area |
| following game, as their ancestors had for | | | | The Eastern Woodlands area covered the eastern |
| thousands of years, along the Siberian coast and | | | | part of the United States, roughly from the |
| then across the land bridge. | | | | Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and |
| Race Type | | | | included the Great Lakes. The Natchez, the |
| The most marked physical characteristics of the | | | | Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek were |
| Indian race type are brown skin, dark brown | | | | typical inhabitants. The northeastern part of this |
| eyes, prominent cheek bones, straight black hair, | | | | area extended from Canada to Kentucky and |
| and scantiness of beard. The color is not red, as is | | | | Virginia. The people of the area (speaking |
| popularly supposed, but varies from very light in | | | | languages of the Algonquian-Wakashan stock) |
| some tribes, as the Cheyenne, to almost black in | | | | were largely deer hunters and farmers; the |
| others, as the Caddo and Tarimari. In a few | | | | women tended small plots of corn, squash, and |
| tribes, as the Flatheads, the skin has a distinct | | | | beans. The birchbark canoe gained wide usage in |
| yellowish cast. The hair is brown in childhood, but | | | | this area. The general pattern of existence of |
| always black in the adult until it turns grey with | | | | these Algonquian peoples and their neighbors, who |
| age. Baldness is almost unknown. The eye is not | | | | spoke languages belonging to the Iroquoian branch |
| held so open as in the Caucasian and seems | | | | of the Hokan-Siouan stock (enemies who had |
| better adapted to distance than to close work. | | | | probably invaded from the south), was quite |
| The nose is usually straight and well shaped, and in | | | | complex. Their diet of deer meat was |
| some tribes strongly aquiline. Their hands and feet | | | | supplemented by other game (e.g., bear), fish |
| are comparatively small. Height and weight vary | | | | (caught with hook, spear, and net), and shellfish. |
| as among Europeans, the Pueblos averaging but | | | | Cooking was done in vessels of wood and bark or |
| little more than five feet, while the Cheyenne and | | | | simple black pottery. The dome-shaped wigwam |
| Arapaho are exceptionally tall, and the Tehuelche | | | | and the longhouse of the Iroquois characterized |
| of Patagonia almost massive in build. As a rule, the | | | | their housing. The deerskin clothing, the painting of |
| desert Indians, as the Apache, are spare and | | | | the face and (in the case of the men) body, and |
| muscular in build, while those of the timbered | | | | the scalp lock of the men (left when hair was |
| regions are heavier, although not proportionately | | | | shaved on both sides of the head), were typical. |
| stronger. The beard is always scanty, but | | | | The myths of Manitou (often called Manibozho or |
| increases with the admixture of white blood. The | | | | Manabaus), the hero who remade the world from |
| mistaken idea that the Indian has naturally no | | | | mud after a deluge, are also widely known. |
| beard is due to the fact that in most tribes it is | | | | The region from the Ohio River South to the Gulf |
| plucked out as fast as it grows, the eyebrows | | | | of Mexico, with its forests and fertile soil, was the |
| being treated in the same way. There is no tribe | | | | heart of the southeastern part of the Eastern |
| of "white Indians", but albinos with blond skin, | | | | Woodlands cultural area. There before c.500 the |
| weak pink eyes and almost white hair are | | | | inhabitants were seminomads who hunted, fished, |
| occasionally found, especially among the Pueblos. | | | | and gathered roots and seeds. Between 500 and |
| Major Cultural Areas | | | | 900 they adopted agriculture, tobacco smoking, |
| From prehistoric times until recent historic times | | | | pottery making, and burial mounds. By c.1300 the |
| there were roughly six major cultural areas, | | | | agricultural economy was well established, and |
| excluding that of the Arctic (see Eskimo), i.e., | | | | artifacts found in the mounds show that trade |
| Northwest Coast, Plains, Plateau, Eastern | | | | was widespread. Long before the Europeans |
| Woodlands, Northern, and Southwest. | | | | arrived, the peoples of the Natchez and |
| · The Northwest Coast Area | | | | Muskogean branches of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic |
| The Northwest Coast area extended along the | | | | family were farmers who used hoes with stone, |
| Pacific coast from South Alaska to North | | | | bone, or shell blades. They hunted with bow and |
| California. The main language families in this area | | | | arrow and blowgun, caught fish by poisoning |
| were the Nadene in the north and the Wakashan | | | | streams, and gathered berries, fruit, and shellfish. |
| (a subdivision of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic | | | | They had excellent pottery, sometimes decorated |
| stock) and the Tsimshian (a subdivision of the | | | | with abstract figures of animals or humans. Since |
| Penutian linguistic stock) in the central area. Typical | | | | warfare was frequent and intense, the villages |
| tribes were the Kwakiutl, the Haida, the | | | | were enclosed by wooden palisades reinforced |
| Tsimshian, and the Nootka. Thickly wooded, with | | | | with earth. Some of the large villages, usually |
| a temperate climate and heavy rainfall, the area | | | | ceremonial centers, dominated the smaller |
| had long supported a large Native American | | | | settlements of the surrounding countryside. There |
| population. Salmon was the staple food, | | | | were temples for sun worship; rites were |
| supplemented by sea mammals (seals and sea | | | | elaborate and featured an altar with perpetual fire, |
| lions) and land mammals (deer, elk, and bears) as | | | | extinguished and rekindled each year in a |
| well as berries and other wild fruit. The Native | | | | “new fire” ceremony. The society was |
| Americans of this area used wood to build their | | | | commonly divided into classes, with a chief, his |
| houses and had cedar-planked canoes and carved | | | | children, nobles, and commoners making up the |
| dugouts. In their permanent winter villages some | | | | hierarchy. For a discussion of the earliest |
| of the groups had totem poles, which were | | | | Woodland groups, see the separate article Eastern |
| elaborately carved and covered with symbolic | | | | Woodlands culture. |
| animal decoration. Their art work, for which they | | | | TRIBES: Acolapissa, Asis, Alibamu, Apalachee, |
| are famed, also included the making of ceremonial | | | | Atakapa, Bayougoula, Biloxi, Calusa, Catawba, |
| items, such as rattles and masks; weaving; and | | | | Chakchiuma, Cherokee, Chesapeake Algonquin, |
| basketry. They had a highly stratified society with | | | | Chickasaw, Chitamacha, Choctaw, Coushatta, |
| chiefs, nobles, commoners, and slaves. Public | | | | Creek, Cusabo, Gaucata, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, |
| display and disposal of wealth were basic features | | | | Jeags, Karankawa, Lumbee, Miccosukee, Mobile, |
| of the society. They had woven robes, furs, and | | | | Napochi, Nappissa, Natchez, Ofo, Powhatan, |
| basket hats as well as wooden armor and | | | | Quapaw, Seminole, Southeastern Siouan, Tekesta, |
| helmets for battle. This distinctive culture, which | | | | Tidewater Algonquin, Timucua, Tunica, Tuscarora, |
| included cannibalistic rituals, was not greatly | | | | Yamasee, Yuchi. Bannock, Paiute (Northern), |
| affected by European influences until after the | | | | Paiute (Southern), Sheepeater, Shoshone |
| late 18th cent., when the white fur traders and | | | | (Northern), Shoshone (Western), Ute, Washo. |
| hunters came to the area. | | | | · The Northern Area |
| TRIBES: Abenaki, Algonkin, Beothuk, Delaware, | | | | The Northern area covered most of Canada, also |
| Erie, Fox, Huron, Illinois, Iroquois, Kickapoo, | | | | known as the Subarctic, in the belt of semiarctic |
| Mahican, Mascouten, Massachuset, Mattabesic, | | | | land from the Rocky Mts. to Hudson Bay. The |
| Menominee, Metoac, Miami, Micmac, Mohegan, | | | | main languages in this area were those of the |
| Montagnais, Narragansett, Nauset, Neutrals, Niantic, | | | | Algonquian-Wakashan and the Nadene stocks. |
| Nipissing, Nipmuc, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Pennacook, | | | | Typical of the people there were the Chipewyan. |
| Pequot, Pocumtuck, Potawatomi, Sauk, Shawnee, | | | | Limiting environmental conditions prevented |
| Susquehannock, Tionontati, Wampanoag, | | | | farming, but hunting, gathering, and activities such |
| Wappinger, Wenro, Winnebago. · The | | | | as trapping and fishing were carried on. Nomadic |
| Plains Area | | | | hunters moved with the season from forest to |
| The Plains area extended from just North of the | | | | tundra, killing the caribou in semiannual drives. |
| Canadian border, South to Texas and included the | | | | Other food was provided by small game, berries, |
| grasslands area between the Mississippi River and | | | | and edible roots. Not only food but clothing and |
| the foothills of the Rocky Mts. The main language | | | | even some shelter (caribou-skin tents) came from |
| families in this area were the | | | | the caribou, and with caribou leather thongs the |
| Algonquian-Wakashan, the Aztec-Tanoan, and the | | | | Indians laced their snowshoes and made nets and |
| Hokan-Siouan. In pre-Columbian times there were | | | | bags. The snowshoe was one of the most |
| two distinct types of Native Americans there: | | | | important items of material culture. The shaman |
| sedentary and nomadic. The sedentary tribes, | | | | featured in the religion of many of these people. |
| who had migrated from neighbor ing regions and | | | | TRIBES: Calapuya, Cathlamet, Chehalis, |
| had initally settled along the great river valleys, | | | | Chemakum, Chetco, Chilluckkittequaw, Chinook, |
| were farmers and lived in permanent villages of | | | | Clackamas, Clatskani, Clatsop, Cowich, Cowlitz, |
| dome-shaped earth lodges surrounded by earthen | | | | Haida, Hoh, Klallam, Kwalhioqua, Lushootseed, |
| walls. They raised corn, squash, and beans. The | | | | Makah, Molala, Multomah, Oynut, Ozette, Queets, |
| foot nomads, on the other hand, moved about | | | | Quileute, Quinault, Rogue River, Siletz, Taidhapam, |
| with their goods on dog-drawn travois and eked | | | | Tillamook, Tutuni, Yakonan. · The |
| out a precarious existence by hunting the vast | | | | Southwest Area |
| herds of buffalo (bison) - usually by driving them | | | | The Southwest area generally extended over |
| into enclosures or rounding them up by setting | | | | Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and |
| grass fires. They supplemented their diet by | | | | Utah. The Uto-Aztecan branch of the |
| exchanging meat and hides for the corn of the | | | | Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock was the main |
| agricultural Native Americans. | | | | language group of the area. Here a seminomadic |
| The horse, first introduced by the Spanish of the | | | | people called the Basket Makers, who hunted with |
| Southwest, appeared in the Plains about the | | | | a spear thrower, or atlatl, acquired (c.1000 B.C.) |
| beginning of the 18th cent. and revolutionized the | | | | the art of cultivating beans and squash, probably |
| life of the Plains Indians. Many Native Americans | | | | from their southern neighbors. They also learned |
| left their villages and joined the nomads. Mounted | | | | to make unfired pottery. They wove baskets, |
| and armed with bow and arrow, they ranged the | | | | sandals, and bags. By c.700 B.C. they had initiated |
| grasslands hunting buffalo. The other Native | | | | intensive agriculture, made true pottery, and |
| Americans remained farmers (e.g., the Arikara, | | | | hunted with bow and arrow. They lived in pit |
| the Hidatsa, and the Mandan). Native Americans | | | | dwellings, which were partly underground and |
| from surrounding areas came into the Plains (e.g., | | | | were lined with slabs of stone - the so-called slab |
| the Sioux from the Great Lakes, the Comanche | | | | houses. A new people came into the area some |
| and the Kiowa from the west and northwest, and | | | | two centuries later; these were the ancestors of |
| the Navajo and the Apache from the southwest). | | | | the Pueblo Indians. They lived in large, terraced |
| A universal sign language developed among the | | | | community houses set on ledges of cliffs or |
| perpetually wandering and often warring Native | | | | canyons for protection and developed a |
| Americans. Living on horseback and in the portable | | | | ceremonial chamber (the kiva) out of what had |
| tepee, they preserved food by pounding and | | | | been the living room of the pit dwellings. This |
| drying lean meat and made their clothes from | | | | period of development ended c.1300, after a |
| buffalo hides and deerskins. The system of coup | | | | severe drought and the beginnings of the |
| was a characteristic feature of their society. | | | | invasions from the north by the |
| Other features were rites of fasting in quest of a | | | | Athabascan-speaking Navajo and Apache. The |
| vision, warrior clans, bead and feather art work, | | | | known historic Pueblo cultures of such sedentary |
| and decorated hides. These Plains Indians were | | | | farming peoples as the Hopi and the Zuni then |
| among the last to engage in a serious struggle | | | | came into being. They cultivated corn, beans, |
| with the white settlers in the United States. | | | | squash, cotton, and tobacco, killed rabbits with a |
| TRIBES: Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Bidai, | | | | wooden throwing stick, and traded cotton textiles |
| Blackfoot, Caddo, Cheyenne, Comanche, Cree, | | | | and corn for buffalo meat from nomadic tribes. |
| Crow, Dakota (Sioux), Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, | | | | The men wove cotton textiles and cultivated the |
| Iowa, Kansa, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Kitsai, Lakota | | | | fields, while women made fine polychrome |
| (Sioux), Mandan, Metis, Missouri, Nakota (Sioux), | | | | pottery. The mythology and religious ceremonies |
| Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Sarsi, Sutai, | | | | were complex. |
| Tonkawa, Wichita. · The Plateau Area | | | | TRIBES: Apache (Eastern), Apache (Western), |
| The Plateau area extended from above the | | | | Chemehuevi, Coahuiltec, Hopi, Jano, Manso, |
| Canadian border through the plateau and mountain | | | | Maricopa, Mohave, Navaho, Pai, Papago, Pima, |
| area of the Rocky Mts. to the Southwest and | | | | Pueblo (breaking into: Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, |
| included much of California. Typical tribes were the | | | | Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Picuris, Pojoaque, Sandia, |
| Spokan, the Paiute, the Nez Perce, and the | | | | San Felipe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Ana, |
| Shoshone. This was an area of great linguistic | | | | Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, Taos, Tesuque, Zia), |
| diversity. Because of the inhospitable environment | | | | Yaqui, Yavapai, Yuman, Zuni. |
| the cultural development was generally low. The | | | | |