I | INTRODUCTION |
Native Americans of
North America, indigenous peoples of North America. Native Americans had
lived throughout the continent for thousands of years before Europeans began
exploring the “New World” in the 15th century.
Most scientists agree that the human history of
North America began when the ancient ancestors of modern Native Americans made
their way across a land bridge that once spanned the Bering Sea and connected
northeastern Asia to North America. Scientists believe these people first
migrated to the Americas more than 10,000 years ago, before the end of the last
ice age (see First Americans). However, some Native Americans believe
their ancestors originated in the Americas, citing gaps in the archaeological
record and oral accounts of their origins that have been passed down through
generations.
Native Americans excelled at using natural
resources and adapting to the climates and terrains in which they lived. Over
thousands of years distinct culture areas developed across North America. In the
Northeast, for example, Native Americans used wood from the forests to build
houses, canoes, and tools. Dense populations in the Pacific Northwest exploited
the abundance of sea mammals and fish along the Pacific Coast. In the deserts of
the Southwest, Native Americans grew corn and built multilevel, apartment-style
dwellings from adobe, a sun-dried brick. In the Arctic, inhabitants adapted
remarkably well to the harsh environment, becoming accomplished fishers and
hunters.
Among the several hundred Native American
groups that settled across North America, there existed, and still exist, many
different ways of life and world views. Each group had distinctive social and
political systems, clothing styles, shelters, foods, art forms, musical styles,
languages, educational practices, and spiritual and philosophical beliefs.
Nevertheless, Native American cultures share certain traits that are common to
many indigenous peoples around the world, including strong ties to the land on
which they live.
When European explorers and settlers began to
arrive in the Americas in the 15th century, Native Americans found themselves
faced with a new set of challenges. Some Native Americans learned to coexist
with Europeans, setting up trade networks and adopting European technologies.
Many more faced generations of upheaval and disruption as Europeans, and later
Americans and Canadians, took Native American lands and tried to destroy their
ways of life. During the 20th century, however, Native American populations and
cultures experienced a resurgence. Today, Native Americans are working to
reassert more control over their governments, economies, and cultures.
The indigenous peoples of North America are
known by many terms. Most tribal peoples prefer to be identified by their tribal
affiliation, such as Hopi, Onondaga, Mohawk, or Cherokee. The most common
collective terms are Native American or American Indian. For many
years, Indian was the most prevalent term. When Christopher Columbus and
other European explorers arrived in the Americas, they thought they were in
Asia, which the Spanish referred to as “the Indies.” They called the native
peoples indios, as in the people of the Indies, later translated to
Indian. However, some scholars believe the Europeans were not calling
native peoples indios, but rather In Dios, meaning “Of God.”
The term Native American became popular
in the United States in the 1960s, although some people believe it is too broad
because it can refer to anyone born in the Americas, including Hawaiians and
descendants of immigrants. In Canada, aboriginal people is a commonly
used collective term. It refers to Indians, Métis (people of mixed indigenous
and European ancestry), and Inuit. In the 1970s many Indians in Canada began
calling their bands First Nations. When referring to the original
inhabitants of the United States, this article uses Native Americans,
American Indians, Indians, and native peoples interchangeably. When
referring to the original inhabitants of Canada, the article generally uses
aboriginal peoples, indigenous peoples, and native
peoples.
This article divides its discussion of Native
Americans into four main parts. The Culture Areas section examines Native
American ways of life in ten different geographic regions. Traditional Way of
Life looks at specific aspects of Native American life, such as food,
clothing, and music. The History section describes the history of
Native Americans in North America from the earliest times to the present day.
Native Americans Today discusses contemporary life for indigenous peoples
in the United States and Canada.
For a discussion of the indigenous peoples of
Middle and South America, see Native Americans of Middle and South
America. Other major articles on Native Americans in North America include
Indian Treaties in Canada, First Americans, Native American Architecture, Native
American Art, Native American Languages, Native American Literature, Native
American Policy, and Native American Religions.
II | POPULATION: PAST AND PRESENT |
A | Early Population |
Scholars vary greatly in their estimates of
how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived in 1492.
Estimates range from 40 million to 90 million for all of the Americas, and from
2 million to 18 million for the aboriginal population north of present-day
Mexico. These figures are hypothetical; exact population figures are impossible
to ascertain. Furthermore, the date of Columbus’s arrival was not necessarily
the peak of the Native American population. Civilizations had risen and fallen
before that time—the Hopewell culture, for example, flourished from 200 bc to ad 400 in eastern North America. Some
anthropologists believe the peak occurred around ad 1200.
The number of distinct Native American
groups or cultures that existed at the time of European contact is more
difficult to estimate. Scholars do not estimate the number of tribes that
existed at the time because few Native American peoples had the level of
political organization associated with true tribes. For many native
peoples, especially those who lived in areas with sparse resources, the family
was the largest unit, while others were organized into bands. Some tribes did
exist, but it is impossible to estimate their number, for smaller groups were
constantly merging into new, larger groups, or in some cases, disappearing.
Europeans applied the term nation to people with a common language and
customs and a name for themselves, and by 1700, they were aware of some 50 or 60
distinct Indian “nations” east of the Mississippi River. The Spaniards found
some 50 Indian nations in the West, including the Pueblo, Athapaskan-speaking
peoples, Comanche, and Piman- and Yuman-speaking peoples. In the Southeast and
East, many Indians tried to meet the European invasion by creating confederacies
or by increasing their reliance on existing confederacies of smaller
groups.
B | Decline |
European settlement of the Americas
drastically reduced the Native American population. The European conquest was
primarily a biological one. Explorers and colonists brought a wide range of
deadly communicable diseases directly from crowded European cities. These
diseases spread quickly among Native Americans, who had no immunity to them.
Transmitted through trade goods or a single infected person, measles, smallpox,
and other diseases annihilated entire communities even before they had seen a
single European. From the 16th century to the early 20th century, 93 epidemics
and pandemics (very widespread epidemics) of European diseases decimated the
native population. To cite only one example, in the American Southwest, the
Pueblo population fell by 90 to 95 percent between 1775 and 1850. In addition to
smallpox and measles, explorers and colonists brought a host of other diseases:
bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, pleurisy, mumps,
diphtheria, pneumonia, whooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, and various
sexually transmitted infections.
Despite the undisputed devastation wreaked
on Indian populations after European contact, native populations showed enormous
regional variability in their response to disease exposure. Some peoples
survived and, in some cases, even returned to their pre-contact population
level. Others disappeared swiftly and completely. Today, as scholars explore the
magnitude of the Native American population decline, they are finding that the
issues are much more complex than was previously assumed. Archaeological
evidence indicates that illness was increasing in the Native American population
in many regions before the arrival of Columbus, probably in response to problems
of population density, diet, and sanitation.
Although the introduction of new diseases
was the main cause of the rapid decline of indigenous populations, other reasons
were genocidal warfare, massive relocations and removals of Native Americans
from their homelands, and the destruction of traditional ways of life. With
white encroachment on their land, Native Americans no longer had access to their
traditional hunting, gathering, and farming areas. Their subsistence patterns
broke down, leading to malnutrition and greater susceptibility to disease.
Relocation to new areas, often among hostile Indian tribes that were already
living there, meant that people demoralized by their circumstances had to
establish new subsistence patterns as well as come to terms with their forced
dependency. By 1900, these factors, along with increased mortality and decreased
fertility, had reduced the Native American population to its low point of only
about 250,000 people in the United States and about 100,000 in Canada.
C | Recovery |
During the 20th century, Native Americans
experienced a remarkable population recovery because of decreased mortality
rates, including declining disease rates. Intermarriage with nonnative peoples
and changing fertility patterns have kept Native American birthrates higher than
birthrates for the total North American population. Another factor in the
increase is that more people in the United States are identifying themselves as
Native American on their census forms. By one estimate, as much as 60 percent of
the population increase of American Indians from 1970 to 1980 was due to these
changing identifications.
In the United States, 2.48 million people
identified themselves as American Indian in the 2000 census, up from 1.8 million
in 1990. More than 300 American Indian tribes are recognized by the U.S. federal
government. In Canada, there are about 600 bands of Indians. At the 1996 census,
about 805,000 people—including Indians, Métis, and Inuit—identified themselves
as aboriginals. For more information on current population trends in the United
States and Canada, see the Native Americans Today section of this
article.
Trudy Griffin-Pierce contributed the
Population: Past and Present section of this article.
III | EARLIEST PEOPLES |
Most anthropologists believe the ancestors
of Native Americans were hunter-gatherers who migrated from northeastern Asia
during the last part of the Pleistocene Epoch (1.6 million to 10,000 years
before present). From about 25,000 to 10,000 years ago a now-submerged land
bridge, called Beringia, linked northeastern Asia and northwestern North
America. At that time, sea levels were lower than they are today because more of
the world’s water was frozen in glaciers. The early colonizers who crossed this
natural land bridge were surely unaware they had arrived on a new continent.
Scholars may never know why ancient peoples ventured to the Americas. Perhaps
they were in pursuit of wide-ranging game; perhaps they were driven by the
enduring human urge to explore unknown territory. Whatever their motivation,
these peoples, or their descendants, pushed south toward what is now the
continental United States. Eventually, they made it all the way to the southern
tip of South America.
Traveling south during the late Pleistocene
would have been no easy task. Massive glaciers buried much of present-day Canada
and parts of the United States. By about 14,000 years ago, however, the glaciers
had retreated far enough to open a passable southern route down the Pacific
Coast. Then, about 2,500 years later, a habitable ice-free corridor opened in
the continental interior, along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. Many
scholars suspect that both routes were used by ancient peoples migrating to the
Americas.
A | The First Americans |
For much of the 20th century, the earliest
archaeological evidence of a human presence in the Americas was of the Clovis
people, who first appeared about 11,500 years ago. For decades archaeologists
believed these early Americans were fast-moving hunters who singularly pursued
mammoth, mastodon, and other large, now-extinct Pleistocene-age animals. There
is little doubt Clovis groups were highly mobile and spread rapidly, for their
distinctive fluted stone spearpoints occur throughout North America in the
centuries after 11,500 years ago. However, there is now evidence that Clovis
people relied on a variety of food resources and were less dependent on big game
than once supposed. It also appears they were not the first Americans.
Excavations in the late 20th century at
the site of Monte Verde, in southern Chile, testify to an earlier human presence
in the Americas, one dating to at least 12,500 years ago. Archaeologists had
long suspected a pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas, but no site achieved
wide acceptance until Monte Verde. The artifacts unearthed at Monte Verde
include well-preserved remains of leaves and seeds, meat and bone, and ivory, as
well as stone tools that are quite different from those produced by Clovis
peoples. For some archaeologists, these findings suggest that Monte Verde’s
ancient inhabitants were descendants of a separate, pre-Clovis migration to the
Americas—possibly one that traveled down the Pacific Coast.
B | Paleo-Indians |
The early colonizers of the Americas,
known as Paleo-Indians, faced the challenge of adapting to vast new lands
with a great diversity of local environments. These lands were themselves
undergoing dramatic changes as the great ice sheets melted off and global
climates rapidly warmed. Living in small bands of perhaps 25 to 75 people,
Paleo-Indians had to learn how to survive in the new lands and to maintain
contacts with distant kin. For this reason, they were highly nomadic, moving
regularly and camping in easily transported animal-skin tents or other
lightweight shelters. Equipped with an assortment of tools made from stone,
bone, and wood, they hunted a variety of animals, from small prey such as
turtles and birds, to large game, including deer and the occasional mammoth.
They probably also relied on wild plant foods as well, although evidence of this
is rarely preserved.
By about 10,000 years ago the descendants
of the first Americans had left traces of their presence in virtually every
corner of the Americas, from high in the Rocky Mountains down to lush tropical
lowlands near the equator. After that time, regionally distinctive ways of life
began to appear throughout the Americas as Paleo-Indian groups adapted to local
environments. In North America these environments included deciduous woodlands
and evergreen forests, vast deserts, grassy prairies, fertile river drainages,
and coastal lowlands. Paleo-Indians living in desert country became adept at
collecting wild plant foods because game animals were scarce. Buffalo- (or
bison-) hunting cultures appeared on the Great Plains, where large herds of the
animals lived. People living in forests hunted woodland game animals, while
those near rivers and lakes fished and hunted waterfowl. Along the coasts,
Paleo-Indians fished and gathered shellfish. In time, agriculture spread to
North America from Mesoamerica, where cultivation of food crops began as early
as 7,000 years ago, and sophisticated farming cultures appeared in the
southwestern and eastern regions of what is now the United States.
For more information about the peopling
of the Americas, see First Americans.
David Meltzer contributed the Early
Peoples section of this article.
IV | CULTURE AREAS |
When European explorers first arrived in
North America, they encountered a great diversity of Native American peoples
with widely varying customs. Over time, these indigenous peoples had developed
different cultural practices that were suited to their local environments.
Scholars find it convenient to group Native Americans who shared similar
cultural patterns before European or Euro-American contact into regions known as
culture areas.
Culture areas are applied to distinct
geographic regions. Each region has a characteristic habitat made up of the
prevailing climate, landforms, and natural resources, including plant and animal
life. Prior to European or Euro-American contact, habitat profoundly influenced
how Native Americans lived. Indigenous peoples adapted to the available
resources in each habitat to obtain foods and materials for shelter, clothing,
tools, and arts. The environment shaped how they organized their communities and
how they viewed the world around them. Peoples living where land was suitable
for farming but rainfall was limited, for example, were likely to develop
similar types of agricultural practices and to share mythological themes
surrounding their farming. Similarly, peoples living in areas with large herds
of migrating game were likely to have nomadic or seminomadic lifestyles and to
celebrate the animals they hunted in their mythologies.
Culture areas may also help provide a
framework for understanding Native Americans after European or Euro-American
contact, as non-Indians made inroads onto indigenous lands and influenced
indigenous culture. One culture area in particular—that of the Great Plains—came
to be defined long after the first Europeans had arrived in North America.
Horses brought to the Americas by Spanish colonizers transformed aboriginal ways
of living on the vast North American Plains.
Scholars have devised a number of different
systems for defining culture areas. The most common system divides North America
north of Mexico into ten culture areas. These include the Southeast culture
area, Northeast culture area, Southwest culture area, California culture area,
Great Basin culture area, Northwest Coast culture area, Plateau culture area,
Great Plains culture area, Subarctic culture area, and Arctic culture area.
Whichever culture area system is used, it
should be kept in mind that each tribe or group had its own distinctive customs,
making cultural generalizations difficult. It is also important to remember that
many Native American customs and behaviors that originated in pre-contact times
are still practiced today. The Native American saga is ongoing.
A | Southeast |
A1 | Land and Habitat |
The Southeast culture area is a
semitropical region north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Middle
Atlantic-Midwest region. Humid and well-watered, the area extends from the
Atlantic coast westward approximately to what is now central Texas.
The terrain and vegetation of the
Southeast culture area consists of a coastal plain along the Atlantic Ocean and
Gulf of Mexico, with saltwater marshes, grasses, and stands of cypress.
Especially rich soils are found in present-day Alabama and Mississippi in a
narrow belt, called the Black Belt, and along the Mississippi River floodplain.
The region also includes the vast swamplands, hummocks (rounded hills),
and high grass of the Everglades in present-day Florida, and the rolling
mountains of the southern Appalachian chain.
At the time of early contacts between
Native Americans and Europeans, much of the region was woodland, with southern
pine generally thicker near the coasts and more broadleaf trees further inland.
Because of these extensive forests, some scholars refer to this region as the
Southeast Woodlands culture area. Others combine the Southeast culture area with
the Northeast culture area—another heavily wooded region—and refer to it as the
Eastern Woodlands culture area.
A2 | Peoples and Languages |
The larger Native American groups of the
Southeast culture area included the Alabama, Caddo, Catawba, Cherokee,
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Creek, Natchez, Timucua, Yamasee, and Yuchi. Also
important were the Seminole—a post-contact offshoot of mostly Creek. There were
many other tribes as well, a great number of them now extinct. Many Southeast
peoples spoke languages in the Muskogean family. Scholars have identified at
least 48 distinct Muskogean-speaking tribes at the time of European contact. In
addition to Muskogean, language families of the Southeast included Siouan,
Iroquoian, Caddoan, Timucuan, and Tunican. Other tribes spoke languages not
associated with the main language families, including Atakapan by the Atakapa,
Chitimachan by the Chitimacha, and Natchesan by the Natchez.
A3 | Early Peoples |
Humans have occupied the Southeast for
many thousands of years. For millennia, prehistoric hunter-gatherer bands were
on the move, preying on large and small game, fishing, and collecting wild plant
foods. Cultivation of some native plants—including sunflower, marsh elder, and
goosefoot—began in the region about 5,000 years ago. A dramatic shift in
agriculture occurred in the Southeast about ad 400 as indigenous peoples looked
beyond native species and began to cultivate maize, or corn, a crop
domesticated thousands of years earlier in Mesoamerica. This development, which
spread to the Southeast from the Southwest culture area, revolutionized
subsistence and permitted the development of large, complex societies.
By ad 800 a great agricultural culture of
mound builders, called the Mississippian or Temple Mound culture, arose in the
Southeast. Like the earlier Adena and Hopewell mound-building peoples living
along the Ohio River Valley to the north, Mississippian peoples constructed
great earthen burial mounds. They also built massive earthworks that supported
temples and rulers’ residences. Across the Mississippi River from present-day
St. Louis, Missouri, the Mississippians built the city of Cahokia, which may
have been home to 20,000 or more people.
Master farmers, Mississippians typically
settled along riverbeds, where soils were rich and productive. Mississippian
peoples are thought to be ancestors of some Native American peoples of the
region. Spanish explorers reported seeing earthen mounds among the tribes of the
Creek Confederacy—an alliance of some Muskogean-speaking peoples—and Cherokee in
the 1500s. As late as the early 1700s, at the time of contact with French
explorers, the Natchez people were still using earthen mounds, growing maize,
and exhibiting other cultural traits consistent with Mississippian culture.
A4 | Diet and Subsistence |
A4a | Three Kinds of Maize |
Southeast Indians were expert farmers,
growing maize, beans, squash, and sunflowers as staple crops. The Cherokee,
among other peoples, cultivated three different kinds of maize. They roasted
one, boiled another, and ground a third into flour for cornbread. Because sandy
soil conditions were common in many areas, Southeast peoples frequently changed
agricultural fields to keep crops healthy, moving their villages when necessary
to develop new farmlands.
A4b | Hunting and Gathering |
Southeast peoples also hunted and
foraged to supplement their diets. They used bows and arrows to kill deer and
blowguns equipped with poison-tipped darts to hunt turkeys and other small game.
For fishing they used spears, traps, weirs (enclosures set in waterways),
and poisons. They also foraged for nuts and fruits, as well as edible roots,
stalks, and leaves. These were collected and sometimes stored in baskets or
ceramic pots.
A5 | Social and Political Organization |
Villages served as the primary form of
sociopolitical organization among Southeast Indians. Among many Southeast
tribes, villagers governed their own affairs and claimed control over a specific
geographic area, such as a river valley. Village councils of tribal leaders,
often led by a head chief, met to discuss matters important to the community,
such as cultivating fields owned by the community, building or repairing public
buildings, or providing for village defense.
Some Southeast tribes were organized
into chiefdoms—societies with a supreme ruler and with social rank
determined by birth—and some chiefdoms encompassed many villages. Chiefdoms
typically had powerful priesthoods. The Natchez, a Sun-worshipping people, were
ruled by a leader known as the Great Sun, a supposed living deity who held
autocratic power. His relatives, called Suns, formed a class of high priests.
Beneath them were nobles of varying rank, and under nobles were commoners, who
did most of the farming, hunting, and mound building. The tribes of the Creek
Confederacy also had well-developed hierarchies, as did the Chickasaw, although
less so. Other tribes of the region, including the Cherokee and Choctaw, were
more democratic and less formal in their social structure, with leadership roles
usually determined by a person’s achievements.
A6 | Settlement and Housing |
Most Southeast peoples located their
villages along river valleys and planted their crops in nearby fields. Homes and
public buildings were typically rectangular or, less frequently, circular. Most
structures were constructed of wattle and daub, a type of architecture in
which branches and vines are tied over pole frameworks and covered with a
mixture of mud or clay. Sometimes structures were covered with plant materials,
including thatch—made from straw, reeds, rushes, and grasses—as well as woven
mats, bark, bamboo stalks, and palm fronds. Animal hides were also used as
coverings. For swampy areas the Seminole people built chickees,
distinctive open-sided houses on stilts with wooden platforms and thatched
roofs.
A7 | Transportation |
In addition to travel by foot on
established trails, Southeast peoples used dugout canoes for transportation
along the waterways that crisscrossed much of the region and along coastal
areas. To make these boats, they charred parts of logs with embers from a fire
and then hollowed out the softened parts with stone and bone scrapers. Some
dugouts, having hull walls just a few centimeters thick, were light enough for
one person to carry. Native Americans propelled these boats with wooden
paddles.
A8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
In warm weather Southeast Indian men
typically wore only breechcloths, usually of deerskin. Women typically wore
wraparound plant-fiber skirts and shell necklaces. In cold weather men wore
deerskin shirts, leggings, and moccasins; women wore deerskin capes and
moccasins. For ceremonial purposes, tribal leaders and priests wore capes of
feathers. Among some Southeast tribes, men plucked out their hair with shell
tweezers and tattooed themselves with designs representing exploits in war and
with totems (symbols that serve as an emblem of a family or clan).
Elaborate tattoos also adorned some Southeast women.
A9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
Southeast peoples, like indigenous
peoples throughout North America, regarded themselves as part of the natural and
spiritual worlds. They considered religion a function of daily activity, with
rituals capable of influencing the interconnected realms of physical and
supernatural existence. Shamans, or medicine men, served as priests, and
they led tribal members in rituals believed to ensure an adequate food supply.
Since Southeast Indians practiced agriculture, many of their ceremonies
surrounded the planting and harvesting season.
The Green Corn Ceremony, or Busk,
was an annual renewal and thanksgiving festival performed by the Cherokee,
Creek, and other Southeast tribes. It was held in mid- to late summer, when the
corn was ready for roasting. The ceremony lasted from four to eight days and
included ritual fasting, dancing, and feasting. Old fires were extinguished, and
a new sacred fire was lit from which every household obtained fire. New tools,
weapons, and clothing were made. Wrongdoers were forgiven for most crimes except
murder. A beverage known as the Black Drink—so named by English traders
because of its dark color—was believed to purify spiritually all those who
imbibed it. Different tribes had different recipes for this ritual tea, made
from varying species of holly, tobacco, and other plants.
A10 | Post-Contact History |
Spanish explorers are the first known
outsiders to have visited the Southeast. They sailed northward from the
Caribbean region in the late 1400s and early 1500s, soon after Christopher
Columbus reached the West Indies. The earliest cross-cultural contacts took
place along coastal areas. Southeast coastal tribes received European goods as
gifts or in trade; they also were exposed to European diseases and were
kidnapped as slaves. These early contacts probably impacted inland groups as
well through the spread of diseases, when exposed coastal peoples traded with
interior tribes. Entire villages may have perished before the first European
explorers even reached them.
From 1539 to 1543 an expedition under
the Spaniard Hernando de Soto explored many of the Southeast's interior regions
and came into contact with numerous peoples. In 1565 the Spanish founded the
first permanent settlement in North America at Saint Augustine in modern-day
Florida. By the 1600s the English and French had also taken a strong interest in
the Southeast. The English established settlements on the Atlantic Coast, and
the French built towns along the Mississippi River Valley. Epidemics among
Southeast peoples and intermittent warfare with Euro-Americans took a heavy toll
on the indigenous population, and many tribes were displaced from their lands.
For many groups, displacement led to a loss of tribal identity.
By the time the United States achieved
independence from Britain at the end of the American Revolution in 1783, many
Southeast tribes had disappeared. Refugees of smaller tribes were often absorbed
by the larger groups that remained. Some Southeast peoples, including the
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole, came to adapt Euro-American
customs. The Cherokee, for instance, created a representative form of government
with a constitution and a written form of their Iroquoian language. Non-Indians
eventually referred to these groups as the Five Civilized Tribes.
Euro-Americans soon displaced many of
the remaining Southeast peoples from their lands. Pressure by non-Indian
settlers led U.S. president Andrew Jackson to pass the Indian Removal Act of
1830, under which the Five Civilized Tribes were relocated to the Indian
Territory (a region encompassing present-day Oklahoma). Many Indians died on the
long journey in difficult weather with little food or water. This forced exodus
came to be known among the Cherokee as the Trail of Tears. Today, many
descendants of the Southeast tribes live on reservations in Oklahoma. Some
Southeast Indians still live in their ancestral homelands, since pockets of
their ancestors did manage to avoid relocation. In recent times, small groups
throughout the Southeast have tried to reestablish tribal unity and
identity.
B | Northeast |
B1 | Land and Habitat |
The Northeast culture area consists of
the temperate-climate regions of what is now the eastern United States and
southeastern Canada. The region stretches east from the Mississippi River Valley
across the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic seaboard. In the east the
region encompasses the portion of the Atlantic Coast that extends from
southeastern Canada to the Chesapeake Bay region in Maryland and Virginia.
Inland it includes the northern Appalachian chain, which runs in a north-south
direction and creates a natural barrier. In the north central part of the
culture area are the large inland bodies of water known as the Great Lakes.
Hundreds of rivers flow throughout the
Northeast, and much of the soil, especially in the valleys, is suitable for
agriculture. Although generally humid, the climate is varied, like the terrain,
with the lengths of the four seasons determined by latitude and altitude. The
Northeast culture area is sometimes referred to as Northeast Woodlands because
of the widespread forests, including broadleaf hardwoods and coniferous
evergreens. Sometimes the area is grouped with the Southeast culture area and
referred to as the Eastern Woodlands.
B2 | Peoples and Languages |
At the time of European contact, two
great lines of people of two major language families lived in the Northeast:
Algonquian-speaking peoples and Iroquoian-speaking peoples. These peoples can be
organized into five major groups. In addition, there were many other smaller
tribes and bands that maintained distinct political identities.
The first of the five groups was the
Algonquian peoples of Nova Scotia, New England, Long Island, Hudson Valley, and
the Delaware Valley. The largest tribes of this group were the Abenaki, Delaware
(Lenni Lenape), Mahican, Maliseet, Massachuset, Mi’kmaq (Micmac), Mohegan,
Montauk, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pennacook, Pequot, Wampanoag, and Wappinger.
Second were the Chesapeake Bay and Cape Hatteras tribes, including the
Algonquian Nanticoke, Powhaten, and Secotan. Also in this group were the
Iroquoian Susquehannock and Tuscarora (the latter tribe eventually migrating
northward and settling among other Iroquoians). Third were the Great Lakes
Algonquian tribes. These included the Algonquin, Menominee, Ottawa, Potawatomi,
and some bands of Ojibwa (Chippewa), along with the Siouan-speaking Winnebago
(Ho-Chunk). Fourth were the Prairie Algonquian tribes, including the Fox
(Mesquakie), Illinois, Kickapoo, Miami, Sac (Sauk), and Shawnee. Fifth were the
New York and Ontario Iroquoian tribes. These included the Cayuga, Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca—referred to collectively as Iroquois
(Haudenosaunee)—and the Erie, Huron, Neutral, and Tobacco.
B3 | Early Peoples |
Ancient hunter-gatherers entered the
Northeast more than 10,000 years ago, possibly following game animals into the
region from the west. By about 9,000 years ago, as the climate warmed, the
peoples of the area became increasingly dependent on deer, nuts, and wild
grains.
The early history of the Northeast is
similar to that of the Southeast culture area. About 5,000 years ago Northeast
peoples began cultivating plants they found growing wild. All of these wild
plants—including amaranth, marsh elder, and goosefoot—were grown for their
seeds, which were ground into flour. Maize agriculture had reached the region
from the Southeast after about ad
400, permitting many peoples to rely more heavily on farming for
subsistence.
Exact connections between prehistoric
peoples and the later Native American inhabitants of the region are not known.
It is generally thought that the Algonquian-speaking tribes, who spread out over
a huge area from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, occupied the Northeast
first. Algonquian groups may be descendants of some of the earliest
hunter-gatherer peoples in the region. Alternatively they may be descendants of
the ancient mound builders, the peoples of the Adena and Hopewell cultures,
centered along the Ohio River Valley. The Iroquoian-speaking peoples, who
settled to the east of the Great Lakes and in the southern reaches of the
culture area on the coastal plain, appear to have entered the area later and
from the south. A Siouan-speaking group called the Winnebago lived west of the
Great Lakes. Other Siouans had made their homes nearby, but eventually migrated
westward and adopted a different way of life on the Great Plains.
B4 | Diet and Subsistence |
B4a | Hunting and Gathering |
Northeast peoples hunted a variety of
game, large and small: deer, rabbit, squirrel, beaver, and various birds, such
as turkey, partridge, duck, and goose. Peoples of the northern woods also hunted
moose, elk, and bear. Some peoples living near the prairies of the Mississippi
River Valley hunted the North American bison, or buffalo. In addition to hunting
with spears, bows and arrows, and clubs, Northeast Indians used traps, snares,
and deadfalls (traps designed to cause heavy objects, such as logs, to
fall, disabling or killing prey). They used disguises to get close to animals,
lured prey with animal calls, and set fires to drive animals toward hunters or
traps.
Northeast Indians also fished rivers,
streams, lakes, and ponds. They caught fish with harpoons, hooks, nets, and
traps. Peoples living along the Atlantic Coast depended on shellfish for part of
their diet. Wild plant foods were also an important food source, including
berries, nuts, roots, stalks, and leaves. Some tribes along the western Great
Lakes collected a tall grass with an edible grain, referred to as a wild rice.
Peoples living in maple country collected sap from the trees in early spring and
boiled it down into maple syrup and sugar.
B4b | Farming |
Most Northeast peoples supplemented a
hunting-gathering diet with farming. The Iroquois thought of their three most
important crops—maize (corn), beans, and squash—as the Three Sisters and
planted them together on small earthen hills. Corn stalks supported the vines of
bean plants while the large-leafed squash plants served to block weed growth.
Algonquian peoples introduced the Pilgrims and other early settlers in their
homelands to these cultivated crops in addition to many wild foods, including
maple sugar, cranberries, blueberries, lobsters, clams, and oysters.
B5 | Social and Political Organization |
B5a | Families and Clans |
The family played an important role in
Northeast Indian society. Most tribes were further organized into
clans—clusters of related families who claimed a common ancestor. Clans
often took animal names, such as the Deer Clan or Bear Clan. The Iroquois were a
matrilineal society, with descent and property passing through the female
line. Each clan was headed by an elder woman, known as a clan mother.
Clan mothers owned the crops and the communal dwellings and held great political
power. They elected tribal chiefs, who were generally male, retained the right
to veto actions they opposed, and had to approve declarations of war. Unlike the
Iroquois, the Algonquian were a patrilineal society, with descent and property
traced through the male line.
B5b | Confederacies |
To reduce conflict and maintain unity
against enemies, Northeast tribes organized into a number of confederacies. The
Iroquois Confederacy, also called the League of Five Nations, helped its member
tribes achieve great power and long-term political stability. The confederacy
was founded by the late 1500s, possibly earlier, and was composed of the Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. It became known as the League of Six
Nations after the Tuscarora migrated to the area from present-day North Carolina
and formally joined the confederacy in 1722. Central to the alliance was a
deliberative council composed of delegates from all the member tribes. Clan
mothers selected a proportion of the delegates to the council, and many
procedures were established in a constitution that was passed down orally from
generation to generation.
Confederacies were also common among
the Algonquian tribes, although they were less tightly organized than the
Iroquois Confederacy. Some Algonquian alliances resulted from the abilities of a
single strong leader, such as Chief Powhatan of the Powhatan Confederacy. Other
Algonquian confederacies included the Abenaki Confederacy, Delaware Confederacy,
Wampanoag Confederacy, and the Wappinger Confederacy.
B6 | Settlement and Housing |
Some Northeast Indians maintained
permanent villages. Other peoples were seminomadic, changing village sites
depending on food availability. They made clearings in the woods, usually near
streams or rivers, and sometimes surrounded them with palisades (tall
walls made from sharpened logs stuck upright in the earth) for defensive
purposes. Two types of houses were common in the Northeast: the Iroquoian
longhouse and the Algonquian wigwam. The region’s vast forests provided the main
building materials for these shelters.
B6a | Longhouses |
The Iroquoians built longhouses, communal dwellings capable of
housing a dozen or more families. Longhouses had pointed or rounded roofs and
doors at both ends. The buildings were constructed with post-and-beam and bent
sapling frames and usually covered with sheets of elm bark. Raised platforms
were used for sleeping. Smoke holes in the roofs allowed smoke from open fires
to escape.
B6b | Wigwams |
Algonquian peoples generally lived in
smaller structures known as wigwams. Wigwams were domed or cone-shaped
dwellings consisting of pole frames overlaid with birchbark or elm bark, reed
mats, or animal hides, depending on what materials were available. They were
typically built over a shallow pit, with earth piled around the base. Fires in
the center provided a source of heat and light. Longhouses were sometimes used
as council or ceremonial buildings.
B7 | Transportation |
Northeast peoples frequently relied on
birchbark canoes for transporting people and provisions in waterways. Algonquian
peoples crafted them using a framework of cedar or spruce wood and a covering of
birchbark. They sewed pieces of bark together with spruce root, then sealed the
seams with melted spruce gum. These elegant boats drew little water, making them
well suited for navigating shallow lakes, rivers, and streams. Light and strong,
birchbark canoes could be carried easily overland, making them advantageous for
hunting or raiding expeditions. Iroquoians used heavier elm bark instead of
birchbark to cover their canoe frameworks.
B8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
B8a | Hide Garments |
Deerskin was the material of choice
for clothing before Europeans brought cotton and other trade goods into the
Northeast. Treated and softened hide was used for shirts, leggings, dresses,
skirts, breechcloths, and moccasins. Northeast Indians also made robes and
mittens from beaver and bear fur. To decorate clothing they used feathers,
shells, stones, paint, and porcupine-quill embroidery. Sometimes they used paint
for body decoration or adorned their faces with tattoos, although tattooing was
not as prevalent as in the Southeast culture area.
B8b | Wampum |
The Algonquians and Iroquoians placed
a high value on wampum, an Algonquian-derived term that refers to small
beads made from shells, or the strings, belts, or sashes made from these beads.
Wampum was used for a variety of tribal and intertribal purposes. Especially
valued were beads made from the dark purple, black, and white quahog clamshells.
Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples used beads to decorate tools and weapons, and
as jewelry. They also used belts of wampum with beads arranged in pictographs
for keeping tribal records and to communicate messages of peace or war to other
tribes. Some tribes used wampum belts in religious and kinship ceremonies.
Prior to European contact, wampum
sometimes served as a medium of exchange, although its other cultural functions
were more significant. The Europeans began making wampum out of glass beads for
trade purposes—especially for the fur trade—and it eventually became used as a
form of money. Native Americans also began making wampum from European glass
beads.
B9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
B9a | The Great Spirit |
Northeast Indians believed in a spirit
world that interacted with the physical, or natural, world. This included belief
in a primary spirit, a great animating force that pervaded all existence.
Algonquians called this animating force Kitche Manitou (“Great Spirit”),
or simply Manitou, and by other names depending on language dialects. The
Iroquoian version of Manitou is known as Orenda, among other names, and
Siouans referred to it by variations on Wakan, or Wakanda. According to
indigenous beliefs, the Great Spirit had many manifestations. It was believed to
be present in all things—animals, plants, water, rocks, and other natural
phenomena, such as the Sun, Moon, weather, or sickness. Lesser manifestations of
the Great Spirit were sometimes referred to as manitous or by other
names, such as Thunderbird, Bringer of Rain. Shamans were believed to be capable
of controlling these spirits.
Apart from a general belief in the
Great Spirit, Algonquian tribes had different legends and believed in different
supernatural beings. Some of these beings were considered heroes or guardian
spirits, such as Manebozho, the Great Hare, who, according to the legends
of the Ojibwa and other Algonquian tribes, remade the world after bad spirits
had destroyed it in a flood.
B9b | Medicine Societies |
Medicine societies, composed of
practitioners skilled in the arts of healing, were important among many
Northeast peoples. These societies sought the help of the spirit world and
dispensed herbal cures to ward off disease and heal the sick. One of the most
famous Northeast medicine societies was the Medewiwin (Grand Medicine
Society), which originated among the Ojibwa and spread to other Great Lakes
Algonquians. Members, known as Mides, served a long apprenticeship before
gaining admittance to the society. Separate apprenticeships were necessary to
attain the four ranks of Mides, each of which was associated with ever-greater
supernatural powers.
Members of the False Face Society of
the Iroquois wore wooden masks known as false faces. The masks, which
represented spirits known as Faces of the Forest, were carved on a living tree.
Then a ceremony of prayer and tobacco offering was held while the masks were cut
from the trunk. The masks were believed to frighten away malevolent spirits that
caused illness, and False Face dances were performed to heal the sick.
B10 | Post-Contact History |
Some Northeast coastal peoples may have
had contacts with non-Native Americans as early as about ad 1000, when Vikings sailing from
Iceland attempted to found colonies in North America, including at least one
settlement in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador. The first known contacts
with later European explorers occurred in the 1500s. However, it was not until
the 1600s that European influences began to alter significantly indigenous ways
of life. Trade goods, including iron tools and pots, brightly colored clothing,
glass beads, and firearms, spread throughout the region at varying rates
depending on the location of tribes.
Many groups maintained something close
to their traditional ways of life for generations, even with the new tools and
materials. European goods were incorporated into aboriginal technologies, art
forms, and rituals. However, alcohol was one trade good that rapidly and
consistently proved detrimental to tribal identity. The spread of European
diseases also led to significant loss of life among Northeast peoples, as it did
throughout North America.
Patterns of non-Indian expansion in
present-day eastern Canada—much of which was once a part of New France (the
French Empire in North America)—were less disruptive than they were further
south. The economy of New France revolved around the fur trade, which began with
the voyages of French explorer Jacques Cartier in the 1530s. The French were
more likely to develop trade relations with Native Americans than to settle
permanently on their lands, and European settlement of indigenous lands in
Canada occurred more gradually.
English colonists, pushing inland from
the Atlantic Coast in what is now the northeastern United States, were more land
hungry than the French traders, since many of them hoped to establish new lives
as farmers. In 1607, with the help of Chief Powhatan and his daughter,
Pocahontas, the English founded their first successful American colony at
Jamestown in what is now Virginia. However, conflict between Indians and
colonists—who wanted land to grow tobacco as a cash crop—eventually destroyed
the Powhatan Confederacy. Warfare between Native Americans and English colonists
also occurred in the years after the Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 in
present-day Massachusetts. Although these colonists were subsistence farmers
rather than cash-crop farmers, their desire for land sparked a series of
conflicts that ultimately led to the destruction or displacement of many New
England tribes.
Colonial wars in the 1700s drew in many
Northeast tribes on opposing sides. A long succession of attacks and skirmishes
between the British and French culminated in the French and Indian War
(1754-1763). The Iroquois Confederacy blocked French efforts to control the
waterways from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. The Mohawk, a leading
Iroquois tribe, became firm allies of the British and helped defeat the French
in Québec in 1759. Many Northeast peoples, however, came to resent British
restrictions on trade and British expansion west of the Appalachians. Beginning
in 1763 a series of Indian attacks on British outposts swept through the Great
Lakes country and along the Ohio River Valley. In an attempt to maintain peace
the British issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which guaranteed indigenous
peoples all the land west of the Appalachians. Nevertheless, non-Indian settlers
continued to cross the mountains in the wake of such explorers as Daniel
Boone.
During the American Revolution,
pro-independence colonists tried to win the support of Northeast peoples by
halting Euro-American settlement on Indian lands. However, Mohawk chief Joseph
Brant (Thayendanegea) and Seneca chiefs Cornplanter and Red Jacket persuaded
four of the six Iroquois nations to join the British side. At the end of the war
in 1783, the Iroquois ceded large tracts of land to the United States, and many
Iroquois moved with their British allies to Ontario in Canada. Most Seneca, as
well as smaller numbers of the other Iroquois people, remained on ancestral
lands.
Increasing non-Indian settlement in the
Northeast pushed many of the remaining tribes westward across the Mississippi
River and onto the Great Plains. By the mid-1800s, few indigenous peoples still
lived in the Northeast. Those who stayed retained a small land base and became
in many instances forgotten neighbors of the dominant Euro-American culture
around them. Beginning in the 20th century, Northeast peoples in both the United
States and Canada sought to revive their traditional cultures.
C | Southwest |
C1 | Land and Habitat |
The Southwest culture area reaches
across a great swath of arid country in what is now the southwestern United
States and northern Mexico. It includes diverse terrain, from the high mesas and
canyons of the Colorado Plateau in the north to the Mogollon Mountains of
present-day southern New Mexico. Cactus-dotted deserts flank the Little Colorado
River in present-day southern Arizona and the Gulf of Mexico in present-day
southern Texas.
Few rains water the Southwest, and most
rainfall occurs during a six-week period in the summer. Snowfall is infrequent
except in mountain areas. Three types of vegetation are dominant, depending on
altitude and rainfall: western evergreen in the mountains; piñon and juniper in
mesa country; and desert shrub, cactus, and mesquite in lower, drier
regions.
C2 | Peoples and Languages |
Three language families predominated
among peoples in the Southwest: Uto-Aztecan, Yuman, and Athapaskan. Uto-Aztecan
speakers included the Hopi of Arizona and the Tohono O’Odham (Papago) and Akimel
O'Odham (Pima) of Arizona and northern Mexico. Some Pueblo peoples, including
the Tewa, Tiwa, and Towa in modern-day New Mexico, spoke dialects of
Kiowa-Tanoan, a language family related to Uto-Aztecan. The Cocopah, Havasupai,
Hualapai, Maricopa, Mojave, Yavapai, Yuma (Quechan), and other neighboring
peoples in Arizona spoke Yuman, and they are referred to collectively as Yumans.
The Apache and Navajo (Diné) of New Mexico and Arizona and the southern fringe
of Colorado and Utah spoke Athapaskan. Southwest languages considered distinct
from the main language families included Coalhuitecan of the Coalhuitec in Texas
and northern Mexico; Karankawan of the Karankawa in Texas; Keresan of the Keres,
a Pueblo people in New Mexico; and Zunian of the Zuni, another Pueblo people of
New Mexico.
C3 | Early Peoples |
When prehistoric peoples first arrived
in the Southwest more than 10,000 years ago, there was enough rainfall in the
region to support mammoths, bison, and other large mammals. Stone spearpoints
found with the remains of these animals provide evidence that ancient Southwest
peoples hunted them. After the climate became drier and the large animals
disappeared, subsequent generations of Southwest peoples hunted deer and small
game and collected fruits, nuts, and seeds of wild plants. About 5,000 years ago
the Cochise people in present-day Arizona and New Mexico began growing a
primitive species of maize (corn), which was domesticated in earlier centuries
in Mesoamerica. By 4,500 years ago they had become skilled farmers.
In later centuries, four distinct
farming peoples occupied the Southwest: peoples of the Mogollon, Hohokam,
Anasazi, and Patayan cultures, as well as a number of smaller offshoots. The
people of these cultures raised maize, beans, and squash. For each of these
peoples, the adoption of agriculture permitted the settlement of permanent
villages and the continued refinement of farming technology, arts, and crafts,
especially pottery.
The Mogollon people of southeastern
Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, who appeared about 2,300 years ago, are
believed to be descendents of the Cochise people. Mogollon Indians built
permanent villages in the region’s high valleys and learned to make pottery
decorated with intricate geometric patterns. The Mimbres people, a Mogollan
subgroup, is famous for painting pottery with dramatic black-on-white geometric
designs of animals and ceremonial scenes. From about ad 1200 to 1400 the Mogollan culture
was gradually absorbed by the then-dominant Anasazi culture.
The Hohokam people of southern Arizona
may also have descended from the Cochise. First appearing about 2,100 years ago,
Hohokam Indians dug extensive irrigation ditches for their crops. Some canals,
which carried water diverted from rivers, extended many kilometers. Hohokam
people also built sunken ball courts—like those of the Maya Civilization in
Mesoamerica—on which they played a game resembling a combination of modern
basketball and soccer. Hohokam people are thought to be ancestors of the Tohono
O’Odham and Pima, who preserved much of the Hohokam way of life.
In the Four Corners region, where
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado now join, lived the Anasazi Indians,
also known as ancestral Pueblo peoples. The Anasazi culture, which gradually
emerged from older Southwestern cultures, had taken on its distinctive
characteristics by about 2,100 years ago. Anthropologists refer to the Anasazi
of this early era as Basket Makers because they wove fine baskets from rushes,
straw, and other materials. Basket Makers hunted and gathered wild foods, tended
fields, and lived in large pit houses, dwellings with sunken floors that
were topped by sturdy timber frameworks covered with mud. By about ad 700 Basket Maker culture had evolved
into the early Pueblo cultural period. Over the next 200 years these peoples
made the transition from pit houses to surface dwellings called
pueblos—rectangular, multistoried apartment buildings composed of
terraced stone and adobe. They built large planned towns connected by an
extensive network of public roads and irrigation systems. At its peak, after
about 900, Pueblo culture dominated much of the Southwest. From about 1150 to
1300 Pueblo peoples evacuated most of their aboveground pueblos and built
spectacular dwellings in the recesses of cliffs (see Cliff Dweller). The
largest of these had several hundred rooms and could house a population of 600
to 800 in close quarters.
The Patayan people, who lived near the
Colorado River in what is now western Arizona, learned to farm by about ad 875. They planted crops along the
river floodplain and filled out their diets by hunting and gathering. Patayan
Indians lived in brush huts and made brownish pottery, sometimes painted red, as
well as baskets. They were known to use seashells from the Gulf of California in
trade. The Patayan people are thought to be ancestors of the Yuman-speaking
tribes.
During the late 1200s the Four Corners
area suffered severe droughts, and many Pueblo sites were abandoned. However,
Pueblo settlements along the Rio Grande in the south grew larger, and elaborate
irrigation systems were built. Between 1200 and 1500 a people speaking
Athapaskan appeared in the Southwest, having migrated southward along the
western Great Plains. Based on linguistic connections, these people are believed
to have branched off from indigenous peoples in western Canada. They are the
ancestors of the nomadic Apache and Navajo. Their arrival may have played a role
in the relocation of some Pueblo groups.
C4 | Diet and Subsistence |
C4a | Desert Farmers |
Two principal ways of life developed
in the Southwest: sedentary and nomadic. The sedentary Pueblo peoples were
mainly farmers who hunted and foraged to fill out their diets. They cultivated a
variety of crops, including corn of many varieties, squash, beans, sunflowers,
cotton, and tobacco. Pueblo Indians also raised tame turkeys. A number of desert
peoples, including the upland and river Yuman tribes and the Tohono O’Odham and
Pima, maintained a largely agrarian way of life as well.
Agriculture north of Mesoamerica—the
cradle of farming in the Americas—reached its highest level of development in
the Southwest. Growing food crops gave many Southwest peoples the ability to
prosper in a harsh landscape with few game animals or edible wild plants. The
agricultural peoples were such skilled farmers that, even in the dry country,
they managed to maintain sizable populations in permanent villages.
C4b | Nomadic Subsistence |
In addition to the Apache and Navajo,
the Karankawa and Coahuiltec tribes of southwestern Texas practiced a nomadic
hunting and gathering way of life. Game was scarce throughout the Southwest,
with larger mammals, such as deer and elk, found only in high, forested country.
Smaller game included rabbits, birds, and rattlesnakes. Southwest peoples also
gathered wild plant foods, especially mesquite seeds and cactus. Some tribes,
such as the Karankawa living along the Gulf of Mexico, supplemented their diet
through fishing. When nomadic peoples could not find enough food to eat in their
rugged homelands, they raided the village peoples for their crops.
C5 | Social and Political Organization |
Sociopolitical structure varied
throughout the Southwest. Pueblo Indians had a closely knit village life.
Descent was matrilineal—traced through the female line. Women owned the
houses, and married men lived in the homes of their wives. Tribes were organized
into clans, groups of families who claimed a common ancestor. Pueblo
priests served as both civil and religious leaders, and they were organized into
secret societies. The civil responsibilities of priests included advising on
matters affecting the entire pueblo, such as defensive measures against raiding
peoples; settling disputes between individuals; or helping individuals make
personal decisions. Various clans helped the priests direct a full calendar of
religious events, with elaborate rituals of dance, song, and prayer. Women
prepared food for these unifying events.
Apache and Navajo bands had less formal
types of social and political organization. Each band, which was made up of
extended clans, had a headman who was chosen informally for his leadership
abilities and military prowess. However, other warriors could launch raids on
their own without a headman's permission.
C6 | Settlement and Housing |
C6a | Pueblos and Kivas |
One of the most distinctive types of
housing in the Southwest was the pueblo (Spanish for “village”).
Pueblo-style dwellings are unique among Native American homes because of their
apartment-like design, as high as five different levels. The flat roof of one
level served as the floor and front yard of another, and the different stories
were interconnected by ladders. Inhabitants entered their rooms by ladder
through holes in the roofs. The largest pueblos, known as Great Houses,
could shelter perhaps 1,000 people.
Southwest peoples used different types
of building material to construct pueblo walls. The Hopi and Zuni typically used
stones, which were cemented with adobe mortar and sometimes covered with adobe
plaster. Pueblo Indians along the Rio Grande typically used adobe bricks made
from sun-dried earth and straw.
Pueblo Indians also built a type of
pit house, known by the Hopi term kiva. Anthropologists believe kivas
evolved from the earlier Basket Maker pit houses. Kivas were circular or
rectangular in shape and served as ceremonial chambers or clubhouses for men.
They were usually located at a central place in the pueblo, often on the plaza.
The largest pueblo towns had Great Kivas that could hold hundreds of
people. These kivas are thought to have been used for councils and for the most
important religious ceremonies.
C6b | Wickiups and Hogans |
The most common type of dwelling for
Apache bands was the wickiup, a dome- or cone-shaped hut with a pole
framework. The Apache covered this framework with brush, grass, or reed mats.
Wickiups frequently had a central fire pit and a smoke hole.
The Navajo lived in shelters called
hogans. These structures were either cone-shaped or dome-shaped with six
or eight sides. Logs and poles were used for the frameworks, which were covered
with mud, sod, and bark. In later years the frameworks were covered with stone
or adobe. The doorways of hogans always faced east, with the floor symbolizing
Mother Earth and the roof Father Sky.
Tohono O’Odham and Pima houses were
small, round, flat-topped, pole-framed structures, covered with grass and mud—a
type of wattle-and-daub architecture. Their villages also contained
ramadas, rectangular structures with no walls, or sometimes just one wall
as a windbreak. Ramadas served as clubhouses. Some Yumans lived in dwellings
similar to those of the Apache and some built homes resembling those of the
Tohono O’Odham and Pima.
C7 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
The main clothing material used by
Pueblo Indians was cotton, which they spun into fabric for garments. They also
used animal skins, furs, and feathers for clothes. Men typically wore a cotton
loincloth, a short kilt, and skin moccasins. For cold weather or ceremonies,
they added a poncho (a rectangular cut of cloth with a hole for the
head). Women wrapped a cotton rectangle around themselves, tying it over the
shoulder, and they wore calf-length skin boots. The Tohono O’Odham and Pima also
wore cotton and animal-skin clothing, but they favored hide sandals over
moccasins. The Yumans, who wore minimal clothing, preferred garments made from
animal skins and woven bark, as well as hide sandals. Some Southwest peoples
also crafted sandals from woven plant fibers. The Apache and Navajo originally
wore deerskin clothing. In later centuries they adopted some of the dress
customs of Pueblo Indians.
C8 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
C8a | Gods and Legendary Beings |
Southwest religions centered on an
unseen world of gods and legendary beings. For the agricultural peoples, the
ritual calendar revolved around the growing cycle of corn; the function of most
rituals was to enlist the help of spiritual beings to bring good crops upon
which life depended. Central to the religions of nomadic peoples were
mythologies relating to natural forces and spirits thought to intervene in human
affairs. Southwest nomads sought the protection of the supernatural to cope with
illness, shortage of game, drought, and other matters of daily survival.
Among the Pueblo Indians, kivas
provided an important space for their ceremonies and rituals. An underground
chamber, the kiva represented a primordial homeland, the place from which the
Corn Mothers—legendary ancestors of Pueblo peoples—entered this world. A
shallow hole set in the floor of the kiva, called a sipapu, symbolized
the connection to the spiritual world below. Ceremonies in kivas lasted as long
as a week or more and included singing and prayer.
Spiritual beings known as kachinas
to the Hopi and by other names to other Pueblo Indians were revered as
bringers of rain and social good. Pueblo men carved wooden masks to
represent these spiritual beings in ceremonies. They also carved figures, called
kachina dolls, to teach their children about their religion.
The most powerful gods among the
Tohono O’Odham and Pima were Earthmaker, who created the Earth, and Elder
Brother, who made the people out of clay and passed their arts and crafts to
them. Directed by their shamans, both peoples practiced a ceremony called the
Viikita, or harvest ceremony, every fourth year. In the Viikita, costumed
and masked dancers and clowns were believed to bring about tribal prosperity and
good fortune. Shamans also directed the religious practices of the Yumans, whose
rituals were less elaborate than other Southwest Indians.
To attain the aid of supernatural
forces, nomadic peoples made offerings to their gods and spirits, which were
often represented in ceremonies by painted and masked men. The ga’ns, or
mountain spirits, were important in Apache ceremonies. Men dressed up in
elaborate costumes to impersonate the ga’ns in dances in order to gain their
protection. The men wore kilts, black masks, tall wooden-slat headdresses, and
body paint, and they carried wooden swords. The Navajo believed in ghosts,
thought to be the spirits of dead ancestors, and witches, people who practiced
magic.
C8b | Sand Painting |
The Navajo practiced sand
painting, a ceremonial art in which colored powders made from ground
minerals and organic materials are trickled onto neutral sand, often for the
purpose of healing. Sand painters, under the guidance of shamans, typically
created their mosaics on the floor of a lodge at dawn. Using five sacred
colors—white, black, blue, red, and yellow—they depicted legendary beings and
natural phenomena. At the end of the ceremony the sand paintings were destroyed;
no works were kept after sunset.
C9 | Arts and Crafts |
Southwest Indian women, especially of
the Pueblo peoples, crafted elegant pottery from coiled strips of clay. The
pottery was polished and frequently painted with intricate geometric patterns.
Southwest peoples also made baskets in many shapes and sizes, often with
elaborate designs. The Apache, Navajo, Tohono O’Odham, and Pima were known more
for basket making than pottery making; Yumans crafted both.
C10 | Post-Contact History |
After the Spanish conquistador Hernán
Cortés invaded present-day Mexico and conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521, the
Spanish began exploring northward. Reports of gold and other riches in the
Southwest convinced the Spanish viceroy in Mexico, then called New Spain, to
send an expedition to the region. From 1540 to 1542 a group of explorers led by
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado searched in vain for the legendary gold-studded
Seven Cities of Cíbola. Coronado never found these mythical cities, but his
expedition came into contact with many Southwest peoples. Spain soon established
a military, economic, and religious presence in the Southwest.
In 1598 the Spaniard Juan de Oñate
founded a settlement at San Juan Pueblo along the upper Rio Grande, and he
claimed New Mexico as a colony for Spain. After sacking the villages that
resisted, Oñate added much of the Rio Grande region to Spain’s dominions. At
about the same time, Jesuit missionaries began moving into present-day Arizona.
In 1610 Santa Fe was founded near San Juan Pueblo to serve as the capital of New
Mexico. Southwest Indians, especially Pueblo peoples, were forced to accept
Spanish rule and Roman Catholic religious customs. Throughout the region the
Spanish imposed the encomienda system, which bound the Indians to work on
Spanish ranches in virtual slavery. Southwest peoples were also forced to work
in textile and dye factories, and in silver mines.
In 1680 Pueblo Indians staged the
Pueblo Revolt under Popé, a Tewa shaman of the San Juan Pueblo, and the Spanish
were driven out of the region. For a time Pueblo Indians lived free from the
Spanish yoke and followed their traditional ways. However, the Spanish
recaptured Santa Fe in 1692, and by 1696 they once again controlled most of the
pueblos. The Spaniards permitted more freedom of religion following
reoccupation, however, and many Pueblo Indians continued to practice their
traditional kiva-centered religion as well as Catholicism. Spanish missionaries
soon were present among the Tohono O’Odham, Pima, and Yumans, in addition to the
Pueblo Indians. Bands of Apache and Navajo, as well as Comanche from the
southern plains, remained unconquered, however, and continued raids on the
Spanish as well as on Pueblo Indians.
Spanish rule in the Southwest lasted
until Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico controlled the
Southwest until it was forced to cede much of the region to the United States in
1848 following the Mexican War; additional Southwest lands were acquired by the
United States after the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Throughout this period the
Apache maintained their nomadic way of life. Many Navajo, however, became
sheepherders and master weavers after the introduction of domesticated sheep by
the Spanish.
During and after the American Civil
War (1861-1865), U.S. authorities attempted to pacify militant bands of Navajo
and Apache, who frequently raided the ranches of non-Indians for livestock. In
the mid-1860s the U.S. army destroyed Navajo orchards, seized Navajo flocks, and
rounded up militants, and the Navajo were relocated to eastern New Mexico. The
Navajo refer to this forced migration as the Long Walk. They were later allowed
to return to reservations in their ancestral homelands. Apache resistance ended
with the surrender of Apache chief Geronimo in 1886, and the last free Apache
bands were moved onto reservations. Other Southwest peoples were also resettled
onto reservations in the late 1800s.
In modern times the Navajo still hold
many reservation lands in both New Mexico and Arizona. The Apache retain smaller
parcels, as do the Tohono O’Odham, Pima, and Yumans. Many Pueblo Indians still
live in their ancestral villages, a continuum from ancient times. The Acoma
Pueblo, located atop a mesa in west central New Mexico and founded in ad 1075, is believed to be the oldest
continuously occupied settlement in the United States. Today, many Southwest
peoples raise livestock, farm, and practice their traditional religious
ceremonies. The sale of traditional handicrafts frequently supplements income
from agriculture. The discovery of oil, natural gas, and rich mineral deposits
on tribal reservation lands has helped raise the standard of living for some, as
have tourism and casino gaming.
D | California |
D1 | Land and Habitat |
The California culture area includes
roughly the present-day state of California as well as the Lower California
Peninsula, or Baja California. Two mountain ranges run north-south along the
California culture area: the Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to
the east. The Coast Ranges drop off to coastal lowlands along the Pacific Ocean
in most areas. Between the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, the San Joaquin
River and Sacramento River form a natural basin, the Central Valley. The climate
is generally mild, with many days of warm weather, especially in the south.
Rainfall varies significantly from north to south, with the forests in the north
receiving the most and the deserts in the south the least. Bountiful plant and
animal life is found throughout much of the region.
The Sierra Nevada long provided a
natural barrier to the movement of peoples. As a result, Native Americans east
of the Sierra Nevada practiced different ways of life and are often included in
the Great Basin or Southwest culture areas. Some Native American peoples just
south of California’s present-day northern border shared ways of life with
peoples of the Northwest Coast culture area and the Plateau culture area.
D2 | Peoples and Languages |
California was one of the most populous
North American culture areas before European contact, with numerous tribes and
bands speaking more than 100 distinct languages. Many California peoples spoke
languages based on the Penutian and Hokan language stocks—older language
groups from which a variety of language families evolved. Penutian-based
languages were spoken by tribes in the north and north central regions,
including the Costanoan, Maidu, Miwok, Wintun, and Yokuts. Hokan-based languages
were spoken by tribes in the central and northern coastal areas, including the
Achomawi, Atsugewi, Chimariko, Chumash, Pomo, Esselen, Karok, Salinas, Shasta,
and Yana. Hokan-based languages were also spoken by the Diegueño and Kamia to
the south.
Other major language families found in
the north and north central regions included Athapaskan, spoken by the Hupa and
Tolowa, among others; Yukian, spoken by the Wappo and Yuki; and possibly an
offshoot of Algonquian, spoken by the Wiyot and Yurok. In the south languages of
the Uto-Aztecan family were spoken by the Tubatulabal, Kitanemuk, and Serrano,
as well as by the Mission Indians—tribes whose European names were taken
from the Spanish missions where they were relocated. The Mission Indians
included the Cahuilla, Cupeño, Fernandeño, Gabrieliño, Juaneño, and Luiseño,
among others.
D3 | Early Peoples |
Little is known about the most ancient
Californians, who were drawn in great numbers to the region’s warm climate and
plentiful food supply. The California culture area is thought to have been a
melting pot of tribes from other regions, based on the number of different
languages spoken there. For thousands of years California peoples practiced a
hunting-gathering way of life that persisted virtually unchanged until recent
centuries. They hunted large and small animals, fished, and collected nuts and
wild grains.
D4 | Diet and Subsistence |
D4a | Acorns |
California had abundant resources to
support a large Native American population without agriculture. The dietary
staple of California Indians was the fruit of the oak tree, the acorn, collected
in the fall. Acorn kernels were removed from their shells and placed in the sun
to dry out. They were then pounded into flour, which was rinsed repeatedly with
hot water to remove the bitter-tasting tannic acid. Acorn meal could be boiled
into a soup or mush, or baked into bread.
D4b | Other Wild Foods |
California peoples ate many other
wild plant foods, including various nuts, seeds, berries, greens, roots, bulbs,
and tubers. Insects were also a food source. Grubs and caterpillars were plucked
from plants and boiled with salt. Grasshoppers, driven from fields into pits,
were collected and roasted.
California Indians hunted deer and
small animals, especially rabbits, using bows and arrows, clubs, and snares.
They also hunted ducks, geese, swans, and other birds from boats with nets or
from blinds (camouflaged areas) with bows and arrows. On the Pacific
Coast people hunted sea lions, seals, and sea otters, and they fished a variety
of species. Their fishing methods included hooks and lines, spears, nets, and
weirs. They also gathered clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, and other
shellfish.
D5 | Social and Political Organization |
D5a | Tribelets |
Most Native Americans in the
California culture area lived in villages of related families with descent and
property ownership traced patrilineally, or through the male line. A
permanent village often had temporary satellite villages nearby, presided over
by one principal chief. Anthropologists sometimes refer to these types of small,
tightly integrated villages as tribelets. Tribelets typically occupied a
distinct territorial area, such as a river drainage, and they were often
relatively isolated from each other. Chiefs, as members of leading families,
usually inherited their positions. Most decisions made by chiefs involved
economic matters, such as how food would be collected and distributed. Some
northern groups, including the Yurok, lacked chiefs or other formal political
structures.
D5b | Peaceful Relations |
Unlike peoples from other culture
areas, California Indians did not have war chiefs, nor did they bestow war
honors. Raids were generally carried out for the purpose of revenge rather than
for acquiring food, possessions, or slaves. The great wealth of natural
resources in California stimulated extensive trading relationships among
indigenous peoples. Strings of disk-shaped dentalia (tooth-shaped mollusk
shells) were used as a medium of exchange.
D6 | Settlement and Housing |
California peoples constructed many
different kinds of dwellings, the majority to house a single family. The most
common design was cone-shaped, usually about 2.5 m (8 ft) in diameter at the
base. A pole framework was covered with brush, grass, reeds, or mats of
tule, a kind of bulrush. Other common dwellings included
dome-shaped pit houses covered with earth and lean-tos (shelters
with a single slanted roof) covered with bark slabs. Some northern California
peoples built wood plank houses that resembled those found in the Northwest
Coast culture area.
D7 | Transportation |
The most common type of watercraft used
by California peoples was the raft, made from logs or from tule reeds. To make
tule rafts, known as balsas, Indians wove reeds together into watertight
bundles. The bundles became waterlogged after repeated use, but they could be
reused after drying out in the sun. Some peoples, such as the Yurok, made simple
dugout canoes, carved from redwood logs. Another tribe, the Chumash, made the
only plank boats known among Native Americans. To do so, they lashed pine planks
together with fiber cordage and caulked the seams with asphalt.
D8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Because of the generally warm climate,
most California Indians needed minimal clothing. Men often went naked or wore
animal-skin or bark breechcloths. Women wore fringed animal-skin or shredded
bark aprons in front and back. Headwear included basket hats, hairnets of iris
fiber, feather headbands, and feather crowns. Footwear included ankle-high
leather moccasins or sandals made from the yucca plant, although most California
Indians went barefoot year around. In cold weather, robes and blankets of rabbit
skin, sea-otter fur, or feathers were worn. Shell jewelry was widespread for
ornamentation, as was the practice of tattooing.
D9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
For California peoples, spirits and
spiritual forces infused all existence. Some spirits were worshipped as god
figures. Shamans were highly regarded for their ability to cure diseases, often
through the practice of sucking illness out of patients, and they were
frequently seen as aided by spirit helpers. Some groups had specialized weather
shamans who attempted to control weather, and animal or mythical shamans who
impersonated particular animals and legendary beings.
The peoples of central California
practiced the Kuksu religion, or Kuksu Cult. The principal deity
of this religion was Kuksu, who was surrounded by an array of lesser beings.
Members of the secret Kuksu Society wore elaborate feather or grass headdresses,
both to conceal their identities from women and children of the tribe and to
impersonate spiritual beings in order to acquire power. The Kuksu Society held
its ceremonies in the winter months in hopes of securing plentiful game and wild
plant foods the following spring and summer. One of the ceremonies, known as
Hesi, was a four-day dance. Some participants drummed a beat for the
dancers, usually by stomping on a foot drum, while others chanted sacred
songs.
D10 | Arts and Crafts |
California Indians crafted objects
from stone, antlers, shells, wood, and ceramic, but they are most famous for
fine basketry. They wove many useful items from readily available grasses,
reeds, barks, and roots. These included containers, mats, traps, baby carriers,
ceremonial objects, games, hats, and footwear. They fashioned baskets of all
sizes and shapes, from large containers 1 m (3 ft) in diameter to tiny baskets
no wider than a few centimeters. Among some tribes as many as eight different
kinds of baskets were made for holding and processing acorns. Some peoples of
the region, such as the Pomo, added intricate designs and decorations with dyes,
shells, and feathers.
D11 | Post-Contact History |
In the mid-1500s the Spanish explored
the California coast by boat. English navigators soon followed. Yet indigenous
traditions endured until the colonizing expeditions carried out by the Spanish
in the late 1700s. In 1769 the Spaniard Junípero Serra, a missionary of the
Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded a mission at San Diego in
present-day southern California. Before long, Serra and other Franciscans
constructed a string of missions northward along the Pacific Coast to San
Francisco.
Peoples of many different tribes were
rounded up and forced to work at the missions and to accept Catholic teachings.
The missions continued to operate until 1834, a decade after Spain withdrew from
California, which had become a formal territory of Mexico in 1825. Some
indigenous peoples fled to the interior and others revolted, although challenges
to Spanish, and then Mexican, authority were short-lived. European diseases
brought by the Spanish also had a devastating impact on California peoples.
The United States won control of
California in 1848 after the Mexican War (1846-1848). The discovery of gold in
California that same year and the ensuing gold rush of 1849 further disrupted
the lives of indigenous peoples. Native Americans who did survive lost most of
their tribal lands. Modern-day California tribes now hold only small parcels,
which are sometimes referred to as rancherias.
Today, the state of California has a
large Native American population. Especially since the 1950s and 1960s, many
rural Native Americans have moved from reservations in other states to urban
areas in California, encouraged by U.S. government policies that supported
migration from reservations to towns and cities. A renaissance of traditional
culture is currently underway among many groups.
E | Great Basin |
E1 | Land and Habitat |
The Great Basin culture area is an arid
inland region encompassing much of the western United States. The Great Basin
consists of a vast natural basin, with occasional rocky uplands breaking up long
stretches of mostly barren desert. The region is surrounded by mountains and
plateaus: the Sierra Nevada on the west; the Rocky Mountains on the east; the
Columbia Plateau on the north; and the Colorado Plateau on the south. The open
expanse of the Mojave Desert in the southwest portion of the region is the one
exception.
The rivers and streams of the Great
Basin drain from the flanking high country into the central depression and
disappear into sinks; the waterways thus have no outlet to the oceans. The
mountains to the east and west block the rain clouds, leading to low rainfall
and high evaporation. The Great Basin once contained dozens of enormous lakes,
the remnants of which include Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and Pyramid Lake,
among others. These modern lakes have a high salt content. In the western part
of the Great Basin is found Death Valley, where summer temperatures exceed 52°C
(125°F). The sparse vegetation throughout the Great Basin is called desert
shrub, in which sagebrush is dominant with some piñon and juniper trees in the
higher elevations.
E2 | Peoples and Languages |
The nomadic tribes ranging throughout
much of the sparsely populated Great Basin spoke languages of the Uto-Aztecan
family. The lone exception was the Washoe to the west who—like some peoples of
the California culture area—spoke a Hokan dialect. The major Great Basin peoples
were the Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute, with various subdivisions and offshoots,
including the Bannock, who branched off from the Northern Paiute. Although
dialects varied throughout the region, their similarity made it possible for
different groups to find common words to communicate.
E3 | Early Peoples |
Human settlers may have arrived in the
Great Basin around 11,000 years ago, when the prevailing climate was cooler and
wetter. Lacking plentiful food resources, the indigenous population remained
sparse for thousands of years. Early peoples settled around lakes or along
rivers, where game animals were more abundant. As the warming climate dried up
marshes and lakes and larger game animals grew scarce, ancient settlers turned
to hunting smaller animals and collecting and processing a variety of wild plant
foods. For millennia, small bands of Native Americans managed to eke out an
existence in the Great Basin.
E4 | Diet and Subsistence |
Life in the Great Basin was an
unrelenting quest for food, water, firewood, and materials for basic tools and
utensils. The vast deserts supported few large game animals, so indigenous
hunters preyed upon available small game, including rabbits, rodents, snakes,
lizards, and birds. They were adept foragers and collected insects, grubs,
seeds, nuts, berries, and roots. They had to dig for much of their food—small
mammals, reptiles, roots, and insects. As a result, non-Indians who encountered
these peoples often referred to them as Diggers.
The availability of food dictated
whereabouts and activities in the course of a year. Some food gathering was
communal. Families would occasionally gather to drive rabbits and other mammals
into brush corrals where they were slaughtered. Grasshoppers were driven into
trenches with fire, roasted alive, and ground into flour. Peoples venturing into
highland areas hunted pronghorn antelope and mountain goats, fished rivers and
lakes, and harvested pine nuts from piñon trees.
E5 | Social and Political Organization |
Great Basin Indians adopted a nomadic
lifestyle to exploit wild food resources as they became available, and they had
no permanent social group larger than the family. They typically traveled in
small bands of extended families without the formal organization and shared
rituals evident among other Native Americans. Band leaders of related families
acted more as advisers than as decision makers. When various bands gathered for
hunting drives in warmer weather, temporary leaders would be appointed. Some
bands congregated for the winter months as well.
E6 | Settlement and Housing |
Most Great Basin peoples lived in
small, simple cone-shaped structures that were made of willow pole frames and
covered with brush, reeds, and grasses. Such dwellings were similar to wickiups
made by the Apache in the Southwest culture area. Some Great Basin Indians also
built larger huts and windbreaks using similar materials.
E7 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Clothing was scanty among Great Basin
Indians. Men sometimes went naked or wore nothing more than a deerskin apron or
loincloth; women wore overlapping front and rear aprons of shredded bark. Most
people went barefoot or wore sandals made from yucca, deerskin, or rabbit
skin.
E8 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
Great Basin peoples believed in a
spirit world and spirit beings, who communicated with them through dreams and
visions. Their shamans conducted rituals to locate food and heal the sick, and
they passed on mythological traditions through storytelling. The folklore of
many peoples included Wolf as the good brother who makes things and Coyote as
the trickster bad brother who disrupts things.
E9 | Arts and Crafts |
Many Great Basin Indians, like peoples
in the California culture area, used baskets as both carrying and cooking
containers, although their baskets were typically less sophisticated. To
traverse large streams, they built bulrush floats to carry their belongings.
They wove nets for hunting small game from plant materials, and they made bows
and arrows and clubs. Long, hooked sticks were fashioned for pulling small
animals from burrows. Some groups made duck decoys using tule reeds covered with
duck skins. In Ute society, arrow and spearhead makers held a special place of
honor.
E10 | Post-Contact History |
Much of the Great Basin is landlocked
desert country, and Native Americans living there avoided contact with
non-Indians until later than tribes to their west and south. A Spanish
expedition ventured into what is now central Utah in 1776 and 1777. By then,
some Ute bands had traded with Pueblo Indians to the south for horses. They
adopted a lifestyle similar to tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, traveling
onto the Great Plains as horse-mounted hunters. Some Shoshone bands also took to
the plains on horseback.
For most Great Basin peoples, the
first contacts with outsiders that significantly altered traditional ways of
life occurred in the 1840s. At that time, many Euro-American migrants began
traveling through the Great Basin on their way to California. Other newcomers
sought land in the western interior for homes, including the Mormons who settled
near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Colorado gold rush that began in 1858
brought more settlers to the region. A number of wars ensued in the 1860s and
1870s, in which indigenous peoples unsuccessfully fought non-Indians in an
effort to retain traditional lands and ways of life. In the following decades,
most Great Basin peoples were settled on reservations.
Today, the Ute retain the largest
share of Native American lands in the Great Basin. They are followed by the
Paiute, who hold scattered parcels, then the Shoshone, Bannock, and Washoe. Oil,
gas, and mineral leases provide some income for present-day Great Basin peoples.
Other economically important activities include farming and raising livestock,
casino gaming, and the sale of traditional arts and crafts.
F | Northwest Coast |
F1 | Land and Habitat |
The Northwest Coast culture area
encompasses more than 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of the Pacific coast, from the
panhandle of present-day southern Alaska to northern California. The width of
this narrow coastal region varies from about 16 km (10 mi) to 240 km (150 mi).
It is cool, damp, thickly forested, and cut by many rivers. Vancouver Island,
the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Alexander Archipelago, and other smaller
islands off the Northwest Pacific coast are part of the culture area.
Mountains run north-south along the
eastern limits of the Northwest Coast. These include the Coast Ranges in Canada
and the Cascade Range in the United States. In some areas the mountains extend
to the ocean, forming rocky cliffs. In other regions the uplands drop
dramatically to inlets and rocky beaches. The region is characterized by mild
wet winters and cool summers. Evergreen forests thrive where there is soil
enough to support them, and huge trees form a dense canopy that blocks out much
sunlight. The floor of the great Northwest Coast forests is dark, damp, and
covered with ferns and mosses. Springs and streams from mountain glaciers feed
numerous rivers, which run to the ocean. The forests are home to abundant flora
and fauna, and the rivers and sea teem with aquatic life.
F2 | Peoples and Languages |
Northwest Coast peoples spoke a variety
of languages. The Haida and Tlingit spoke distinct dialects thought to be
related to the Athapaskan language family. Athapaskan peoples who settled in the
region included the Chastacosta, Chetco, Clatskanie, and a number of other
tribes. Languages based on the Penutian language stock were spoken by such
tribes as the Alsea, Chinook, Coos, Kalapuya, Siuslaw, Takelma, and Tsimshian.
Other languages in the region included those of the Salishan family, spoken by
the Coast Salish and other tribes; the Wakashan family, spoken by the Haisla,
Heiltsuk, Kwakiutl, Makah, and Nootka; and the Chimakuan family, spoken by the
Chimakum and Quileute.
These various peoples settled
throughout the Northwest Coast region. For the most part, they did not cluster
geographically according to language. Culturally, Northwest Coast peoples can be
divided into three groups: those of the colder northern area, including the
Queen Charlotte Islands of western British Columbia; those of the central
region, in the vicinity of Vancouver Island and the mouth of the Columbia River;
and those of the warmer southern region, who shared some cultural traits with
peoples of the California culture area.
F3 | Early Peoples |
Evidence for the first settlement of
the Northwest Coast is scarce, with the earliest documented sites dating to
about 10,000 years ago. Salmon has been an important staple for Northwest
peoples for at least 7,000 years, and by about 5,000 years ago indigenous
peoples began to exploit shellfish resources. After that time, Northwest Coast
Indians gradually learned to use marine and land resources more efficiently, and
complex societies arose. Indigenous peoples built numerous settlements,
typically right at the ocean's edge on narrow rocky beaches. The Northwest Coast
became one of the most densely populated areas in all of North America. Trading
along the coast and inland up rivers was widespread, and woodcarving and other
crafts attained great sophistication and artistry.
F4 | Diet and Subsistence |
Northwest Coast Indians had more than
enough food to support a dense population, even without agriculture and
extensive gathering of wild plants. The sea provided the primary foods: seals,
sea lions, and fish, including many species of salmon, halibut, herring, cod,
and flounder. Some tribes, such as the Makah, hunted whales. Northwest Coast
peoples also fished streams and rivers, especially when salmon left the ocean
waters to lay their eggs. Sometimes they ventured inland to hunt deer, elk,
bear, and mountain goat. They learned to dry their meat and fish with smoke to
preserve them for the long winter months.
F5 | Social and Political Organization |
F5a | Village Life |
Villages and kin groups were central
to the social fabric of Northwest Coast peoples. Indians lived in clans,
or groups of families claiming a common ancestor. Kin groups built
villages, and sometimes groups of villages were united by kin relations. There
were no large, integrated tribes, however, because kin groups typically remained
politically and economically distinct from other groups. Each clan was headed by
a chief who determined the timing of key ceremonies and rituals, and decided
such things as when, where, and how communal food resources would be harvested.
Chiefs were village nobles, born to families of high social status. Heredity
also played a role in the passing of specialized crafts, such as boat building,
from generation to generation.
F5b | Wealth and Status |
Northwest Coast Indians, especially
northern groups, had rigid class systems defined by social status and property.
Social rank was determined in part by birth, with those highest in status
closest to the direct line of descent from a common ancestor. Property included
ownership of food, blankets, canoes, slaves, and sheets of hammered copper, as
well as the right to a particular title, crest, or song. At the top of the
social hierarchy were wealthy nobles. Below the nobles were common people, and
below them were slaves. Slaves were war captives, people who had fallen in debt,
and the children of slaves. The wealthiest nobles were typically chiefs, or
headmen, of the villages.
F5c | The Potlatch |
Among Northwest Coast peoples, great
wealth was important mainly as a measure of what a person could afford to give
away in the potlatch ceremony. The term potlatch, as the gifting custom
is known, is taken from the Nootka word patshatl, which means “sharing.”
Traditionally held in the winter to dedicate a new house, raise a totem pole, or
honor a wedding, the potlatch included feasting, speechmaking, storytelling,
singing, drumming, and dancing. Some individuals saved for years in preparation
and gave away many items, such as animal furs and woven blankets. Generosity in
the potlatch increased a giver’s rank within the social group, and the gifting
often meant a return in goods from others in reciprocal potlatches.
F6 | Settlement and Housing |
Northwest Coast Indians typically
situated their villages on the narrow beaches of the mainland and islands, their
homes facing the sea. They lived in rectangular plank houses large enough
to fit an entire extended family. Each family had a separate cubicle in the
house.
Cedar was the building material of
choice for plank houses. Huge cedar logs were used for framing. Broad,
hand-split planks, running either vertically or horizontally, were lashed to the
framework to make walls and gabled or shed (single-slope) roofs to keep
out the frequent rains. Cedar planks also served as flooring. Plank houses
usually had central fire pits, and platforms for sleeping and storage along the
walls. Some houses had two levels. For additional insulation from the cold, mats
were hung on the inside walls. The fronts of the houses were carved and painted
with designs, sometimes with attached totem poles.
F7 | Transportation |
Northwest Coast peoples traveled up and
down the coast in large dugout canoes for purposes of trade, fishing, hunting,
and slave-raiding. The seaworthy dugouts were made from giant cedar logs, some
as long as 21 m (70 ft) and able to hold 60 paddlers and passengers. They made
these large boats by alternately burning the interior of a log and chipping out
the charcoal with a stone adz. Dugouts were painted with totemic designs. High
bows and sterns were attached to the hull with cedar pegs and ropes. Equipped
with hand-held bailers carved from wood, the dugouts could weather even the
roughest seas.
F8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Men often went unclothed or wore
full-length tunics of woven plant fibers. They found bare feet more comfortable
in the damp coastal climate, but added deerskin leggings and moccasins for
overland travel. Round brimless hats or conical broad-brimmed ones made from
plant fibers kept off the rain. Blankets and fur robes, preferably made from
light and warm sea otter fur, gave protection from the cold. A woman’s basic
garments included a woven plant fiber skirt and sometimes a cloak. Headdresses
were also worn, often made from woven plant materials or bird heads and
feathers. Tattooing was common among some groups.
Some Northwest Coast peoples practiced
head-flattening, considered a sign of beauty and status. Infants would have
their heads compressed on a board to produce a strong slope leading to a
distinctive peak at the top of the skull. They achieved this form by flattening
either the back of the skull or the forehead above the eyebrows.
F9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
The peoples of the Northwest Coast
continually sought the protection of animal spirits, chiefly the raven, bear,
eagle, and beaver. Individuals sought visions of guardian spirits and appealed
to them if misfortunes occurred.
Religious life was dominated by
shamans—who were believed to have great power over spiritual forces—and their
secret societies. Members of societies met in large sweat lodges where they
bathed in steam made from cold water thrown on heated rocks. There they talked,
sang, and conducted elaborate ceremonies, including masked dancing. Shamans
conducted special rites to cure the ill.
F10 | Arts and Crafts |
F10a | Woodworkers and Weavers |
Northwest Coast peoples were master
woodworkers. They shaped giant wood plank houses, totem poles, and dugout
canoes. Haida and Kwakiutl carvers made wood chests, boxes, masks, and utensils
with stylized bird and animal designs. Similar designs in green, yellow, black,
and white were woven by Tlingit and Tsimshian women into blankets of mixed goat
hair and cedar bark. The famous blankets of the Chilkat, a subgroup of the
Tlingit, were traded throughout the area. Northwest Coast peoples also made
exquisite baskets and spoons of horn and shell.
F10b | Totem Poles |
Totem poles were common among
Northwest Coast peoples. These were wooden posts carved and painted with a
series of symbols, including representations of the owner’s guardian animal.
Totem poles were typically erected to commemorate dead ancestors, with the
symbols confirming the lineage and social rank of the owner. Sometimes totem
poles were structurally part of a plank house; others stood alone. Most were
made from cedar.
F11 | Post-Contact History |
Spanish and English ships first
reached the Northwest Coast from the south in the late 1500s. However, Europeans
did not stake territorial claims in the area until the 1770s. In the Nootka
Convention of 1790, Spain surrendered its land claims to Britain. Most early
contacts between non-Indians and Indians were peaceful and fostered trade
relations.
The arrival of fur traders to the
Northwest Coast in the late 1700s—first Russian, then British and
American—initiated a period of extensive trade with indigenous peoples. The
Russians, who explored the region from the north, established trading posts
along the Gulf of Alaska. Contacts between Indians and non-Indians further
increased with the U.S.-sponsored Lewis and Clark Expedition, which reached the
mouth of the Columbia River by land from the east in 1805, and subsequent
American and Canadian trade expeditions. In exchange for valuable animal pelts,
Northwest Coast peoples received steel axes, firearms, wool blankets, molasses,
and whiskey. However, the Tlingit resented Russia’s expansion in the region and
attacked Russian outposts, including the settlement of Sitka in 1802. Tlingit
resistance, along with increasing competition from British and American fur
traders, contributed to Russia’s eventual abandonment of the North American
enterprise; they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.
Increasing contacts with foreign
traders exposed indigenous peoples to many contagious diseases and led to rapid
population declines. In the mid-19th century, Northwest Coast peoples were
subjected to many new pressures as growing numbers of non-Indians from the
United States and Canada settled in the region. Non-Indians prospected for gold,
sought out new land for timber, farms, and homes, and attempted to spread
Christianity among the Native Americans. The completion of transcontinental
railroads in the northern United States and southern Canada in the late 1880s
further increased non-Indian settlement in the Northwest. Many indigenous
peoples were forced onto small reservations. In modern times Northwest Coast
peoples have had to struggle for traditional land and fishing rights. They have
also rediscovered traditional practices, including arts and rituals.
G | Plateau |
G1 | Land and Habitat |
The Plateau culture area in western
North America is an upland region that encompasses the Columbia Plateau and the
basins of the great Fraser and Columbia rivers. The Columbia Plateau is flanked
by the Cascade Mountains to the west, the Rocky Mountains to the east, the
desert country of the Great Basin to the south, and the forest and hill country
of the upper Fraser River to the north.
The mountains bordering the Columbia
Plateau catch large amounts of rain and snowfall. This precipitation drains into
a great number of rivers and streams, many of which feed the Columbia River that
flows to the Pacific Ocean. The mountains and river valleys have enough water to
support forests of pine, hemlock, spruce, fir, and cedar. The plateau land
between the mountain ranges consists of flatlands and rolling hills covered with
grasses and sagebrush. The climate varies greatly depending on proximity to the
ocean and altitude. Game animals were generally small, except in the mountains.
Nutritious tubers and roots could be found in meadows and river valleys.
Bountiful seasonal runs of salmon in the Columbia, Fraser, and tributary rivers
significantly enhanced the region’s available food supply.
G2 | Peoples and Languages |
The Plateau was not as densely
populated as the Northwest Coast culture area to the west, yet many different
tribes inhabited the region. Two language groups were dominant. In the southern
regions, stretching from the Columbia River to the Great Basin, lived peoples
who spoke languages based on Penutian, a language stock that includes many
language families. Penutian-based languages were spoken by the Cayuse, Klamath,
Klickitat, Modoc, Nez Perce, Palouse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Yakama. North
of the Columbia, extending into Canada, the most common language family was
Salishan (of uncertain stock). Dialects of Salishan were spoken by many tribes,
including the Columbia, Coeur d’Alene, Flathead, Kalispel, Shuswap, and Spokane.
Exceptions to this pattern were the Athapaskan-speaking Stuwihamuk in the north;
the Chinookian-speaking Wishram in the southwest; and the Kutenai-speaking
Kootenai in the northeast. Some linguists believe Kutenai is related to the
Algonquian language family.
G3 | Early Peoples |
Archaeologists have found ancient
traces of human settlement in the Plateau region dated at more than 10,700 years
old. Early settlers lived along rivers and lakes, hunted a variety of game,
including deer and elk, collected wild plant foods, and possibly traded shells
obtained from the Pacific Coast. Fishing has a long history on the Plateau. Some
groups may have relied on salmon runs as long as 7,000 or 8,000 years ago, and
fishing in the region appears to have increased after about 5,000 years
ago.
More than two dozen distinct tribal
groups inhabited the Columbia Plateau at the time of European contact.
Collective ancestors of peoples speaking languages of the Penutian stock
probably settled the area before 8,000 years ago. Another group, ancestors of
people of the Salishan language family, may have arrived in the region about
3,500 years ago. Other groups entered the region in later years. Chinookians
probably migrated from the west, Athapaskans from the north, and
Algonquian-speaking peoples from the east. Indigenous peoples who settled on the
Plateau used the many rivers as avenues of trade, and contacts among different
tribes were frequent.
G4 | Diet and Subsistence |
G4a | Master Fishers |
The limited ground vegetation in the
dry, rugged country of the Columbia Plateau supported too few large game animals
for them to be a staple food source. However, Plateau Indians managed to survive
without farming by fishing the rivers and by gathering wild plant foods in the
river valleys and on the grasslands. The most important of the many different
kinds of fish found in the rivers were the abundant salmon that swam upriver
from the ocean in the spring and summer months to lay their eggs.
Plateau Indians used many fishing
techniques: They stood on riverbanks or on platforms and thrust at fish with
long-handled spears; they used nets, both handheld nets on long poles and large
weighted nets attached to floats; and they used small traps made from poles and
brush, as well as large enclosures called weirs. Much of the catch was
dried in the sun or over a fire for consumption during the winter months.
G4b | Hunting and Gathering |
Plateau peoples hunted a variety of
game on the forested mountain slopes of the region, including elk, deer,
mountain sheep, and bear. On the lower dry flatlands of the Plateau they hunted
jackrabbits and occasionally pronghorn antelope. In the river valleys they
harvested wild berries, including blackberries and huckleberries. Plateau
Indians collected edible roots and bulbs from grasslands, including the
camas plant, a kind of lily, as well as bitterroot, wild carrots, and
wild onions.
G5 | Social and Political Organization |
Villages, usually located along
rivers, were the main social units for Plateau tribes. A village typically
consisted of five or six dwellings, each housing four to six families.
Sociopolitical organization was much looser than among Northwest Coast Indians,
their neighbors west of the Cascade Mountains, with Plateau peoples having fewer
status distinctions and their village chiefs having less power. Plateau chiefs,
who frequently inherited their positions, typically ruled through social
consensus; outright coercion was rare. Among some Plateau peoples, chiefs from
different groups occasionally gathered to make decisions in council.
G6 | Settlement and Housing |
G6a | Pit Houses |
In cold weather, most Plateau
peoples lived in pit houses. To construct a pit house, a large post was
placed in the center of a round excavated area, and numerous other poles were
extended from its top to the edge of the pit to form a conical framework. Then
the roof poles were covered with mats of cedar bark, sagebrush, grass, and other
plants, as well as packed earth. A hole at the top allowed smoke from open fires
to exit.
G6b | Temporary Shelters |
In warm weather, Plateau peoples
usually lived in temporary lodges. These structures typically had basswood
frames in the shape of a ridged tent or lean-to, and bulrush-mat coverings.
These warm-weather houses were easy to assemble and disassemble for moving from
one place to another, such as along rivers at salmon-spawning time or across the
flatlands at camas-digging time.
G7 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Plateau men usually wore deerskin
loincloths. Women wore front and back aprons or skirts of shredded bark fiber
similar to those of Northwest Coast Indians. In the west, both men and women
went barefoot. In the east, bison-skin or deerskin moccasins typical of Indians
of the Great Plains were worn. Fur robes were added for warmth in winter
months.
G8 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
For Plateau peoples, spirits and
spiritual power infused all living things, as well as natural phenomena such as
thunder, mountains, rivers, and rocks. Individuals were believed to have
personal guardian spirits that offered protection from disease or misfortune.
Each person was considered responsible for carrying out rituals, ordeals, and
offerings necessary to secure the goodwill of these spirit helpers. Plateau
shamans cured illness with the help of spirits or by purging a patient of the
bad spirit that was causing sickness.
Most Plateau communal ceremonies
centered on rituals to ensure an abundant supply of food. Salmon ceremonies, for
example, celebrated their first arrival in the spring. After the first fish was
captured and eaten, its bones were returned to the water to guarantee abundant
salmon runs the following year. Many Plateau legends also involved food, and how
animals were punished for stinginess.
G9 | Arts and Crafts |
Plateau Indians wove exquisite
baskets. For cooking, heated stones were placed in tightly woven containers
filled with water. Other baskets were made for collecting wild plant foods. They
also wove soft bags of marsh plants and adorned them with intricate designs. The
women were famous for their handsome basket hats, which they wove out of dried
leaves and other materials. Plateau Indians did not make pottery.
G10 | Post-Contact History |
The Plateau, like the Great Basin,
was not explored by non-Indians until long after Europeans reached North
America. The Rocky Mountains blocked the route from the east, and mariners
missed the outlet of the Columbia River for centuries. In 1792 Robert Gray,
exploring for the United States, managed to travel a short distance up the great
river. Then, in 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the mouth of the
river along an overland route. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with the
Shoshone woman Sacagawea as a guide and translator, had friendly contacts with
more than 50 tribes of the Great Plains, Plateau, and Northwest Coast culture
areas. The good relations led to successful trade contacts in the following
years, and by the 1830s fur trappers known as mountain men had thoroughly worked
the region. Their efforts led to the establishment of the Oregon Trail, which
brought growing numbers of settlers to the region over the next decades.
Long before settlers arrived in the
area, however, the traditional way of life of the Plateau Indians had evolved to
include horses, originally brought to North America by the Spanish. In the early
1700s the Nez Perce—the largest tribe in the Plateau region—had acquired horses
through trade with tribes to the south. They rapidly became skilled
horse-breeders and trainers, as did other tribes of the Plateau, including the
Cayuse and Palouse. Some groups ventured east of the Rocky Mountains to hunt
bison. On these forays they learned to make large animal-hide tipis, like those
of the Great Plains peoples, instead of the small mat tents and lean-tos they
had traditionally used when on the trail.
By the 1840s and 1850s, increasing
non-Indian settlement in the Plateau area caused friction as indigenous land
rights were ignored. This led to outbreaks of violence between non-Indians and
indigenous peoples, including the Cayuse War (1847-1850). Conflict continued
until the late 1870s. One of the last battles waged was the unsuccessful fight
of the Nez Perce against the U.S. Army in 1877. During the late 19th century
most Plateau peoples were relocated to reservations.
Persistent warfare with non-Indians,
the spread of European diseases, and the loss of fishing sites and hunting lands
brought about sharp declines in indigenous populations. Reservation life, too,
inflicted hardships on Plateau peoples. Modern tribes of the region continue to
fish the Columbia and its tributaries, and they have maintained some traditional
ways of life. Facing competition for fish resources, intertribal groups have
organized to defend ancestral fishing rights.
H | Great Plains |
H1 | Land and Habitat |
The vast inland region of the Great
Plains culture area stretches west from the Mississippi River Valley to the
Rocky Mountains and south from present-day central Canada to southern Texas. It
includes rolling, fertile tall-grass prairies in the east, where there is
adequate rainfall for agriculture, and the short grasses of the drier high
western plains. Windy conditions are common and changes in temperature can be
dramatic. Summers are typically hot and dry, and winters are long and
harsh.
Some wooded areas interrupt the fields
of grass, mostly stands of willows and cottonwoods along the river valleys. In
some places highlands rise up from the plains and prairies, such as the Ozark
Mountains in Missouri, the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, and the
Dakota Badlands. The region is remarkable, however, for the extent and dominance
of its grasslands. For thousands of years tens of millions of American bison,
more commonly known as buffalo, found nourishment from the grasses of the Great
Plains.
H2 | Peoples and Languages |
Prior to the arrival of Europeans,
most occupants of the Great Plains lived along rivers in the eastern regions.
They were predominantly farmers who hunted bison and other game seasonally to
fill out their diets. Agricultural peoples at the time of European contact
included the Siouan-speaking Hidatsa and Mandan; the Caddoan-speaking Caddo,
Pawnee, Tawakoni, and Wichita; and a group that split off from the Pawnee, the
Arikara. Scattered groups of nomadic hunting peoples are thought to have made
their homes on the Great Plains before non-Indians explored them. These groups
included, on the Northern Plains, the Algonquian-speaking Blackfeet, who
separated from other Algonquians and migrated to the area from the east. On the
Southern Plains were the Uto-Aztecan speaking Comanche, who had separated from
the Shoshone and migrated there from the northwest.
Other nomadic hunting peoples came to
live on the Great Plains, most migrating to the region in the centuries after
European contact and the acquisition of horses by Native Americans. They came
for many reasons: to escape droughts in their homelands; because of increasing
non-Indian settlement in eastern North America; and most of all, to pursue the
great bison herds. Peoples who migrated onto the Great Plains from the east
included the Siouan-speaking Assiniboine, Crow, Iowa, Kaw, Ponca, Missouria,
Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Quapaw, and Sioux. From the northeast came the
Algonquian-speaking Arapaho, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, and Plains
Ojibwa. From the northwest came the Kiowa-Tanoan-speaking Kiowa and the
Athapaskan-speaking Kiowa-Apache (a subgroup of Apache) and Sarcee. The Tonkawa,
who spoke a language that some scholars believe evolved from Algonquian, are
thought to have migrated onto the Plains from the east or south.
H3 | Early Peoples |
For thousands of years prehistoric
peoples hunted the large herbivores that inhabited the Great Plains, especially
bison. Over time these peoples refined their hunting practices and technology,
and they exploited a broader range of available plant foods.
More than 2,000 years ago some central
and eastern prairie peoples learned to raise crops and make pottery, possibly
from the groups of mound builders to the east. In contrast, the nomadic peoples
who lived year-round in the high western plains remained hunters and gatherers
because the dry, cold climate was unsuited for agriculture. By the time
Europeans arrived in the Americas in the late 15th century, the majority of
Great Plains peoples were villagers and farmers, or at least seminomadic farmers
who lived in villages part of the time. The densest settlements were along or
near the Missouri River. As soil became depleted in one area, they probably
migrated up or down the river in search of new village sites.
The indigenous way of life now
considered typical of the Great Plains culture area evolved after contacts with
Europeans and the spread of horses. These animals—brought to North America by
the Spanish in the early 16th century—made possible a new way of life on the
Plains. With increased mobility, village-dwelling farmers could become nomadic
hunters year-round. With time, many different tribal customs blended into common
ones. By the 19th century, dozens of tribes and bands of horse-mounted hunters
dominated the Great Plains.
H4 | Diet and Subsistence |
After European contact, some Great
Plains peoples continued to farm, and many groups hunted a variety of game,
fished rivers, and gathered wild plant foods. However, with the spread of horses
as a means of transportation to follow the seasonal migrations of bison herds
over great distances, bison meat became the staple food. It was eaten raw,
roasted over fire, or preserved. Indians made jerky by drying meat in the
sun, and pemmican by pounding dried meat with fat and berries. Great
Plains peoples also ate the tongue, liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and intestines
of their kill. Buffalo chips (dried manure) provided a common source of
cooking fuel.
H5 | Social and Political Organization |
Most Great Plains tribes consisted of
bands of related families, with several hundred members. Tribal leadership was
typically divided between a peace chief and a war chief or war chiefs; both
peace and war chiefs acted with the advice and consent of a council of other
tribal leaders. Peace chiefs tended to internal tribal affairs. War chiefs,
usually younger men, conducted warfare and led raids on enemies. The bands lived
apart most of the year in their own territories. In the summer months they
gathered for communal bison hunts, ceremonies, or councils. A tribe might share
its hunting lands with friendly tribes, but protect them from enemies.
H6 | Settlement and Housing |
H6a | Tipis |
Plains Indians lived in a variety of
shelters. The portable tipi (also spelled teepee or tepee) became the
most common dwelling for Plains nomads. To construct a tipi, either three or
four poles were used as the basic framework. They were tied together near the
top and spread out at the bottom to form a cone shape. Up to 20 additional poles
were then propped against this framework. A covering of bison skins sewn
together with sinew was stretched around the framework and held in place around
the bottom edge with wooden pegs or stones.
An unfastened seam provided an
entrance, with a hide or fur door stretched on a pole or on a hoop. An opening
at the top served as a smoke hole for the central fire. Three or four beds were
typically situated along the walls. The various openings of the tipi could be
adjusted for ventilation, and the bottom edge could be rolled up for increased
airflow. A tipi could also be sealed from the elements, with extra pelts added
to the walls for insulation. The outer coverings and inner linings were commonly
painted with designs that represented spirit beings, ancestors, family
histories, and battle honors.
H6b | Earth Lodges |
Large communal earth lodges
and grass lodges up to 15 m (50 ft) in diameter were common among the
tribes of the eastern prairies. Earth lodges were usually dome-shaped with a log
framework. This framework was covered with smaller branches or brush mats and
then packed with mud or sod. These dwellings were typical of the Arikara,
Hidatsa, Mandan, Pawnee, Ponca, and Osage. Grass lodges, with pole frameworks
covered with grass or thatch, were typical of the Caddo and Wichita.
H7 | Transportation |
H7a | The Spread of Horse Culture |
In 1659 the Spanish governor of the
colony of New Mexico reported an attack by Navajo (Diné) on horseback—the first
documented use of horses by Indians in North America. During the 1680 Pueblo
Revolt in the Southwest culture area, Indians captured hundreds of horses owned
by Spanish colonists. By the mid-18th century, horse culture had spread to
indigenous peoples throughout western North America and had become the catalyst
for a new culture, that of the Great Plains. This relatively recent culture has
often been portrayed as the typical Native American way of life by many
non-Indians.
H7b | Adaptations to the Horse |
Use of the horse among Native
Americans revolutionized transportation, hunting, and warfare. With horses,
Great Plains tribes could readily travel great distances, pursue fleeing bison,
and attack their enemies at great speeds. Many groups originally used dogs to
carry possessions, attaching them to a type of sled known as a travois.
These sleds had two poles tied together in the shape of a V, the closed end
resting on a dog’s shoulders and the open end on the ground, with hide stretched
between the poles for holding cargo. Horses enabled Indians to use much larger
travois and carry more possessions, as well as carry the sick or the elderly or
children if need be.
Most Great Plains Indians rode
bareback, using a rawhide thong around the horse's lower jaw as a bridle. Others
rode on blankets or on small hide saddles stuffed with bison hair or grass.
Still others rode on more elaborate wooden saddles covered with deerskin and
decorated with beadwork, along with decorated stirrups and bridles. Leather and
beadwork ornaments were sometimes attached to bridles or draped over the horse's
shoulders. Leather bags, known as parfleches, were hung from saddles to
carry food and possessions. Some Indians painted their war horses with symbols,
or trimmed and dyed their horses’ manes and tails, or placed eagle feathers or
ribbons in their manes.
Great Plains Indians eventually
became some of the best horse riders in the world. They could wield clubs,
lances, and shields, or throw spears or shoot bows and arrows while in motion.
Horses became a sign of wealth, and some individuals were known to own as many
as 1,000 each. Native Americans also became skilled breeders, especially in the
neighboring Plateau culture area. They chose the fastest and most responsive
animals for breeding.
H8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
H8a | Decorated Clothing |
Peoples of the Great Plains had warm
and cold weather clothing, made from bison, deer, and other mammals. Designs on
clothing, such as insignia on robes, often honored exploits in war or had other
specific meanings. In other cases, designs simply provided decoration. Dyed
quillwork, later replaced by beadwork, decorated bison-skin or deerskin shirts,
vests, leggings, dresses, boots, and moccasins. Fringes added another decorative
element. Other articles of clothing commonly seen on the Great Plains included
leather breechcloths in warm weather, and fur robes, caps, and headbands in cold
weather.
H8b | War Bonnets |
A prevalent symbol of Native
Americans through modern times is the eagle-feather headdress, more commonly
known as the war bonnet. Great Plains war chiefs had the longest war
bonnets, with black-tipped tail feathers of the male golden eagle representing
exploits in battle. The feathers were attached to a skullcap of bison skin or
deerskin, with a browband that was decorated with quillwork, beadwork, and
dangling strips of fur or ribbons. Additional downy feathers were tied to the
base of the eagle feathers and tufts of dyed horsehair to their tips.
H9 | Warfare |
After Great Plains peoples acquired
horses, war became a central part of the Plains Indian way of life. Plains
Indians typically attacked an enemy to steal horses, seize hunting land, or
avenge the death of a fellow warrior in a previous skirmish. Fighting usually
occurred among small groups of warriors and rarely involved sizable tribal
forces.
H9a | Military Societies |
Great Plains warriors often belonged
to particular military societies. Each society—some of them intertribal—had its
own insignia, costumes, medicine bundles (wrapped parcels containing
objects of personal and spiritual significance), songs, dances, and code of
behavior. Some societies were open, with only an age requirement for membership.
Others were exclusive, and a warrior was invited to join based on his deeds in
battle. Some of the military societies, such as the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers or the
Kiowa Ten Bravest, were known and feared throughout the Great Plains.
H9b | War Honors |
Warfare offered an important way for
Plains warriors to achieve social prestige and positions of leadership. All the
tribes accorded varying degrees of honor to warriors who performed a graded
series of war deeds. These included stealing the horse or weapons of an enemy,
killing and scalping him, or merely touching him without harming him. This last
action, a custom known by the French word coup, meaning “blow,” was
considered among some groups to be the most honorable because it was more
dangerous to escape from a live victim than to kill him. A weapon, such
as a club, spear, bow or arrow, a specially crafted coup stick, or even the hand
might be used to make contact. Each returning warrior recited his deeds to the
rest of the camp while his comrades stood by to challenge him if he lied. The
practice of reciting war deeds was known as counting coup. Eagle feathers
were awarded to warriors for each brave deed. To be a council member or a chief,
a warrior had to perform many brave deeds, which were represented by the number
of feathers in his war bonnet.
H10 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
Great Plains peoples believed a
mystical spiritual world existed below the surface of life. Most peoples
considered the Sun the most powerful of all the spirits, and they conducted
rituals to receive its blessings and protection. The Sioux also believed in a
more generalized force present in all things, animate and inanimate, similar to
the Algonquian concept of Kitche Manitou (“Great Spirit”), that they
called Wakan or Wakanda. The seminomadic farming tribes of the
Eastern Plains had ceremonies surrounding agriculture in addition to those
emphasizing individual rites of passage and warfare rituals typical of the
nomadic hunting peoples.
H10a | The Vision Quest |
The vision quest, a religious practice widespread among
peoples throughout North America, spread to tribes of the Great Plains and took
on new forms. The term refers to the effort to seek visions through sweat baths,
isolation, exposure to the elements, fasting, and even self-mutilation. Visions
were understood as signs from the spirit world that could give personal power,
such as success in hunting and war, and convey purpose in life.
The quest for visions was usually
undertaken in connection with an important event, such as preparation for war or
a boy’s passage into manhood. The resulting vision, often in a dream, might be
of an animal, ancestor, object, or natural phenomenon, such as a storm. After
the experience, a shaman helped the individual interpret the vision, which could
reveal the future or provide a guardian spirit. For a boy passing into manhood,
the vision would give clues about the name he should receive as an adult—in
contrast to the name he was given at birth. Afterward, a person might then carry
a totemic object representing the vision, such as a part of an animal, in a
medicine bundle.
H10b | Communal Ceremonies |
The quest for visions played a part
in a renewal ceremony common to many Great Plains tribes. This ceremony was
called the Sun Dance by the Sioux, the Offerings Dance by the Arapaho, the New
Life Lodge by the Cheyenne, and the Mystery Dance by the Ponca. The varying
rituals practiced by these tribes served similar purposes: to make contact with
the spirit world; to ensure good hunting; to bring victory in battle; to make
marriages successful; to heal the sick; to settle old quarrels; and to make new
alliances.
This ceremony was typically held
for a period of 8 to 12 days in the summer. Bands of Indians, sometimes from
different tribes, would set their tipis in a great circle. Many of the series of
rituals involved drumming, singing, and dancing. Tobacco was smoked from a
sacred pipe while participants met in council. Tribal members erected a pole—the
focal point of the ceremony—and placed a figure, usually of rawhide, at the top.
In one vision-inducing ritual men had skewers implanted in their chests that
were tied to the pole with ropes. Blowing whistles made from eagle bone and
dancing to the drumbeat, participants danced backwards until the skewers ripped
their flesh. Other men carried out similar acts of self-mutilation, such as
dragging bison skulls attached to their flesh with skewers and rope, in an
effort to communicate with the spirits.
H11 | Arts and Crafts |
Great Plains Indians used a variety
of materials for their arts and crafts. They shaped bows and arrows from wood
and carved elegant pipes from stone. Yet perhaps their most valuable resource
for creating tools and other objects was the bison. From bison skin they crafted
tipi coverings, shields, travois platforms, parfleches, blankets, and
clothing—either in rawhide form or softened into leather. They made thread and
rope from bison hair and sinews, and fashioned various tools from the bones.
They made rattles and other ceremonial objects from the hooves, horns, and
skulls.
Great Plains women mastered the art
of preparing hides. They stretched the skins on frames or on pegs in the ground
and scraped away the flesh. They then worked the rawhide to an even thickness.
To soften the hide into leather, they applied to it a mixture of ashes, bison
fat and brains, and various plants, and then soaked it in water. Sometimes hair
was left on the hides for warmth.
H12 | Post-Contact History |
The development of the Great Plains
culture area is unique among all the culture areas because the indigenous way of
life evolved after Europeans reached the Americas. Some indigenous peoples had
contacts with non-Indians before migrating onto the Great Plains from other
regions. Other peoples avoided all interaction with the newcomers. Yet they too
were affected indirectly through barter with other peoples who traded with or
raided non-Indians. The first horses on the Plains, for example, were obtained
from Southwest peoples in the 1600s—before non-Indians reached the area.
European diseases also probably first reached Great Plains Indians through other
indigenous peoples who came into contact with European explorers.
During the colonial period, eastern
prairie Indians acquired guns from French and English trading posts in the
Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Horse-mounted Indians with firearms could
kill far more bison than those traveling on foot with spears and bows and
arrows; surplus food and hides were traded with non-Indians. By the mid-18th
century, the prospect of good bison hunting had drawn many tribes from other
areas to the Great Plains. At the same time, following the route pioneered by
the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) up the Missouri River, fur traders
began to have extensive contacts with Great Plains peoples.
Before and during the American Civil
War (1861-1865), much of the non-Indian activity on the Great Plains was
transient, with traders or migrants to California and Oregon passing through.
However, the number of migrants sharply increased after the discovery of gold in
California in 1848. The horses and cattle of the pioneers ate the grass needed
by the bison and frightened them away, and many bison were shot by non-Indians
for food and sport. In retaliation, Indians stole animals from the pioneers and
sometimes wiped out entire wagon trains. The U.S. government responded by
building a chain of forts across the Great Plains and by assigning the U.S. Army
to patrol the main wagon routes. In addition, beginning in the 1830s many
indigenous peoples from the eastern United States were forced to relocate
westward to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). This resettlement also
affected the migratory hunting patterns of some Great Plains Indians.
After the Civil War ended, the U.S.
government began a highly organized campaign to pacify nomadic and warlike Great
Plains peoples and to force them onto reservations. Meanwhile, large numbers of
settlers continued to move west, and a great many settled permanently on the
Great Plains. Beginning in the 1870s, professional hide hunters equipped with
large caliber guns contributed to the rapid destruction of the last major bison
herds. Hostilities intensified among Indians and settlers. The Great Plains wars
reached a climax in the 1870s, with such famous clashes as the 1876 Battle of
the Little Bighorn—the last major Indian victory in U.S. territory. However, the
U.S. Army soon rounded up most of the remaining nomadic Indians and put them on
reservations. The annihilation of the great bison herds upon which Plains nomads
lived—a process completed by the early 1880s—gave Plains peoples little choice
but to remain on the reservations. The so-called Ghost Dance Uprising, a
religious movement in which Indians of various tribes sought to gather and dance
to bring back the bison and their earlier way of life, led to a massacre of one
band by U.S. soldiers at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890. This event marked
the end of organized Native American military resistance in the United
States.
Some Native American unrest occurred
on the Canadian Plains as well, but to a lesser degree. Attempts to eradicate
Plains Indian culture in the United States and Canada through the early 1900s
failed, and indigenous peoples endured. Today, many Great Plains peoples still
live on reservations, where they keep cattle and tend fields; some receive
income from leases to non-Indian cattle ranchers and mining interests and, more
recently, casino gaming. Although many contemporary Indians living in the Great
Plains suffer from poverty, they still proudly maintain their traditions.
I | Subarctic |
I1 | Land and Habitat |
The Subarctic culture area is an
immense region that stretches from present-day inland Alaska to the Atlantic
coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most lands in the Subarctic are within the
continental interior; the only coastal areas are found along the Atlantic coast
and on Hudson Bay. Most of the Subarctic has thick pine forests with some
broadleaf trees, called taiga; it opens up on flat, treeless arctic
plains, called tundra, on its northern edge. Because of minimal topsoil,
most trees in the Subarctic are scraggy and short. In addition to woodlands, the
Subarctic contains thousands of lakes, ponds, swamps, rivers, and streams.
Mosquitoes and black flies breed in the swamplands. Winters in the Subarctic are
long, with deep snow covering the woodlands and thick ice on the lakes. Short
summers and poor soil conditions make agriculture impractical.
I2 | Peoples and Languages |
At the time of European contact,
Subarctic peoples were linguistically separated into two groups. Peoples native
to the western Subarctic spoke Athapaskan languages. They included the
Chipewyan, Beaver, Kutchin, Ingalik, Kaska, and Tanana, among others. In the
eastern Subarctic lived Algonquian-speaking groups, including the Cree,
Algonquin, Montagnais, Naskapi, and some bands of Ojibwa (Chippewa). The
Churchill River extending northeast to Hudson Bay from western Saskatchewan
formed the approximate dividing line between these language groups. The Beothuk
of Newfoundland and Labrador were the only exception to this linguistic pattern.
They spoke a language known as Beothukan, which some experts believe was
distantly related to the Algonquian language. The geographic distribution of the
two language families has led some scholars to divide the Subarctic culture area
into the Western Subarctic and Eastern Subarctic.
I3 | Early Peoples |
Nomadic bands of hunters first roamed
the Subarctic region at least 8,000 years ago following game animals, including
herds of caribou. There were few peoples in this vast, rugged, and often cold
landscape. The peoples of the eastern Subarctic, those of the Algonquian
language family, probably arrived in the region first, possibly before 5,000
years ago. They migrated from the west or from the south in ancient times. The
majority of their ancestral relatives came to live in the more forgiving
environment of the Northeast culture area to the south. The peoples of the
western Subarctic, those of the Athapaskan language family, were probably among
the last peoples to arrive in the Americas, reaching the Subarctic perhaps about
3,000 years ago. Some Athapaskan peoples eventually migrated southward to warmer
climates, including the Apache and Navajo (Diné) of the Southwest culture area
sometime before ad 1500. Yet most
Athapaskan groups remained in the rugged western Subarctic.
I4 | Diet and Subsistence |
I4a | Caribou |
Lacking agriculture, Subarctic
peoples lived mainly by hunting. A staple for many bands was the caribou
(a North American reindeer), and life revolved around the seasonal migrations of
caribou herds. In the spring Subarctic hunters gathered at the edge of the taiga
to intercept the animals as they migrated onto the treeless tundra to the north.
In the fall some groups, such as the Chipewyan, returned to hunt the caribou on
the animals' southern migration. They used bows and arrows and spears; they
drove caribou into corrals made of brush; they snared animals with ropes strung
between two trees; and they attacked them from canoes as the animals swam across
a river or lake.
Subarctic peoples boiled the fresh
caribou meat in water-filled caribou-skin or birchbark containers by adding
heated stones. Little from the animal was wasted. They ate the head and the
stomach with all its contents. Some of the meat was made into pemmican
(dried and pounded meat mixed with fat and berries), which was packed into
caribou intestines—much like modern-day sausage—and carried on the trail. The
hide of the caribou was cured to make tents, clothing, and thongs. The bones and
antlers were shaped into tools.
I4b | Other Wild Foods |
Subarctic Indians hunted many other
animals, large and small, besides caribou. Large game included moose, deer, musk
oxen, mountain sheep, and, in more southern latitudes, bison. Small game
included beaver, mink, otter, porcupine, rabbit, squirrel, and waterfowl. Many
hunters used dogs to stalk game animals and keep them at bay.
Subarctic peoples also fished from
land and from canoes using lines and hooks, barbed arrows, spears, nets, and
enclosures called weirs. They preserved some of the catch with smoke or by
drying it in the sun to provide convenient food for the trail. Peoples west of
the Rocky Mountains, in the area drained by the Yukon River, ate more salmon
than meat from large game animals, a practice shared with peoples of the
Northwest Coast culture area.
Wild plant foods, including seeds,
berries, and bark, supplemented the Subarctic diet. Some tribes, such as the
Chipewyan, made moss into a soup and ate fermented lichens found in caribou
stomachs.
I5 | Social and Political Organization |
Because of limited food resources,
Subarctic groups generally remained small. They traveled in hunting bands united
by kinship and dialect, sometimes as families and sometimes as loosely knit
groups of extended families. Chiefs were chosen for hunting skill and bravery.
They had little power beyond their own families, apart from the authority to
settle disputes and lead war parties.
Women did most of the hard work around
camp. They made fires, prepared food, and cured animal hides to make leather.
When it was time to move camp, women hauled most of the provisions, putting
supplies on their backs or pulling sleds called toboggans. When food ran
out, women were the first to go hungry. A man without any relatives might attach
himself to a family as a servant. The old and sick might ask to be strangled to
spare their families the task of providing for them.
I6 | Settlement and Housing |
The most common dwelling used by
Subarctic peoples was a small cone-shaped tent with a pole framework covered
with animal skins or birchbark. These dwellings resembled a cross between the
tipi of the Great Plains and the wigwam of Northeast Indians. Smoke holes were
left at the top. Easily assembled and transported lean-tos of poles,
brush, and leaves were also common, especially in the western Subarctic
region.
I7 | Transportation |
I7a | Snowshoes and Toboggans |
In the winter Subarctic peoples
relied on snowshoes for transportation. The snowshoes of the Subarctic were
generally long and narrow, but had variations depending on the type of snow most
encountered. The frames and crossbars of snowshoes were made from spruce, birch,
or willow, with the snowshoe tips bent up to prevent them from snagging on brush
buried under the snow; webbing was made from animal hide, sinew, or gut.
Subarctic peoples invented the toboggan, a type of flat-bottomed sled without
runners pulled by hand or by dogs. A toboggan’s wooden platform was curved up in
front to facilitate pulling heavy loads in deep snow.
I7b | Birchbark Canoes |
In warmer weather, groups in both
the western and eastern Subarctic crafted birchbark canoes similar to those
found among indigenous peoples of the Northeast culture area, but with varying
designs. Canoes made by Kutchin peoples had flat bottoms and nearly straight
sides. Beothuk canoes had sides that curved up and met at a point in the middle
as well as at the ends, giving them the shape of a shallow W when viewed from
the side. Some tribes used the more plentiful spruce bark for their canoes. To
propel their boats, Subarctic peoples used wooden paddles.
I8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Subarctic peoples made trousers,
leggings, shirts, dresses, capes, robes, headbands, mittens, and moccasins from
the skin and fur of mammals, especially caribou and moose. Feathers, seeds,
shells, and quills were used to decorate clothes and for jewelry. Some peoples
colored their faces with red ochre and black lead or with tattoos.
I9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
Subarctic peoples—like Native
Americans throughout North America—believed that spirits lived in all things: in
plants, in animals, and in natural phenomena such as landforms or weather. To
navigate within this spirit world, Subarctic Indians enlisted the help of good
spirits to find game or avoid evil spirits and unseen dangers. Sometimes
friendly spirits might appear to a person in a dream. Spiritual assistance was
also obtained through divination techniques such as scapulimancy, in
which the cracks in scorched animal bones were studied to learn the location of
prey. Shamans carried out rituals centered on summoning friendly animal spirits
to provide good fortune or heal the sick. Among some groups, shamans attempted
to remove disease-causing agents by sucking them out of a patient’s body.
Subarctic peoples also believed in
supernatural beings that terrorized the forests. One character in Algonquian
folklore was Windigo, an Ojibwa name, known by other names in other
tribes. According to legend, Windigos were giant cannibals with long jagged
teeth protruding from lipless mouths and hands in the shape of claws. They
sought out human flesh and caused the disappearances of hunters. Windigos were
also believed capable of possessing people and making them crave human flesh.
Windigo legend is thought to have evolved as a taboo against cannibalism, which
might be a temptation to peoples in lands where food was scarce.
I10 | Arts and Crafts |
Subarctic peoples crafted useful
items from leather, wood, stone, and bone. Some peoples, such as the Chipewyan,
also worked in copper. They used annealing techniques (alternate heating
and hammering) to work copper nuggets from the soil into a desired shape. They
fashioned a variety of copper tools, including knives, axes, scrapers,
arrowheads, spearheads, awls, drills, and chisels. They also traded raw copper
to other tribes for food, shells, and other goods.
I11 | Post-Contact History |
In the Subarctic, non-indigenous
settlement generally proceeded from east to west. In the colonial period, the
southeastern Subarctic tribes, such as the Algonquin, Ojibwa, and Cree, felt the
greatest impact from European exploration and settlement, as did the Canadian
tribes of the Northeast culture area. The growth of the fur trade, marked by the
founding of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 and the North West Company in the
1780s, led to non-indigenous exploration of much of Canada. Non-Indian traders
rarely settled in Subarctic wilderness areas. As a result, few Indian wars
erupted in the region compared to in the United States, where settlers claimed
Indian lands for homes and farms. However, Subarctic peoples did not escape the
cultural disruptions caused by the spread of European diseases and the trade in
alcohol.
From 1850 to 1923 the Canadian
government and Subarctic peoples enacted a series of treaties that gradually
reduced tribal landholdings. The Klondike gold rush in Canada’s Yukon Territory
in the 1890s brought growing numbers of non-Indians onto Indian lands. The gold
rush affected Native Americans in Alaska as well, although peoples in remote
regions saw few settlers until the 20th century.
Canadian Indian policy evolved over
the years from an effort to acculturate and assimilate indigenous peoples to one
supporting indigenous self-determination and cultural expression. Unlike in the
United States, where some Native Americans control large reservations, Canadian
Indians hold few large parcels of land. First Nations—as Indian groups are now
referred to in Canada—are more likely to hold many small, scattered parcels.
Following the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971,
indigenous communities in Alaska organized into several hundred village
corporations and 12 regional profit-making corporations. The corporations manage
lands granted to the Indians by land claims, with individuals enrolled as
shareholders of the corporations. Many Subarctic Indians continue to hunt in the
tradition of their ancestors, but they generally do so using modern
technology.
J | Arctic |
J1 | Land and Habitat |
The Arctic culture area reaches across
present-day northern Alaska and Canada, and includes portions of northeastern
Siberia and coastal Greenland. Much of the vast, treeless arctic plains, called
tundra, are frozen and snow-covered, with temperatures below -18°C (0°F)
for seven or eight months of the year. Winters are long and severe, with few
hours of daylight. The Arctic region’s craggy coastline touches upon three
oceans: the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Atlantic. The Arctic Ocean freezes over
in winter and then breaks up into drift ice during the brief summer thaw.
Thousands of islands are found offshore.
The Arctic is actually a frozen desert
with little precipitation. Gale-force winds stir up what surface snow exists,
creating intense blizzards and enormous drifts. The Arctic’s extreme environment
has little vegetation other than mosses, lichens, and scrub brush, and it is
unsuited for agriculture. Few peaks, other than the northernmost Rocky Mountains
in the west, rise above the rolling plains. The subsoil stays frozen all year in
a condition known as permafrost, and the water on the surface does not
drain, resulting in numerous lakes and ponds along with mud and fog.
J2 | Peoples and Languages |
The indigenous peoples of the Arctic
culture area spoke dialects from only one language family, known variously as
Inuit-Aleut, Eskimaleut, Eskimo-Aleut, and Eskaleut. This language family is
considered part of the American Arctic-Paleo-Siberian language stock, with
related dialects spoken by indigenous peoples in Siberia. Aleut and Inuit
peoples can be organized into four groupings at the time of European contact.
Moving west to east these groups included, first, the peoples of the Aleutian
Islands off Alaska, with the Atka Aleut occupying the western Aleutians and the
Unalaska Aleut the eastern islands. Second were Alaskan Inuit peoples, including
the North Alaska Inuit, West Alaska Inuit, South Alaska Inuit, and Saint
Lawrence Island Inuit, with the Mackenzie Inuit of the Yukon and Yuit of Siberia
sharing similar ways of life. Third were the Central Inuit, including the
Netsilik Inuit, Iglulik Inuit, Copper Inuit, Caribou Inuit, Southampton Inuit,
Baffinland Inuit, and Labrador Inuit. A fourth group beyond North America was
the Greenland Inuit, including the Polar Inuit, West Greenland Inuit, and East
Greenland Inuit. All these groups consisted of numerous bands with distinct
identities.
Although Arctic peoples shared many
ways of life, there were significant variations across the four main groups. In
cultural terms, the Central Inuit practiced ways of life often considered
typical for Arctic peoples. They lived in snow houses called igloos,
traveled in lightweight skin boats called kayaks, and used sleds and dog
teams. However, one Central Inuit group, the Caribou Inuit, were an inland
people who hunted the animals for which they are named and fished freshwater
lakes. Their way of life was similar to that of peoples of the Subarctic culture
area. The Copper Inuit, another Central Inuit group, were unusual in that they
used copper surface nuggets found in their territory to craft tools. The Inuit
of southern Alaska had regular trade contacts with Athapaskan Subarctic peoples,
among other Indians, and adopted some of their customs. The Aleut, because of
their location on the Pacific Coast and frequent contact with coastal peoples to
the south, exhibited some cultural traits similar to those found in the
Northwest Coast culture area.
J3 | Early Peoples |
People settled the upper regions of
North America relatively recently. Many of these settlers probably arrived from
eastern Siberia sometime after about 4,500 years ago, although some inhabitants
of the Aleutian Islands were there as early as 8,000 years ago. Anthropologists
believe that prehistoric ancestors of Arctic peoples did not cross the ancient
Bering Strait land bridge that once connected Asia and North America—as many of
the ancestors of other Native Americans are thought to have done (see
First Americans). Instead, they most likely traveled in skin and wooden
boats, or perhaps on ice floes. They appeared in North America in a series of
migrations and gradually moved eastward. The earliest Arctic peoples belonged to
the Old Dorset culture, which was absorbed by a later group, the Thule Inuit,
between about ad 1000 and
1300.
The peoples of the far north were of a
different stock than other Native Americans. They were generally shorter and
broader in stature with a rounder face, lighter skin, and a small fold of skin
covering the inner corner of the eye typical of Asian peoples. They came to be
known historically as Eskimo and Aleut. However, the modern descendents of the
Eskimo prefer the term Inuit, which means “the real people.” The term
Eskimo was given by Algonquian peoples and means “raw meat eaters.”
Variations for Inuit (singular, Inuk) in Alaska are Inupiat
(singular, Inupiaq) in the north and northwest and Yupik in the
southwest and on Saint Lawrence Island. The Aleut are also known as
Alutiiq.
J4 | Diet and Subsistence |
Arctic peoples adapted remarkably well
to the harsh environment and meager resources of the far north. Hunting provided
the primary means of subsistence. Dogs, used for hunting and hauling, helped
Arctic peoples survive. Along the coasts sea mammals—seals, sea lions, sea
otters, walruses, and whales—provided the main staple foods. Inland groups
hunted caribou. Other game included polar bears, musk oxen, mountain sheep,
wolves, wolverines, foxes, rabbits, marmots, squirrels, and waterfowl. Fishing
supplemented the diet.
Hunting methods were varied and
ingenious. Arctic hunters harpooned seals or other sea mammals from boats or
snuck up on them on ice floes and used harpoons or nets. They also used dogs to
locate seals by sniffing out their breathing holes in the ice. They attached
inflated buoys to harpoons used for hunting whales to tire the animals and make
them easier to kill. Caribou hunters, equipped with bows and arrows, hid in snow
pits to surprise the animals, or they drove caribou herds into corrals. For
small game Arctic peoples used bolas, weighted ropes thrown at animals to
entangle them. They also learned to conceal dried and folded whalebones in
pieces of fat, which would unfold and kill animals when the fat was eaten and
digested.
Fishing methods in the Arctic included
the use of hooks and lines, lures, harpoons, and leisters (spears with
three prongs, one for penetrating and two for grasping the catch). Arctic
peoples fished from skin boats and through holes in the ice, and they used weirs
made from stones to trap fish. Some bands were able to forage roots and berries,
but there was generally little edible vegetation in the Arctic other than mosses
and lichens. Meat was often eaten raw because fuel for adequate heating was
scarce.
J5 | Social and Political Organization |
J5a | Inuit Extended Families |
For the Inuit the extended family
was the most important unit of sociopolitical organization. Villages were
loosely knit and democratic. If the food supply in a region ran out, people
abandoned their villages and formed new ones elsewhere, sometimes with other
families.
The Inuit had special kinds of
partnerships with nonfamily members, and these helped maintain a cohesive
community. Men had sharing partners, with whom they shared food. They also had
song partners, with whom they performed ceremonies. Song partners sometimes even
shared wives. And both men and women had name partners, people of the same name
with whom they exchanged gifts.
J5b | Aleut Chiefdoms |
The Aleut maintained more permanent
villages than the Inuit, and they had village chiefs with significant political
power. Chiefs were typically recruited from the noble class. Under the nobles
were commoners and slaves. Like peoples of the Northwest Coast culture area, the
Aleut were concerned with rank and wealth, and they demonstrated their personal
importance through their possessions, including furs, amber, and shells. Unlike
Northwest Coast peoples, however, they did not practice the gifting custom known
as the potlatch.
J6 | Settlement and Housing |
J6a | Igloos |
Inuit lived in igloos, hide tents,
and sod huts. The igloo—the most widely recognized Inuit dwelling—was actually
used only by the Central Inuit and only in the wintertime. Also called a snow
house, it was constructed from blocks of ice laid in an upward spiral from a
base and leaning slightly inward to form a domed shape. Soft snow was used to
cover the blocks of ice for additional insulation. A hole at the top provided
ventilation, and a block of clear ice served as a window. A platform of ice,
covered with fur, was used as a bed. Igloos normally had a covered passageway as
an entrance, as well as a smaller domed storage room. Sometimes a third dome,
with its own attached passageway, was added as a separate bedroom.
J6b | Other Dwellings |
In summertime the Central Inuit used
tents made from driftwood poles and caribou-hide coverings. Alaskan Inuit built
year-round houses from either stones and sod or logs and sod, either circular or
rectangular and often partially buried. Sometimes driftwood and whale ribs were
used in framing, and intestines of whales and other sea mammals were used as
windows. Some groups built aboveground wooden homes. Stone lamps that burned oil
from sea mammal fat provided heat and light. The Aleut lived in
barabaras, large communal pit houses with roof beams made from driftwood
or whale bones and walls made from chunks of sod. The smoke hole or a separate
passageway served as an entrance.
J7 | Transportation |
Arctic peoples had to adapt to unique
travel conditions over stretches of ice. Some Inuit used crampons (spikes
attached to their boots) for traveling on the ice. They walked with test
staffs, shafts resembling ski poles, to judge the thickness and strength of
the ice. Other groups traveled on snowshoes similar to those used by Subarctic
peoples to the south.
J7a | Watercraft |
The Inuit invented the kayak,
a light, narrow, and maneuverable boat with an enclosed cockpit and propelled by
a double paddle. Kayaks were crafted by stretching oiled hides from sea mammals
over wooden or whale rib frameworks. Most were designed for a single person, but
some had a front seat for a passenger, such as a harpooner. Aleut
baidarkas, similarly made, typically had two cockpits. They were short,
with the bow curved upward and the stern squared off. Some bows were shaped like
a bird's open beak. Inuit umiaks were large, open flat-bottomed boats
made from similar materials as kayaks and designed to hold eight to ten people
at a time.
J7b | Sleds |
To make their sleds, known in some
dialects as komatik, Inuit lashed together wooden frames with strips of
rawhide and attached either slats of wood or large pieces of rawhide as raised
platforms. They shaped the runners from wood or bone and applied a coating of
ice or frozen mud and moss to them. Teams of huskies were frequently used to
pull the sleds, although hunters traveling on ice floes sometimes pulled them.
Hunters frequently attached kayaks to sleds with the runners facing up. On
reaching water the sleds could then be turned upside down and the kayaks used
without being detached.
J8 | Clothing and Ornamentation |
Inuit clothing offered protection from
the cold and was comfortable to wear. Parkas, pants, mittens, stockings, and
boots were crafted in a variety of styles and materials. Water-resistant
sealskin was ideal for summer rains and hunting at sea. Caribou skin was warmer
and lighter weight and offered better protection against the dry cold. Dog,
squirrel, marmot, fox, wolf, wolverine, and polar bear hides and furs were also
used, along with bird skins and feathers. Sea mammal intestines were sometimes
sewn together in place of hides.
Hooded parkas—another invention of the
Inuit—were worn with the fur facing inward and were tailored to the contours of
the body to keep out cold air at the waist, neck, and wrists. Some parkas had
double layers. Boots, known as mukluks, and mittens were insulated with
fur, down, and moss. Fur, leather fringes, embroidery, and ivory buttons served
as decorations. Some Inuit, mostly women, wore jewelry, such as ear pendants,
nose rings, and labrets (lip-plugs or chin-plugs, placed in slits cut in
the flesh) made of ivory, shell, wood, or sandstone. Tattoos were also
common.
Aleut clothing, made from hides and
intestines, also offered efficient protection from the rain and cold. Their
parkas, like those of the Inuit, had hoods. Intricate decorations made from hair
bristles and animal skin dyed different colors were added to clothing. Aleut
hunters wore wooden helmets with long visors that were decorated with ivory and
sea lion whiskers.
J9 | Religious Beliefs and Practices |
Innumerable spirits and powerful gods
populated the religious universe of Arctic peoples. Many of these supernatural
figures were connected to survival in a harsh land. Since the sea sustained many
Arctic peoples, Sedna, the sea goddess, was the supreme deity for most
Central Inuit groups. Among the Caribou Inuit, the principal deity was Mother
of Caribou.
Many Arctic peoples believed that all
living things were endowed with a spirit or soul. Respect was paid to the soul
of an animal killed by a hunter to ensure the soul would one day reappear in
another animal willing to forfeit its life to humans. If proper respect was not
given, the animal’s soul might turn into a destructive demon. Human souls, too,
were believed to live on after a person’s death. Death taboos, including a
strictly enforced period of mourning in which no work could be done, were
respected to prevent souls of the deceased from turning into wicked spirits. It
was also believed that the souls of living persons could become lost or stolen
by evil forces, causing sickness or madness. To cure illness, Inuit shamans, or
angakok, might be called upon to help retrieve a patient’s soul.
The Inuit built large ceremonial
houses called kashim, a Russian word for an Inuit term. Within kashim,
the angakok conducted rituals and used a system of magic based on
sleight-of-hand to treat sickness or advise on hunting problems. Kashim were
usually partially buried and contained secret passageways known only to the
angakok, which increased the structures' mystery for the rest of the band. Ropes
enabled the angakok to create illusions with acrobatics. The angakok directed
the carving of masks representing the forces of nature and the spirits of
animals, as well as the ceremonies in which the masks were worn. One such
ceremony, performed by the Alaskan Inuit, was the Bladder Dance. According to
Inuit tradition, the bladder was the location of an animal's soul. This event
lasted for days inside the kashim. Participants danced to music and performed
rituals with inflated sea-mammal bladders, which were later returned to the
sea.
J10 | Arts and Crafts |
The Inuit used parts of sea mammals
for tools, weapons, bags, ornaments, and ceremonial objects. The tusks of the
walrus provided ivory, a choice material for the handles of weapons and tools.
Carvers often adorned ivory tools with geometric figures and other designs.
Driftwood was also highly valued in Inuit arts, especially for carving the
elaborate wooden masks that were important in Inuit ceremonies and festivals.
When wood was in short supply, the Inuit carved masks from whalebone. The Aleut
crafted elegant baskets from rye grass found on the beaches. The stems of the
grass were split with the fingernails to make threads, and some of the threads
were dyed before being woven into intricate designs.
J11 | Post-Contact History |
The first Europeans to visit the
Arctic regions of North America were probably the ancient Vikings. Viking
navigators, who landed in northeastern North America around ad 1000, came into contact with a people
they referred to as Skraelings, possibly the Inuit. In the late 16th
century Sir Martin Frobisher, exploring for England in search of the Northwest
Passage, a water route through North America, made three voyages to the Canadian
Arctic. Frobisher kidnapped several Inuit and took them to England. Other
coastal explorers soon followed. Russian expeditions approached the North
American Arctic from the west in the mid-1700s, starting with the voyages of
Vitus Jonassen Bering. In later decades, the Russians developed the fur trade.
This had a devastating impact on Aleut peoples, since traders forced them to
participate in hunting by capturing villages and taking hostages.
The search for the Northwest Passage
continued through the centuries. Yet maritime and overland expeditions to the
Arctic were costly and dangerous and, as a result, sporadic. In 1848 commercial
whaling ships began working Alaskan and Arctic waters. At the same time, growing
numbers of Christian missionaries began to reach Inuit and Aleut villages,
teaching new belief systems. Increasing contacts with foreigners spread diseases
among indigenous peoples, and populations declined.
During the early to mid-1800s, many
Inuit began using trade goods that altered their traditional culture, including
guns, knives, kettles, cloth, and alcohol. Other developments in the late 1800s
impacted many Inuit. In 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from Russia and
began to develop it economically. Meanwhile, the Hudson's Bay Company
established many Arctic posts to develop the fur business. Despite these
initiatives, some Central Inuit bands had no contact with non-Indians until the
early 1900s.
Contemporary Inuit peoples use many
modern technologies. Frame houses have replaced igloos, hide tents, and wood,
stone, and sod huts. Motorized canoes have taken the place of kayaks, and
snowmobiles are used instead of dogsleds. In addition, most Inuit use
electricity, kerosene, or oil as fuel instead of animal fat; factory-made wool,
cotton, and synthetic clothes instead of handmade sealskin and caribou garments;
and rifles and shotguns instead of harpoons, spears, and bows and arrows.
A renaissance in Inuit art, which
began in the 1950s, combines traditional and modern techniques, materials, and
themes. Two other recent developments are helping to improve the quality of
modern-day Inuit life. In Alaska indigenous peoples have benefited from the 1971
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which helped protect Alaskan indigenous
lands and granted funds for economic growth. In Canada a new Canadian territory,
known as Nunavut, was carved out of the eastern parts of the Northwest
Territories in 1999. Inuit peoples comprise most of population of Nunavut, and
they have worked to promote their economic, social, and cultural interests.
Carl Waldman contributed the
Culture Areas section of this article.
V | TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE |
Long before the arrival of Europeans,
Native Americans in North America developed rich and varied cultures, as diverse
as the cultures of Europe or any other continent. Each group adopted a way of
life suited to the resources and demands of its environment. For example, groups
devised unique tools and weapons needed to hunt local game and to gather and
process plant foods effectively. They built homes and shelters out of materials
available in their area. Each culture had its own language, style of art, oral
traditions, spiritual beliefs, and system of social organization.
With such rich diversity, it is problematic
to generalize about traditional Native American ways of life and beliefs; there
is no single Native American culture. Nevertheless, Native American cultures
share certain traits that are common to many indigenous peoples around the
world. These include spirituality as the foundation of tribal and personal life,
strong ties to the land on which they live, a sense of kinship with the natural
world, a conception of the natural and supernatural worlds as interrelated and
whole, an intimate relationship between health and spirituality, creative
expression as an integral part of daily life, and the oral transmission of
traditions and histories. Yet each Indian culture has its own distinct tribal
identity; many are related but no two are exactly alike.
The following sections explore the
traditional ways of life of Native American peoples. The discussion covers food
and subsistence, housing, clothing and adornment, social and political
organization, marriage and family life, recreation and games, transportation,
trade, warfare and weaponry, language and communication, spirituality and
religious practices, music and dance, and arts and crafts. Because these
sections primarily describe ways of life as they existed before European
contact, the past tense is generally used; traditions that continue to the
present are noted where appropriate. For a discussion of contemporary Native
American cultures, see the Native Americans Today section of this
article. For a discussion of traditional Native American cultures arranged by
geography rather than thematically, see the Culture Areas section of this
article.
A | Food and Subsistence |
The foods Native Americans ate, and the
methods they used to acquire them, depended on where they lived. The land and
its resources determined whether Indians foraged, fished, hunted, or farmed. But
no group ever relied on only one type of food. Even those who practiced
agriculture still relied on game and wild plants to supplement their
harvests.
The ease or difficulty with which North
American Indians could obtain food directly influenced how they lived. The more
time that was required to hunt, gather, or fish, the less time there was for
other cultural activities. In the barren environment of the Great Basin, for
example, Indians adopted a nomadic lifestyle because they constantly needed to
search for food. But on the Northwest Coast, where rivers and oceans teemed with
life, there was enough food for people to live a settled village lifestyle.
This section provides a general
discussion of Native American foods and subsistence methods. To learn more about
the foods and subsistence methods of Native Americans in a specific geographical
area, see the Culture Areas section of this article.
A1 | Foraging |
Native Americans gathered a wide range
of plant foods, including many varieties of edible wild nuts, berries, seeds,
and grasses. Almost all Native Americans relied on some wild plant foods. Wild
rice—a type of seed-bearing grass that grows naturally along the muddy shores of
marshes and streams—was such a staple for the Menominee people of present-day
Wisconsin that they derived their tribal name from the Ojibwa word for wild
rice: manomin. The people of the arid Southwest harvested agaves, cactus,
acorns, piñon nuts, and juniper berries, which ripened at different times of
year and at different elevations.
For most California Indians, the acorn
was the most important single food source. Gathered in the autumn, acorns were
stored for year-round use through a time-consuming process. Women had to dry,
hull, and pulverize acorns into meal, then leach the meal in hot water to remove
the tannin, a bitter-tasting substance that causes indigestion. After boiling
the acorn meal into mush, they molded and baked it into cakes for their
families. In the southern California desert, the Cahuilla made the seed pods of
the mesquite tree into food. By pulverizing the ripened pods in an upright
wooden mortar with a pestle, they were able to obtain the juice as a beverage.
Once the pod meal dried, it was made into cakes, providing a nutritious food for
traveling.
In some areas of the Northwest Coast,
more than 40 kinds of berries and fruits were available. Women in this region
also gathered ferns with edible roots, lilies with edible bulbs, such as
riceroot and camas, and starchy tubers. Camas and edible roots such as
bitterroot, yampa, and sego were key food sources for the Plateau Indians. Among
peoples like the Iroquois, for whom farming was the main source of food, wild
plant foods served as an important dietary supplement, especially if crops
failed.
A2 | Fishing |
Native Americans who lived along rivers
or in coastal areas depended on fishing for a major portion of their diets. They
caught fish using spears, hooks and lines, lures, harpoons, barbed arrows, nets,
traps, and even poisons.
Fishing provided the basis for the
affluent way of life enjoyed by the Nootka and other Northwest Coast peoples.
Although they ate many different kinds of fish, salmon was especially important
because of its predictable and distinctive life cycle. The Nootka knew that
salmon returned every spring and summer from the sea to their spawning grounds
in freshwater streams. Fishermen erected latticework fences called weirs
across the entire width of a river to prevent continued upstream swimming by the
salmon. The current then swept many of the salmon back into traps while others
were harpooned. Fishermen also used dip nets—bags of netting suspended
from wooden frames—and boxlike or cylindrical traps. The salmon swam back in
such densely packed schools that the Nootka could catch five months’ food supply
in the course of several weeks. By supplementing smoked and dried salmon with
berries, deer, and clams, as well as other types of fish, the Nootka had enough
food to last them until late February, when the herring returned. The Nootka and
some other Northwest Coast peoples also practiced whaling, which they considered
the noblest of all occupations. Paddling dugout canoes, they ventured into open
seas between March and August to hunt California gray whales with harpoons.
Fish and waterfowl were easy to catch
in the Southeast, a region of meandering rivers and vast swamps of cypress and
cane. In subtropical south Florida, the Calusa had such an abundant supply of
fish and shellfish that they flourished without the need for agriculture. The
Delaware (Lenni Lenape), Montauk, and Powhatan enjoyed the flat, fertile coastal
plains of the East Coast, one of the world’s richest fishing areas. The clam
beds of Long Island were an asset to those who lived there.
A3 | Hunting |
The earliest inhabitants of the North
American continent, known as Paleo-Indians, survived by hunting big game and
other wild animals. Until the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago,
many giant animals roamed the land. Paleo-Indians used spears to hunt mammoth,
mastodon, a now-extinct form of bison, and smaller animals. They were skilled at
making razor-sharp stone spearpoints—as well as knives, scrapers, and
choppers—by chipping stone flakes away from a larger rock. They lashed these
stone points to wooden shafts with strips of animal hide to create spears. There
is also evidence that Paleo-Indians stampeded herds of bison to drive them over
cliffs, killing or crippling large numbers with a minimum of effort. In addition
to hunting, Paleo-Indians likely relied on wild plant foods to supplement their
diet.
The development of a new tool, the
atlatl (pronounced at-LAT-ul), revolutionized hunting. The atlatl was a
spear launcher that greatly increased the force and speed with which a spear
could be thrown, allowing a hunter to kill his prey from a safe distance away.
The hunter lifted the device over his shoulder and sent the spear hurtling
toward his target with a whiplike motion. By 8000 bc hunters in southwestern Europe and
southwestern North America were using the atlatl, although no one knows where or
when it was invented.
After the ice age ended, the mammoth,
mastodon, American camel, saber-toothed cat, giant ground sloth, and many other
large mammal species became extinct, possibly because of severe climate changes
or disease. Some scholars believe overhunting by humans may have played a role
in this extinction, but there is little archaeological evidence to support this
theory. After the large mammals died out, the most important game animals in
North America were grazing and foraging mammals such as caribou, moose, elk,
bison, pronghorns, deer, and bighorn sheep; scavengers and carnivores such as
bears, coyotes, wolves, foxes, and pumas (mountain lions); sea mammals such as
seals, sea lions, and whales; and smaller game such as ducks, geese, turkeys,
rabbits, beavers, raccoons, opossums, and squirrels.
Centuries before the arrival of
Europeans, Plains hunters lived in nomadic bands that hunted the American bison,
commonly called the buffalo, on foot. Living with the constant threat of
starvation, these Plains Indians survived by driving bison herds over cliffs.
Men dressed in bison skins positioned themselves at the head of the herd to lead
the chief bull bison. Snorting and rolling in the dust, they lured the herd
toward the edge of the cliff before disappearing into the brush. Other hunters
then used fire to incite a stampede over the cliff. Another Plains hunting
method used fire to encircle a herd of bison. Hunters stationed themselves at a
single opening in the circle, where they killed the frightened animals with bows
and lances. The arrival of the horse, widespread among Native Americans by the
mid-1700s, completely changed the bison hunt. Instead of stampeding an entire
bison herd over a cliff, hunters raced after bison on horseback and shot them
with bows and arrows, and later, rifles.
A4 | Farming |
The exact origins of agriculture in the
Americas are uncertain. By 4000 bc
inhabitants of Mesoamerica were cultivating maize (corn); at roughly the
same time, beans and squash were being cultivated in Peru. The cultivation of
maize spread from Mesoamerica into the Southwest by about 3000 bc; beans and squash were planted there
later. These three foods—maize, beans, and squash—would remain, for thousands of
years, the primary crops for Native Americans north of Mexico. Other food crops
included tomatoes, chili peppers, pumpkins, vanilla, and avocados. Of all crops
in the Americas, maize was the most important. At the time of European contact,
maize probably provided more food than all other cultivated plants
combined.
The development of agriculture marked a
turning point for Native Americans. By producing enough food to feed the
population year-round, agriculture made it possible for groups to establish
settled villages and sedentary lifestyles. They no longer had to live a nomadic
foraging existence, although many continued to do so. In the Southwest, farming
and a relatively dependable food supply made possible the Mogollon culture in
the highland areas of Arizona and New Mexico and the Hohokam culture in the
deserts of southern Arizona. The Hohokam developed irrigation ditches to sustain
their crops because the desert climate provided scant rainfall. The ancestral
Pueblo, or Anasazi, culture developed from groups of gatherers who supplemented
their diet by growing maize and pumpkins.
North American Indians used hand tools
for cultivation; they did not use draft animals or the plow. To break up the
ground for planting and to make a hole for planting grains of corn, beans, or
squash, they used a straight pointed stick. Some tribes also used a
wooden-bladed implement that resembled a spade; rakes and hoes were also common.
Irrigation was limited to the Southwest, and there men were the principal
farmers. In other areas, where agriculture was of secondary importance to
hunting and gathering, women did most of the farming, especially within and near
their villages. Men usually helped with clearing new land and with the harvest.
Men also farmed farther from the villages, where enemies could attack. The
growing season varied with latitude and elevation. Northern farmers, such as the
Iroquois tribes, were able to grow enough food in their 120-day growing season
to see them through the winter.
For centuries, the Hopi Indians of the
Southwest have practiced some of the most remarkable farming techniques in North
America. They developed drought-resistant strains of corn that are particularly
hardy, mature quickly, and are not harmed by extreme desert temperatures. By
planting the corn some 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) deep, the seeds receive the
benefit of all the moisture in the soil, and shoots develop a strong root system
that anchors the plant so that it will not be blown away by the wind or washed
out by flash floods.
A5 | Livestock |
Livestock was not as important to
Native Americans as it was to the people of other continents. After Spanish
horses spread to the Great Plains and the Plateau regions, some groups, such as
the Nez Perce, became respected horse breeders who carefully worked to improve
the bloodlines of their herds. The Nez Perce also maintained herds of cattle.
The Navajo (Diné) of the Southwest acquired Spanish sheep and goats as well as
horses. The Navajo population began to increase in the late 1700s because sheep
and goats provided such a dependable food source.
A6 | Preparing and Storing Food |
Techniques of food preparation varied
according to the culture area and the types of foods that were available. Meat
or fish could be cooked by roasting it over a wood fire or baking it in an
earthen pit filled with hot stones. It could also be boiled in a stone pot over
a seal-oil flame, as the Inuit did, or in a tightly woven basket filled with
water and hot stones and treated with pine pitch to make it watertight. Other
foods, such as corn, beans, and vegetables, were also boiled in baskets or baked
in pit ovens.
Groups that lived in settled villages
often used pottery for food preparation and storage. Nomadic groups, who had to
transport all of their families’ goods frequently, used lighter materials.
Plains Indians, for example, used a bison’s paunch as a cooking pot. Propping
the paunch up with four poles, a Plains Indian woman filled it with water and
dropped in red-hot stones to bring the water to a boil, allowing her to prepare
a stew of bison meat. She had to replace such a pot after a few days’ use
because it softened so quickly. After Europeans arrived and began trading their
goods, Native Americans were quick to adopt metal cooking pots and other
containers that made their lives easier.
Many foodstuffs demanded considerable
investments of time and work to prepare and cook. To prepare maize, the Fox
(Mesquakie) of eastern Wisconsin dried out the cobs over a fire, ground the
maize into a coarse meal, and boiled the meal into gruel. In another method,
they first soaked the maize in a caustic lye solution made from wood ash to
dissolve the tough outer seed hulls. After washing away the lye solution, they
boiled the inner kernels whole to make hominy. Iroquois women also used lye to
remove the hulls. They would grind the kernels into cornmeal using a tree-trunk
mortar and a wooden pestle, pass the meal through a sieve to remove larger
pieces, mix the cornmeal with water, and shape the mixture into loaves that were
boiled to make cornbread. The Iroquois also prepared succotash (a dish made of
corn and beans), roasted corn, boiled corn, and hominy. A Hopi meal
traditionally included piki, a paper-thin bread. Prepared by spreading a
thin batter of cornmeal, water, and wood ash on a hot greased sandstone slab,
piki was especially delicious when dipped into a stew made of deer meat, squash,
beans, and wild greens such as milkweed, watercress, and dandelions.
Indian meals were often eaten with the
fingers; many groups also used utensils and dishes made from horn or bone.
Plains Indians made spoons, drinking vessels, ladles, and bowls from bison horn.
The intricacy of carving depended on the utensil’s intended use. Utensils and
serving dishes used for elaborate feasts on the Northwest Coast often were inset
with abalone shell or had handles elaborately carved into animal shapes.
Animal fats and oils, rendered from
animals such as bears, bison, and seals, added flavor and texture to soups and
stews. In the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, Native Americans collected
sap from sugar maple trees and used maple sugar as an all-purpose seasoning.
Other sweeteners included fruits and wild honey, and, in tropical areas,
vanilla. In the Southwest, chili peppers were a popular seasoning.
Salt was a highly prized but scarce
substance in North America. In addition to its use as a seasoning, salt was
needed as a dietary supplement by groups who ate mainly vegetable foods instead
of meat (which supplies an adequate amount of mineral salts) and by those who
lived in warm climates and lost salt through perspiration. Thus, Native
Americans in California, the Great Basin, the Southwest, and parts of the Great
Plains and Southeast had to intentionally eat salt. Salt was obtained by
evaporating salt water, collecting it from the surface near dry lake beds, and
by mining rock salt from shallow underground deposits. The Zuni of the Southwest
collected and processed salt from their own salt lake (present-day Salt Lake in
New Mexico). They considered salt a sacred item and undertook the gathering of
salt with prayer and ritual.
Native Americans learned to preserve
and store food for the winter or for a journey. They buried it in pits, dried it
in the sun, or smoked it over fires or in smokehouses. Traveling Plains Indians
filled rawhide envelopes with pemmican, a nourishing high-protein food made by
pounding strips of dried bison meat into fine bits, mixing it with melted fat
and berries, and then tightly pressing it into cakes. Pemmican remained edible
for years.
B | Housing and Shelter |
The dwellings Native Americans built
depended on the climate, the building materials available, and their lifestyle.
A nomadic lifestyle required simple, temporary structures or movable dwellings,
whereas a sedentary lifestyle allowed tribes to build more substantial homes.
Many tribes used different dwellings at different times of year. For example,
during the farming season, tribes along the Missouri River lived in large,
multifamily earth-covered dwellings known as earth lodges. During bison-hunting
season, they were nomadic and lived in smaller hide-covered shelters, called
tipis, that could be easily moved.
This section describes only some of the
many kinds of shelters used by North American Indians, including earth lodges,
tipis, longhouses, wigwams, hogans, wickiups, pueblos, plank houses, igloos, and
chickees. To learn more about housing types in a specific geographical area, see
the Culture Areas section of this article. For a more detailed
discussion, see Native American Architecture.
B1 | Earth Lodge |
Plains tribes that practiced
agriculture, such as the Mandan and Pawnee, lived in earth-lodge villages. Earth
lodges were large, dome-shaped houses covered with earth. They were made by
constructing a wooden frame of logs and beams (usually cottonwood), covering the
walls and roof rafters with small branches, brush, and grass, and then packing
the exterior with a thick layer of earth or sod. The earth layer served as
insulation that provided protection from the intense summer heat and the bitter
winter cold. The interior was usually quite spacious, providing living quarters
for several related families. Among the Pawnee, earth lodges reached 3 to 4 m in
height (10 to 14 ft) and 9 to 15 m (30 to 50 ft) in diameter. Women cooked food
around a central fire, and smoke vented through a hole in the roof. Sleeping
compartments lined the inner walls. After the Pawnee acquired horses, they often
stabled them in the earth lodge at night to prevent their theft by raiding
parties.
B2 | Tipi |
The tipi (also spelled
tepee or teepee), probably the best-known Native American
dwelling, was a cone-shaped tent covered with animal hides. It was used
primarily by nomadic tribes of the Plains. Women were responsible for making,
setting up, and moving tipis. To erect a tipi, they first set up a cone-shaped
frame of long wooden poles. Three or four main poles were staked in the ground
first and fastened together near the top; then other poles were added to form a
roughly circular base. A waterproof cover, made from 12 or more bison hides sewn
together, was pulled over the frame. (Plains Indians began to use canvas for
tipi covers after it became available in the late 1800s.) A hole at the top
permitted smoke from the central fire to escape. This opening was adjustable
with outer flaps of the cover and could be closed in rainy weather.
Each family had its own tipi that
measured from 3.5 to 5 m (12 to 16 ft) in diameter at the base. Stones or stakes
held the bottom edges of the tipi cover in place, but in the heat of summer,
families often rolled up the cover to allow a cool breeze to circulate. In
winter, families often added an inner lining of skin to help insulate the tipi
against snow and cold winter winds.
B3 | Longhouse |
The longhouse, built by Iroquois tribes
of the Northeast, was a large, long building that typically housed six to ten
families of five or six people each. Most Iroquois longhouses were about 18 m
(60 ft) long, 5.5 m (18 ft) high, and 5.5 m (18 ft) wide. The largest known
longhouse was 102 m (334 ft) long and was home to perhaps 150 to 200 people. The
framework, constructed of slender wooden poles or saplings (young trees), was
covered with elm bark sewn on in overlapping layers like shingles.
The interior of a longhouse was dimly
lit, with the only outside light coming from smoke holes in the roof and from
doorways at both ends of the structure. During snow or rain, sliding panels
covered the smoke holes, filling the longhouse with the smells of cooking food,
tobacco, babies, soot, and sweat. The floor space was divided by a central
corridor that ran the length of the building. Each family in the longhouse had
its own living space about 7.5 m (25 ft) long and shared a fire with the family
living on the opposite side of the corridor. Each family living space had a low,
wide platform covered with reed mats or thick bearskin rugs for sitting or
sleeping. The platform was built a short distance off the ground to avoid
dampness and fleas. Shelves above the platform held robes, food, and cooking
utensils, and other items were stored below the platform.
Iroquois villages typically consisted
of about 30 or 40 longhouses surrounded by a high palisade, a fence made
from pointed wooden posts set upright in the ground. Some types had saplings or
bark woven between the posts. Palisades protected villagers from enemy attack
and also helped to keep out wild animals. Sometimes two or three palisades
encircled a village. Longhouse villages were often located between the fork of
two streams, which provided drinkable water, fishing, and convenient canoe
transport to nearby villages.
B4 | Wigwam |
The wigwam was a domed hut. To
construct a wigwam, flexible saplings or poles were set into the ground and bent
into an arched frame. Then the frame was covered by sheets of bark, woven mats,
or animal hides. An opening was left in the frame for a low doorway, which could
be covered with mats or a hide. A hole in the roof allowed smoke to escape from
a central fire. Most wigwams housed one or two families, ranging in size from 2
to 6 m (7 to 20 ft) at the base.
Wigwams were used primarily by the
Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Northeast woodlands. The Menominee, for
example, lived most of the year in wigwams covered with mats of reeds and
cattails. Summer heat and humidity, however, made these structures too hot, so
they moved into spacious, rectangular bark-covered houses with peaked roofs and
high ceilings that provided better air circulation. Some types of sweat lodges,
used by the Menominee and many other Indians for rituals and purification, were
similar to wigwams in construction but smaller and more temporary. Other sweat
lodges were permanent, partially subterranean structures similar to earth
lodges.
B5 | Hogan and Wickiup |
The hogan, the traditional
Navajo (Diné) home, was a round or polygonal (six-sided or eight-sided) domed
house made of logs or poles and plastered with mud or earth. The entrance
traditionally faced east to greet the rising sun. It had one large room, up to
7.5 m (25 ft) in diameter, and was designed for a single family. The Navajo
tended to live in isolated groups of several related families, each of which had
its own hogan. Some hogans were built for ceremonies or storage. Although hogans
are no longer the primary form of housing for Navajo people today, they are
still used to some extent, especially by older people. Hogan is a Navajo
word meaning “home place.”
The wickiup was a similar though
less substantial dwelling used by the Apache peoples of the Southwest. The
Mescalero Apache built these dome-shaped structures by erecting a frame of
sturdy but flexible branches. Then they covered the frame with grass thatching,
brush, or hides. Some Great Basin Indians, such as the Paiute, built structures
similar to wickiups.
B6 | Pueblo and Kiva |
In contrast to the single-family,
one-room dwellings of the Navajo and the Apache tribes, Pueblo Indians lived in
distinctive, apartment-like building complexes made of stone or adobe bricks
(made from sun-baked clay and straw) and supported by wooden beams. These
dwellings, centuries old, are still in use today. The early Spanish explorers
referred to these housing complexes as pueblos, Spanish for “villages” or
“towns.” Building complexes were typically two or three stories high—the largest
were five stories high—and had enough rooms to house many families. A Hopi
dwelling, for example, was home to mothers, daughters, granddaughters, and all
their husbands and children. Each family lived primarily in a single room, using
other rooms in the building for storage, work, and sacred rites. Rooms were
constantly being added to accommodate more people. The Anasazi, the ancestors of
modern Pueblo peoples, lived in cliff dwellings, multichambered houses built
beneath rocky overhangs on the sides of cliffs.
The Pueblos also constructed
kivas, underground or partly underground chambers entered through roof
hatchways with ladders. Seldom entered by women, the kiva was a men’s club, used
for religious ceremonies and rituals, council meetings, and weaving cloth.
B7 | Plank House |
The wooden plank house was made
by Northwest Coast Indians, who had access to bountiful forests of red and
yellow cedar trees. They used large cedar logs or beams to make a rectangular
frame and then attached hand-split cedar planks to the frame either vertically
or horizontally. Plank houses typically housed several families and ranged in
size from 4.5 by 6 m (15 by 20 ft) to 15 by 18 m (50 by 60 ft). Plank-house
villages were often located on beaches.
B8 | Igloo |
One of the most distinctive house types
was the igloo, a domed house built of snow blocks used by the Central
Inuit in the Arctic. (The word igloo comes from the Inuit word
iglu, which can refer to any type of house.) Igloos provided effective
protection against the cold and the wind. Working from the inside, the builder
piled up snow blocks in a continuous spiral that leaned slightly inward, then
capped the dome with a snow block at the top. Entering the igloo required
crawling on hands and knees through a short tunnel covered by an arch of snow
blocks; the floor of the tunnel was sunken to trap heat inside the igloo. Igloos
usually held a single family and ranged from 2 to 4.5 m (6 to 15 ft) in diameter
at the base. In the summer, the Central Inuit lived in tents covered by seal or
caribou hides. Other Inuit groups lived in stone houses covered with sod and
supported by a frame of whale rib or driftwood.
B9 | Chickee |
The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes of
Florida lived in distinctive structures known as chickees, open-sided
homes measuring about 3 by 5 m (9 by 16 ft). The hot, humid climate of the
Southeast made open-sided structures much more comfortable than closed
dwellings, which did not permit as much air circulation. Chickees consisted of a
wooden platform raised a short distance above the ground and covered with a
roof. Family members sat and slept on the platform, protected from the marshy
ground and torrential rains. The steeply pitched roof, made from the leaves of
the palmetto tree, created a natural storage space where articles remained dry
even in slanting rain. Palmetto logs provided the central frame.
C | Clothing and Adornment |
The traditional clothing of Native
Americans varied according to climate, cultural traditions, and the clothing
materials available. Tribes that subsisted primarily by farming made most of
their clothing from plant materials. Among hunting tribes, animal skins and fur
were common.
In hot climates Indians wore minimal
clothing and body adornment was common. In the extreme heat of the Southwest,
for example, Mojave women wore knee-length skirts of willow bark. Men dressed in
breechcloths (loincloths) woven from strands from the inner bark of willow.
During the winter, rabbit-skin robes provided warmth. The Mojave customarily
tattooed their chins and painted their faces with a wide variety of elaborate
designs.
The Timucua, who lived in hot, humid
Florida, also wore little clothing. Timucua women wore dresses of Spanish moss
and decorated their bodies with intricate tattoos. Timucua men wore a
breechcloth and adorned their bodies with tattoos from head to ankles. The
tattoos were created by pricking the skin with needles dipped in cinnabar or
lampblack (powdered carbon), and their particular design indicated a person’s
social status. In winter, the Timucua wore cloaks made of feathers or animal
skin for warmth.
Peoples of the Arctic developed clothing
adapted for the extreme cold. The Inuit had to wear multiple layers of clothing
to protect themselves from blizzards and February temperatures that regularly
dipped below -28°C (-20°F). Although clothing varied by region, the basic winter
wardrobe was usually a hooded parka made of a double suit of caribou hides: an
outer layer worn with the fur on the outside, and an inner layer worn with the
fur on the inside. During the summer months, the inner suit was worn by itself.
For footwear, men wore two sets of fur stockings beneath soft sealskin boots
known as mukluks. Women wore a distinctive one-piece combination of
leggings and boots. They carried their babies on their upper backs in the open
hood of their parkas.
Farther west, the Aleut, who lived in the
Aleutian Islands, used animal intestines to make waterproof clothing. Both women
and men wore ankle-length parkas made of walrus intestine stitched together from
horizontal strips; men also wore sealskin trousers and waterproof overdresses
made of sea lion intestine. Aleut garments, except for rain parkas, differed
from those of the Inuit in having standing collars instead of hoods. In contrast
to Inuit women, Aleut women carried their babies in cradles instead of in
parkas. One of the most distinctive articles of Aleut clothing, worn by hunters
in their sea kayaks, was a wooden hat shaped like a deep inverted scoop and
decorated with beads and sea lion whiskers. The Aleut were said to wear no foot
coverings except on and near the Alaska Peninsula, where they wore boots.
Deer, elk, caribou, and bison hides were
some of the most common materials for clothing and footwear in North America.
Tanning the hide—that is, turning it into soft, durable leather—required
considerable work. In most areas, women were responsible for tanning hides and
making all the clothing for their families. Women began the tanning process by
scraping fat, tissue, and hair from the hide until it was clean and smooth. For
warmer clothes and blankets the hair was often left on the hide. Next the hide
was softened using one of various techniques, which usually involved repeated
rubbing, soaking, drying, stretching, and smoking. To soften a bison hide, for
example, Plains Indians rubbed it with a mixture of bison brains, fat, and other
ingredients. After the hides were tanned, women cut and sewed the leather into
dresses, breechcloths, shirts, robes, and moccasins.
Among the Pueblo Indians of the
Southwest, cotton was the most common clothing material. The Pueblo were the
only Native Americans in what is now the United States who wore cotton garments
before Europeans came. Men did nearly all the weaving. Among the Hopi, men used
looms suspended from high beams to weave cotton blankets and larger sheets of
cotton cloth for clothing. After the Hopi acquired sheep from the Spanish, men
began to weave wool blankets and cloth.
All groups wore special clothing for
ceremonial occasions. The Tlingit of the Northwest Coast had especially
elaborate clothing for dances and feasts, much of it emphasizing the wearer’s
social rank. Some of these items included brightly patterned blankets woven from
mountain goat wool and cedar bark (known as Chilkat blankets), conical painted
wooden hats, and painted leather dance capes. On the Plains, high-ranking
warriors often wore trailing feather headdresses and scalp shirts (shirts
decorated with portions of enemy scalps) to denote their status for ceremonial
occasions.
Many Indians decorated their clothing
with painted designs and with porcupine quills softened in water and dyed with
plant pigments. The elaborately beaded designs that decorated dresses, shirts,
leggings, and moccasins appeared only after contact with Europeans, who traded
manufactured glass beads. These beads were desirable for their bright colors,
and they were easier to apply to clothing than quills. In the Great Plains
beadwork usually took the form of geometric designs, while in the Northeast the
designs tended to use curved floral motifs.
Traditional jewelry, while similar in
form, varied in style and materials. Claws, teeth, and shells were the most
common materials. Inland groups obtained shells through extensive trade
networks; shell objects were considered signs of prestige because of the
difficulty and expense of acquiring them. In the Northwest Coast area, men and
women used claws, teeth, and shells to make necklaces, belts, armbands, and leg
bands. Both men and women wore earrings, but only men pierced the nasal septum
and attached ornaments to it. In the Southeast, men and women wore ear ornaments
of feathers, shiny stones, and pieces of shell. They also wore strings of pearls
and necklaces made from beads of bone, stone, or shell. In the Southwest,
jewelry usually took the form of necklaces and ear ornaments made of turquoise,
other precious stones, or shells.
To learn more about the clothing and
adornment of Native Americans in a specific geographical area, see the
Culture Areas section of this article.
D | Social and Political Organization |
The size and organization of Native
American communities was determined by a number of conditions, including
climate, available resources, and the presence or absence of neighboring groups.
People who inhabited desert regions with sparse natural resources, for example,
had to live in small groups that moved frequently to find new supplies of food,
firewood, and other materials. The small size of the group meant that its people
did not need a highly structured government or strict laws of inheritance.
Instead, flexibility was important because it enabled them to make decisions
based on the changing conditions of their environment.
Native American groups that lived in
areas of abundant natural resources, or on fertile lands suitable for
agriculture, had enough food to establish permanent villages. The larger
concentration of people in villages created the need to organize people in
certain ways. For example, a village might need to organize a large work force
to build and operate an irrigation system for its crops. Inheritance rules were
important so that land and houses could be handed down to children in orderly
ways. Government also had to be more structured, with agreed-upon social
behaviors and ways of accomplishing tasks.
Scholars have developed various terms to
classify Native American systems of social and political organization, including
band, tribe, lineage, clan, association, phratry, moiety, chiefdoms, and
confederacy. These systems ranged from simple to complex, depending on the
group’s environment, its needs, and its traditions and customs.
D1 | Bands |
At the time of European contact, the
family was the largest permanent social unit for most people in the Great Basin,
Arctic, and Baja California because resources were scarce in these areas. During
the spring and summer, when resources were most plentiful, several extended
families organized into bands with leaders who exercised limited control
over others in the band. The band was the social unit of nearly all hunters and
gatherers because of its flexibility in membership. Families were free to join a
different band if resources were more plentiful in that band’s territory.
The Eastern Shoshone of the Great Basin
practiced this system of social organization, assembling into a large band in
the summer and then dispersing into three to five smaller bands each winter. In
the absence of a tribal council, the leader of the large band was a middle-aged
or older man who had distinguished himself in war or as a shaman
(religious leader). He ordered a hunt or a move to a new area and counseled
other important decisions that affected the group as a whole, but he did not
deal with internal disputes. To survive the winter, families left the large band
to gather resources best exploited by just a few people, using what they could
collect to supplement the dried food that they had prepared to see their
families through the bitterly cold winter.
In addition to the band, the nuclear
family—a father, a mother, and their unmarried children—was important to
foragers such as the Shoshone. Where resources were most meager, groups of
Shoshone spent most of the year in family groups, traveling alone through the
countryside in search of food. In certain seasons, these families joined others
to hunt cooperatively as a band, dispersing after a few months.
D2 | Composite Bands and Tribes |
A composite band consisted of a
larger group of families than would belong to a simple band. Leadership in
composite bands was informal and was based on influence rather than authority
over band members. Many Native American groups that are thought of as tribes
were actually composite bands. The Comanche of the Great Plains, while sharing a
common language, customs, and ethnic identity, are a good example of composite
bands that never organized at a tribal level. As a nomadic bison-hunting people,
the Comanche, in the early and middle 1900s, had a population of about 6,000 to
7,000 people. When resources were plentiful, they were divided among 5 large
bands; when resources were scarce, they spread out into as many as 13 smaller
bands. Individuals and families could shift from one band to another, and
families could form a new band. Each band was headed by an older male member,
called a peace chief, who was known for his kindness, wisdom, and
leadership abilities. Another more aggressive man, called a war chief,
led warriors in raiding neighbors and conducting warfare. Although the Comanche
shared a strong awareness of common identity, each band was autonomous, and
seldom did several bands join to carry out common goals.
True tribes, while not necessarily
larger than composite bands, usually organized their social and political
activities at a much wider level and had much greater group cohesiveness. For
example, the Yuman-speaking peoples who lived along the Colorado River were
organized into agricultural tribes of 2,000 to 3,000 people. Each tribe, such as
the Mojave, had multiple chiefs (usually including a peace chief and a war
chief) and a strong sense of tribal nationalism. During times of war, all Mojave
united together to fight other tribes. However, political organization at the
tribal level was generally limited to warfare, and at other times the Mojave
were loosely divided into bands.
Before European contact, tribes were a
much less common form of political organization than bands and villages that
governed their own affairs. After contact some Plains groups organized as tribes
to survive European encroachment. The Cheyenne, who numbered about 4,000, were
governed by a civil council of 44 chiefs. The council met once a year when the
entire Cheyenne population gathered together for the annual bison hunt. For most
of the year, however, the Cheyenne lived in bands.
D3 | Lineages and Clans |
Families in a tribe were often linked
together through lineages or clans, which are groups whose members
claim common ancestry. A lineage was only several generations deep, and lineage
members traced their descent from a known ancestor. In contrast, clans persisted
across so many generations that members, although they presumed a common
ancestor, could not trace specific family links. Lineages and clans traced
ancestry either through the female line alone (matrilineal descent) or
through the male line alone (patrilineal descent). In some tribes, clans
named themselves after animals and traced their ancestry to animal totems that
represented the clan’s mythological history. For example, according to Hopi
belief, the Bear Clan arose when a group of Hopi left the underworld and came
upon the body of a dead bear. All groups with clans had lineages that made up
each clan. Other groups had only lineages.
Clans and lineages served to organize
many aspects of village life. Clan membership usually determined who was an
appropriate marriage partner, who inherited property, which families lived
together, and to whom political power was transferred when a leader died. For
example, in most Native American societies, a person had to choose a marriage
partner from outside his or her own clan. The clan also supervised the
ceremonies that initiated the young into the status of adults. Individuals were
deeply loyal to their clan and would readily help members of their clan who
lived in another village.
The Iroquois tribes of the Northeast
had matrilineal clans in which women wielded considerable political power. The
senior (highest-ranking) woman in the clan, called the clan mother,
consulted with other women to choose the man from their clan who would represent
them at the annual Grand Council of the Iroquois League, a powerful confederacy
of five tribes. The women of the clan could also impeach him if he failed to
represent their interests properly.
D4 | Associations |
Although there were some tribes without
clans, almost all tribes had associations (also called
sodalities), which were clubs whose membership was not based on
kinship. Each association had its own function, such as war, hunting, medicine,
or religion. For example, nearly every Plains tribe had warrior societies that
guarded the camps during periods of intertribal warfare and played a major role
in warfare. Many tribes had different warrior societies for different age
groups, with boys moving from one society to the next as they grew older and
more experienced.
D5 | Phratries |
Phratries (pronounced
FRAY-trees) were groups of related clans whose primary purpose was to govern
marriage rules and to provide aid. For example, in the Southwest, a Navajo
(Diné) woman or man was expected to marry an individual who not only was from a
different clan but also was from a different phratry. Otherwise, he or she would
be committing incest, a violation believed to bring terrible misfortune to the
individual and his or her relatives.
D6 | Moieties |
Many Indian tribes were divided into
two groups called moieties (pronounced MOY-uh-tees). Each moiety, in
turn, was often composed of related clans. For example, among the Osage, farmers
who lived in present-day Missouri, 9 clans formed the “household” moiety, which
symbolized the sky and peace, and 15 clans formed the “sacred ones” moiety,
which symbolized the Earth and war. People were not allowed to marry someone
from their own moiety. Each Osage village had two chiefs, one from each moiety,
and each chief had identical authority. The chiefs’ primary role was to keep
peace among village families and to organize and lead the village bison
hunts.
D7 | Chiefdoms |
Chiefdoms, even more complex than
tribes, were governed by a single chief who was both the political and religious
leader. His position was often hereditary within a single family or clan that
had rights based on supernatural powers attributed to them in their origin
story. Whereas bands and tribes were egalitarian societies, in which lineages
and clans had equal status in principle, chiefdoms were ranked societies, in
which certain families enjoyed greater authority and privileges. Access to
resources was based on inherited status. The chief, viewed as a god on Earth,
evoked reverence and fear from his subjects. His supernatural status conferred
authority and power, and he governed through decree rather than consensus.
Powerful chiefdoms in North America
arose with the Mississippian culture, which flourished in the eastern part of
the continent from approximately ad 800 until the arrival of European
explorers. Its people, who subsisted through intensive maize farming, built
large towns with earth platforms, or mounds, supporting temples and rulers’
residences. Across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis, Missouri,
the Mississippians built the city of Cahokia, which, at its apex between ad 1100 and 1200, may have had a
population of 20,000. Its central temple mound rose in four terraces to an
elevation of 30 m (100 ft), atop which lived the chief and his close relatives,
who were considered nobles.
A similar chiefdom, the Natchez,
survived into the 18th century in the Southeast. Like the earlier
Mississippians, the Natchez had a central temple mound as well as other mounds
for nobles’ residences and for burials. The supreme ruler, known as the Great
Sun, was considered divine, as were his relatives. Most of the Natchez were
commoners, but those who were nobility were divided into three ranks: Suns,
Nobles, and Honored People. All ranks of nobility were allowed to marry only
commoners.
D8 | Confederacies |
In areas where warfare among tribes,
usually over resources and territory, occurred frequently, some tribes formed
confederacies (also called federations), or alliances of several
tribes. By becoming part of a confederacy, tribes could amass greater forces
against their enemies. The best-known confederacy of Native American tribes is
the Iroquois League, or League of Five Nations, formed in the 16th century as an
alliance of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk tribes; the
Tuscarora later joined and it became the League of Six Nations. A Grand Council,
composed of male delegates from each tribe, met annually to settle disputes
between tribes and to plan military strategy. Many believe that the ideals of
the Iroquois Confederacy—unity, democracy, vision, and fair
representation—inspired American colonial leaders to seek the help of the
Iroquois in their attempt to replace the British monarchy with a democratic
alternative; in 1754 they formulated the Albany Plan of Union, which may have
been based on Iroquois ideals (see Albany Congress). Today, the
Haudenosaunee, as the Iroquois call themselves, continue to maintain the
confederacy and to regularly convene the Grand Council.
The Algonquian tribes of the Northeast
also formed confederacies, including the Abenaki Confederacy, Delaware
Confederacy, Powhatan Confederacy, Wampanoag Confederacy, and Wappinger
Confederacy. Another important Native American confederacy was the Creek
Confederacy in the Southeast.
E | Marriage and Family Life |
In contrast to industrial societies,
where marriage is usually a private relationship between two individuals,
marriage in Native American tribal societies was more a public relationship
between two families. Instead of simply taking a spouse, a person assumed
obligations to a group of in-laws. For example, among certain Apache tribes of
the Southwest, when a man married, he assumed the support of his wife’s parents
for the rest of his life—even if his wife died. Kinship played an important role
in organizing family and work life. Kin ties helped to determine potential
marriage partners, where a person lived, whom a person farmed or hunted or
gathered with, and whom a person called on for aid and advice.
E1 | Selecting a Partner |
In most Native American societies,
children married at a relatively young age. Girls were considered eligible for
marriage after first menstruation, around age 13. Boys usually married before
the age of 20. However, many young men waited to marry until their early 20s, so
they could prove their ability as a good provider. Most societies tolerated
sexual activity before marriage, although some, like the Cheyenne and Crow,
placed a high value on sexual abstinence before marriage.
Parents usually chose a mate for their
children. A child’s older relatives might also participate in the choice of
marriage partner. In some tribes, marriages were arranged far in advance, during
a child’s infancy or early childhood. In other areas—particularly the Arctic,
Subarctic, and Great Basin—young people had greater control over their choice of
spouse. If a boy and a girl expressed interest in each other, their families
would decide whether to permit them to marry. If the families approved, a date
was set for a wedding ceremony or an exchange of gifts. Marriage to someone from
another tribe was unusual but not prohibited unless the person was from a
warring tribe.
The only rule that universally governed
the choice of marriage partners was the incest taboo, a prohibition against
marrying close relatives. Members of the same nuclear family—specifically,
sister and brother, father and daughter, or mother and son—were never allowed to
marry and produce children. In most societies, the incest taboo was extended to
prohibit marriage between some cousins, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews,
and other close relatives. However, each group had its own definition of which
relationships were considered to be too close for marriage. Among some groups,
such as Northwest Coast peoples and the Chipewyan of the Subarctic, first
cousins were preferred as marriage partners.
Most North American Indians allowed
polygyny, the marriage of one man to two or more women. Often these wives
were sisters. But usually only wealthy or powerful men were able to support
several wives. In some societies, such as those of the Great Plains, women far
outnumbered men, because a large number of men were killed each year through
bison hunting or warfare with other tribes. Men were expected to have several
wives not only to maintain the population but also to lighten the wives’
crushing workload of tanning, sewing, beading, cooking, and packing camp. The
wives could also share childrearing responsibilities. Polygyny was most common
in the Northwest Coast region; in some parts of this region more than 20 percent
of marriages were polygynous. Other groups, such as the Iroquois and the western
Pueblos, exclusively practiced monogamy, the marriage of one man to one
woman.
E2 | Marriage Customs |
Once a young person’s mate was chosen,
it was customary in many North American Indian societies for the families of the
bride and groom to exchange gifts. This custom was a means of establishing the
social rank and position of each of the families. The groom’s family gave the
bride’s family goods that were among the most valuable symbols of wealth in
their culture, and her family reciprocated with gifts of equal value. After the
Europeans brought horses, a young man often gave his prospective father-in-law
at least one horse for the right to marry his daughter. This custom was most
common on the Great Plains and Northwest Coast. In other areas, rather than
giving gifts, a male suitor lived with the bride and her family for a year to
demonstrate his ability to hunt and earn a living. This custom, known as
bride service, dominated in the Subarctic and Great Basin. Many Indian
groups practiced both the exchange of wealth and bride service. Often, the groom
helped his wife’s family to farm the land or build the house where the couple
would reside.
Marriage ceremonies varied widely. In
some societies, there was no formal ceremony, and the exchange of gifts served
to sanction the union of bride and groom. Other peoples held formal ceremonies
marked by feasts and celebrations. Among the most elaborate wedding ceremonies
were those of the Hopi in the Southwest. Traditional Hopi weddings still occur
today. These formal affairs last at least a week but take a year or more of
preparation involving all the members of the two families. Among other rituals,
members of the bride’s family give the groom’s family massive amounts of
food—flour, cornmeal, baked goods, and two years’ worth of corn harvest—to show
their prowess as homemakers. The groom and his family, in turn, bring meat,
firewood, and clothing to the bride’s family to prove his ability to provide for
the family.
Living arrangements for a newly married
couple differed depending upon the rules of the society. Most commonly, the wife
was expected to leave her band or family home and spend the rest of her life
with her husband’s band. Such an arrangement, which anthropologists call
patrilocal residence, enabled the husband to continue to hunt in a
territory that he had grown up in and knew well. Groups in the Arctic, eastern
Subarctic, northern Great Plains, California, southern Northwest Coast, Plateau,
and the Southwest practiced patrilocal residence. Among other groups, such as
the Hopi, the new husband moved to the household of his wife and spent the rest
of his life with her relatives, an arrangement known as matrilocal
residence. In this way, property remained in the woman’s family and was passed
down to her daughters. The new husband farmed his wife’s fields and lived with
his wife in the house where she had grown up.
Less common, but found in the Great
Basin and western Subarctic, were societies with bilocal
residence rules, in which the couple could reside with either the husband’s or
wife’s families or shift back and forth between the families. Very seldom did
people establish their own home in an area where neither set of parents lived
(neolocal residence). However, sometimes the husband would decide to move
with his wife to a new band that had greater access to food or other important
resources.
Divorce was not uncommon in Native
American societies, and sometimes a husband or wife remarried almost
immediately. Laziness, continual bickering, infidelity, failure to have
children, and lack of respect for in-laws were acceptable grounds for
divorce.
E3 | Childrearing and Education |
Native American societies usually
desired large families. Children often died during birth or in the first years
of life, so having many children helped to maintain and replenish the
population. In addition, children were desirable because they helped their
parents with food gathering, farming, and care of younger children. They also
cared for their parents as they aged. In general, family members depended
greatly upon each other, with grandmothers and aunts taking care of the children
when a mother had to work in the fields. Babies and children were often raised
and cared for by members of the extended family—grandparents, uncles, and aunts
all assumed part of the parental role.
Native American children were given
little formal educational instruction; instead, they learned by example and by
doing. Relatives usually educated boys and girls separately. Mothers and other
female relatives taught girls to sew, weave, make pottery, and gather and
prepare food, while fathers and male relatives taught boys to hunt, ride horses,
and participate in warfare. Children were lavishly praised for their
accomplishments. Each time a boy killed a kind of animal he had not killed
before, his relatives praised him and recognized his achievement. But they also
taught him generosity by making him give away all the meat. Similarly, a girl
had to give away the first roots, berries, or seeds that she gathered.
Another means of instruction was the
telling of stories. Grandparents played important roles as teachers. They
recounted their own experiences to the children and told traditional stories
that included valuable lessons related to proper behavior. They also passed on
tribal history and creation stories. Such stories were generally told in the
winter months, when there was less work to perform, the nights were longer, and
cold weather forced families to stay inside.
Discipline of children was usually the
responsibility of someone other than the parents, often the father’s sister or
the mother’s brother. This arrangement helped keep hostility between parents and
their children at a low level. Spirits, brought to life by masked or painted men
whose identity was disguised, also served as disciplinarians. Physical
punishment was rare or mild throughout native North America. The most common
form of correction was ridicule. Ridiculing a person in song or through personal
criticism in public was common. Among the Crow Indians of the Great Plains, a
person even had a designated “joking relative,” such as a cousin, who ridiculed
him or her for bad behavior. The threat that this relative could accuse one of
misbehavior acted as a deterrent to such behavior.
E4 | Puberty Rites |
Puberty rites, also called initiation
rites, mark the passage of boys and girls into adulthood. Among some Native
American societies, such as the Sioux of the Great Plains, boys were initiated
into manhood with a vision quest, in which they sought contact with the
spirit world. For a Sioux boy at puberty, seeking a vision meant first purifying
himself in a sweat bath in a willow-stick lodge covered with bison skins; water
poured over hot rocks inside the lodge produced steam to cleanse the body and
spirit. A shaman, a person with ties to the spirit world, prayed for him,
invoking the spirits to come to the boy’s aid. Next the boy walked to a lonely
hilltop wearing only a breechcloth (loincloth) and moccasins. Crouching in a
pit, the boy stayed there for four days and nights without food until receiving
a vision or message from his guardian spirit, who might take the form of an
animal, human, or natural phenomenon. This guardian spirit would provide
guidance and purpose to the person for the rest of his life. Although first
undertaken in puberty, the vision quest could be repeated as often as a man felt
the need for spiritual assistance. Vision quests are still performed today,
although not nearly as widely as in past times, as Plains Indians seek to
recover their spiritual roots.
Puberty rituals for girls varied. Girls
could go on a vision quest, but it was considered less necessary than it was for
boys. Some Native American cultures developed rituals around first menstruation.
In the Yukon Subarctic and on the Plateau, a pubescent girl had to follow
special behavior for one to four years. For example, she might be expected to
abstain from certain kinds of meat so that she did not spoil the men’s success
in hunting game. In nearly all cultures, a pubescent girl was supposed to avoid
contact with hunters, fishermen, shamans, and priests. These individuals were
believed to be susceptible to harm from her close contact with supernatural
forces. Elaborate girls’ puberty ceremonies were held by northern California
groups and by the Navajo and Apache tribes. Still held today, the Girls’ Puberty
Ceremony of the Western Apache, also called the Sunrise Ceremony, lasts four
days and four nights. Girls who have had their first menstrual period during the
previous year are blessed by singers and by their relatives and friends. During
the four days, the girls are believed to embody White Painted Woman, a spiritual
being who gave many blessings to the people. The girls demonstrate the strength
they will need in life by running in the four directions, dancing continuously
for many hours, and undergoing other rites. In the Mescalero Apache version of
this ceremony, singers recount the history of the Apache, reminding the girls of
their responsibility to their people. Thus, the ceremony not only instructs and
honors the girls as they make the social transition to womanhood, but it also
affirms the closeness of the entire community and its enduring history over
time.
E5 | Division of Labor |
In most Indian communities, men and
women performed different tasks. Men and boys had many responsibilities,
including hunting, trapping, trading, butchering animals, and making boats,
tools, weapons, carvings, and other objects. They also did most of the fishing,
clearing of land, preparation of the soil, building of houses, and the making of
rope and cords. Women and girls were responsible for carrying water, gathering
and processing wild plant foods, and cooking meals. They also gathered shellfish
and fuel, wove cloth, made clothing and mats, and fashioned pottery. Either or
both sexes farmed the land, prepared animal skins, and made leather
products.
E6 | Unmarried Individuals |
The only unmarried individuals in
Native American societies were those too young to be married, the widowed, the
divorced, and berdaches, men who assumed many of the mannerisms, behavior
patterns, and tasks of women. Yet sometimes berdaches married men. In such
cases, the berdache fulfilled the traditional wifely role while the male partner
provided game from hunting and performed other male tasks. Some Native American
cultures also had “manly-hearted women” who hunted and assumed other male roles;
often the manly-hearted woman married another woman who fulfilled female
tasks.
F | Recreation and Games |
Sports and games were an important part
of many Native American cultures. Many games held a central place in ceremonies,
and many popular sports began as religious rites. Often games prepared
participants for such activities as war and hunting. Nearly all Indian games
required the participants to prepare spiritually and to demonstrate high
standards of sportsmanship. Indians often lavishly decorated their game
equipment and wore body paint or decorations during the game. Wagering on the
outcome of games was very common. Gambling was not considered to be a moral
issue, but rather was part of the social life of the community.
Competitive team sports, such as ball
games and foot races, were the most widespread and popular games. The most
prevalent ball game was lacrosse, one of a variety of stickball games in which
players could not touch the ball with their hands. Played with a single netted
racket or stick by the Iroquois and with two rackets by Southeastern tribes,
lacrosse is considerably tamer today than its original form. The original form
was such a violent game that it was considered to be a peacetime substitute for
war, and nearly any strategy was acceptable, including stomping, butting, and
biting. Players were often killed in the melee. As many as 700 players
participated in the Choctaw version of lacrosse, running, leaping, and tripping
each other in their efforts to catch the ball in their sticks and throw it to
their goal. Played between the residents of neighboring Choctaw villages, the
games were major social events that drew over 1,000 spectators, many of whom
wagered skins or furs on the outcome.
Even more popular than lacrosse was the
hoop-and-pole game, which required players to stop a rolling hoop by
hitting it with a wooden pole or spear. Two players or teams could play, and the
highest score was awarded for stopping the hoop with the pointed end of the
pole. Played on a smooth, level course roughly 45 m (150 ft) long, the
hoop-and-pole game tested fleetness, eyesight, and skill in spear throwing, all
essential skills for warfare and hunting. A similar game called chunkey
(also spelled chungke or tchung-kee) was played with a stone disk
or ring as the target; further variations used netted hoops as targets or darts
or arrows instead of poles. Other athletic games included archery, wrestling,
foot racing, and after the acquisition of horses, horse racing. Snow
snake, a game played in colder northern climates, involved hurling a long,
smooth stick on a course of ice or packed snow; the player whose stick slid
farthest was the winner.
Men and women devoted a great deal of
leisure time to playing games of chance, such as dice games or guessing games.
The hand game was a guessing game played throughout much of North
America. Teams would take turns guessing which of an opponent’s hands held a
marked object. A correct answer won a counting stick (used to tally the score),
and the team that won all of the counting sticks claimed a prize. Guesses were
often accompanied by singing and drumming. Another guessing game, the moccasin
game, required the winner to identify which moccasin hid a stone. The moccasin
game was integral to the Navajo (Diné) creation story. In this story, night
animals and day animals played the moccasin game to determine whether the Earth
should be in total darkness or total light. Neither side won, so each day was
divided into periods of darkness and daylight.
Children played games among themselves
that prepared them for adult activities. Girls played with dolls and other
miniatures (such as miniature tipis on the Plains), while boys pretended to hunt
and make war. Grandparents, who often had more leisure time than parents,
prepared children for their adult roles through play.
Storytelling was a popular form of
entertainment and an important way that older tribal members handed down
cultural knowledge and moral teachings. The traditional time for storytelling
was winter, when inclement weather kept families inside in most parts of North
America. According to Native American belief, winter was the only time that
bears and other hibernating animals could be talked about without disturbing
them.
G | Transportation |
The most common form of Native American
transportation was foot travel. The backpack was the primary means of carrying
loads, whether a single woman was carrying home the food that she had gathered
for her family or an entire group of people was shifting camp. Women
consistently carried heavier loads than men because men had to be prepared to
pursue game at any moment and to defend their families. The wheel, used in the
Middle East as early as 3500 bc,
was absent in the Americas before Europeans arrived.
Canoes were used for transportation
nearly everywhere in North America, except for arid regions such as the Great
Basin and Southwest. In the Arctic, Subarctic, Northeast, and on the Plateau,
most canoes were built of wooden frames covered by bark or animal hides. The
Iroquois of the Northeast used elm bark to cover their canoes. Canoes were an
essential means of long-distance travel for Iroquois warriors, who might leave
their villages for as long as three months at a time on military expeditions,
and, soon after their return, go on hunting or trading expeditions that took
them far from home. The lightest and most maneuverable canoes, however, were
made by the Algonquian Indians, who lived north of the Iroquois in lands where
white birch trees were so plentiful that the light of the noonday sun barely
reached the forest floor. Bark from the birch trees was sewn into sheets large
enough to make a canoe. These exceptionally light, waterproof vessels so
impressed French fur trader Samuel de Champlain that he encouraged his men to
replace their clumsy French skiffs with birchbark canoes.
Dugout canoes made from large
hollowed-out logs were common in much of North America. The peoples of the
Northwest Coast were the masters of this method, and some tribes made as many as
seven different types of canoes. The largest and most impressive of these types
was the Haida war or ceremonial canoe, a seagoing vessel that was as long as 21
m (70 ft) and could hold up to 60 people. The canoe was made by splitting a
giant red cedar log lengthwise, shaping it, and hollowing it out with controlled
burning and hand tools. A tall prow, elaborately carved and painted, improved
the canoe’s stability and repelled wave action in stormy seas. Other Northwest
tribes, such as the Nootka and the Makah, also built large seagoing dugout
canoes for whaling, seal hunting, and trading. Northwest Indian canoes were
highly prized and often used for trade.
Bullboats were round, basin-shaped
boats made and used primarily by Mandan women of the Great Plains to transport
goods across shallow rivers or streams. To construct a bullboat, several women
worked together to stretch bison hide over a willow frame. A single paddler
could successfully steer a bullboat. The vessel was kept on a straight course
using a drag of driftwood attached to the bison tail that had been left on the
hide.
The Ojibwa and other Subarctic peoples
used toboggans and snowshoes for winter travel. An Ojibwa family had to move at
least once or twice during the winter to new hunting grounds because fresh game
was so hard to find. They loaded their goods onto toboggans that were as much as
2.5 m (8 ft) long and were often pulled by dogs. Even with toboggans hauling
supplies, women shouldered loads of up to 64 kg (140 lb) on their backs, while
men ranged through the woods in search of game. Snow remained on the ground
until early spring, so snowshoes were necessary. Their usage determined their
shape. Most northern groups preferred long, narrow snowshoes for use on already
traveled trails, while more southern groups were partial to rounded snowshoes
for traveling over fresh snow. Spruce, birch, or willow provided the frames, and
snowshoe webbing came from partly tanned strips of hide. With the proper type of
snowshoes to keep him on top of the snow, a hunter could easily keep pace with
caribou or moose as the animals moved with difficulty through high drifts.
Until horses became available in the
mid-1700s, moving camp on the Great Plains was a lengthy and exhausting
experience, and groups were only able to cover 8 to 10 km (5 to 6 mi) per day.
Each family used a dog to pull a travois (pronounced truh-VOY), an
apparatus that consisted of two poles on either side of the animal that were
harnessed to its chest, shoulders, and back. Crossbars covered with hides joined
the poles behind the dog and served as the cargo platform; the rear end of the
poles dragged on the ground. The family tipi and other belongings were lashed
securely to the travois; the travois poles also served as the main poles for the
tipi. Because dogs could only carry about 34 kg (75 lb), tipis had to be
relatively small. Dogs were also unreliable because they often disappeared while
chasing rabbits or were injured during fights with each other.
Horses could travel twice the distance
and carry four times the load of a dog. Before the introduction of the horse,
old and sick people had to be left behind, but with horses, they could be
carried on a horse-drawn travois. Horses could haul heavier, longer poles, so
tipis became taller as well as wider. Originally, tipi covers were made to suit
the dog’s carrying capacity of 6 to 8 hides, but with horses carrying the
weight, tipi covers expanded to 12 or more bison hides. The amount of food,
clothing, and household objects Plains Indians could keep also increased because
larger loads were easily transportable on horseback.
To learn more about the transportation
methods of Native Americans in a specific geographical area, see the Culture
Areas section of this article.
H | Trade |
H1 | Before European Contact |
Trade was extremely important among
Native American tribes long before European contact. Some of the earliest
evidence of trade within North America comes from copper tools, ornaments, and
utensils found at archaeological sites from the Great Plains to the Ohio Valley
and New York. Evidence shows that these artifacts were produced by Native
Americans in the northern Great Lakes region some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. At
the Indian Knoll site in Kentucky, which is between 3,000 and 7,000 years old,
archaeologists have found shell ornaments and copper items. The site is far from
the coast and far from any copper source, which means that the people of the
Indian Knoll region must have participated in an extensive trade system.
Trade networks were far-reaching and
linked nearly all parts of North America. Marine shells from the coast of
southern California were traded as far north as southwestern Colorado and as far
east as the Texas Panhandle. The Mojave, who lived along the Colorado River in
the Southwest, obtained shells and manufactured shell objects from the Angelino
Indians in California and traded them to the Hopi in Arizona for textiles and
pottery. The macaw, a brightly colored parrot, was highly valued for its
feathers. Macaws were transported alive from their Mexican habitat 1,900 km
(1,200 mi) to northern New Mexico and Arizona. Nomadic tribes of the Great
Plains traded dried meat, fat, tanned hides, tipis, bison robes, and buckskin
clothing for the corn, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco cultivated by sedentary
village tribes.
H2 | After European Contact |
Once European goods became available,
they were quickly integrated into previously existing trade networks. In the
Southwest in the 1850s and 1860s, the Hualapai traded their buckskins for Hopi
and Zuni textiles, which they exchanged for horses from the Mojave. The Hualapai
then traded the horses for guns and ammunition from the Southern Paiute, who had
obtained these firearms from Utah Mormons. The Havasupai, who raised crops in a
side branch of the Grand Canyon during the summer, traded their crops for
Hualapai deer and mountain sheepskins. The Mojave also farmed corn, pumpkins,
and beans that, during times of peace, they traded for Hualapai game. Other
highly valued Hualapai commodities included basketry, mescal (a product of the
agave plant prepared as food or used to make an alcoholic beverage), and,
especially, the rich red ochre pigment that they collected from a cave in their
territory. Navajo blankets were especially prized as trade items and were seen
as far away as the Great Plains.
Many Native American groups had
indirect contact with European culture through trade goods long before they
actually encountered European explorers, missionaries, or traders. Metal tools
and firearms probably had the greatest impact of the earliest trade items
because they made it easier for Native Americans to obtain food and to make
clothes and equipment. The acquisition of guns and ammunition became necessary
for the survival of most Native American groups. A tribe’s survival could depend
on whether it acquired firearms before neighboring rival tribes had them.
Trade with Europeans dramatically
changed Native American ways of life. In the Northeast, for example, European
demand for furs was so strong that Indian men spent more time trapping
fur-bearing animals, especially beavers, than hunting game for their own
families, and women spent time tanning them. With furs to trade, they could
obtain guns, knives, horses, tools, glass beads, sugar, flour, whiskey, and
other desirable trade items. But as tribes became increasingly dependent on
European goods, their self-sufficient ways of hunting, gathering, and farming
began to vanish. In addition, trade with Europeans exposed Indian groups to
devastating diseases and introduced alcohol addiction. See Fur Trade in
North America.
H3 | Money |
Although no true money existed in
Native American societies before Europeans came, some articles were used as
media of exchange: dentalia (tooth shells) on the Northwest Coast,
clamshell disk beads in California, and beaver furs in the Subarctic. In the
Northeast, beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries, many tribes used
wampum, cylindrical beads fashioned from the central column of
seashells. Whelk shells were used for the white variety and quahog shells for
the dark purple or “black” variety. The beads were woven into strings, belts,
sashes, headbands, and other items. Pictographs—designs that represented figures
or other forms—were sometimes woven into wampum belts. For example, the George
Washington Covenant Belt, which commemorated a peace treaty between the United
States and the Iroquois League, included 13 large human figures that represented
the 13 founding states of the United States. The value of wampum increased as it
moved farther from its place of manufacture.
Among Native Americans, the use of
wampum as a medium of exchange was originally less important than its ceremonial
functions. For example, among the Iroquois it was traditional to accompany
important statements with a gift to demonstrate the sincerity and significance
of the statement. In time, wampum became the most appropriate and customary gift
because it was such a rare and prized item that took intensive labor and time to
produce. In addition, wampum came to serve as a letter of introduction and a
certificate of authority. Treaties between the Iroquois and other Indian
nations, as well as those between the Iroquois and European nations, were
accompanied by an exchange of wampum to signify the sincerity of the parties
involved. Wampum beads were also sometimes used in religious ceremonies.
Beginning in the 17th century, however,
wampum drew the attention of Europeans who were trying to encourage Native
Americans to provide them with furs. It soon became an important medium of
exchange. Indians increased their wampum production to obtain goods from Dutch
and English traders, who then traded the wampum to other groups for furs. In the
late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, Europeans established wampum factories on
Long Island and in New Jersey to mass-produce wampum for trade.
I | Warfare and Weaponry |
Native American warfare was a highly
ritualized activity that included particular behavior, dress, and preparation.
Rituals varied according to tribal traditions, history, technology, environment,
and values. Some tribes placed greater emphasis than others on warfare. For
example, most peoples of the Great Basin and Arctic lacked the political and
military organization associated with true warfare. In the Great Plains,
Northeast, and Southeast, on the other hand, warfare was a more integral part of
the culture. However, even in these areas, conflicts between whole tribes were
rare before the European demand for furs created economic competition.
I1 | Warfare Between Tribes |
Warfare between tribes was fairly
common practice before European contact, although some tribes were more warlike
than others. There were various causes of warfare. Most commonly, tribes fought
over territory. Tribes that did not have enough farmland or hunting territory to
feed their people might attack a neighboring tribe to gain more territory and
avert food shortages. Revenge was another reason for warfare. Tribes might
attack another tribe to avenge tribal members who died in a previous conflict.
Among tribes with a strong sense of ethnic superiority and invincibility,
hostilities could be easily ignited by ethnic insults from members of another
tribe. To avenge those insults, the tribe went to war.
Once Europeans arrived in North
America, power relations changed among tribes. Some tribes allied themselves
with Europeans to fight old tribal enemies and to improve their own chances of
survival. The acquisition of superior European weaponry or horses gave some
tribes an immediate advantage over others. After the five nations of the
Iroquois Confederacy and several Algonquian tribes in Canada acquired European
guns, they were able to seize great stretches of the Northeast from tribes that
did not possess firearms. The desire for European goods or horses could also
lead to warfare; some Indians captured members of rival tribes and sold them as
slaves to Spanish settlements in exchange for horses.
I2 | Tactics and Customs |
Native Americans distinguished between
raiding and warfare. The purpose of raiding was to find and bring home enemy
property, such as horses, cattle, and sheep (all acquired after European
arrival) or other food sources. Usually 5 to 15 men made the foray into enemy
territory. Their goal was to retrieve as much as possible without any loss or
injury to those in the raiding party. Stealth was essential to avoid capture.
Raiders usually worked under cover of darkness, and they moved as quickly and
quietly as possible while in enemy territory. Warfare, in contrast, involved all
the available men in the tribe or band; the men might even send out messages to
members of other bands to join them. As in raiding, scouts were sent out in
advance to locate the enemy. Based on this information, the men tried to fully
surround their target without the enemy’s knowledge, then attack with surprise.
Another tactic was to lure enemies into pursuit so that a larger group could
surround them and attack. While raiding and warfare tactics were similar, their
goals were quite different. Raiding was done without disturbing enemies to
acquire goods, whereas warfare involved the full engagement of enemies and,
generally, the slaying of as many of them as possible.
On the Great Plains, war was considered
a sport through which individuals performed personal exploits that brought them
prestige. Plains warriors obtained honor through the custom of counting
coup, which involved performing a feat of courage during battle. A warrior
counted minor coups when he killed a foe or was wounded himself. But the
greatest honor came from touching an armed foe with a coup stick (or
anything else held in the hand) during battle without necessarily harming him,
because the Plains Indians valued bravery much more than killing. After the
battle, warriors who had counted coup received the right to wear eagle feathers
that were notched or marked to identify their courageous deed to others. Plains
women performed special dances when parties returned victorious and derived
honor from their husband’s deeds. Sometimes they even participated in
battle.
The rewards of successful warfare were
compelling. Warriors obtained prestige and fame in their tribes, and they reaped
material goods such as the enemy’s weapons and horses. The Mojave of the
Southwest enjoyed warfare as an activity because it required energy, skill, and
courage to fight warriors from other tribes, and they gained satisfaction from
doing so. On a larger scale, successful warfare could result in increased tribal
territory and better access to natural resources, especially fertile farmland.
However, battle carried many risks for warriors. These included death, permanent
injury, and, if one did not perform with valor, loss of respect. If a warrior
died or was severely injured, his family members had to find other means of
supporting themselves. If a warrior showed cowardice during battle, such
behavior reflected poorly on his family and could cause permanent shame in the
village or band where they lived. The death of warriors also reflected
negatively on the war leader, who lost prestige and followers.
The torture of prisoners was the most
distinctive feature of warfare in eastern North America. The torture of enemy
tribal members and later, of Europeans, appears to have originated in the East;
after European contact the practice spread to the Great Plains. Tied to a stake
or platform, prisoners were tortured with mutilation, stabbing, shooting with
arrows, fire, or dismemberment while still alive. Prisoners might also be made
to run between two parallel rows of warriors who beat them with clubs and sticks
as they ran; if they survived, they might be given freedom. Usually only men
were tortured in large public spectacles. Captured women and children were
treated as slaves until they married or were adopted into the tribe. Young male
captives might be taken as husbands by one of the many widows of slain warriors
and eventually adopted into the tribe as free and equal members.
Every tribe had ritual preparations for
warfare, and nearly all conducted purification rituals after warfare.
Preparations might involve fasting or eating only certain foods before going to
war, as well as abstaining from sexual relations. Often, warriors’ wives had to
follow specific rules of behavior while their husbands were away at war. Among
the Tohono O’Odham (Papago) of southern Arizona, for example, wives and
daughters of warriors laid firewood down gently and avoided laughing or talking
in a loud voice, believing that such behavior would put the husbands and fathers
in jeopardy. The Tohono O’Odham believed that a menstruating wife so weakened
her husband that he would be killed, so such husbands stayed home. Men who
returned from battle were considered to be full of power that could harm their
families if they were not purified. Tohono O’Odham warriors who had killed or
scalped enemies lived in isolation for 16 days, where they ate from bowls that
had to be thrown away because the bowls were believed to have absorbed too much
of the power; warriors also had to be bathed to wash off the power. The Navajo
(Diné) performed a ceremony called the Enemyway for returning warriors to
exorcise the ghosts of non-Navajo they had slain, while the Blessingway ceremony
invoked positive blessings to protect both departing and returning warriors.
Both the Enemyway and Blessingway are still performed today. The Enemyway is
performed for Navajos involved in conflicts as part of their service in the
United States military, while the Blessingway ceremony is used to bless Navajo
members of the armed services as well as for marriages, new houses, and many
other purposes.
I3 | Warfare with Europeans |
The main cause of war between Europeans
and Native Americans was the European colonists’ hunger for land and, in some
cases, slaves. Although the European groups varied in their expressed
goal—whether it was religious conversion, trade, or settlement—ultimately, the
Spanish, French, and English all sought to gain control of North America. All
three European groups bartered manufactured items for furs and skins. Europeans
also sold their Indian prisoners as slaves to other Europeans.
Periodically, tribes rose up in
rebellion against the loss of their people and land, slaughtering whites and
destroying their property. The government then sent military expeditions to
punish the tribe. Sometimes the two sides would sign a treaty guaranteeing
Indians a portion of their homelands. Inevitably, however, white settlers would
encroach on Indian land, and the cycle of Indian-white warfare began again.
Many Native American tribes formed
alliances with other tribes to fight Europeans and Euro-Americans with their
superior weaponry. In the beginning, Indians used the same battle methods and
tactics against non-Indians as they had used in warfare against other tribes.
However, the Native American perception of war as a stage for acquiring personal
glory, instead of killing the enemy, put them at a distinct disadvantage in
fighting white soldiers who sought to destroy them above all else.
The treatment of captives varied from
tribe to tribe. Some tribes tortured their European prisoners, and whites wrote
lurid accounts of Indian torture. But such stories were easily exaggerated and
often served to justify white hostility and the taking of Indian lands. In fact,
there were some white captives who wanted to remain with their Indian families
even when they had the opportunity to return to the Euro-American way of life.
Mary Jemison was a teenager in 1758 when her family was brutally murdered by a
French and Indian raiding party. Given to two Seneca sisters to replace their
slain brother, Mary was treated as a long-lost child and lost all desire to
return to her previous life. She married and had children in the Seneca
tribe.
Although Indians had been taking scalps
as war trophies and visible proof of valor before the arrival of Europeans, the
worth placed on scalps varied from tribe to tribe and not all groups took
scalps. Once Europeans began offering bounties for scalps (of both Native
American and European enemies), the practice spread to Indians who had not
previously taken scalps, and those who had intensified their efforts. The
practice of scalping spread further with the expansion of the American
frontier.
For a discussion of specific wars
between Native Americans and Europeans during the period of European settlement
in North America, see Indian Wars.
I4 | Weapons |
The standard Indian weapons were the
bow and arrow and the spear, with each tribe having its own variants. Plains
warriors were so skilled that they could shoot arrows more rapidly than a white
marksman could fire his revolver. For close combat, Plains warriors used many
types of clubs, including tomahawks, stone-headed clubs, wooden clubs with knife
blades, ball-and-spike clubs, pointed clubs with rawhide wristbands, and rawhide
slingshots that hurled heavy stones. The Mojave, who considered warfare an
important part of their culture, relied on short, very heavy clubs made of
mesquite or ironwood, with a handle whose shaft was sharpened to a point for use
as a weapon. The introduction of European firearms made it possible to kill
people from a greater distance, revolutionizing Indian warfare.
J | Language and Communication |
There is no way of knowing exactly how
many Native American languages once existed in North America. It is known,
however, that in 1900, more than 300 distinct languages were spoken. In some
areas, such as the Arctic rim, the same language was spoken over a large area.
In other areas, such as California, greater linguistic diversity existed than is
found in all of modern Europe. Today, about 150 Indian languages are still
spoken in North America, but less than 50 of these are widely spoken.
Usually members of a tribe learned a
neighboring tribe’s language to communicate with them, facilitating trade and
intertribal agreements. However, in areas where many different languages
existed, sign language (a language of hand gestures) was necessary. Originating
either on the Texas Gulf Coast or in the extreme southern Plains, American
Indian sign language probably arose to meet the communication needs of the deaf,
or in other contexts, such as hunting and warfare, where silence was crucial. It
was ideal for face-to-face communication between people who spoke different
languages. Sign language spread onto the Great Plains, where it gained wide use
because so many languages were spoken there that lacked similar vocabulary or
grammar.
Smoke signals were another nonverbal form
of communication. They were used throughout the continent mainly to announce the
presence of game or to warn of enemies. In smoke signaling, Native Americans fed
a fire with damp grass or green leaves to create smoke. By varying the type of
fuel and manipulating the smoke with a blanket, Indians could create a smoke
column in a wide range of different shapes and colors. On the Plains such
signals could be seen as far away as 80 km (50 mi). Mirror signals were also
used to communicate in areas of wide visibility, such as the Plains and
Southwest.
Many Native American groups used
pictography, or picture writing, to aid in remembering information and to
convey new information. Tribes recorded historical and religious events in
pictorial form on various materials. For example, Plains Indians painted
pictographs on hides, while Northeast tribes used birchbark scrolls. Sometimes
pictographic texts were sent as messages. The most famous Native American
writing system was created by Sequoyah, a member of the Cherokee tribe, in the
early 19th century. He devised a syllabary, a set of written characters
representing syllables that enabled hundreds of Cherokee to learn to read and
write their language by the 1820s. Today, the Oklahoma Cherokee continue to use
his syllabary for their tribal newspaper.
All Native American tribes had and
continue to have a strong tradition of storytelling, also called oral
literature. Older members of the tribe taught their traditions, morals, legends,
myths, and history to younger people through stories and performances that were
often as entertaining and humorous as they were educational. On the Northwest
Coast, performers riveted their audience’s attention by wearing fantastic masks
and costumes as they danced by a central fire.
When Europeans landed in America, they
encountered many things for which they had no names and had to adopt Native
American terms for identification. Thus, many Native American terms entered the
English language. Animals names based on Indian words include moose, cougar,
skunk, and caribou, while plant names that come from Indian words
include mesquite, pecan, saguaro, hickory, and persimmon.
Europeans also borrowed Native American names for cities such as Chicago,
Seattle, Tallahassee, and Tucson. Many states in the United States are named for
Indian nations, including Delaware, Dakota, Kansas, Massachusetts, Utah, and
Illinois.
See also
Native American Languages.
K | Spirituality and Religious Practices |
Spirituality was central to the lives of
all Native Americans. Most Native American groups shared the following spiritual
concepts, although their expression differed: the existence of unseen powers or
spirits, the interdependence of all forms of life in the universe, a form of
worship that reinforces personal commitment to the sources of life, sacred
traditions that teach morals and ethics, trained practitioners who pass on
sacred practices, and a belief that humor is a necessary part of the sacred to
remind us of our human weaknesses.
Each group’s origin story told how a holy
being or beings meant for them to live in their particular territory. Many
groups believed in a single Creator or Great Spirit; others believed there were
multiple holy beings who joined together to create and guide human beings into
existence. Spiritual forces were believed to be present in every natural object,
from insects to mountains. Thus, Native Americans maintained a sacred
relationship to animals and plants, which provided physical and spiritual
sustenance and were often part of a tribe’s mythological history.
All Native American belief systems shared
the idea that the natural world was not created for human exploitation and
domination. Instead, Native Americans believed that if they cared for the
resources of the Earth, then the Earth would take care of them. Although
considered to be a sacred, living being, the Earth was not worshiped. Rather,
the land was seen as an expression of the Creator or Great Spirit that must be
treated with respect. As a way of giving thanks for the great gifts of the
Earth, all indigenous peoples left offerings of a precious substance, such as
corn pollen, to plants and animals that gave their lives for human benefit. Some
tribes practiced elaborate thanksgiving ceremonies.
A person strived to live well, with
respect for others, in order to attain a full life and reach old age. Living a
good life also meant that one prepared for death. Death was greatly respected in
all Native American traditions because of its inevitability. It was not feared
or seen as the end of life; rather, it was regarded as a natural part of life, a
time of transition into another world. Most Native American groups believed that
at death the soul continued into an afterlife, which varied according to the
beliefs of different groups.
K1 | Shamans and Priests |
Health and spirituality were intimately
intertwined in Native American beliefs, and spiritual practices played an
important part in maintaining and restoring health. Most communities had
individuals called shamans, who were believed to have direct
contact with the supernatural. A shaman’s primary roles were to diagnose and
treat illness and to divine the location of an enemy, food source, or missing
object. The shaman generally went into a trance to contact his or her personal
spiritual guide for assistance in healing or divination. The Havasupai of the
Southwest believed that the spirit helper, after being summoned, lodged in the
shaman’s chest. When the shaman sang, it was really the spirit helper that sang.
When the shaman applied his mouth to a patient’s body to suck out the illness,
the spirit helper entered the patient and drew out the trouble. Shamans were
sometimes called medicine men or medicine women because they
tended the sick.
Shamanism dominated religion and
medicine in the Arctic, Subarctic, Plateau, and Great Basin. On the Great
Plains, in most of the East, and in much of the Southwest, religious leaders
included both priests and shamans. Priests had more formal religious training
than did shamans, and often led the ceremonies that marked major events in
community life. They derived their power from a codified body of rituals learned
from an older priest. Such rituals had to be carefully memorized and replicated
precisely to be effective. The Southeast may have been the only area in North
America with full-time priests. Linked to the Sun, the political and religious
ruler of the Natchez inherited his position and had the power of life and death
over his subjects.
K2 | Ceremonies |
Native Americans celebrated many public
ceremonies as well as private rituals. While tribal practices varied
considerably, many ceremonies focused on stages of the human life cycle. These
ceremonies, known as rites of passage, were often held to recognize the birth of
a child, the coming of age for a young woman, the warrior status of a young man,
or the death of a loved one. (For a discussion of puberty rites, see
the Marriage and Family Life section earlier in this article.)
Other ceremonies, rather than focusing
on individuals, centered on communal well-being and were held annually to give
thanks and keep the universe in balance. The Green Corn Ceremony, celebrated in
the Southeast and Northeast near the end of summer when the late corn crop
ripened, marked the beginning of the new year. In this renewal ceremony, tribes
gave thanks for a successful harvest and formally forgave tribal members of all
crimes except murder. In the Southwest, the Hopi held the Snake Dance to bring
the last summer rains. Part of the dance involved the use of live snakes, which
were believed to carry the request for rain to the underworld, where the snakes
lived. The Hopi also held religious ceremonies in which dancers impersonated
kachinas, or spirit beings, by wearing sacred costumes. Hopi girls
received wooden kachina dolls—elaborately carved, painted, and costumed—to teach
them about the kachinas. The Snake Dance, kachina dances, and other ceremonies
continue among the Hopi today.
Most Plains Indians performed the Sun
Dance, a ceremony of spiritual renewal held to benefit the welfare of the entire
tribe. Lasting up to 12 days, the ceremony marked the beginning of the summer
encampment when the various bands of a tribe gathered after being separated
during the winter. The final four days of the ceremony, the most sacred period,
included the preparation of the Sun Dance Tree, or central pole, from which
dancers suspended themselves through skewers inserted through their flesh. Other
dancers fasted or dragged bison skulls attached to their skin with skewers. The
extraordinary pain suffered by each individual was believed to bring personal
contact with the spirit world and to enhance tribal well-being.
Indians often prepared for ceremonies
inside a sweat lodge, a low dome often made of willow saplings covered
with animal skins or blankets. Inside the sweat lodge, cold water was poured
over a pile of red-hot rocks to create steam. Usually a medicine man sang prayer
chants to help everyone release moral and physical impurities. In this way,
sweat baths helped to clear the mind and body.
The Pueblo peoples of the Southwest
were among the few groups that had permanent ceremonial structures. Pueblo
peoples built round or rectangular chambers called kivas underground, or
partially underground, to house religious items and to serve as the site of some
ceremonies. Other Pueblo ceremonies were held outside on a central plaza. Only a
few tribes, such as the Natchez, had temples, but nearly all tribes established
small temporary or permanent shrines where they left sacred offerings.
K3 | Tobacco, Alcohol, and Peyote |
Indians in almost every region of North
America used tobacco for religious rites and ceremonies, for medicinal uses, and
for relaxation. It was considered a sacred plant to most Native American tribes,
for its smoke enhanced their prayers as it rose to the sky and to the Great
Spirit. European explorers found tobacco in use by Native Americans of all
regions except the Arctic, Subarctic, and part of the Northwest Coast. For
Plains Indians, tobacco pipes were among the most sacred of objects. In addition
to individually owned pipes, tribal pipes were used to ensure a successful bison
hunt, for healing purposes, and to mark the initiation of peace or war. In
California and Nevada, Native Americans ground tobacco leaves with lime and
water and ate the mixture. Sometimes Datura (jimsonweed) was mixed with
tobacco and drunk in an attempt to produce visions, acquire a spirit helper,
bring success on a hunt, or alleviate illness.
Alcoholic beverages were used in some
parts of North America before European contact. The Tohono O’Odham of the
Southwest fermented syrup of the saguaro (a type of cactus) into wine for their
four-day saguaro wine feast, a ritual intended to bring the summer monsoons. By
saturating themselves with saguaro wine, they prayed that life-giving rain would
likewise saturate the parched earth of the Sonoran Desert.
Many tribes used hallucinogenic
plants—plants or plant derivatives that produce hallucinations when ingested—to
enhance their religious rites and bring them into closer contact with the Great
Spirit. The most common hallucinogen was peyote, a spineless cactus whose
mushroom-shaped caps, or buttons, were dried and chewed or brewed into tea.
First used in Mexico and along the Rio Grande, peyote use later spread onto the
Great Plains and into Canada. In the late 1800s the Kiowa and Comanche were
among the first tribes to adopt the Peyote religion, or Peyotism. In 1918 the
Peyote religion was formally incorporated as the Native American Church, which
regards peyote as sacred and uses it in religious ceremonies and rituals. Church
doctrine stresses brotherly love, family responsibility, self-reliance, and
abstinence from alcohol.
K4 | European Influences |
Beginning in the 16th century European
missionaries tried to convert Native Americans to various forms of Christianity.
Often these missionaries created a major division within a tribe, between those
who had converted to Christianity and those who held to their traditional
beliefs. As tribes across North America became decimated by disease, alcoholism,
warfare, and as they lost more and more of their land to Europeans, they began
to lose hope. Native Americans called prophets by Europeans began to
emerge, promising a return to previous conditions, before whites had destroyed
their way of life, if followers performed specific rituals. For example, in the
1890s the Ghost Dance spread across the Plains, based on the vision of a Paiute
prophet and shaman named Wovoka. He preached that performance of the dance would
lead to the resurrection of dead relatives, the restoration of Indian lands, and
the disappearance of whites. Sidestepping around a large circle for hours at a
time, dancers went into a trance that was believed to transport them to an
afterworld free of European influence, and where their departed relatives lived.
Euro-Americans regarded the ritual with suspicion and alarm, and the
government’s attempt to suppress it led to the massacre of Sioux Indians at
Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in December 1890.
See also
Native American Religions.
L | Music and Dance |
Music played an important role in Native
American life before and after European contact, from spontaneous songs created
by individuals as they went about their daily tasks to ritualized music
performed as part of a large ceremony. Social and ceremonial dances were always
performed to musical accompaniment, which usually featured drumming. Music was a
part of Indian life from birth until death; tribal creation stories were often
told to musical accompaniment, and songs memorialized the lives of individuals
who had recently died. Indispensable to religion, music also had a place in
social life, warfare, subsistence activities, and recreation.
Today, traditional music and dance are
still integral to Native American life and rituals. One of the best-known
rituals is the powwow, an intertribal social gathering that features
Native American music, dancing, and arts and crafts. In addition to public
performances, music and dance are a common part of everyday rituals. Work songs
ease daily tasks, and women sing lullabies to their babies. There are also songs
for lovemaking, boasting, and ridicule. Special songs exist for gambling and
other games. Dancing, with instrumental and vocal accompaniment, is an important
part of many cultural and social activities. Headdresses, masks, and costumes,
as well as face and body painting, are essential parts of ceremonial
dances.
L1 | Traditional Instruments |
In North America before European
contact, singing was the dominant form of musical expression, with instrumental
music serving primarily as rhythmic accompaniment. Some exceptions occurred. For
example, young men on the Great Plains courted their sweethearts by playing
songs on the flute. While wind and percussion instruments were used, stringed
instruments were unknown, with the possible exception of hunting bows used as
rhythm instruments; the Apache fiddle was developed after European contact.
Musical instruments included a variety of drums, rattles, flutes, and whistles.
Handheld rattles, filled with pebbles or fruit seeds, were made of wood,
baskets, gourds, rawhide, bark, clay, turtle shells, and other materials. Other
rattles were worn on the body or clothing of dancers and were made of cocoons,
deer hooves, turtle shells, seashells, and other materials. Other, less commonly
used instruments included rasps (a notched stick played by rubbing
another stick against its notches), bullroarers (a flat, oblong stick
suspended by a string, producing a whirring sound when spun around), and
clapping sticks.
L2 | Musical Forms |
North American Indian music has a wide
variety of forms, ranging from simple short songs repeated many times to lengthy
song cycles that take days to perform with little, if any, repetition. Nearly
all songs consist of only a single melody, and harmony is absent. The most
common melodic patterns conform to a pentatonic (five-tone) scale or consist of
chains of major and minor thirds. Rhythms are relatively complex, and song texts
frequently consist entirely or partly of meaningless syllables known as
vocables.
L3 | Dance Styles |
Three major regional styles of Native
American group dancing exist. The first region includes most of the Southwest
and eastern North America north to Labrador. Native American dancers in this
region form an open-ended circle and proceed counterclockwise, facing forward or
sometimes toward a person in the center, and usually stomp with the right foot,
followed by the left foot pulling up beside it. Dancers in the second region—the
Plains and much of the Great Basin and Plateau—tend to move clockwise in a
closed circle, facing the center, dancing with a light-footed step and dynamic
body movements, characterized by arm waving and leaping. The third region
comprises the western parts of the Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau, as well as
the Navajo (Diné) and Apache in the Southwest. In these areas, dancing is
usually in single lines or in parallel lines that face each other, with the two
lines alternately meeting and receding. All three styles of dancing are found in
California.
L4 | Arctic |
In the Arctic, the Inuit sing with
considerable vocal tension and rhythmic pulsations on longer notes. Their songs
tend to be slow in tempo, with asymmetrical, complex rhythms. Music serves
primarily religious purposes, with shamans delivering incantations for health,
success in hunting, and good weather. Canadian Inuit women engage in rhythmic
throat singing, made up of both breathing sounds and voiced sounds, as part of a
game in which two women trade off sounds until one of them becomes exhausted or
begins to laugh. Inuit dances often feature men using the forceful movements of
harpooning while women sing accompaniment.
L5 | Northwest Coast |
The vocal style of the Northwest Coast
shows a more complex rhythmical pattern than that of the Arctic and a wider
range of intonation and richness. In the elaborate winter ceremonies of many
Northwest Coast peoples, an individual dances alone, singing a personal song
around a central fire, where he or she is soon accompanied by a group of
musicians. The individual then enters a trancelike state and imitates the
actions of the spirit who possesses him or her. Northwest Coast dance dramas are
lengthy, elaborate productions with magnificent costumes and complicated props;
songs for these dramas are carefully taught and rehearsed.
L6 | Great Basin |
Some of the simplest indigenous musical
styles in North America come from groups of the Great Basin and
California-Oregon border. The singing technique is smooth, without vocal
pulsation or tension. Many songs are performed without percussive accompaniment.
The Great Basin style features narrow melodic ranges, frequent returns to the
tonic (first note of the scale), paired phrases (a line repeated twice in a
song), and a limited set of rhythmic patterns. Music is used for religious and
nonreligious purposes, including animal tales, gambling songs, and
lullabies.
L7 | California |
As in the Great Basin, singing in the
California region features a smooth, relaxed vocal technique. California music
is often characterized by a rise in pitch in the middle section of a song. Song
lyrics refer to myths, events, or emotions rather than telling a story, and
often alternate with vocables, or meaningless syllables. Singing is an important
part of the Mourning Ceremony of River Yuman tribes along the California-Arizona
border. Held at the time of death, the ceremony features the singing of song
cycles with 50 to 200 songs in each cycle; the ceremony lasts several days and
nights.
L8 | Great Plains |
The music of the Great Plains is the
best-known style of Native American music. The Plains style infuses much of the
music of present-day powwows. Singing is in a tense, pulsating, forceful style.
The leader usually starts the song as high as he can, often using falsetto, and
the chorus answers him. Together, they sing the melody, letting their voices
descend throughout the middle and last sections of the song, coming to rest on
the lowest or next to lowest note. Plains music is usually produced by a group
of men who sit around a large double-headed drum, singing in unison and drumming
with drumsticks. At powwows, this group of men is known as “the drum.” Most
Plains music is functional and is used for religious purposes, warfare, healing
ceremonies, gambling, the vision quest, and serenading. In Plains dancing, men
commonly dance solo with bent body (several may dance at once, independently),
but there are also ritual group dances and social dances known as round dances
for couples.
L9 | Southwest |
The Southwest has three principal
musical styles: Pueblo, O’Odham (Pima-Papago), and Navajo styles. The Pueblo
musical style is the most complex in North America and features rhythmic
accompaniments that range from steady beats to definite rhythmic designs
coordinated with those of the melody. Although much more complex and of greater
range, Pueblo melodies and vocal technique are similar to those of the Plains.
Many Pueblo ritual dances feature elaborately costumed dancers, who perform on
the plaza in the center of each Pueblo village. Clowns often perform as social
commentary between dances, and some clowns, seated at a drum, provide musical
accompaniment for dancers. O’Odham musical style, a combination of Pueblo and
California-Yuman traits, features a smooth, relaxed singing technique and
comparatively simple rhythms and melodic patterns.
While a great part of Navajo ritual
music has been influenced by the Pueblo Indians, the basic Navajo musical style,
as well as that of the various Apache tribes, comes from their ancestral roots,
the Athapaskan-speaking peoples of northwestern Canada and Alaska. The
Athapaskan musical style is characterized by melodies that have a wide range and
an arc-shaped contour, and by frequent changes in meter. The ability to sing in
a falsetto voice is highly respected. The Navajo distinguish between personal
songs used for pleasure and deeply sacred chants that may be sung only in the
appropriate ceremonial context. Navajo chants, often conducted in response to an
illness, may last from three to nine nights and combine music and ritual
designed to restore mental and physical balance.
L10 | Northeast and Southeast |
Native American music in the Northeast
and Southeast resembles Plains music, but its melodic ranges tend to be
narrower. Singing in these areas often uses polyphony (several,
independent melodies) and antiphony (call-and-response singing). Dance
forms include men’s solos, as well as ritual dances and social dances in the
form of round dances. One of the most popular dances in the Southeast is the
Stomp Dance, which features a snakelike line of dancers that follow a leader who
calls out in song and is answered by his followers.
M | Arts and Crafts |
Native Americans did not create art for
its own sake, for the purpose of contemplation. No Native American language has
a word for “art” because objects were created to be both beautiful and useful.
If the object was intended for use at a special occasion, the crafter would
lavish special attention and care on it, decorating it more elaborately to make
it appropriate to the spirit of the celebration. Yet even everyday utilitarian
objects reflected artistry. Some of the best-known and most highly prized Native
American art forms include Navajo blankets, California basketry, Pueblo pottery,
and wooden painted and carved masks from the Northwest Coast.
For a more detailed discussion of Native
American art in North America, including contemporary art, see Native
American Art.
M1 | Stonework |
Stonework provides some of the earliest
evidence for occupation of North America. As early as 11,500 years ago, people
of the Clovis culture (named for an archaeological site near Clovis, New Mexico)
made finely crafted spearpoints, knives, and skin scrapers from rock. Clovis
hunters used bones to chip off flakes from a larger rock, which were then
reworked and sharpened into blades. People of another ancient American culture,
the Folsom culture (named for a site near Folsom, New Mexico) were masters of
making small, finely flaked spearpoints from flint, with fluting (channels)
along the entire length of each face.
The Adena culture of the Ohio Valley,
which took form around 3,000 years ago and lasted for more than a millennium,
made finely carved stone pipes that were placed with the dead in gigantic burial
mounds. The Hopewell, a slightly later group, also sculpted soft stones, such as
catlinite, into figurines of toads, falcons, and other animals. They carved
ceremonial blades from obsidian and shaped delicate figures, such as birds’
claws, from mica.
M2 | Pottery |
When archaeologists find pottery, they
know that the peoples who created it probably lived in permanent villages
because it is so difficult to transport without breakage; most nomadic peoples
relied on basketry and animal-hide receptacles. Pottery making probably spread
north and northeast from Mesoamerica. By 1500 bc, Indians in eastern North America
were making pottery, and by 1000 bc pottery making was widespread in this
area. Pottery making reached the Southwest by 300 bc. The earliest Southwestern pottery
consisted of plain brown vessels or vessels covered by a red slip (a mixture of
clay, mineral pigments, and water used as a decorative layer). Painted pottery
appeared in this region as early as 100 bc.
In addition to being used for cooking,
pottery was also used for water jars, food storage, dishes, incense burners, and
burial urns. North American potters used three major techniques: coiling,
molding, and modeling. To make a coiled pot, the potter, usually a woman, shaped
the base of the pot with her hands and built up the sides by adding ropelike
pieces of clay, made by rolling lumps of clay between her palms. She fused the
contact point between new coils and old ones. To mold and flatten the clay, she
might also slap a paddle on the outside of the pot against an anvil held inside
the inner surface of the pot. In the molding technique, the potter shaped the
clay around a previously constructed mold, such as a fired pot. In modeling, the
sides of the pot were constructed from slablike sections of clay that were
patted into place with the hands rather than built up through coiling. To fire
the pots, they were turned upside down and set on a low platform over a fire.
Because pots could shatter or become discolored if exposed directly to the fire,
they were covered with large potsherds (pieces of broken pottery) for
protection. The potsherds were then covered with animal dung, a slow-burning
fuel that helped to distribute the heat evenly.
Some of the most outstanding pottery in
North America was made in the Southwest by various Pueblo tribes. The Hopi made
elegantly proportioned bowls sometimes covered inside and outside with bold
curving patterns that alternate with finely painted parallel lines. The
distinctive style of Acoma potters featured heart-shaped pots with unusually
thin but strong walls. Their work was highly decorated with geometric or
representational designs executed with great artistry. Today, Pueblo tribes
continue to make exquisite pottery with traditional designs.
See also Pottery.
M3 | Basketry |
Basketry in North America originated as
early as 7500 bc. The Anasazi of
the Southwest were among the early cultures that practiced this craft. By ad 400, they were weaving
extraordinarily long nets for trapping small animals and making yucca fibers
into large sacks and bags. The Anasazi were so skilled at basketry that the
earliest Anasazi period is known as the Basket Maker phase. This phase began
between 500 bc and 100 bc and lasted until about ad 500.
By the time of European contact, nearly
all Native American peoples wove baskets. Created in a wide range of forms,
baskets were used primarily to gather, prepare, and store food. Some baskets
were covered with resin or pitch so they could hold water. Basketry techniques
were also used to make floor and house coverings, mattresses, clothing, and
fishing traps. Materials included strips of wood or bark, roots, reeds, canes,
vines, and grasses. Finished baskets were often decorated with embroidery and
bright feathers, shells, or beads.
Native Americans used three basic
methods of weaving baskets: twining, coiling, and plaiting. In twining, two or
more horizontal strands (called wefts) are twined around each other as
they are woven in and out of a set of vertical strands (called warps). In
plaiting, three or more flexible fibers, usually taken from flat-leaved plants,
are braided. In coiling, thin strips of plant matter are wrapped tightly in a
bundle and coiled into a continuous spiral.
Some of the most prized baskets in the
world were made by California Indians, who regarded finely made baskets as
objects of wealth. The Pomo decorated their coiled gift baskets with strings of
shells and yellow, black, and red feathers from several kinds of birds. The
Aleut of the Arctic, the Tlingit and Haida of the Northwest Coast, and Virginia
Algonquians wove twined baskets upside down, with the basket suspended from a
stake. The Siouan peoples of the Plains and the central Algonquians used a
similar technique to make twined bison-hair bags. Both examples are considered
to be a transition between basketry and true weaving. Even more advanced was the
suspension of warps in a linear arrangement from a cord or bar, a technique used
by the Algonquian tribes of the Northeast.
M4 | Weaving |
Archaeological evidence indicates that
weaving was highly developed centuries before the first Europeans arrived. Woven
textiles included clothing, bags, belts, footgear, hats, blankets, and mats. The
earliest textiles were made of native cotton, yucca, and other plant fibers as
well as human and animal hair. After the Spanish introduced sheep and goats,
wool became a popular weaving material. Most groups wove textiles using simple
finger-weaving techniques, such as knitting, crocheting, plaiting, looping, and
twining. Indians of the Northwest Coast, Plateau, and Southwest used spindle
whorls to help them spin thread.
The true loom was known only in the
Southwest. It consisted of a fixed rectangular frame, two horizontal crossbars
to which both ends of the warp threads were attached, and heddles, or
mechanisms for raising and lowering the warp thread in the pattern required.
Pueblo kivas (sacred ceremonial chambers) and homes have holes for the insertion
of the weaving bars used in the vertical or upright version of the loom. Among
Pueblo peoples, men were usually the weavers, but among the Navajo (Diné), who
probably learned weaving from the Pueblo peoples, the women did the weaving.
Navajo weaving soon surpassed that of the Pueblo, and Navajo blankets (and
later, rugs) became valued trade items.
For more information on Native American
clothing, see the Clothing and Adornment section earlier in this
article.
M5 | Metalworking |
True metallurgy, which involves
smelting metal from ore, was unknown north of present-day Mexico. But as early
as 7,000 years ago, people of the Old Copper Culture in the Great Lakes area
hammered deposits of pure copper into a variety of tools and ornaments,
including knives, axes, awls (sharp, pointed tools used for punching holes in
leather or wood), bracelets, rings, and pendants. Some scholars believe that the
copper may have been heated to the point where some of the brittleness produced
by pounding it was eliminated, a process known as annealing. The peoples
of the Hopewell culture, which flourished from about 200 bc to ad 400 in much of eastern North America,
also mined copper from the Great Lakes region. The finest metalworkers of their
time, they traded copper and copper tools over great distances. In the
Southwest, archaeologists have found prehistoric copper bells produced through
an advanced casting process known as the lost-wax technique. Dating from as
early as ad 900, these bells are
believed to have been obtained in trade from Mexico rather than made
locally.
On the Northwest Coast, Indians made
large copper plates with stylized designs, which became highly valued objects
and symbols of chiefly prestige. The Polar Inuit, the northernmost people in the
world, hammered meteoric iron into spearpoints and knives. After European
contact, Native Americans living in coastal areas occasionally scavenged timbers
from European shipwrecks for their iron bolts and nails, which they worked by
cold hammering.
In the mid-1800s the Navajo adopted
Spanish metalworking techniques and began producing silver jewelry and bridle
ornaments. Other Southwestern peoples learned from the Navajo and today, the
Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi produce three-fourths of the Indian jewelry in North
America. Historically, the three styles are quite different. Navajo silver
workers use cast or handworked silver that supports moderately large turquoise
settings. Zuni jewelry features more intricate patterns of many small turquoise,
coral, and jet settings, with silver primarily used as a framing. Hopi
silverwork is known for its overlay technique with little, if any,
turquoise.
M6 | Painting |
In traditional Native American
cultures, paintings were not created purely for aesthetic appreciation. In the
Southwest, Pueblo peoples painted sacred imagery on the interior walls of kivas,
their permanent ceremonial structures. The Blackfeet and other Plains Indians
painted sacred imagery on their tipis and rawhide shields for protection from
their enemies. The Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, and O’Odham (Papago and Pima) peoples
made sand paintings for use in healing rites. These paintings, which portrayed
sacred beings and events, were created by spreading pollen, pulverized charcoal
and sandstone, and other colored materials over a ground of sand. The images
were then destroyed as part of the ceremony. Some Native American ceremonies
included body painting.
Images used for ceremonial purposes
usually had to conform to a certain form for the ritual to be effective; there
was little, if any, room for creativity. In contrast, secular art forms, such as
painted pottery, provided an outlet for the creative use of pattern. Paints and
dyes were made from plant and mineral pigments; after European contact,
commercial dyes and paints were often used. In the 20th century many Native
American artists in Canada and the United States adopted tempera, watercolor,
and oil painting, using both traditional imagery and modern Western styles. The
Inuit and the peoples of the Northwest Coast have adapted their traditional
pictorial styles to printmaking.
M7 | Woodcarving |
Woodcarving was a widespread craft
among Native Americans in nearly every region. The peoples of the Northwest
Coast developed a distinctive style that took three-dimensional form in their
painted and carved ceremonial canoes and in the magnificent totem poles that
towered over their immense cedar houses. Totem poles, which were actually family
crests, depicted the spiritual ancestors of a clan and figures from mythology.
Northwest Indians also carved human, animal, and mythical masks and figures for
use as props in their complex winter dramas, as well as elaborate serving
vessels for potlatch feasts.
M8 | Work in Other Materials |
Leather was used extensively for
clothing, tipis, shields, containers, quivers, cradleboard covers, food vessels,
sheaths, and ritual paraphernalia. In many areas, leather clothing was often
decorated with porcupine quills dyed with mineral or vegetable-derived colors
and used in combination with undyed quills to create dazzling patterns. After
Europeans introduced manufactured glass beads, beadwork replaced quillwork.
(However, the number of quill workers increased dramatically in the 20th
century.) Native Americans in eastern North America were inspired by embroidery
designs of the French, and they substituted silk threads for their previous
designs of quills and moose hair.
The bark of the white birch tree
provided a versatile material for the Algonquians of the western Great Lakes
area. They used birchbark to construct maneuverable canoes, durable wigwams,
cooking pots, dishes, needle cases, winnowing trays, and leak-proof containers
for maple syrup and water. Ojibwa women also created birchbark cutouts as
patterns for beadwork designs on moccasins. Men used birchbark to make
pictographic scrolls that recorded the imagery, songs, and teachings of the
sacred Medewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society.
Other materials, such as bone, horn,
antlers, tusks, seashells, and feathers, were also used to make tools, weapons,
and ornaments. The Yurok and Hupa of California carved and decorated distinctive
spoons made of elk antlers, while the Tlingit of the Northwest Coast carved
bowls of mountain sheep horn that they shaped like animals or birds. The
Iroquois and Algonquians of the Northeast were known for their wampum, white and
purple beads made from whelk and quahog shells. The Hohokam, a prehistoric
people in southern Arizona, used acid to etch designs into shells. Most groups
used feathers for ceremonial dress and objects. The Pomo of California also used
feathers from quails and woodpeckers to adorn their spectacular ceremonial
baskets.
Trudy Griffin-Pierce contributed the
Traditional Way of Life section of this article.
VI | HISTORY |
The history of native North America begins
with native peoples and their stories of origin, often called creation stories.
These stories are part of a Native American oral tradition that predates
European contact and extends back for countless generations. Creation and origin
stories tell of how the world was made and how particular groups of people came
into being. They tell of how animals, humans, and the natural world were
created, and they offer important instructions and lessons for living. Passed
down from generation to generation, these stories express the collective wisdom
of particular Native American peoples. They are also often very funny and
provide wonderful forms of entertainment, particularly during summer evenings
and winter months when families exchange stories and help educate young people
in the ways of their ancestors.
All Native American traditions are
specific to particular peoples and places. In the Southwest, the creation story
of the Navajo (Diné), tells of how people emerged into this world from several
lower worlds where different beings existed with First Man and First Woman.
Gradually moving through these different worlds, First Man and First Woman
emerged into the beautiful lands of the Navajo, known as Dinétah.
Among the Iroquois of the Northeast,
stories record when a league of peace between various Iroquois nations formed.
The Iroquois peoples once lived in a time of terrible war. Nations fought and
killed each other, and relatives constantly attempted to avenge the death of
their family members. After the death of his family, one Onondaga chief,
Hiawatha, became so stricken with grief that he wandered lost in the forests
until he met a foreign and powerful man. This man, often simply known as the
Peacemaker, helped Hiawatha mourn his lost family and eased his pain through
rituals and words of condolence. Together, Hiawatha and the Peacemaker visited
all the Iroquois nations and united them based on these new principles of peace,
not war. These seeds of peace grew over time and helped build the Iroquois
Confederacy. Today, the confederacy is one of the oldest political bodies in
North America, centuries older than the governments of Canada or the United
States.
Other native groups have less specific
origin stories. Among many groups in the West, powerful trickster
characters, such as Coyote and Raven, have mystical powers that helped create
and order the universe. These tricksters teach lessons through their own
mistakes. Shoshone peoples in California and Nevada, for example, have creation
stories in which Coyote and Raven possess human characteristics, particularly
human limitations such as greed and lust. The mishaps of Coyote and Raven often
lead to unforeseen and hilarious outcomes, including the creation of the natural
world. One Shoshone tale tells of how Raven stole and then populated the world
with pine nuts, one of the Shoshone’s most important and sacred foods.
Such creation stories are central to
native communities. They help give meaning to the world and explain the place of
native peoples within it. In addition to creation stories, Native Americans rely
on other oral traditions to pass down their histories and worldviews.
Understanding oral traditions is central to understanding Native American
history, but it also presents unique challenges. Because oral traditions often
went undocumented or were hidden from nonnative peoples, historians have often
assumed that Indians did not have history, that they were timeless peoples who
did not keep documents or records of their pasts.
Historians have made many mistakes about
Native American history, and only recently have many of those errors been
corrected. Historians, for example, once believed that Indians were minor or
unimportant actors in American and Canadian history. They generally saw Indians
as either obstacles in the making of North American history or as quaint,
romantic relics of a bygone era. Both views are racist and limiting. Native
Americans remain central actors in North American history, and their histories,
like all histories, reveal the widest array of human attributes. By studying
Native American history, we can more clearly see the making of Canadian and
American history as well as the many complicated ways that diverse Native
Americans have skillfully negotiated centuries of often terrible changes.
A | Early Cultures in North America |
Scholars hotly debate when and how the
first peoples—the ancestors of today’s Native Americans—arrived in the Americas.
What is clear, however, is that Native Americans have lived in North America for
countless generations and thousands and thousands of years. Such extended, deep
connections to the land strongly link Native Americans to the American
landscape. Most Native Americans insist that their ties to the land extend
beyond the reach of memory and that nonnative peoples should recognize and
respect such ties.
Native Americans are part of the larger
history of human evolution, but scholars are not entirely sure how they fit into
the chronology. According to archaeologists, the first peoples migrated to the
Americas via a land bridge that connected North America and Asia during the last
ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago. Estimates vary widely for precisely when
these peoples arrived. Some claim that they arrived before 15,000 years ago
while others believe that they arrived tens of thousands of years earlier.
Although such claims are inconclusive, archaeologists have found evidence of
habitation throughout the Americas that dates back many thousands of years. Some
Native Americans dispute the theory that the first Americans migrated from Asia.
They argue that Native Americans originated in the Americas, pointing to their
creation stories as evidence. For more information about the populating of the
Americas, see First Americans.
Most archaeologists believe that the
first Native Americans—often known as Paleo-Indians to non-Indian scholars—were
hunter-gatherers who developed technologies and practices suited to hunting and
fishing. These peoples used flint-chipped spear and arrow points to catch big
and small game, and fishing nets and weirs (fences or enclosures set in
waterways) to harvest fish. In using these and other devices, these early
societies left behind material traces of their cultures. Their tools, food
waste, and even at times buried ancestors provide clues about the nature of
their lives.
At Folsom, New Mexico, archaeologists in
1926 and 1927 excavated one of the most important archaeological sites in North
America, containing bison bones and stone spearpoints dating from about 11,000
years ago. Similar spearpoints, often known as Folsom points, were found in
other places in North America, revealing that early Native Americans traded
technologies across great distances. In 1933 at Clovis, New Mexico,
archaeologists found further and older evidence of the prevalence of Indian
hunting and trading. The stone spearpoints found at this site, known as Clovis
points, were made by people who appeared in North America about 11,500 years
ago. Clovis points have been found throughout the United States, Canada, and
Mexico, suggesting that early Native American populations were linked in trade
thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.
Archaeologists believe that these early
peoples refined their methods for hunting North America’s big game animals.
Hunting mammoths, mastodons, and bison on foot, these early Americans developed
stronger and more reliable spearpoints for killing large animals. In fact,
archaeologists have experimented with these early weapons and have concluded
that when used properly these projectiles could bring down today’s African
elephants—the largest land mammals in the world.
Following large herds, Native American
groups on the Great Plains also increasingly used other hunting techniques. At
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta, Canada, archaeologists believe they
have unearthed the largest and oldest buffalo drive site in North America,
dating back more than 5,500 years. Indian hunters killed buffalo by confining
them on top of the surrounding cliffs and then frightening them and driving them
over the edge. Such skillful hunting methods conserved human energy and allowed
for large group interactions, particularly during the processing of such large
animals. These buffalo kills also increased trade links in the Great Plains
through the exchange of buffalo meat.
Additional archaeological sites have
revealed examples of other social and economic practices from these distant
eras. In the Great Basin, in caves around the Lahontan Basin in Nevada,
archaeologists have uncovered one of the oldest mummified skeleton burials in
the world. Estimated at more than 9,000 years old, the site reveals that Native
Americans honored and respected their dead and were deeply concerned about the
condition and treatment of their bodies after death. As with Clovis points,
however, such remains provide only faint glimpses into the material conditions
of these earlier eras. Scholars can only speculate as to the social or cultural
meanings of such practices.
Along the Pacific Coast, archaeologists
have found evidence that Native Americans from Alaska to California developed
economies centered on fishing more than 7,000 years ago. Using nets, fishing
ladders, weirs, boats, hooks, and spears, Native Americans annually harvested
massive quantities of salmon, their staple food. After waiting for the salmon to
return from the ocean to spawn, Native American fishermen and their families
gathered annually and collected millions of pounds of this prized resource. At
The Dalles, Oregon, and its surrounding areas along the Columbia River Gorge,
archaeologists have uncovered an enormous number of fish bones. As Indian
traditions still recount, this prime fishing location remained central to
Northwest peoples for thousands of years. Native American fishing declined at
The Dalles only in the late 1930s, when the U.S. government built dams that
flooded critical areas along the river.
Besides hunting, gathering, and fishing,
early Native Americans also constructed towns, built irrigation systems, and
harvested crops. Throughout the eastern United States, Native Americans built
communities that were home to thousands of people. The Adena culture of the Ohio
River Valley maintained large villages as well as earthen burial mounds that
honored their ancestors. Declining around ad 200, Adena communities were later
replaced by the Hopewell culture, which flourished from 200 bc to ad 400 in the same area.
Along the Mississippi River, people of
the Mississippian culture designed what is believed to have been the largest
pre-Columbian city north of Mexico. At Cahokia, outside modern-day St. Louis,
Missouri, Mississippian peoples built large earthen burial and temple mounds and
harvested thousands of acres of crops, particularly the “three sisters,” as
maize (corn), beans, and squash came to be known. Nestled near the
confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, Cahokia may have been
inhabited by as many as 20,000 people at its peak between 1100 and 1200,
although some estimates are nearly twice that number. It is believed that the
Mississippian culture declined after the early 16th century.
North America before European contact
was a diverse and interconnected world. Native peoples inhabited almost every
corner of the continent. They lived in intimate familiarity with their
environments, with different economies, beliefs, and practices. Far from being a
“virgin land” or “wilderness,” as Europeans often believed, native North America
was a vibrant, dynamic world of diverse peoples, languages, and cultures.
Scholars estimate that between 2 million and 18 million people inhabited North
America north of present-day Mexico at the time of European contact. An
estimated 40 million to 90 million Native Americans lived throughout the
Americas. These numbers, however, quickly declined as a result of European
diseases and warfare against Native Americans.
B | First Contact with Europeans, 1500s |
Although isolated Scandinavian explorers
and traders established short-lived settlements in Greenland and eastern Canada
around ad 1000, European advances
into the Western Hemisphere did not fully begin until the late 1400s when
Christopher Columbus set off from Spain in search of a westward route to Asia.
Before that time, North America remained almost entirely isolated from the rest
of the world’s population. Such isolation proved to be the primary factor in
Europe’s successful advance into the Americas. Lacking immunities to common
European diseases, Native Americans were susceptible to influenza, chicken pox,
smallpox, measles, and other diseases. The results were devasting for Native
American communities throughout the Americas.
B1 | European Diseases |
Beginning in 1492, Columbus’s voyages
to the New World, as Europeans soon called the Americas, initiated the first
waves of epidemics for Native Americans. The Taíno (also known as the Island
Arawak) and the Island Carib of the Caribbean were the first Native Americans to
be nearly exterminated by European contact.
As Spanish conquistadores
(conquerors) explored the Americas, Native American communities suffered. In the
American Southeast, many large, densely populated Indian villages soon
disintegrated following Spanish contact. Their concentrated communities and the
humid, temperate climates created ripe and deadly conditions for disease.
Scholars estimate that nearly 90 percent of some pre-contact Southeastern
populations were gone by 1600. Similar population declines occurred throughout
the Northeast, along the St. Lawrence River, and in the mid-Atlantic and coastal
regions. In the arid Southwest, Spanish diseases were not as traumatic as
elsewhere. But, generally, as Europeans encountered native populations, death
and disease ensued.
B2 | European Colonization |
Once begun, Spanish expansion
accelerated with each passing year. Initially believing he had found Asia (what
the Spanish referred to as “the Indies”), Columbus labeled all Native Americans
as “Indians.” After his first 1492 expedition, Columbus returned the next year
with five times as many ships, more than 1,000 Spanish settlers, and many more
animals, particularly domesticated European horses, cattle, and pigs, none of
which existed in the Western Hemisphere. Such animals and settlers were intended
to transform Native American lands and turn Indian villages into
Spanish-speaking, Christian communities. With these efforts, Spain began to
colonize its newly claimed territory. Throughout the Americas, Spain and, later,
other European powers violently took possession of Native American lands and
turned them into outposts for their empires.
With first contact, Native Americans
and Europeans formed opinions about one another. Europeans first viewed Indians
as either barbaric or noble savages—people who lived either according to no
rules or to the noble rules of nature. Some Indians initially viewed Spanish
colonizers as liberators from existing oppressive Native American regimes, such
as the Aztec and Inca. These divisions between Indian tribes were crucial to
Spain’s many conquests. Other Native Americans did not passively accept Spanish
rule. Many violently resisted. Others turned to each other as well as to the
newly transplanted European religions for solace.
In the American Southwest and
Southeast, Native Americans developed creative ways of resisting and adapting to
Spanish intrusion. Some groups that encountered Spanish explorers and colonizers
directed the Spanish away from their communities, telling Spanish explorers such
as Francisco Vásquez de Coronado that the gold and wealth they sought was
further away in their enemies’ lands. In the Southwest, Pueblo peoples fought
Spanish colonization until the late 1500s, when Spanish soldiers laid siege to
Pueblo villages. The Pueblo continued to resist throughout the 1600s, which led
to an uprising, known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which drove the Spanish from
the region for more than a decade.
In Spanish Florida, Timucua Indians
became incorporated into the Spanish colony there. In return for accepting
limited forms of Christianity, the Timucua received protections from the Spanish
that surrounding Indians did not receive. Living within Spanish colonies
protected some Indians from the most horrific forms of Spanish colonization,
particularly slavery. The profitable mines of northern Mexico continuously
hungered for Indian labor, and the Spanish enslaved many Southwestern Native
Americans to work in Mexican mines.
Spanish colonization quickly compelled
other European powers to join in the scramble for Native American lands.
Followed by the French, Dutch, and then English, Spain’s American conquests
transformed Europe in countless ways. Spain not only imported European crops and
animals to the Americas, it also began exporting Native American crops,
resources, and products to Europe. Such exchanges quickly revolutionized both
Europe and the Americas. Throughout Spain’s American empire, millions of Native
Americans labored for distant and unknown monarchs, digging enormous amounts of
rock and precious metals. They also cultivated agricultural crops and
manufactured goods for colonial rulers while tending Spanish herds. Native
American crops such as tomatoes, beans, potatoes, and chocolate became staples
in all European countries, while gold and silver mined by Native Americans
transformed European economies. Native Americans, in sum, helped initiate the
rise of Europe’s great empires.
C | Early Relations and Trade, 1500s to 1700s |
Following the Spanish, the French,
Dutch, and English began to colonize North America. These colonization efforts,
however, varied between as well as within each European empire. It is best,
then, to think of colonial North America as linked but separate regions with
varied economies and different relationships between Europeans and Native
Americans.
C1 | Relations with French and Dutch |
France’s earliest explorations in
North America followed two main rivers in the East, the Mississippi and St.
Lawrence. Along the St. Lawrence, French explorers such as Jacques Cartier
established trading and political relations with different Iroquois and
Algonquian peoples. Cartier ventured inland as far as the Iroquois town of
Hochelaga (the present site of Montréal) in 1535. Seeking food, furs, and hides
from Native Americans, the French traded manufactured goods such as firearms,
blankets, metal, and cloth. As the French and Iroquois each vied for supremacy
over the emerging fur trade in the 1600s, relations between the two sides
quickly deteriorated and the French aligned themselves with the Algonquian.
Trading became the primary form of
economic exchange throughout New France, as France’s North American empire was
known by 1608. It stretched from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River on the
Atlantic Ocean, past the French settlements of Québec City and Montréal, into
the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River, eventually reaching present-day
New Orleans. Throughout this large area, diverse Native Americans and French
peoples intermixed and laid the foundation for a new, hybrid society.
Below the St. Lawrence and along the
Hudson River, Iroquois and southern Algonquian groups encountered traders and
settlers from The Netherlands. Beginning in 1624, the Dutch established
prominent trading centers such as New Amsterdam (later New York City) and Fort
Orange (later Albany, New York) in a colony they called New Netherland. At these
trading centers, the Mohawk and the four other nations of the Iroquois
Confederacy (Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca) quickly consolidated control
over the fur trade with the Dutch. These five nations expanded their territories
at the expense of other groups, driving away rivals such as the Mahicans.
The Iroquois enlarged their
territories not only to gain access to their rivals’ fur supplies, particularly
beaver pelts, but also to ensure their own political survival. Native Americans
who successfully integrated themselves into European trading spheres gained
indispensable access to European trade goods, including guns, metals, and cloth.
Those who did not suffered.
Throughout northeastern North America,
Native Americans competed with each other as well as with Europeans for access
to natural resources, while permitting the establishment of small European
trading settlements. A tenuous but ultimately enduring coexistence developed
between the Iroquois and Dutch settlers in New Netherland and between the
Algonquian and French settlers in New France that revolved around trade,
particularly the fur trade.
C2 | Relations with English |
Many English newcomers to North
America, like their French, Dutch, and Spanish predecessors, had similar
motivations to trade and profit. However, many other English newcomers did not;
they wanted to find new lands to settle and to build new lives for themselves.
This difference separated the English from the other European colonial powers in
North America.
Following the Protestant Reformation
in the early 1500s, England was home to competing religious sects and groups.
One group of people who followed the tenets of Puritanism and were known as
Puritans decided to leave England and Europe altogether to establish a new
society in North America. They had limited intentions of coexisting with Native
Americans and adapting themselves to Native American ways because they intended
to live according to their strict interpretations of Christian theology. In 1620
a group of Puritans, also known as Pilgrims, established the Plymouth colony.
They soon came into bitter conflict with Native Americans in New England.
Although their initial survival
depended upon Native American hospitality, particularly gifts and food, Puritan
leaders soon demanded too much of local Native Americans, including the Pequot.
The Pequot resisted Puritan land invasions and in the 1630s fought a bitter war
for survival. In one battle at Mystic River in 1637 Puritan soldiers and their
Native American allies surrounded and exterminated an entire Pequot town of
several hundred people. Interpreting Pequot misfortune as a sign of divine
favor, Puritan leaders expanded their influence, conquering much of New England
throughout the 1600s. From 1675 to 1676 they fought King Philip’s War against
the Wampanoag and other Native American groups. After winning that war, Puritan
control over the Massachusetts colony was secured, and additional Puritan
villages sprouted up throughout the region.
Other English colonies were
established throughout eastern North America, including Jamestown in Virginia in
1607 and colonies in the Carolinas in the 1640s. These mid- and southern
Atlantic colonies soon resembled the Spanish and French colonies in the West
Indies where servile, or indentured, labor (and increasingly African American
slave labor) provided the basis for plantation economies. In Virginia and the
Carolinas, English landlords secured land from local Native Americans through
treaties or just took the land through royal charters or land grants. They then
began planting crops for export to Europe. Such crops included tobacco in
Virginia and rice, indigo, and tobacco in the Carolinas. In both regions, Native
Americans initially entered into trading relations with the English and enjoyed
the economic opportunities provided by the fur and deerskin trade.
Increasingly, however, as in New
England, English settlers wanted more Native American land, and they often
forced treaties upon starving Native American groups in exchange for European
goods. As native lands became English ranches, farms, and plantations, Native
Americans were often plunged into a state of dependency and despair because they
no longer could support themselves by growing their own food. Losing lands along
the coastal Atlantic, landless Indians often migrated into the interior of North
America or violently resisted further English encroachment. The English won a
series of brutal wars against the Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia in the
mid-1600s and later in 1715 against the Yamasee in the Carolinas. These wars
initiated the demise of these once powerful Native American groups.
Throughout North America, Native
Americans witnessed the introduction of radically new technologies and ways of
life. Foreigners from distant lands arrived in their homelands. They came in
strange vessels, carried strange items, spoke strange languages, and often acted
violently towards native communities. Native American worlds quickly became
turned upside down, as North America became “new worlds for all,” as one
historian has argued. Such new and revolutionary developments brought
unprecedented changes to Native American societies and created fundamentally
different ways of living for all peoples within as well as outside of European
colonies.
D | Middle Ground, 1600s to 1700s |
Following the arrival of Europeans in
North America, Native Americans suffered from diseases, increased intertribal
warfare, and the effects of European settlement. Such challenging developments
did not, however, cause the demise of native power and autonomy. On the
contrary, European exploration and colonization of North America, while
devastating for many, increased the power and influence of other Indian groups.
Often aligned through trade, diplomacy, and alliances, Native Americans
throughout the 17th and 18th centuries controlled the vast majority of territory
throughout what is now the United States and Canada. Native Americans remained,
then, central to the history of these periods.
Some scholars characterize some areas of
North America in the period after European contact and before complete
Euro-American domination as a “middle ground,” a time when neither Native
Americans nor Europeans were the supreme rulers of a given territory and when
the ties between Indians and whites were stronger than their differences. While
more of a general concept than an actual historic region or period, such middle
grounds existed throughout portions of North America in the 1600s and
1700s.
D1 | New France |
New France best embodies the concept
of a middle ground. As the French expanded throughout the interior of North
America, French traders and, later, Catholic missionaries relied upon native
guides and hospitality for survival. Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the
Ojibwa (Chippewa), Ottawa, Fox, and Cree, understood the lands and customs of
eastern North America far better than any French person. In addition to trade,
the French and Native Americans developed ties that included intermarriage,
shared forms of entertainment, and religious worship. French traders and Indian
women had children, and their mixed-blood offspring became known as the Métis.
The French and Native Americans also formed military and political alliances.
Throughout the Great Lakes region, French and Algonquian communities all feared
the Iroquois, and together they helped drive the Iroquois out of the western
Great Lakes in the late 1600s. Such shared forms of living characterized French
colonization in North America and reveal how Indians adapted to and used
European colonialism for their own purposes. In many parts of New France,
distinctions between Native Americans and Europeans did not even exist.
D2 | Changing Lifeways |
The effects of such alliances and
intermixture soon spread outside of New France. To the north and west of New
France, French as well as Indian fur traders traded with numerous Native
American groups from the Northern Plains. This trade not only spread new
technologies, but also forever transformed these interior portions of North
America.
In the far western Great Lakes in the
1600s and early 1700s, French-aligned Ojibwa communities increasingly traded
with different Siouan-speaking peoples, including the Lakota (Teton) and Dakota
(Santee). The Ojibwa passed along French guns, ammunition, metals, and other
technologies. Armed with new and superior forms of weaponry, the Lakota and
Dakota Sioux quickly consolidated control over the headwaters of the Mississippi
River and began dominating the lands of their enemies, particularly the
sedentary villages of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara along the Missouri River.
As European diseases devastated concentrated village peoples, more nomadic
groups in the center of the continent began gaining supremacy. Their power and
mobility was aided greatly by the spread of new tools and technologies from the
Southern Plains and Southwest, including the horse.
The horse revolutionized the lives of
Native Americans in much of the West during the 1600s. Domesticated horses first
arrived in North America with the Spanish in the 1500s. Widespread horse trading
between Native Americans began in the Southwest in the early 1600s, when
sedentary Pueblo groups began stealing horses from Spanish herds and trading
them to surrounding nomadic peoples such as the Navajo and Apache. As northern
peoples incorporated horses into their societies, they increasingly raided
Spanish colonies.
Navajo, Apache, Ute, Comanche, and
other northern peoples all reoriented their economies and their territorial
movements around the horse. The Apache, for example, became among the most adept
horse traders and raiders in human history. Arriving in New Mexico to both trade
and raid, these northern peoples limited the expansion of Spanish settlement
throughout New Mexico and Texas while plunging the region into centuries of
constant upheaval. Trading, raiding, and stealing horses not only from the
Spanish but also each other, Plains and mountain peoples throughout the West
increased the spread of the horse in all directions. They exchanged horses to
more distant Native Americans for other trade goods, including French and
English guns, ammunition, alcohol, metals, cloth, and jewelry.
By 1700 most of North America remained
outside the sphere of European control, but increasingly within the sphere of
European influence. East of the Mississippi, European colonial regimes
controlled settlements along the Atlantic and throughout major river sheds.
Within these colonies, Native Americans and Europeans encountered one another,
initially regarded each as alien, but often over time constructed shared forms
of living that minimized their differences. In New France, New Netherland, and
even portions of New England and Virginia, survival necessitated coexistence and
cooperation.
Throughout much of Canada and west of
the Mississippi, however, European colonization had yet to unfold. Few Europeans
knew of the diversity and sophisticated cultures of the peoples who inhabited
these lands. Most Native American languages, beliefs, and practices remained
outside the realm of European knowledge. The areas of present-day California and
the Pacific Northwest, for example, still retained the most concentrated Native
American populations and included thousands of distinct, though interconnected,
communities. Within the next century and a half, however, European influences
and conflicts would forever reshape most of North America.
E | Conflicts and Wars, 1700s to 1815 |
From 1700 to 1815 most of eastern North
America became incorporated into European spheres of control and, eventually,
into the newly formed United States. As European empires competed for land,
resources, and allies, Native Americans found themselves in a tightening circle.
Thousands of British settlers and African slaves arrived each year during the
1700s, accelerating the demand for Native American land. Native Americans, often
in alliance with rival European powers, resisted such expansion, and throughout
the 18th century they participated in a series of wars between the European
empires. By the end of these contests, all but one of Europe’s
empires—Britain—had given up its claims to eastern North America. Ultimately,
Britain and the United States vied with each other and with their Native
American allies for control of North America.
Native American warriors provided the
majority of combatants during this century of war. These conflicts were not only
between rival Europeans but also between competing Native American powers.
Native Americans fought each other not only for specific resources, such as
furs, but also to achieve supremacy over territories, trade networks, and even
European allies.
E1 | Conflicts in the Northeast |
After 1701 a balance of power emerged
in northeastern North America in which some powers competed for supremacy, while
others sought to maintain the status quo. The balance of power included three
principal groups: New France and its Algonquian allies; the British colonies,
including New York, New England, and Virginia; and the Iroquois Confederacy and
its Native American allies.
The Iroquois in particular tried to
maintain balance between the French and British. Receiving gifts and favors from
both, the Iroquois followed a path of neutrality during a series of wars between
the French and British, refusing to side with either but threatening to fight
whenever their interests became compromised. After siding with the English in
King William’s War (1689-1697) and suffering devastating losses, the Iroquois
pursued a policy of neutrality through Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), King
George’s War (1744-1748), and the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Fearing
that Iroquois power might tip the scales in favor of their rivals, both British
and French leaders heeded the threats of the powerful Iroquois.
E2 | Conflicts in the Southeast |
Native Americans in the Southeast also
attempted to play European rivals off one another. With Spanish Florida to the
south, French Louisiana to the west, and the British Carolinas to the east, the
Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee—who later became known with the Seminole
as the Five Civilized Tribes—leveraged favors from Spanish, French, and British
officials. Dominating the interior portions of the Southeast, these groups
competed with each other for resources, particularly deerskins, captives, and
food, which they traded for European goods. Such competition increasingly
brought bloodshed. Just as the Spanish, French, and British attempted to enlist
Native Americans to fight in their wars, Native Americans tried to recruit
European support, especially in the form of guns and ammunition, for their
intertribal conflicts.
However, such dependency on European
powers ultimately proved disastrous for many Native American groups. As Britain
drove France, and later Spain, from the region, southeastern Native Americans
soon lacked rival European nations to play off one another. They quickly became
isolated with only limited resources to offer land-hungry British settlers.
E3 | Three Pivotal Wars |
Three pivotal conflicts in the second
half of the 1700s and in the first decades of the 1800s eroded the balance of
power in North America. These conflicts were the French and Indian War, the
American Revolution (1775-1783), and the War of 1812 (1812-1815). At the end of
these conflicts, the survival of Native Americans became squarely linked to the
British in the territory of Canada and to the Americans in the United
States.
The first critical stage came during
the French and Indian War between France and Britain. Unlike any of the previous
conflicts between the French and British, this contest consumed far more
resources and was fought literally around the world—in Europe, North America,
Asia, and on the high seas. (It was known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe.)
The conflict began in the Ohio River Valley backcountry with clashes between
British settlers and French and Indian forces, and it left few regions of New
France and British North America untouched.
From eastern Canada, down the St.
Lawrence and Hudson rivers, into the Great Lakes and along the Ohio River,
Native Americans and French forces clashed with British forces and their Indian
allies. Framing the conflict as a struggle for the future control of North
America, Britain and France deployed thousands of men, hundreds of ships, and
many other resources. With mastery of the seas and a much larger fighting force
on the ground, Britain and its Native American allies outlasted the more
experienced French and Native American forces. At the Treaty of Paris in 1763,
France ceded its North American empire to Britain, and New France was no more.
At the end of the war, France effectively abandoned hundreds of thousands of
Native American allies as well as thousands of Métis and French settlers.
After Britain defeated France,
Algonquian leaders throughout the former region of New France demanded that
British officials recognize and honor the rights and customs that they had
forged in more than a century of relations with the French. If the British
failed, for example, to supply Native Americans with gifts, particularly
ammunition, it was more than insulting; it threatened their survival.
Essentially trying to force their new British rulers to adopt the roles of their
former French allies and to reassert Native American autonomy, Native American
leaders, under such commanders as the Ottawa chief Pontiac, went to war against
the British in the early 1760s.
However, Britain did not want another
war, and its leaders knew that they could not continue to fight Native Americans
in the forests of former New France. British officials consequently began
respecting Native American demands and even began protecting Native American
lands from settlers. In the Royal Proclamation of 1763, Britain set aside land
west of the Appalachian Mountains for Native Americans and prohibited the
expansion of settlements there.
With this move, British rulers angered
the 13 British colonies along the Atlantic Ocean, which coveted Native American
lands in the interior. Long accustomed to subjugating Native Americans through
trade and warfare, the colonists wanted to turn more Native American homelands
into farms and slave plantations. Colonists protested British land policies and
the taxes that Britain levied to repay its debts from the wars. The colonists
soon began imagining a future without British rulers. Such imaginings became the
spark for the American Revolution.
When the American Revolution began,
many Native Americans initially tried to stay outside of what appeared to them
to be an internal dispute between family members. However, many quickly realized
the stakes of the struggle and aligned themselves with the British. Having
struggled to get the British to recognize their rights, the Algonquians, for
example, bitterly resisted the colonists’ efforts to become independent. So,
too, did the Iroquois, who similarly understood that the colonists coveted
Native American lands for development. Iroquois and Algonquian homelands became
critical battlegrounds during the war, as many revolutionary generals invaded
Native American territories. George Washington, George Rogers Clark, and John
Sullivan all became renowned fighters of Indians. Sullivan and Clark inflicted
terrible damage on Native American communities, burning crops, destroying towns,
and displacing women, children, and the elderly.
After the colonists defeated the
British in 1783, most Native Americans had little energy or resources left to
fight the United States alone because much of the fighting had taken place on
their homelands. The Iroquois, whose mighty confederacy had controlled so many
lands, now became increasingly disunited. They granted enormous land cessions to
the new republic, which became their primary form of appeasement.
The Algonquians still fought the
Americans in continuous wars throughout the 1790s and into the 1800s,
culminating in the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. As tens of
thousands of settlers rushed west after the American Revolution, the Shawnee,
Fox, and other Algonquian groups united into powerful confederacies. With
British support, the vastly outnumbered Native Americans repelled several U.S.
invasions. When Britain negotiated peace with the United States in 1815 and
Spain later transferred Florida to the United States, Native Americans east of
the Mississippi no longer had any European powers to whom to turn. The young
American nation now claimed, by right of conquest and cession, much of the
former lands of Spain, France, and Britain. How to deal with the hundreds of
thousands of Native Americans throughout these regions now preoccupied the
highest levels of U.S. government.
F | Removal Trends, 1815 to 1870 |
For Native Americans, the century
following the independence of the United States brought even greater changes
than the previous century of war. No Native American, European, or U.S. leader
could have predicted that in the century following independence, the United
States would control its own empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The
United States was founded as a land of liberty, where individuals had inherent
rights and could participate in a democracy. Such rights, however, did not
extend to all of the nation’s peoples, including Native Americans, who were not
viewed by the U.S. government as citizens, and often not even as human
beings.
Early leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson,
generally saw Native Americans in two contrasting ways. Native Americans could
either assimilate and choose to live within the United States like “civilized”
Americans or the government would remove them to the recently established Indian
Territory west of the Mississippi River. There was essentially no option for
Native Americans to continue to live in their homelands as distinct peoples. As
the United States expanded, the opportunities for Native Americans to live
autonomous and independent lives declined ever further.
F1 | United States |
In the Northeast, after military
resistance was no longer feasible, many Native Americans found alternative ways
of surviving. Many incorporated Christian teachings into their own cultures and
began adapting to the new economic realities of American life by becoming
farmers, hunters, or traders. Among the Seneca of the Iroquois Confederacy,
religious leaders such as Handsome Lake fused Iroquois and Christian spiritual
values and called upon their followers to adopt aspects of American economic
practices and gender roles. Handsome Lake, for example, instructed Seneca men to
farm, which was traditionally a women’s activity, and to allow missionaries
among them. Such adaptation enabled the Seneca and other Iroquois groups to
survive in New York and eastern Canada, although they continued, often
clandestinely, many traditional political, religious, and social practices.
Although some Native Americans made
efforts to assimilate to various degrees, other Native Americans resisted those
attempts, and American settlers increasingly pressured the U.S. government to
drive Native Americans from their lands. Following the Louisiana Purchase in
1803, when the United States purchased a vast region west of the Mississippi
from France, President Thomas Jefferson suddenly had a huge area of land on
which to push Native Americans. Moving Native Americans west became the primary
goal of the U.S. government for the next two generations. In 1824 the Bureau of
Indian Affairs was established within the Department of War to oversee relations
with Native Americans, and federal Indian agents were appointed to deal with
tribes. In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which
authorized the removal of eastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi.
Indian removal became a death knell
for both native and nonnative peoples committed to peaceful coexistence. In
regions such as the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes where Native Americans and
Europeans had lived together for generations, U.S. policies now called for
Indian families to leave their homelands. When nations such as the Sac (Sauk)
under Black Hawk resisted in the 1830s, the U.S. Army fought them to
defeat.
When the state of Georgia tried to
take Cherokee lands, the Cherokee insisted that the state had no jurisdiction
over its lands because the Cherokee, like the United States, was a nation and
thus not subject to state authority. In the 1830s the Supreme Court of the
United States clarified the legal status of Native Americans in a series of
cases. In one ruling, Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Chief Justice John
Marshall ruled that Native Americans were members of distinct, sovereign nations
within the United States who did not fall under state authority but solely under
the jurisdiction of the federal government. The Constitution of the United
States, Marshall reasoned, always considered Native Americans as nations, and
the Congress of the United States had related with them accordingly through
treaties—the “supreme law of the land.” Such landmark rulings institutionalized
relations between Native Americans and the U.S. government and created the
“government-to-government” framework that remains the backbone of federal Indian
law. (Under that framework, the U.S. government recognizes Native American
tribes as sovereign nations and negotiates with them as one government to
another.) Unfortunately for the Cherokee and other Native Americans supposedly
protected by treaties, the federal government did not enforce the treaties and
increasingly deprived them of their legal and constitutional rights.
President Jackson even went so far as
to ignore Marshall’s rulings, in direct violation of the Constitution, which
states that the Supreme Court can override presidential and congressional power.
He refused to use federal power to prevent states from removing Native Americans
from their lands. The federal government then used the army to remove thousands
of Cherokee, who were marched at gunpoint about 1,285 km (about 800 mi) from
Georgia to the Indian Territory during 1838 and 1839 along what became known as
the Trail of Tears. Thousands died along the way due to malnutrition, disease,
and violence.
The lands west of the Mississippi were
not, however, the empty lands that U.S. policymakers believed them to be.
Powerful Native American nations, such as the Comanche, Pawnee, Kiowa, and
Lakota Sioux, controlled much of the Northern and Southern Plains. Recently
removed Native Americans from the East often had little in common with these
Plains peoples, and conflicts sometimes ensued. Some eastern groups, such as the
Delaware (Lenni Lenape), became intermediaries in the West, serving as guides,
traders, and translators for white trappers and explorers. By the mid-19th
century, after the United States had won the Mexican War (1846-1848) and
acquired the northern half of Mexico, few Native Americans in North America
outside of British Canada could remain independent of U.S. control. The United
States now claimed much of the continent and was no longer content with driving
Native Americans west to Indian Territory.
F2 | British Canada |
In British Canada, indigenous peoples
faced different challenges. After the War of 1812, Britain still claimed Canada,
and Indians continued to interact with British officials, settlers, and traders,
as well as the French who remained. During the 1800s Indians such as the Cree
continued to exchange furs with British traders and trading companies, including
the Hudson’s Bay Company in western and northern regions. In eastern Canada,
Indians such as the Mi’kmaq (Micmac) and Iroquois faced increasing pressures for
their land from British settlers. This pressure came especially from Loyalists,
colonists who had supported Britain in the American Revolution and then flocked
by the tens of thousands north to British Canada.
However, British land policies
mandated that Indians could only cede their lands to the British government. So
settlers pressured British officials to remove Indians from the fertile
farmlands in southern Ontario and Québec and to create land reserves for Indians
away from European settlements. Pressures for removal in Canada paled in
comparison to those in the United States, but important treaties, including an
1850 agreement with the Ojibwa, instituted important land cessions and
provisions. These treaties generally stated that the government would provide
annual payments to Indians in return for Indian land. The government then moved
the Indians onto land reserves. These treaties formalized legal relations
between Indians and the British government. After Canada achieved
self-government in 1867, however, relations between the new government and
Indians would become, as in the United States, severely tested.
G | Wars and Treaties, 1850s to 1900s |
The process of removal effectively
emptied much of eastern North America of Native Americans, especially in the
Deep South and Midwest. The American Civil War (1861-1865) fundamentally
transformed U.S. society and accelerated its expansion into Native American
homelands. American industry and technologies, for example, dramatically
increased after the war, and much of the continent became linked through
commerce and railroads. As in the first half of the century, Native Americans
bitterly resisted such expansion, often fighting against overwhelming odds. By
the end of the century, however, no region of the West remained outside of the
U.S. government and economy, and Native Americans were confined to newly created
reservations.
G1 | Influx of White Settlers |
As the United States acquired millions
of acres of fertile farmland along the Pacific Coast and in the Great Plains and
the Southwest, Native Americans became increasingly displaced and dispossessed.
Mining, forestry, and other extractive industries depleted resources on which
Native Americans depended. In California, white settlers dispossessed Native
Americans from both valley and mountain territories. The Gold Rush of 1849
devastated the Miwok, Maidu, Pomo, and other Native Americans in northern
California, who witnessed the invasion of hundreds of thousands of non-Indians.
In order to survive, many Native Americans participated in mining enterprises as
domestics, laborers, and miners. White violence against Native Americans in
California quickly created bitter relations. White men routinely raped Indian
women, and when Native Americans retaliated, whites escalated the violence.
California went from being one of the most populous regions of Native America to
being one of the least populous, as violence, disease, and impoverishment
reduced California’s Indian population from nearly 250,000 in 1700 to less than
5,000 by 1900.
White migrants who rushed to
California and the Oregon Territory also came into conflict with Native
Americans as they traveled across the country. Westward pioneer routes such as
the Oregon and Overland trails followed Native American trails and bisected many
Native American hunting, grazing, and gathering territories. Whites often killed
food supplies such as buffalo and elk and moved thousands of cattle, sheep, and
horses along grasslands and waterways on which Native Americans depended. The
Pawnee in Nebraska, for example, began taxing white migrants for passage through
Pawnee lands and for consuming Pawnee resources. Pawnee taxes became a form of
compensation for lost property.
Confident that their occupation of
Native American lands was divinely ordained—a 19th-century ideology known as
Manifest Destiny—white settlers increasingly fought the Pawnee and other Native
Americans for their land and resources. The fighting compelled the federal
government to use the U.S. Army to ensure white security. In the mid-19th
century the army became one of the primary instruments of federal Indian
policy.
Since Native Americans were unwilling
to leave their homelands, the government developed new policies for resolving
conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans. Whereas early
19th-century treaties aimed primarily at removing Native Americans from their
lands in the East, in the West Army officials negotiated so-called peace
treaties that attempted to ensure peaceful relations between Native Americans
and whites by creating bounded Native American territories called reservations
from which white settlers were prohibited. As in the first part of the century,
however, the government repeatedly dishonored and violated these agreements.
From Minnesota to Arizona, Native Americans committed to treaties they believed
would ensure their survival and protection. When whites violated these
agreements, Native Americans retaliated.
G2 | Indian Wars |
The western conflicts in the United
States between Native Americans and whites from 1850 to 1880 are known as the
Indian Wars, and, like all wars, originated from a series of betrayals, attacks,
and broken promises. The most extensive conflicts generally included the most
powerful and populous Native American nations: the Comanche and Kiowa, among
others, in the Southern Plains; the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and
Blackfeet, among others, in the Northern Plains; the Apache and Navajo, among
others, in the Southwest; the Ute, Shoshone, Bannock, and Paiute in the Great
Basin; and the Nez Perce, Spokane, and Yakama in the Northwest. These and other
Native American nations resisted white expansion and fought brutal campaigns for
their survival. Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache, for example, waged guerrilla
wars throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico for more than a
generation. Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho leaders united to drive non-Indians
out of their grazing and hunting lands. Many Native American leaders, such as
Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph, migrated or tried to migrate to Canada to escape
U.S. settlers and soldiers.
In all these conflicts, Native
American men and women defended not only lands and resources but also their ways
of life. Most Native Americans remained deeply and spiritually attached to their
homelands, and seeing them converted to white ranches or farms threatened their
deepest convictions. Warfare was also culturally sanctioned and respected among
most Native Americans. Men honored their families and communities by defending
them, and women helped men prepare for battle. The military defeat of so many
Native American nations and their subsequent confinement to reservations became,
then, more than military, political, or economic defeats; they represented
fundamental threats to the fabric of Native American life. And, as they had for
countless generations, Native Americans struggled to adapt to their changing and
often hostile new environments.
Initially, the U.S. government meant
reservations to be protected enclaves, territories where Native Americans could
live away from the destructive influences of white settlers. At the treaties of
Medicine Lodge (1867) and Fort Laramie (1868), for example, the U.S. government
negotiated enormous land cessions with Northern and Southern Plains peoples,
respectively. In an attempt to clear a large central corridor through the
continent, the government recognized extensive Comanche and Sioux land claims
and created large reservations for these powerful Plains peoples. Like early
Navajo and Ute treaty lands, these reservations were vast and included millions
of acres, and Native American leaders such as Red Cloud believed that their
fights with the U.S. Army were now over.
To Native Americans’ misfortune,
however, white settlers and prospectors continued to demand Indian lands, even
in federally protected reservations. After the discovery of gold in the Black
Hills in the 1870s, miners rushed into the Great Sioux Reservation while the
federal government stood idly by. Enraged Sioux leaders such as Crazy Horse and
Sitting Bull decided to leave the reservation altogether and moved onto the
Plains. There they defeated U.S. Cavalry forces under George Armstrong Custer in
the summer of 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Stunned at their defeat,
U.S. Army leaders began a relentless campaign to subjugate the Sioux and to
confine them on smaller reservations in South Dakota. Stationing military forces
within reservation lands, the army continued to harass Sioux families. In 1890
U.S. Cavalry forces exacted revenge for Custer’s defeat at Wounded Knee, killing
more than 300 Sioux men, women, and children, the great majority of whom were
unarmed bystanders.
G3 | New Canadian Government |
In the last decades of the 19th
century, the new Canadian government began establishing its dominance over
native peoples. From its creation in 1867, Canada faced regional and ethnic
divisions, and indigenous peoples often found themselves in the middle of such
divides. One group of indigenous people, the French-speaking Métis, struggled
with the Canadian government to protect the land on which they lived, known as
the Red River settlement. It was part of Rupert’s Land, a territory that had
been chartered to the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1670. When the HBC prepared
to sell Rupert’s Land to the Canadian government in 1869, the Métis bitterly
resisted for fear of losing their land rights. Under the astute leadership of
Louis Riel, Métis groups along the Red River in 1870 forced the Canadian
government to recognize their rights to the Red River settlement and to allow
for the admission of a new western province, Manitoba, that included it. Other
indigenous peoples, however, were less successful in getting their rights and
territories recognized, and the new Canadian government devised new,
undemocratic methods for dealing with its so-called Indian problem.
In the 1870s the Canadian government
began negotiating a series of treaties with Indians, known as the numbered
treaties. With these treaties, the Canadian government gained title to many
Indian lands west of Ontario. In return the Indians received land reserves,
compensation, and federal assistance such as schools, farming tools, livestock,
and seed. The Canadian government had witnessed the Indian Wars in the United
States and wanted to avoid similar fighting in Canada. The government thus
negotiated these treaties before large numbers of settlers moved west. The
treaties, however, still allowed the Canadian government to exert control over
many aspects of Indian life.
This control was increased in 1876
when the Canadian Parliament passed the Indian Act. As in the United States, the
Canadian government declared that Indians were under the jurisdiction of the
federal government and that the federal government alone had the authority to
determine the rights, conditions, and so-called status of Indians. The act
defined who was an Indian, using a person’s lifestyle and heritage as the
primary criteria. The government had complete discretion over who was designated
an Indian. For example, the act targeted Indian men and women differently.
Indian men and their wives (irrespective of their race) were considered Indian,
while Indian women who married non-Indian men were no longer considered Indian.
The Indian Act gave the Canadian government the legal structures for determining
Indian affairs and for regulating Indian individuals and communities. The Indian
Act and the numbered treaties established an elaborate structure of federal
control over Indians.
H | Coercive Assimilation, 1900s to 1960s |
Throughout both their histories, the
U.S. and Canadian governments have used their dealings with Native Americans to
increase federal power. During removal and the Indian Wars, the U.S. government,
especially the federal army, grew not only in manpower but also in bureaucracy.
Provisioning federal troops, supplying them, and establishing the governing
agencies for Native Americans increased the size and power of the national
government. Similarly in Canada, the Indian Act and the numbered treaties
created large governing agencies. Such bureaucracies—known eventually in the
United States as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and as the Department of
Indian Affairs (later the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development,
or DIAND) in Canada—exerted powerful influences over the everyday lives of
Native Americans, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Beginning mainly in the 1880s in the
United States and shortly thereafter in Canada, these government agencies
instituted programs that aimed to reconfigure the fabric of Native American
life. Known as the assimilation campaigns, these policies attempted to transform
Native Americans into “citizens” by stripping them of their lands, cultures,
languages, religions, and other markers of their ethnic identity. Assimilation
brought continued challenges to Native Americans, many of whom had only recently
been confined to reservations and reserves.
For many Native Americans, such cultural
attacks were as painful and difficult as the previous generations of war. Native
American communities lost their children, who were sent to U.S. boarding schools
and Canadian residential schools where families were prohibited from visiting
and children were punished for speaking their languages. Some Native American
religious rituals, such as the Ghost Dance and Sun Dance, were outlawed. Native
American men were forced to abandon previous forms of economic subsistence, such
as buffalo hunting, for the distant hope of becoming farmers. Many communities
were resettled onto reservation lands in the least desirable and fertile parts
of their former territories. Everywhere, government control and surveillance of
Native American life increased.
The bitter irony of so many of these
coercive policies was that those who developed them believed they were acting in
the best interests of Native Americans. Many of America’s leading religious
leaders and progressive reformers helped lead this assault to “kill the Indian,
but save the man.” Senator Henry Dawes, for example, sincerely believed that he
was helping Native Americans when he sponsored the Dawes Severalty Act, or the
General Allotment Act of 1887. That act divided Native American reservations,
which were owned communally, into separate plots of land owned by individual
tribal members. Supporters thought the act would “civilize” Native Americans by
making them ranchers and farmers and instill individualism.
But the results were disastrous.
Allotting land to individuals who could sell it, the Dawes Act effectively
continued the process of taking away Native American land by making remaining
reservation lands available to white settlement and corporate development. Tens
of millions of acres of reservation lands passed into the hands of non-Native
Americans. Large reservations, such as the Ute and Blackfeet reservations that
in 1880 were sizable portions of Colorado and Montana, became by 1900 shadows of
their former selves.
Surviving the cultural, economic, and
religious assaults of assimilation taxed many Native American communities. Many
groups successfully navigated these challenges by reshaping government policies
to meet tribal needs. The Northern Arapaho in Wyoming, for example, molded their
existing age-based political structures to include new reservation leadership
positions. The Crow in Montana similarly fought to have Crow leaders in charge
of key reservation political positions; Robert Yellowtail, for example, became
in 1934 the first Crow superintendent, the leading political officer on the
reservation.
Such instances of successful political
adaptation, however, by no means typified these early decades of reservation
life. Reservations in the United States and reserves in Canada became
notoriously corrupt. Government officials sometimes sold food intended for
starving Native American families to outsiders or withheld it to punish
recalcitrant individuals. Reservation superintendents often rewarded their
friends and punished their enemies. Such routine abuses of power permeated all
levels of federal Indian policy in both countries, and Native Americans
developed a deep distrust and resentment towards these authoritarian regimes and
policies.
By the 1920s most U.S. reservations
remained impoverished and ruled by non-Native Americans. While many Native
American students had learned English and some had become lawyers, doctors, and
teachers, the campaign of assimilation had failed to erode the fabric of Native
American life. On the contrary, Native American communities continued to live
according to traditional values and practiced the customs they deemed most
important. They resisted assimilation by keeping their languages and cultures
alive and used the educational systems intended to destroy their culture to
better their circumstances. They instilled in their children the seeds of
self-determination and sovereignty. They also created pan-Indian political
networks and religions, such as the Native American Church.
Recognizing its failure, the U.S.
government slowly abandoned its assimilation policies and granted universal
citizenship to Native Americans in 1924. It also instituted dramatic political
reforms in the 1930s under BIA Commissioner John Collier. Known as the Indian
New Deal, these reforms included several landmark policies, particularly the
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934. This act attempted to reverse the
destructive effects of assimilation by providing greater control to Native
Americans over the political, economic, and social policies that affected their
lives. Not all Native Americans accepted Collier’s reforms, particularly the
Navajo nation, but many benefited from the federal government’s attempts to undo
generations of neglect and discrimination.
Canadian Indian affairs followed similar
assimilation designs. Indian dances and ceremonies, such as the potlatch of the
Northwest Coast peoples, were outlawed. Indian movements were heavily policed
through a notorious pass system in which individuals had to have a pass to leave
their reserves. As in the United States, Canadian officials used the idea that
Indians needed to be helped and protected to justify their discrimination, as
land and economic and political control remained firmly in the hands of
nonnative peoples. Canada did not extend voting rights to northern Inuit peoples
until the 1950s and to Status Indians (Indians who are officially registered by
the federal government) until 1960. However, native peoples in Canada resisted
assimilation in similar ways to Indians in the United States. They created
national political leagues and new forms of cultural expression in art,
literature, and education.
I | Self-Determination, 1960s to Present |
Throughout the first half of the 20th
century, Native Americans resisted assimilation in many ways. Many groups molded
their economies and cultures to their changing environments, while others
adopted new ways for new situations. As Native Americans both resisted and
adapted to the changes in their lives, they began to forge modern nations within
the borders of the United States and Canada. They established unique forms of
self-government unlike any other North American peoples.
After World War II (1939-1945),
subsequent government administrations halted Collier’s reforms and returned to
assimilation goals. From 1950 to the 1970s, during what is known as the
Termination Period, federal Indian policy attempted to terminate the federal
recognition of Indian tribes in order to end federal responsibility for them.
The government also encouraged Native Americans to relocate from reservations to
cities in order to facilitate their assimilation. Known as the Employment
Assistance Program or the Voluntary Relocation Program, it offered one-way bus
tickets and temporary low-cost housing for Native Americans who agreed to move
to urban areas.
More than 100,000 Native Americans
relocated to U.S cities, but they did not disappear. They developed and
maintained their Native American identities within cities. Large urban Indian
communities developed in many U.S. cities, particularly in Los Angeles and
Oakland, California; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; and Minneapolis,
Minnesota. In Canada a similar migration took place as indigenous peoples moved
to urban areas mostly beginning in the 1970s. Indigenous populations grew in
Winnipeg, Manitoba; Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan; and Toronto, Ontario.
In these cities, Native Americans
intermixed and formed new political associations. The American Indian Movement
(AIM) developed amidst such conditions. Founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in
1968, AIM became a pan-Indian political action network that resisted and
challenged federal Indian policy while calling attention to the conditions and
plight of Native Americans both on and off reservations. AIM became part of the
larger Red Power movement, which emphasized developing pride in one’s Native
American heritage, sustaining traditional Native American cultures and lands,
and supporting Native American rights. Native Americans increasingly called
attention to instances where the U.S. government violated Indian constitutional
and treaty rights. Native Americans began insisting that their communities
receive the guarantees outlined in treaties and by the Supreme Court.
Countless Native Americans, including
activists, lawyers, and leaders, worked hard and organized themselves to bring
attention to their causes. To protest federal Indian policy and the conditions
of Native Americans, AIM and other activists staged a series of high-profile
demonstrations during the late 1960s and 1970s. These included the occupation of
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay from 1969 to 1971, the occupation of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, D.C., in 1972, and the takeover
of the town of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1973. The latter resulted in a
71-day standoff with the U.S. government. With these and other demonstrations,
activists brought the plight and concerns of Native Americans to the highest
levels of national government.
Such attention and concerted effort
brought dramatic results. Beginning in the 1970s, the U.S. government rescinded
termination and passed a series of reforms, including the Indian
Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975). This act embraced the
notion of Native American self-government and created mechanisms for returning
political autonomy to tribal governments. The government also passed similar
reforms allowing more Native American control in Indian education and health
services, among other areas.
Since these reforms, tribal communities
have gained increased economic power. Tribal governments have insisted that
because their status as sovereign nations places them outside of state
jurisdiction, they can maintain and develop industries such as gambling and
selling tobacco products free of state interference. Winning a series of legal
and political battles, many tribal communities have used their treaty rights to
form lucrative gaming and tourist businesses. The Oneida Nation of Wisconsin,
for example, operates a successful casino, convention center, and hotel facility
and is one of the largest employers in Green Bay.
Economic development has brought many
tribes the revenue to develop museums, schools, and health programs for their
tribal members. These opportunities do not, however, exist for most
reservations, several of which remain among the nation’s most impoverished
counties. Many Native Americans hope that the forms of sovereignty now secured
will enable tribal governments and communities to work together to address the
health, educational, and social problems that still plague many
communities.
Culturally, Native Americans withstood
the assaults of assimilation and rose to meet the challenges of the 20th
century. Taking pride in their unique cultures and histories, Native Americans
began exploring new forms of cultural expression and awareness. Native American
artists revisited sophisticated artistic traditions. Native Americans also
became authors and gained larger and larger audiences; thousands became
educators, doctors, scholars, and lawyers. Throughout Indian country, a
renaissance bloomed, as Native Americans increased their forms of cultural
pride.
Canadian indigenous groups also achieved
greater political awareness and constitutional rights. The Canadian Parliament
amended the Indian Act a number of times beginning in 1951 to reduce government
involvement in Indian activities. The federal government also commissioned
reports on the state of Canada’s indigenous population in the 1950s and 1960s.
With this increased attention, indigenous leaders astutely navigated provincial
and national levels of government and brought increased public awareness to
indigenous affairs.
As Canadians have attempted to address
the cultural and legal rights of French Canadians, for example, indigenous
groups have insisted that their land claims and treaty rights receive equal
consideration. In 1990 Elijah Harper, an Ojibwa-Cree member of the Manitoba
legislature, gained international attention when he stalled the passage of the
Meech Lake Accord, a national accord to recognize French Canada as a distinct
society. Harper, along with many other indigenous peoples, objected to the
accord because it had no mention of indigenous peoples.
That same year, Mohawk activists seized
control of the roads and bridges into their two reserves outside of Montréal
during the dramatic Oka Crisis. The Mohawk were protesting the construction of a
golf course on land that they claimed. Thousands of Canadian soldiers were
deployed against the Mohawk for nearly three months. Such actions generated
increased national resolve for settling indigenous land claims disputes.
Throughout the 1990s indigenous groups won important land settlements, including
the establishment of new reserves and even a northern Inuit territory, Nunavut,
which was created in 1999.
When the 20th century began, Native
American populations of North America were at an all-time low. Only about
250,000 Indians in the United States and 100,000 in Canada had survived the
generations of war, disease, violence, and oppression that followed European
contact and American and Canadian colonialism. A century later, more than 2
million Native Americans live in the United States and more than 1 million live
in Canada. Inheriting legacies of survival and adaptation, modern Native
Americans stand poised to ensure that their communities and cultures will
flourish in the 21st century.
Ned Blackhawk contributed the
History section of this article.
VII | NATIVE AMERICANS TODAY |
At the turn of the 20th century, many
people believed that Native Americans would assimilate into mainstream society
and disappear as unique peoples. But native communities in both the United
States and Canada survived disastrous assimilation efforts. Instead of
disappearing, they revitalized tribal governments, created modern economies,
attained legal rights, and revived cultural traditions and ceremonies that had
nearly died out. They combined aspects of their traditional cultures with
contemporary life without sacrificing the core of their identity.
Despite their resiliency, however, Native
Americans faced serious economic, health, and educational problems at the
beginning of the 21st century. Many U.S. and Canadian indigenous peoples lived
in poverty. Unemployment and school dropout rates were high, and rates of
alcoholism and suicide for Native Americans were far above those for the general
population in both countries. But as a testament to the cultural and economic
renewal taking place, many indigenous peoples were leaving cities and returning
to their homelands. They went back for jobs, to attend tribal colleges, or to
participate in long-dormant ceremonies.
A | Population |
A1 | Introduction |
A1a | United States |
Getting an accurate count of the
number of Native Americans in the United States can be difficult. In both the
United States and Canada, many Native Americans mistrust federal government
representatives and withhold information or refuse to fill out census forms.
With the 2000 census, the U.S. Census Bureau made efforts to do a better job of
counting Native Americans than it did in the 1990 census. In that census, Native
Americans were undercounted by as much as 12.5 percent, the highest of any
ethnic group. Besides working with tribal governments, the Census Bureau
developed culturally specific television and newspaper advertisements and
posters to encourage Native Americans to take part in the 2000 census.
The 2000 census was the first in
which Americans could select more than one race and ethnic identity. This was an
important change for Native Americans because they have mixed intertribally for
thousands of years and interracially for the last 500 years. On the 2000 census
form, Native Americans could select “American Indian and Alaska Native only” or
“American Indian and Alaska Native” and at least one other race. They were also
given a space for tribal affiliation.
According to the 2000 census, about
2.5 million people in the United States reported they were Native Americans.
Some 1.5 million others reported they were Native American plus another race,
typically white. The two figures together represented a 26 percent increase over
the 1990 census figures. Overall, Native American people accounted for about 1
percent of the total U.S. population.
At the time of the census,
California had the largest concentration of Native Americans (314,000), followed
by Oklahoma (263,000), Arizona (261,000), New Mexico (166,000), Washington State
(105,000), and Alaska (101,352). Nearly 50 percent of Native Americans lived in
the West, 29 percent in the South, 17 percent in the Midwest, and 6 percent in
the Northeast. The Native American population was a young and growing
population: Thirty-nine percent of its population was under 20 years of age,
compared with 29 percent of the nation’s total population.
A1b | Canada |
Since 1982 the Canadian census has
categorized aboriginal people as North American Indian, Métis (people of mixed
European and aboriginal ancestry), and Inuit. The census also asks every
Canadian, including aboriginal people, to which ethnic or cultural group a
person’s ancestors belonged. In 1996 Statistics Canada, the national agency that
takes the census, included an additional question for aboriginal people: “Is
this person an aboriginal person, that is, North American Indian, Métis, or
Inuit?”That is, does this individual identify as an aboriginal
person?
The 1996 census reported there were
1,170,190 people with aboriginal ancestry in Canada, making up about 3 percent
of Canada’s inhabitants. Some 867,225 reported North American Indian ancestry;
220,740 reported Métis; and 49,845 Inuit. Counts based on identity went down
from the overall number: 554,000 identified as North American Indian, 210,000 as
Métis, and 41,000 as Inuit. About 6,400 people were counted more than once
because they claimed to be members of more than one aboriginal group. But
Statistics Canada admitted its census did not catch everyone; forms were not
completed on more than 75 Indian reserves.
In 1996 aboriginal people lived
across Canada in every province and territory. More than four out of every five
aboriginal people lived west of Québec. About 63 percent of all aboriginal
people lived in the four western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta,
and British Columbia. Ontario had 18 percent of Canada’s aboriginal people and
more North American Indians than any other province. Almost two-thirds of
Canada’s total Métis population lived in the three Prairie provinces of
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, with Alberta having the largest Métis
population. In 1996 Northwest Territories had the largest Inuit population.
In Canada the federal government
officially determines who is an Indian for its purposes through the Indian Act,
a law first passed in 1876 and amended several times since. The act defines who
is an Indian and determines who can be registered in the Indian Register
maintained by Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
(DIAND), also called Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). For the federal
government to grant Indian status, a person generally has to be a member of an
aboriginal band that was granted a reserve or government funds or negotiated a
treaty with the government. These people are referred to as Status Indians, and
the Indian Act applies only to them. Status Indians are eligible for federal
benefits. The Indian Act does not cover Inuit, Métis, and non-Status Indians,
people with Indian ancestry who are not on the official register.
A2 | Tribes and Bands |
A2a | United States |
Tribes in the United States set up
their own membership criteria. A person is permitted membership in only one
tribe, and becoming a member of a particular tribe requires complying with its
membership rules. Most tribes rely in part on blood quantum, or how much Native
American blood a person has, for membership. The amount of blood quantum
required varies. At one end of the spectrum is the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,
which accepts anyone who can trace his or her ancestry back to the Dawes
Commission of Final Rolls, a government document that compiled the names of
tribal members between 1899 and 1906. At the other end is the Ute of Utah, who
require five-eighths minimum blood quantum for membership. Generally, tribes
require one-fourth minimum blood quantum for enrollment.
The whole notion of blood quantum
is controversial within the Native American community. Many children and
grandchildren of tribal citizens do not have the required amount of blood
quantum to qualify for enrollment because their parents or earlier ancestors
married outside their tribe. There are also Indians whose families have been
part of Indian communities for generations but do not have the official records
required for tribal membership.
Tribes fall into one of two
categories: federally or state recognized. Federally recognized tribes are
nations that have a special, legal relationship with the U.S. government. This
relationship recognizes that tribes have certain rights of self-government and
are entitled to participate in specific federal Indian programs. The federal
government has the right to determine tribal membership for federal purposes,
such as who can receive federal funds.
Most Native Americans in the United
States belong to federally recognized tribes. There are more than 550 such
tribes, including more than 220 village groups in Alaska. The tribes vary
enormously in size. At the time of the 2000 census, the only tribes with more
than 100,000 people were the Cherokee, Navajo (Diné), Sioux, and Chippewa. Most
tribes had populations of less than 10,000, and several California tribal bands
had only two to three members.
Tribes that want to be recognized
by the federal government go through an administrative process prescribed by the
Branch of Acknowledgment and Research (BAR) of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA), an agency of the U.S. government that is part of the Department of the
Interior. The BAR requires petitioners, or entities, to meet seven mandatory
criteria for federal recognition. Entities must (1) prove they have been
identified by reliable external sources on a continuous basis since 1900; (2)
prove continuous community; (3) prove continuous political authority from
historical times to the present day; (4) submit membership criteria; (5) prove
that current members descend from historic tribes; (6) prove members are not
members of another federally recognized tribe; and (7) prove Congress did not
terminate its relationship with the tribe. Once an Indian tribe receives federal
acknowledgment, it is eligible to receive BIA services.
Approximately 30 U.S. Indian tribes
and groups without federal recognition are state recognized. This means the
states administer programs for tribes such as the Paucatuck Eastern Pequot of
Connecticut and the Shinnecock of New York. State-recognized tribes do not have
relations with the BIA or participate in the programs it operates.
A2b | Canada |
According to the Department of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), there are about 600 bands in
Canada. (In Canada, the term band generally corresponds to the term
tribe in the United States.) A band is made up of Indian people who are
registered as members of that group. Many bands prefer to be known as First
Nations.
Before the Canadian Parliament
amended the Indian Act in 1985, the federal government controlled the membership
lists of bands. When it granted Indian status to a person, it would also add
that person to a First Nation’s membership list. The 1985 amendment
gave First Nations the option of defining their own membership. About 250
First Nations have opted to control their own memberships; Indian people seeking
to join those First Nations must apply directly to them for membership. First
Nations that control their membership can grant it to both Status and non-Status
Indians. About 40 percent of the aboriginal population in Canada belongs to
First Nations.
According to DIAND, the largest
First Nations bands in 2001 were the Mohawk of Akwesasne in Ontario (9,500), the
Blood of Alberta (9,051), the Mohawk of Kahnawake in Québec (8,888), and the
Saddle Lake in Alberta (7,648). Only 10 percent of the bands had a population of
2,000 people or more, and 6 percent had populations of less than 100.
Because First Nations are
legal-administrative bodies recognized by the Canadian government, they are
eligible for funding from DIAND. DIAND distributes monies to First Nations for
social services such as housing, postsecondary education, community economic
development, business enterprises, health care, and youth programs. Inuit living
in recognized Inuit communities may also be eligible for some federal
benefits.
A3 | Native Americans on Reservations and Reserves |
A3a | United States |
In the United States, an Indian
reservation generally refers to land that the U.S. government set aside for a
tribe after the tribe relinquished its other land areas to the United States
through treaties. Congressional acts, executive orders, and administrative acts
have also created reservations. The federal government holds the reservation
lands in trust, and the lands are reserved for Native American use. As trustee,
the government is supposed to ensure that the land is properly managed and is
not lost to its Native American owners. In California and Nevada, Indian
reservations are often referred to as rancherias or colonies.
Indian lands also take other forms, including pueblos, Indian trust land outside
of a reservation, and Alaska Native villages.
In the United States, approximately
275 Indian land areas are administered as federal Indian reservations. The
largest is the Navajo Reservation, which has about 6.5 million hectares (16
million acres) of land in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Many of the smaller
reservations have less than 400 hectares (1,000 acres), and some California
rancherias have less than one acre. In 1990 less than half of the Native
American population lived on Indian lands, most of which are west of the
Mississippi River. But many people who do not live on reservations return to
them often to participate in family and tribal life; some Native Americans go
back to reservations to retire. Indeed, in the 1990s, many Native Americans went
back to reservations to stay. The overall Indian population has been growing on
or near reservations in North and South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and
Kansas.
Native Americans who live on
reservations benefit from federal programs that provide housing, health care,
education, and funds for economic development. But these programs are
inadequate. In 1990 half of all Native Americans on reservations were living
below the poverty level. Faced with substandard education, joblessness, poor
health care, and houses without plumbing, electricity, or telephones, many
Native Americans have been forced to leave reservations in search of jobs in the
surrounding areas or in cities.
A3b | Canada |
In Canada, reserves are lands set
aside by the Canadian government for First Nations. Beginning in the 1870s the
Canadian government negotiated treaties and agreements with First Nations that
took away most of the Indians’ lands in exchange for reserves, compensation, and
promises of future assistance. Today, these reserves are where First Nations
communities try to keep alive kinship ties, Indian languages, and shared values,
beliefs, and rituals.
According to DIAND, Canada has
approximately 2,670 reserves. Usually bands are identified with a specific
reserve, but many bands have rights to more than one reserve within a province
or territory. There are reserves in every province and territory; more than half
are located in British Columbia.
Some reserves cover several
thousand acres, but numerous reserves are small, both in land area and
population. Many are located in rural or remote areas, and some are accessible
only by air. Several reserves, however, are located in or adjacent to Canadian
cities. Some examples are the Musqueam Reserve in Vancouver, British Columbia;
the Membertou Reserve in Sydney, Nova Scotia; and Kahnawake Reserve near
Montréal, Québec. The three largest reserves are the Blood and Siksika Indian
Reserves in Alberta and the Moosomin Reserve in Saskatchewan.
According to DIAND, 58 percent of
Status Indians lived on a reserve in 2000. Any Status Indian who is also a band
member may live on a reserve. Some bands also allow band members who are
non-Status Indians to live on their reserves. First Nations may enact residency
bylaws that regulate who can live on reserves. Under certain conditions, they
may allow other people to live on the reserves. These include people who lease
land from a band, common-law spouses of Indians who have homes on reserves, and
clergy serving reserve residents.
The residents of reserves have
specific privileges, including the right to vote in most band elections. Indians
registered with the band do not pay federal or provincial sales taxes on
personal and real property on a reserve. If a First Nation receives money from a
land claims settlement or from royalties for natural resources, reserve
residents may have a right to a share of that money. About 100 First Nations
have rich natural resources such as timber, oil, and gas.
Canadian reserve conditions
resemble those of the United States. Poverty, unemployment, substandard housing,
poor health care, and family breakdown have driven people from reserves to urban
centers where they have better opportunities to find jobs.
A4 | Native Americans in Urban Areas |
A4a | United States |
During World War II (1939-1945),
some Indians left reservations and headed to cities, where they worked in
defense-related factories. After the war, however, many Indians returned to
reservations and surrounding rural areas, where they faced hard times because
there were few jobs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) took notice of the lack
of opportunities on reservations, and it sought to break up reservation life. In
the early 1950s it launched a massive program to relocate reservation Indians to
urban centers. The BIA’s Employment Assistance Program (also known as the
Voluntary Relocation Program) promoted the idea that reservations had too many
people. The program offered one-way bus tickets, temporary low-cost housing, and
new clothes to Indians who agreed to leave the reservations and resettle in
urban areas.
Many Indians went to cities and
stayed, and more continued to migrate despite the end of the relocation policy
in 1960. Soon, Indian populations in cities exceeded those of some reservations.
According to the 1990 census, more than half of all Native Americans lived in
cities. Large urban areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, California;
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Chicago, Illinois; and Seattle, Washington, have become
home to great numbers of Indians from many different tribes.
Once in urban areas, Native
Americans more commonly married people from other tribes, and the children from
these unions sometimes did not qualify for enrollment in either tribe. For some
people, this led to the decline of their tribal cultures and identities.
However, urban Indian groups soon developed communities with their own history,
culture, and concerns, and these communities replaced individual tribal
identities for some people.
Urban Indian communities organized
Indian centers in dozens of cities. These organizations helped all Indian
people, whether or not they were enrolled in a tribe or federally recognized.
They focused on their Indian, rather than tribal, identities. Today, Indian
centers sponsor powwows and other events that provide opportunities to
perpetuate traditional Native American music, dance, and other cultural
activities for their multitribal populations. Centers also find jobs for people
and run health clinics, daycare programs, soup kitchens, gift shops, and art
galleries.
During the 1990s Indian people in
cities began to reconnect with their tribes, and as a result urban Indian
communities have experienced a renewed focus on tribes. Because the majority of
Indian people now live in cities, tribal governments have been forced to become
more sensitive to their urban membership. Wisconsin’s Ho-Chunk Nation (formerly
known as the Winnebago) opened offices in Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s Oneida Indian Nation opened an office in Milwaukee as
well.
In most cases, tribal members must
return to the reservation to register their votes in reservation elections. But
recently, a number of tribes developed absentee ballots so city dwellers can
vote. Some tribal members running for office have begun to campaign in cities as
well as on the reservations. Some tribes have also given support to urban Indian
communities. The Oneida Indian Nation gave grants to Chicago Indian
organizations. Several rural southern California tribes helped sponsor an
intertribal music festival organized by an Indian center in Los Angeles
County.
A4b | Canada |
Since the 1970s Canada’s aboriginal
population has become increasingly urbanized. People have moved away from
reserves because of substandard housing or lack of housing, as well as the need
for more jobs and better educational opportunities and health care. About half
of Canadians with aboriginal ancestry now live in cities. Urbanization of the
Indian population is especially apparent in Canada’s major Western cities.
The 1996 census showed that one out
of five aboriginals lived in seven of the country’s 25 census metropolitan
areas, six of which are in western Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba, had the most
aboriginal people followed by Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia;
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Toronto, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta; and Regina,
Saskatchewan.
Once in cities, aboriginal people
face many challenges. They must adjust to an environment dominated by
nonaboriginal cultures and unfamiliar practices. Maintaining their specific
identities is difficult. People lose touch with their relatives, languages, and
homelands. City school curriculums largely ignore aboriginal cultures and
languages. Some indigenous peoples assimilate and blend into cities, getting
decent educations and higher-paying jobs and living longer. But others who do
not become part of the urban middle class suffer from poverty, routine violence,
and substance abuse.
Canadian government policy has paid
little attention to urban aboriginal peoples. Up until 1982, when the
Constitution of Canada was amended to define “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada” as
Indian, Inuit, and Métis people, the Métis, who are largely urban, were not even
included in federal policy. However, the federal government does provide some
support for the Office of the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status
Indians, a division of the federal government, and for Friendship Centers, which
provide a variety of programs for urban Indians. Provincial and municipal
governments treat aboriginal people in urban areas as part of the general
population.
Aboriginal people have tried to
remedy their problems in cities across Canada. With inadequate or no funding,
they are managing and staffing housing projects, childcare agencies, educational
institutions, and street patrols. Friendship Centers located in cities across
Canada aim to improve the quality of life for aboriginal people living in or
passing through urban areas. They provide a range of services and programs
including housing, education, employment, recreation, training, and cultural
programs. The Ontario-based National Association of Friendship Centers, which
does advocacy and lobbying work, focuses on urban youth issues such as suicide,
homelessness, education, and jobs.
B | Government and Political Activism |
B1 | Native American Governments |
B1a | United States |
Long before Europeans came to North
America, Native Americans were independent and self-governing. They had their
own political and legal systems, which varied greatly from group to group. After
tribes became subject to U.S. authority, they lost much of their political
power. Many tribes entered into treaties with the federal government that
acknowledged the right of the tribe to retain self-government while placing it
under the “protection” of the United States. Today, Native American tribes are
considered “domestic dependent” nations with limited sovereignty under the
jurisdiction of the U.S. government. The government has a “trust responsibility”
to Native Americans—that is, a legal obligation to protect Indian land,
resources, and rights of self-government. Native Americans born in the United
States are full citizens of the United States.
Two federal agencies, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS), administer programs
primarily for members of federally recognized tribes who live on or near
reservations. Members of federally recognized tribes who do not live on
reservations have limited relations with the BIA and the IHS.
On reservations, the tribal
government serves as the local governing authority. Tribes are free to choose
and operate their own forms of government. They decide what kind of government
best fits their needs depending on their cultural, historical, and religious
traditions. Most tribal governments are elected. Some tribes opt for written
tribal constitutions patterned after the U.S. Constitution as the foundation for
their governments; others have rejected written constitutions.
Governing bodies are generally
referred to as tribal councils. The presiding officer is often called the
chairman or chairwoman, although some tribes use other titles, such as principal
chief, president, or governor. Tribal councils have the power to represent the
tribe in negotiations with the federal, state, and local governments. Tribal
governments determine tribal membership for activities such as voting, and they
make laws to regulate aspects of everyday life such as marriage, divorce, and
child adoptions. They also levy taxes, pass tribal ordinances, regulate property
under tribal jurisdiction, maintain law and order among their members, and
punish and jail lawbreakers.
Tribally operated courts vary from
highly formalized ones modeled after U.S. courts to less formal bodies designed
for the informal resolution of disputes. In some New Mexico pueblos, the tribal
council serves as the tribal court, and in other tribes the tribal council
serves as the tribal court of appeals. Court proceedings may occasionally take
place in a Native American language. Tribal courts largely deal with divorce,
child custody problems, civil disputes between Native American citizens, and
minor crimes such as violations of fishing regulations.
Although states have the right to
regulate all persons and activities within their borders, Indian reservations
are a major exception. As a result, relations between states and tribes are
often strained. Indian lands are immune from town and county taxes and state
property taxes. States resent the fact that reservation Indians are not subject
to state taxes and regulation. Tribes resent state attempts to tax and regulate
them and actively guard their sovereignty against state encroachments.
Nevertheless, some state governments and tribes have taken positive steps to
deal with issues of joint concern.
B1b | Canada |
At the time of the Confederation of
Canada, the Constitution Act of 1867 gave the federal government legislative
authority over “Indians and lands reserved for Indians.” The federal government
carried out its broad mandate over Indians and their lands through the Indian
Act of 1876 and its amendments, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development Act of 1967, and numerous other statutes and legal obligations
arising from the Constitution Act. Native people born in Canada are full
citizens of Canada.
The Department of Indian
Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), also called Indian and Northern
Affairs Canada (INAC), has primary responsibility for meeting the federal
government’s constitutional, treaty, political, and legal responsibilities to
First Nations and Inuit. Many of DIAND’s programs and services—including
housing, education, and economic and social development—are targeted at Status
Indians who live on reserves. The vast majority of programs and services are
delivered in partnership with First Nations, who directly administer roughly 85
percent of the funds. For the most part, DIAND programs do not cover Métis and
non-Status Indians who do not live on reserves. These peoples receive minimal
monies for their political organizations and few programs to address their
special needs.
First Nations in Canada have their
own governing band councils, usually consisting of one or more chiefs and
several councilors. With few exceptions, band members elect the chief and
councilors. However, some band councils have rejected the elective system
because it conflicts with the traditional Indian hereditary system of governing.
While the federal government
allowed for the creation of First Nation governments to manage federal funds and
the bands’ land, First Nations have pressured the government for more
self-government. Under a federal policy developed in 1995, aboriginal groups
began to have the right to negotiate for self-government in areas such as
government structure, land management, health care, child welfare, education,
housing, and economic development. Negotiations take place between the
aboriginal groups, the federal government, and, in areas affecting its
jurisdiction and interests, the relevant provincial or territorial
government.
The federal government considers
aboriginal peoples who do not live on reserves the responsibility of the
provincial and territorial governments. While provinces and territories have,
for the most part, accepted this responsibility, it took time for them to
contribute funding to meet the immense needs of aboriginal peoples.
In 1993 Inuit leaders reached a
land claim agreement with the Canadian government to provide a separate
territory for the Inuit people. This agreement split off the eastern part of the
Northwest Territories into the Territory of Nunavut in 1999. This territory,
which is equal to about a fifth of Canada, became the first large political unit
in North America with an indigenous majority. Nunavut’s nonpartisan government
is open to every resident. However, because the Inuit make up 85 percent of the
population, they essentially govern the territory.
The Métis struggle for the right of
self-government. Two-thirds of self-identified Métis live in Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The Métis generally remain under provincial
jurisdiction except for eight Métis communities in Alberta that are somewhat
like Indian reserves and are governed by elected councils. Pursuing their goals
in part through the courts and federal negotiations, the Métis seek to increase
their land base, establish local government on this land base, and have the
right to self-government off the land base.
B2 | Political Activism and Organizations |
B2a | United States |
During the 20th and 21st centuries
Native Americans in the United States have promoted their interests and resisted
oppressive federal polices by becoming politically active. In the 1960s and
1970s the Red Power movement swept through reservations and cities where Native
Americans lived. This movement emphasized fighting for Native American rights,
developing pride in one’s Indian heritage, and sustaining traditional Native
American cultures and lands. Indian activists used direct-action techniques,
such as protests, occupations, mass demonstrations, and marches, to fight
discrimination and political oppression and to demand their lawful rights.
Native Americans also worked to increase their sovereignty. They wanted the
right to use and preserve sacred lands and sites, to control the education of
their children, to develop their own natural resources, and to establish an
economic base.
Since the 1970s Indian tribes and
hundreds of lawyers have also fought legal battles in courts and legislatures.
They have worked to protect what is left of their lands, or to reclaim land
previously lost, and to practice their religions without intrusive regulation by
government agencies.
Since the late 1980s some tribes
have profited from gaming operations, which have allowed them to make big
financial contributions to political campaigns at state and national levels.
Congress and state legislatures now hear Native American concerns. Tribes have
hired high-priced lobbyists and public relations firms to win influence and to
try to defeat political candidates who do not support Native American issues.
Tribes are also becoming players in national and state politics. American
Indians represent significant swing votes in states with concentrated Indian
populations, such as Arizona, California, Nevada, Oklahoma, and North
Carolina.
Today, there are many Native
American organizations that work to influence policymakers at all levels of
government. Some organizations are national and broad, while others focus on
particular issues, such as health care, education, or the arts. Founded in 1944,
the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is the oldest and largest
tribal government organization in the United States. More than 250 tribal
governments from every region in the country belong to NCAI. The organization
educates tribes, lawmakers, and the public about legislative threats to Indian
sovereignty and keeps its members informed about congressional actions that
could prove potentially damaging to tribes.
In 1970 the Native American Rights
Fund (NARF) was founded. This nonprofit Indian law firm provides legal
representation and technical assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and
individuals nationwide. NARF aims to preserve tribal existence and protect
tribal natural resources such as land, water, minerals, and wild game. It also
promotes human rights and educates the public about Indian rights, laws, and
issues.
Founded in 1977, the Seventh
Generation Fund (SGF) supports native community-based projects with small
grants, advocacy, leadership training, technical assistance, and financial
management. SGF work focuses on traditional economies, alternative energy, and
the preservation of sacred sites and traditional spiritual practices. United
South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET), a regional organization with more than 20
member tribes, is dedicated to improving the capabilities of tribal governments
and assisting member tribes in dealing with public-policy issues.
Native Americans have increasingly
become a presence in national politics and events. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a
Republican from Colorado and a chief of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, was a
United States senator from 1993 to 2005. He was the main champion for the
Omnibus Indian Advancement Act (2000), a compilation of various pieces of
legislation relating to Native Americans, including laws to grant recognition to
several tribes and to compensate tribes for land loss.
Elouise Cobell, a member of the
Blackfeet tribe from Montana, has dedicated herself to encouraging Native
Americans to achieve economic self-sufficiency. She helped the Blackfeet
National Bank gets its charter in the late 1980s after the only local bank in
Browning, Montana, the reservation capital, failed. She also helped start the
Native American Bancorporation Co., the first nationwide American Indian bank.
In 1996 she filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of Native
Americans accusing the U.S. government of longtime mismanagement of individual
Indian trust funds. A U.S. district court ruled that the government breached its
trust duties, and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling.
John Eagleshield, a member of the
Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, became director of the Native American Rights Fund in
1977. A leading force in Indian law and policy, Eagleshield has been called upon
to serve on special commissions and committees that are assigned to develop
state, regional, and national Indian policy. Winona LaDuke, a member of the
White Earth Chippewa of Minnesota, is a nationally and internationally acclaimed
activist and environmentalist who twice ran as vice president of the United
States with Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. She also began the White Earth
Land Recovery Project, a reservation-based nonprofit organization that works to
recover Indian land.
Wilma Mankiller, principal chief of
the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma from 1985 until 1995, is renowned for serving
her tribe and fighting to protect the rights of all Native Americans. She
revitalized her tribe by reducing Cherokee infant mortality, improving health
and education, and promoting Cherokee business interests. For her achievements
as chief, in 1998 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
country’s highest civilian honor.
B2b | Canada |
Canadian aboriginal political
activism changed dramatically during the 20th century. Until 1953 it was illegal
for Status Indians to raise funds to form political organizations. In 1969 the
Canadian government proposed abolishing special rights for Indians in a document
known as the White Paper on Indian Policy. The paper also called for phasing out
treaties and eliminating DIAND. Indians across Canada protested and formed
organizations at the provincial, territorial, and national levels to oppose the
White Paper policy. These new organizations then began the struggle for Indian
land rights.
Aboriginal people in Canada are
represented by four political organizations of general scope, each of which
represents a distinct community. In addition to these national organizations,
there are dozens of provincial and territorial associations.
The main organization representing
almost all Status Indians in Canada is the Assembly of First Nations. It was
formed in 1982 as a national lobbying organization for more than 600 First
Nations. The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), formed in 1971, represents
the interests nationally of off-reserve Indian and Métis people, regardless of
status under the Indian Act. The Métis National Council (MNC), established in
1983, is the national representative of the Métis peoples. The MNC seeks the
right to establish self-government on a Métis land base as well as the right to
self-governing institutions off a land base. The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada,
established in 1971, represents the Inuit throughout Canada. As the national
voice for Inuit people, it aims to enable Inuit to fully exercise their rights
within Canadian society, including their right for greater self-government.
For decades, numerous aboriginal
people have influenced Canadian policies and politics. One of the most
influential is John Amagoalik, a major champion and leading voice for Inuit
political rights. He spent 25 years negotiating the formation of Nunavut. In the
1980s he was president of Inuit Tapirisat Canada, which honored him in 1994 for
his notable contribution to Inuit political rights.
In the 1990s Matthew Coon Come,
grand chief of the Council of Cree of Northern Québec, was the principal leader
of the successful effort by the Cree to stop development of a hydroelectric
project in northern Québec. Coon Come put together a strong coalition of
environmental, human rights, and indigenous organizations to oppose the project,
and Hydro-Québec was forced to scale back the project in 1994. In 2000 Coon Come
was elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
George Erasmus has been a central
figure in aboriginal politics since the 1970s. He was elected national chief of
the Assembly of First Nations in 1985 and cochaired the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples from 1991 to 1996. That commission issued a report detailing
the conditions of aboriginal peoples. The report prompted an apology by the
government of Canada and led to a new federal action plan to change how the
government deals with Canada’s aboriginal peoples.
Ojibwa-Cree Elijah Harper,
Manitoba’s lone Indian legislator, made history in 1990 when he blocked passage
in the Manitoba legislature of the long-debated Meech Lake Accord, a
constitutional agreement that would have given the largely French province of
Québec special status as a “distinct society.” To Harper, the accord was “the
ultimate racist act” because it recognized only two founding nations in Canada,
English and French, and two official languages, and ignored aboriginal people.
Harper successfully stalled the accord, which required passage by all ten
provincial legislatures.
B3 | Land Claims |
B3a | United States |
In 1946 the U.S. Congress passed
the Indian Claims Commission Act (ICC). The act created a judicial body
expressly to resolve the more than 600 Indian land claims that had accumulated
over the previous 150 years. Prior to the ICC, Congress prohibited Indians from
making land or monetary claims against the federal government, unless it passed
special acts to allow them. Early on, the ICC commissioners determined that they
would only make monetary awards to Indian claimants and would not return the
title to the land. They made awards worth the market value of the land on the
date the United States acquired it. Once Indian tribes accepted money for the
land, they had to forgo forever any further claims to land. While most Indians
accepted their monetary awards, a small number did not. The Sioux tribes in
South Dakota, who won a claims suit over the Black Hills, refused to accept the
$105 million awarded them in 1974 and continued to demand the return of federal
lands. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the suit in 1980, and the award, in a
government account, has continued to earn interest since that time.
The ICC took years to resolve
claims; appeals to the Supreme Court tacked on more time. Because investigating
and ruling on claims was a slow and tedious process, Congress repeatedly
extended the ICC’s tenure. It finally expired in 1978. The ICC did not decide in
favor of all land claims. It ruled 342 as valid and dismissed at least 200.
Despite the ICC’s insistence on
awarding monetary claims only, a few tribes have been successful in having land
restored to them through congressional legislation. These claims hinged on the
use of land for traditional religious activities. In 1970 Congress restored the
Blue Lake (19,425 hectares/48,000 acres) in New Mexico to Taos Pueblo. In 1972
it returned a 8,000-hectare (21,000-acre) parcel of Mount Adams in Washington to
the Yakama, and in 1984 it restored the sacred area of Kolhu/wala:wa (4,000
hectares/10,000 acres) in Arizona to Zuni Pueblo. In 2000 Congress returned to
the Santo Domingo Pueblo of New Mexico an area of 1,900 hectares (4,600 acres)
that included shrines and other religious sites considered sacred by the
Pueblo.
In the late 20th century Native
Americans turned to courts to reclaim lost land. Tribes also tried to regain
homelands through other means, including working with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) to return federal lands to tribal trust (land held in trust by the
federal government that is reserved for Indian use), and buying land with
revenue from tribal enterprises, including gaming. They have also tried to
negotiate with landowners on reservation borders to will or deed land back to
the tribe and to find sponsors to purchase land and give it back to the
tribe.
Tribes stand to gain a great deal
if they can reclaim their lands. Lands are immune from town and county taxes as
well as state property taxes. When lands fall under tribal governments’ civil
and criminal jurisdiction, tribes can levy their own taxes on nontribal
businesses and enforce land-use regulations, building codes, and criminal
statutes. Tribes can also gain approval to establish casinos on the land.
B3b | Canada |
In Canada, aboriginal people pursue
land claims that the government recognizes in two broad classes: comprehensive
and specific. A comprehensive land claim is based on the recognition that there
are continuing aboriginal rights to lands and natural resources. This kind of
claim comes up in parts of Canada where Indians have not previously signed a
treaty with the government. Comprehensive land claims can include land title,
fishing and trapping rights, and financial compensation. Provinces and
territories participate in these land claim negotiations because the land and
most resources are under provincial and territorial control. Specific land
claims deal with specific grievances that First Nations may have regarding the
fulfillment of existing treaties. Specific claims also cover grievances relating
to administration of First Nations lands and assets under the Indian Act.
In settling land claims, Indians
can receive the right to self-government, large cash payments, and control over
their natural resources. They also can win the right to preserve traditional
activities such as hunting and fishing and to gain compensation from agreements
in which the government grants mining or timber rights to companies. At the same
time, the government may ask them to obey national laws, including strict
environmental regulations. They also forfeit any rights to future land claims
and may no longer be exempt from paying Canadian taxes.
In British Columbia, there are more
outstanding comprehensive claims by First Nations than in the rest of Canada
combined. More than 40 Indian bands in British Columbia have made land claims
that, if granted in their entirety, would cover most of the province, including
the city of Vancouver. One First Nation, the Nisga’a of British Columbia,
successfully negotiated a comprehensive treaty with the federal and provincial
governments. In 2000 the Nisga’a gained title to an area more than half the size
of Rhode Island as well as the right to govern themselves.
Until the late 1960s the use of
courts was a comparatively new thing for aboriginal people in Canada. Unlike the
United States, which had built up a huge body of Native American case law,
Canadian aboriginals did not use the courts very much. But since the late 1960s,
they have forced the Canadian courts to recognize a wide range of aboriginal
rights pertaining to land they have occupied since long before Europeans ever
set foot on the continent.
In the early 1970s the Québec
government decided to build a huge hydroelectric project, known as the James Bay
Project, on traditional Cree hunting grounds. The Cree went to Québec Superior
Court in 1972 seeking an injunction to halt construction. In a landmark
decision, the Court found in favor of the Cree, ordering work on the project to
be stopped and Québec to cease trespassing on Cree lands. Although a higher
court overturned the judgment, all sides determined that negotiation was better
than more litigation. The result, the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement of
1975, was an elaborate agreement. In return for large financial compensation and
the right of self-government, the Cree and Inuit surrendered their claims to the
territory. They received lands for their exclusive use and other lands with
exclusive hunting, fishing, and trapping rights.
C | Economic Issues |
C1 | United States |
By any statistical standard, Native
Americans living on reservations in the United States occupy the lowest rung on
the economic ladder. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), at least
half of the reservation population lives below the poverty line, surviving on
welfare checks, food stamps, and Medicaid. On reservations across the United
States, Native Americans live in rundown and overcrowded trailers and shacks.
For many, central heating, piped water, and indoor toilets are luxuries. In 1990
the Indian Health Service (IHS) reported that 43 percent of Indian children
younger than five years old lived in poverty. In 1995 more than 20 percent of
Native American reservation households had annual incomes below $5,000, compared
with 6 percent for the overall U.S. population. Only 8 percent of reservation
households had annual incomes greater than $35,000, compared with 18 percent for
the overall U.S. population. Nearly a decade later, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau, the median household income for Native Americans was $32,866, compared
with a median household income of $43,318 for the overall U.S. population.
People living on reservations have
the highest rates of unemployment in the United States—up to 70 percent or more
on some reservations. On South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to
the Lakota peoples, unemployment rates hovered around 80 percent in 2006. Some
of the most commonly cited reasons for high unemployment among Native Americans
are lack of education, discrimination, and the scarcity of jobs and industry on
and near reservations. Non-Indian businesses are reluctant to locate on
reservations because of misperceptions about tribal governments, cultural
factors, and a lack of infrastructure such as roads, sewage systems, and
industrial parks. Tribal councils may also lack the business experience
necessary to oversee business operations.
Many Indians move to cities in search
of better schooling, improved housing, and higher-paying jobs. For Indians with
job skills or a good education, urban areas offer more opportunities. Native
Americans in cities have lower unemployment rates than those who live on
reservations. While urban areas provide better opportunities for some, moving to
these locations often entails other costs. Native Americans in cities do not
always improve their standard of living because housing, food, clothing, and
health care are more expensive in urban areas.
Native Americans on reservations
depend heavily on federal and tribal governments for jobs. The BIA and IHS
employ workers in law enforcement, road construction, logging, and health care.
Tribal governments create jobs in tourist enterprises and manufacturing plants.
But many tribal leaders say more jobs are needed to solve the severe problems of
unemployment and poverty.
Many Indians see self-employment as a
viable way to increase employment opportunities, and the number of Indian-owned,
reservation-based businesses increased during the late 20th century. Native
Americans own everything from construction companies, food stores, and
manufacturing plants to printing presses, restaurants, and trucking
companies.
Native Americans have also tried to
reach out to other businesses in the United States. The Native American Business
Alliance, founded by Native Americans, has fostered relationships leading to
contracts between companies owned by Indians and corporations such as Toyota
Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and The Walt Disney Company. There are
also numerous regional and state American Indian chambers of commerce that
cultivate economic opportunities among industry, corporations, tribes, and
Indian-owned businesses.
Since the mid-1960s the U.S.
government has tried to revitalize reservation economies. Although the
government helped fund or build roads, sewage systems, and industrial parks to
attract new businesses to reservations, relatively few industries have located
permanently on them. Since 1965 the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic
Development Administration (EDA) has provided more than $1 billion in financial
assistance to Indian tribes and organizations for economic and community
development. Other federal programs that assist Native American economic
development include the Small Business Administration’s Office of Native
American Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development
Program, and the Rural Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community Program.
Across the country reservations with
few other economic opportunities have turned to gaming operations such as
casinos as a means to economic independence. In 1988 Congress passed the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act, which allowed Native American tribes to negotiate with
states for gaming compacts. By 2006 tribal nations with gaming compacts were
earning about $22 billion in revenues from the gaming industry. Tribal gaming
operations are regulated at four levels: by the tribal government, by the state
government, by the National Indian Gaming Commission, and by federal government
agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA).
In 2001 about one-third of federally
recognized tribes owned a total of about 300 casinos in 29 states. Of these,
only a few Native American communities have reaped large profits. Highly
publicized tribal casinos such as the Mashantucket Pequots Tribal Nation’s
Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux
Community’s Mystic Lake Casino in Minnesota have created the impression that all
Indian casinos are wildly successful. The Florida Seminole buttressed that
impression in 2006 when they announced the purchase of the Hard Rock Café
business for $965 million. The purchase resulted from their successful operation
of seven casinos in Florida. But not all Indian casinos are successful. Many
casinos are marginal operations. In truth, the majority of American Indians have
benefited little from the explosion of Indian gaming. Only an estimated 25
percent of the jobs from the gaming industry are held by Native Americans.
Native Americans who have benefited
from gaming operations have the capital to provide childcare programs, housing,
roads, scholarships, health clinics, and water systems for their people.
Revenues also fund tribal law enforcement and fire fighting and other services.
New jobs have lured Native Americans back to their reservations, but many people
work for low wages as cashiers, waitresses, and hotel workers. In actuality,
casinos have just scratched the surface of the economic problems confronting
reservations.
Some tribes have turned to cultural
tourism to generate revenues and diversify their economies. According to the
Western American Indian Chamber of Commerce in Denver, Colorado, as many as 75
percent of federally recognized tribes are involved in tourism or are making
plans to be. Many tribes have built tourist attractions such as shops on their
reservations. They have also started touring companies and marketed their
attractions at tourist trade shows internationally. The intertribal Arizona
American Indian Tourism Association, created in 1994 to promote tourism among
the state’s tribes, is one of several state organizations working to increase
tourism. Powwows and festivals, most of which are west of the Mississippi, have
drawn increasing numbers of visitors in recent years.
Many tribes and individual Native
Americans possess land with natural resources such as water, timber, oil, gas,
coal, and other minerals. If these resources were developed, they would provide
a significant source of wealth. The Department of the Interior holds these
natural resources in trust, and the BIA and other federal agencies collect fees
from those who use them on behalf of tribes and individual Native Americans. In
the 1990s there were disclosures that the federal government had mismanaged some
of these natural resources, such as agreeing to substandard leasing deals for
Native American timber, oil, natural gas, and minerals. Often, Native Americans
were never informed who had leased their land, for what purpose, how much the
lease was for, or how long the lease was to run. In addition, individual Indians
did not receive what was owed them.
In recent years tribes have
recognized the need to manage their own resources. Unshackling themselves from
layers of federal bureaucracy, they are developing, or choosing not to develop,
their lands. Great debates take place among Native Americans over whether and
how to develop natural resources. Those tribes planning to develop natural
resource have endorsed intensive use that can net millions of dollars for tribes
and individuals. They have renegotiated coal leases, made oil and gas agreements
joint ventures, and included provisions for tribal employment, training, and
scholarships. Other tribes who have resisted developing the land argue that
commercial exploitation of resources clashes with their environmental
concerns.
C2 | Canada |
Aboriginal people in Canada, on and
off reserves, also occupy the lowest rung on the economic ladder. Their income,
unemployment rates, education levels, and skills remain below that of the
general population. Problems are especially acute on reserves, most of which are
far from population or industrial centers. Opportunities for commercial or
industrial employment are rare. On many reserves, chronic unemployment rates can
run to 75 percent or higher.
Double-digit jobless rates—combined
with hunger, poverty, and inadequate housing—force people to move to cities
where more jobs are available. But the low education levels of aboriginal
peoples and discrimination against them combine to limit job opportunities.
Unemployment rates for urban aboriginal people are double that of
nonaboriginals.
Aboriginal businesses have been
emerging across Canada. In a 1996 government survey, 20,000 aboriginal people
said they owned a business, 70 percent of which were full-time operations.
Almost 60 percent of them are located on or near reserves. Businesses tend to be
small with one employee besides the owner. Operations range from video stores
and gas stations to commercial fishing ventures, publishing companies, and radio
stations. Some indigenous peoples have also formed cooperatives where they sell
artwork, carvings, and other crafts.
A growing interest in aboriginal
peoples has encouraged First Nations, like U.S. tribes, to develop business and
job opportunities in tourism. Indeed, tourism has become one of the major tools
in economic development. It brings money into communities and is generally
environmentally friendly. Cree and Inuit community-based tours have brought
tourists from all over the world to see their landscapes and experience their
ways of life. However, small entrepreneurs still face many challenges setting up
tourist businesses. Getting a business started is expensive, and it takes time
to develop a clientele. Also they often do not have enough money to advertise.
In fact, First Nations are now turning to the Internet to promote their
businesses.
The federal and provincial
governments have tried to address some aboriginal economic problems. They grant
subsidies, which provide something of a cushion, preventing total economic
collapse among Indians on reserves and in cities. Subsidies include welfare,
pensions, unemployment insurance, and family allowances. A Canadian government
agency, Aboriginal Business Canada, has provided financial and other support to
more than 5,000 aboriginal-owned firms. Provinces such as Saskatchewan and
Alberta have also developed plans to assist urban aboriginal people to find jobs
and childcare, and individual bands help members start businesses. National
organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada,
and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples all try to help develop economic
opportunities as well.
Settling land claims is a necessary
step toward economic independence for First Nations because it gives them a
secure and stable land base and greater control over natural resources. If bands
can manage their natural resources, they will have a more equitable share in the
wealth of their lands. They can also help their communities become more
economically self-sufficient. Without control over natural resources, aboriginal
people are locked out of economic activities taking place in their own
backyard.
D | Social Issues |
D1 | Education |
D1a | United States |
For generations, federal and state
governments have controlled the formal education of Native American children
nationwide. Of the 600,000 Native American elementary and secondary
schoolchildren in the United States, about 75 percent attend public schools,
even on Indian reservations. Less than 10 percent of the student population
attends BIA-operated elementary and secondary schools. Private, parochial, and
tribally run schools serve the remaining Native American students.
In general, federal and state
control of education has been disastrous for American Indian students in the
United States. For the most part, public schools have been unable to address the
needs of Indian communities because Indian educational programs are chronically
underfunded. There are few Native American teachers, little parental
involvement, and the curriculum lacks a Native American viewpoint. In the public
schools, Native American students have the highest dropout rate of any racial or
ethnic group—36 percent in 1990.
College graduation rates for Native
Americans are also low. In 1995 Native American students accounted for less than
1 percent of all students in higher education. The majority of these students
attended two-year institutions rather than four-year schools. Also that year,
the graduation rate for Native Americans at a group of more than 300 colleges
and universities was only 37 percent, the lowest among major ethnic minority
groups. In addition to educational and economic hurdles, many social barriers
have prevented Native American students from attending college. Cultural and
language differences as well as the geographic isolation of most reservations
have often inhibited student access to or persistence in mainstream
colleges.
After a history of compulsory
Western methods of learning, attempts to eradicate tribal cultures, and high
dropout rates for Native Americans, Indian educational leaders wanted to rethink
Native American education. They built on the success of the self-determination
movement of the 1960s to explore other ways of educating Native Americans. Since
that time Indian communities have had a growing voice in and control over the
education of their children. In 1966 the Navajo Nation created Rough Rock
Demonstration School, a highly successful Indian-controlled elementary school
located on the reservation. It has an all-Indian school board, classes in Navajo
and English, and a community-developed curriculum. By the 2000 school year, 65
percent of BIA-funded schools were controlled by tribes or tribal organizations
in the United States.
Native American educators have also
recognized the importance of postsecondary education and its ability to
strengthen reservations and tribal cultures. Federal legislation in the 1970s
provided funds to help develop postsecondary educational institutions for Native
Americans. In 1968 the Navajo Nation created the first tribally controlled
college, now called Diné College. Other tribal colleges quickly developed. Most
are located on remote reservations and have a relatively small, predominantly
Native American student population. All began as two-year institutions and have
open admissions policies. In 2001 most tribal colleges were fully
accredited.
D1b | Canada |
For more than 300 years, the
dominant Euro-Canadian society educated aboriginal peoples in Canada. However, a
new era in education began in 1972, when the National Indian Brotherhood
published a policy paper entitled “Indian Control of Indian Education.” This
paper led aboriginal people to take greater control of their children’s
schooling. Since then, Indian-controlled education has played a major role in
revitalizing Indian cultures. It ensures that Indian values, identity,
languages, and traditions are passed to younger generations.
Education is a provincial and
territorial responsibility. The federal government also provides funds for
schools in the territories and on Indian reserves. Status Indians on reserves
may attend elementary and secondary schools operated by First Nations or federal
schools operated by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
(DIAND). Status Indians off reserves can attend provincially administered
schools. Territorial governments provide educational services for Status Indians
and Inuit in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. DIAND also
provides financial assistance, through First Nations councils and other
authorities, to eligible Status Indian students enrolled in, or accepted to,
eligible postsecondary educational programs.
During the 1999-2000 school year,
there were more than 480 reserve-controlled schools, up from 53 in 1975. That
same school year, 60 percent of Indians who lived on reserves attended
elementary and secondary schools run by bands, 37 percent attended provincial
schools, 2 percent attended private schools, and 1 percent attended schools run
by the federal government. The Nisga’a Indians of British Columbia were one of
the first bands, in 1974, to take charge of a separate Indian school district
that emphasized a bicultural, bilingual curriculum. In 1975 the James Bay Cree
assumed control of schools on their reserve. A Cree school board controls a
substantial budget and provides services to the students. It has implemented a
Cree-oriented curriculum and in-service training for Cree teachers.
The new era in Indian education has
also led to an increase in Indian curricular materials in the public schools.
Federal and provincial governments have financed curriculum development, special
education programs for indigenous peoples, and teacher training in Indian
languages. Increasingly, many of the country’s public schools have added
learning materials written from an Indian perspective to the curriculum. In some
provinces, teachers can take courses in aboriginal studies at the university
level; these courses count as credit for subjects they can later teach.
The new emphasis on Indian
education at elementary and high school levels has been matched at the
postsecondary level. Enrollment by Status Indians and Inuit at universities and
colleges has dramatically increased from 60 students in 1960 to an estimated
27,000 in 2000-2001. According to DIAND, the rate of graduation is 13 percent.
In 1976 a First Nations-controlled university-college, the Saskatchewan Indian
Federated College, opened. Its mission has been to “preserve, protect, and
interpret the history, language, culture, and artistic heritage of First
Nations.” Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in British Columbia and the Six
Nations Polytechnic in Ontario also provide culturally relevant educations for
Canada’s aboriginal population.
Despite these successes, much
remains to be done. In a 2001 report on the education of Indian children on
reserves, a federal auditor gave DIAND a failing grade. Only 37 percent of
aboriginal students graduated from high school in 1996. More aboriginal teachers
are also needed in the classrooms. In provincial public schools, only about 1
percent of the educators are aboriginal. Almost three-quarters of these teachers
are in special education programs where aboriginal students are
overrepresented.
D2 | Physical and Mental Health |
D2a | United States |
Over the past century the general
health condition of Native Americans in the United States has undergone great
changes. In the early and mid-1900s they were struck by repeated and severe
epidemics of measles, influenza, whooping cough, and diphtheria. Tuberculosis
became the greatest killer of all. Otitis media, an infection of the inner ear
often causing hearing loss, was especially prevalent in the 1950s and
1960s.
By the late 20th century these
infectious diseases were brought under control by a combination of
immunizations, new medications, and a better standard of living. However, Native
Americans developed other problems that evolved in response to the effects of
rapid cultural change. Mental disorders, alcoholism, and domestic violence
became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988, according to the Indian
Health Service (IHS), Native American deaths due to alcoholism were more than
four times greater than those reported for the general population. Suicide rates
among American Indians were 77 percent higher than the national average in 1998,
and suicides are generally clustered among youth ages 15 to 34. Diabetes, a
growing epidemic, occurs at significantly higher rates in the Indian community
than in the non-Indian community. In 1996 Native Americans were 2.8 times as
likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as whites of similar age. The human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have
become a growing threat to Native Americans, who comprise 6 percent of all new
HIV infections in the United States, although they only represent about 1
percent of the U.S. population. The five-year survival rate for Native Americans
with all cancers is the poorest for all ethnic groups.
The delivery of health services to
Native Americans is unique. The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency of the
Public Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services, has
administered the principal federal health programs to Native Americans since
1955. The IHS has 12 area offices throughout the United States. These offices
serve either regional areas or states with large Indian populations such as
California and Oklahoma. The IHS provides direct health-care services through
IHS facilities such as hospitals and clinics. For services that an IHS facility
cannot provide, such as organ transplants or open-heart surgery, the IHS
contracts with a non-IHS facility.
Any member of a federally
recognized tribe may obtain care at an IHS hospital or clinic. For contract
care, a member of a federally recognized tribe can receive services within
certain geographical boundaries, which map to the IHS area offices. For example,
Indians who live in California can receive contract care from facilities in
California that have a contract with the IHS but not from contract facilities in
Arizona. Due to a limited budget, IHS facilities do not meet all the health-care
needs of Native Americans. Not all reservations or communities have medical
clinics or hospitals, and those that do often have small and outdated
facilities.
In urban areas, Native Americans
have limited access to the IHS system because there are few IHS facilities
there. Although more than half of all Native Americans live in cities, only a
small portion of the IHS budget is used to fund urban health-care centers. Since
Congress passed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act in 1976, urban
health-care services have been expanded to include direct medical, alcohol,
mental health, and HIV/AIDS services as well as disease prevention services.
However, urban health centers still do not have sufficient funding to address
all the health-care needs of urban Native Americans.
Today, some tribes have begun to
operate their own health-care facilities with funding from the IHS. When tribes
handle their own health programs, they can limit the use of their facilities to
only their tribal members if they choose. Tribes usually welcome members who
live in cities but transportation to reservations can be an obstacle. As tribes
gain more federal funding, urban areas have received even less funding.
Because of a lack of money to pay
good salaries, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are leaving clinics on Indian
reservations in droves. Job vacancies, low pay, and a high rate of worker
turnover in Indian health-care facilities have eroded the quality of health
care. In 1998 there were 74 doctors for every 100,000 Native Americans in the
United States, compared to 242 per 100,000 in the general population.
Long-term continuity in health care
is rare in the Indian community. Doctors who come to reservations usually do not
stay for more than two or three years, and Native Americans rarely see Indian
doctors. Many elderly Indian people delay or avoid seeking IHS medical help
because of language and cultural barriers. Few health-care professionals speak
Native American languages.
There is a vital need for Native
Americans in the health and medical fields. Recently, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services has partnered with some tribal colleges to recruit,
train, and retain Native Americans in the public health and medical
professions.
D2b | Canada |
By any measure, health issues are
one of the most pressing concerns in aboriginal communities in Canada. The
prevalence of diabetes among First Nations is at epidemic levels, at least three
times greater than the national average, with high rates occurring in all age
groups. The rates of diabetes are higher on-reserve than off-reserve. An
aboriginal peoples survey showed that Métis also have diabetes at rates above
nonaboriginal people. They also have less access to health services compared to
the general population. Diabetes rates are also increasing among Inuit, who have
the lowest access to health-care services. This increase is due to the rise of
risk factors such as obesity and physical inactivity in some Inuit
communities.
Statistics show that AIDS cases
among aboriginal people in Canada rose steadily from 1984 to 1996, when
aboriginal people constituted 5.6 percent of all AIDS cases for which the
ethnicity of the patient was known. A higher proportion of aboriginal people are
diagnosed with AIDS at less than 30 years of age than nonaboriginal people.
Aboriginal people who travel between cities and rural reserve communities are a
factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Tuberculosis (TB) still strikes
aboriginal people in Canada. A combination of malnutrition, confinement on
crowded reservations with poor sanitation, and lack of immunity to the TB
bacterium create conditions for the epidemic. Incidences of TB leveled off in
the 1980s, but aboriginal Canadians living on reserves were still ten times more
likely to have TB than nonaboriginal Canadians in 1990.
No national studies provide
information about the prevalence or incidence of family domestic violence in
aboriginal communities. However, several provincial and regional studies have
grim findings. One 1997 Health Canada study of some northern aboriginal
communities reported that between 75 percent and 90 percent of women were
battered. The study found that 40 percent of children in these communities had
been physically abused by a family member. A 1991 study by Aboriginal Nurses
Association of Canada found alcohol and substance abuse and economic problems
are factors in much of the family violence.
Other physical health issues that
affect aboriginal peoples in Canada are poverty and suicide. According to a
report by First Nations leader Matthew Coon Come, six out of every ten
aboriginal preschoolers live in dire poverty. Aboriginal babies are more than
twice as likely to die at birth than nonaboriginal babies. Grinding poverty,
hopelessness, and despair have led some Indian youths to commit suicide at
higher rates than the overall Canadian population.
Health services for First Nations
are the responsibility of provincial, territorial, and federal governments. The
provinces and territories provide or pay for physician and hospital services
that are covered under their health insurance plans. The federal government
provides treatment and public health services to First Nations that are not
included under provincial and territorial plans, such as prescription drugs,
dental services, eyeglasses, and medical transportation in remote areas.
In 1979 Canada’s new Indian Health
Policy recognized the need for increased involvement of aboriginal people in the
health-care system. Indeed, the federal government supports the transfer of
control of health programs to First Nations and Inuit organizations. It funds
services through contract arrangements. Community-centered health-care systems
such as the Cree Regional Board of Health, Labrador Inuit Health Commission, and
Blood Tribe Department of Health service the special needs of their communities.
Aboriginal organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations have worked with
Health Canada on strategies for eliminating TB on reserves. Inuit Tapirisat
Canada has initiatives concerning HIV/AIDS and mental health as well as a cancer
information project.
Despite aboriginal involvement,
major challenges still exist to solving the aboriginal health crisis in Canada.
Federal funding does not come close to addressing aboriginal physical and mental
health needs. Thousands of aboriginal health-care workers need to be trained,
and doctors who set up practices in remote regions need to be retained.
E | Arts and Culture |
In the United States and Canada, Native
American cultures are reaffirming their identities by combining aspects of their
ancient traditional ways with 21st-century mainstream culture. Native Americans,
like any other peoples, live in apartment buildings, shop at malls, and surf the
Internet. They also dress in traditional clothes, speak their own languages, and
practice their own religions. Native ceremonial practices such as Haida
potlatches, Lakota Sun Dances, and Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) thanksgiving rites
coexist with satellite dishes and cell phones.
E1 | Religion |
Despite a long history of persecution
and suppression by the U.S. and Canadian governments, hundreds of indigenous
religious traditions have endured in North America. Ancient traditional
religions of the Pueblo and Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), for example, survive and
remain strong, while other Native Americans practice Christianity exclusively.
Some Native Americans pray in church and attend Indian healing ceremonies,
finding that both traditions offer comfort. Still others follow the Peyote
religion, which attracts followers from many U.S. tribes.
Native Americans in both the United
States and Canada have a long tradition of transmitting religious ceremonies and
ideas through traditional stories. There is no written sacred book like the
Bible, although some North American Indians keep records with sacred symbols
written on wooden sticks or woven into wampum belts. Native North American
storytellers have kept alive spiritual and cultural traditions by telling
stories that pass on a wide range of teachings about a people’s creation, moral
behavior, laws, and survival skills.
Tribes have also worked to protect
important religious items. In the United States, tribes have been outraged by
the desecration and looting of Indian graves. They have demanded the return of
skeletal remains, burial goods, and other sacred objects taken from them. For
many years, Native Americans fought to reclaim ancestral remains and sacred
objects despite tremendous opposition by some museum directors and curators,
state historical societies, physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and
National Park Service officials who wanted to study them. Native American
protest efforts paid off in 1990 when the U.S. government enacted the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). NAGPRA protects Indian
gravesites from looting and sets up legal procedures for Indians to reclaim
artifacts of religious or ceremonial importance. Reclaiming skeletal bones,
totem poles, masks, wampum belts, medicine bundles (collections of objects
believed to heal disease and ward off ghosts), and other objects from museums
has inspired tribes to revive old ceremonies and tribal traditions. In Canada,
the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, a federal law passed in 1977,
protects aboriginal cultural property, including sacred objects and human
remains.
E2 | Language |
In the past, a community’s elders
passed on Native American languages to the young. As Native American communities
have become more dispersed, however, this natural process has been disrupted,
and hundreds of spoken languages have died out. Of the more than 300 original
languages in North America, only 150 are still spoken, and less than 50 are
widely spoken. Some of the most widely spoken languages include Yupik and
Inuit-Inupiaq (Eskimo), Navajo, Ojibwa (Chippewa), O’Odham (Papago and Pima),
Cherokee, and Choctaw. A 1990 Canadian House of Commons report stated that 43 of
Canada’s 53 indigenous languages were on the verge of extinction. Only three
languages—Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut—were believed to be strong enough to
survive.
Many Native American communities in
the United States and Canada have sought to revitalize their languages before
elderly speakers die. Without languages, ceremonies cannot continue, children
cannot communicate with their grandparents, and adults cannot voice prayers. On
many reservations and reserves, Native Americans are preserving and revitalizing
languages through classroom and online instruction and radio shows broadcasting
in languages such as Inuktitut, Lakota, Mi’kmaq (Micmac), and Navajo.
E3 | Arts |
Native North Americans have long
defined and shaped their own art forms. Today, Native American artists create
with clay, animal hides, and grasses as well as with computers, camcorders, and
welding equipment. They produce quillwork, ceramics, baskets, jewelry, and other
traditional art forms as well as contemporary beaded baseball hats and steel
sculptures. Many Native American artists produce work that has a clear
connection to their forebears but incorporates Western techniques and styles.
Other artists create works that reflect upheavals that have decimated Native
American societies.
In the United States, there are
countless Native American artists. A few prominent artists during the second
half of the 20th century included Arthur D. Amiotte (Oglala Lakota), who was
influenced by the traditional artistic legacy of the Lakota, and Harry Fonseca
(Maidu), who created a series of works placing coyote figures in contemporary
settings. Peter Jemison (Cattaraugus Seneca) used mixed media in his work, and
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish/Cree/Shoshone) created abstract landscapes
using ancient pictographs as inspiration. Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee/Winnebago)
often painted two sections—a landscape and an abstract image—in one work, while
Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo) used large canvases to explore nature. Important
sculptors included Allan Houser (Apache), who produced sculpture in stone, wood,
and bronze, and Truman Lowe (Winnebago) who sculpted out of natural materials
such as wood and leather.
Canada also had many noteworthy
aboriginal artists in the second half of the 20th century. Carl Beam (Ojibwa)
juxtaposed images from Western and Native American history in his art. Robert
Davidson and Dorothy Grant, both Haida, worked together; he created designs for
her clothing. Faye Heavyshield (Blood), a sculptor, combined elements from her
Blood and boarding school upbringing. Alex Janvier (Dene) blended stylized
abstract renderings of natural forms with traditional Plains arts, and Lawrence
Paul Yuxweluptun (Cowichan-Okanagan) used his work to address his Indian
heritage along with a broader range of concerns such as controversial political
issues.
Beginning in the late 1960s and early
1970s there was a steady increase in contemporary Native American music. Native
American musicians combined their ancient chants and instruments with folk,
rock, reggae, country, New Age, or rap to convey their messages. Saxophonist Jim
Pepper (Creek/Kaw) developed a unique mix of jazz and tribal music, while
members of the Canadian band Kashtin (“tornado” in the Innu language) blended
folk-rock and Cajun. Singers such as Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree) protested against
government mistreatment of indigenous peoples. Harold Littlebird (Pueblo),
Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida), and John Trudell (Santee Dakota) became important
U.S. recording artists in the 1980s and 1990s.
Native North Americans have a rich
history of expressing cultural heritage through performance. In traditional
societies, most celebrations, whether sacred or social, involved music and
dance. Native Americans have continued to express themselves through traditional
music and dance performances. They also have adopted Western forms of
performance including ballet and modern dance. Renowned troupes such as the
Native American Dance Theater in the United States and the Chinook Winds
Aboriginal Dance Program in Canada stage dramatic dance performances.
When Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday
won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1969 for his novel House Made of Dawn
(1968), the acclaim he received helped draw attention to Native American
literature. Since that time, scores of Native North American people have
published works. Drawing much of their power from the oral tradition, many
Native American writers use their own tribal worldviews as the vehicle to
present modern themes about Native American cultural experiences and struggles.
Writers in the United States such as Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Leslie Marmon
Silko (Laguna Pueblo), and James Welch (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre) explored the
power of traditional beliefs and the despair of living in two worlds. They and
others wrote about Native Americans struggling with alcoholism, dams that flood
traditional fishing grounds, and tourists who invade sacred sites. The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), one of the works by
world-renowned poet and novelist Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene), formed
the basis of his screenplay for Smoke Signals (1998), a movie he
also produced. Native Americans such as Hanay Geiogamah (Kiowa/Delaware) also
used plays to delve into indigenous issues.
In Canada, Jeannette Armstrong
(Okanagan) explored the social obstacles and racial stigmas that indigenous
peoples in Canada face in Slash (1985). Thomas King (Cherokee) wrote
works that combined humor with commentary about the stereotypes indigenous
peoples fight against. Alootook Ipellie was the first Inuit writer to have his
collection of short stories, Arctic Dreams and Nightmares (1993),
published. Lee Maracle (Métis) presented strong perspectives on cultural
autonomy. Playwrights such as Tomson Highway (Cree) produced works that also
explored indigenous issues.
Although a handful of Indian
filmmakers were already making documentaries in the United States and Canada, in
the 1970s hundreds of Native Americans began producing, directing, and acting in
independent film and video. Since 1991, festivals organized by Native Americans
have resulted in wider opportunities for Native American film and video artists.
These artists include Victor Masayesva, Jr. (Hopi), Sandra Osawa (Makah), and
Beverly Singer (Tewa-Navajo) in the United States, and Alanis Obomsawin
(Abenaki) and David Poisey (Inuit) in Canada.
F | Outlook |
Hundreds of Native North American
peoples have survived an onslaught of government policies and wars dedicated to
destroying them. What sustained them were traditional family and clan
relationships, kinship with homelands, religious ceremonies, ancient stories
connecting older and younger generations, and shared traditions that maintained
each tribe’s uniqueness.
Native Americans have also revived some
cultural practices that were at risk of disappearing. In a revival of a
Northwest Coast Indian tradition, totem poles are again being raised in Haida
villages on Canada’s Queen Charlotte Islands as well as at Alaska’s Metlakatla
reservation, home to the Tsimshian. The Intertribal Bison Cooperative, an
association of more than 40 tribes, has restored bison to Indian lands. The
Wampanoag of Aquinnah, Massachusetts, are working with linguists to restore
their Algonquian language. Across North America, giveaways and potlatches, once
forbidden, are again taking place. Modern powwows exemplify active Native
American resistance to cultural annihilation. They are not so much a performance
for an audience as they are a way of sharing, reinforcing, and expressing
heritage.
Despite efforts to stamp out Native
American cultures, many have survived and even been revived. Although they still
face many economic and social challenges, Native Americans continue to survive
and flourish by maintaining their distinct cultures.
Arlene Hirschfelder contributed the
Introduction and Native Americans Today section of this
article.
No comments:
Post a Comment