The Ghost Dance / Spirit Dance / Prophet Dance
Began: Late 1880's.
Purpose: To unite all people of all nations with each other in love and peace, and to unite them with their happily departed loved ones in the Great Beyond. Some tribes also believed that a Native American Messiah would come and kill all of the white men, which would leave the Native Americans in peace. This made the white men very uneasy and the dance was outlawed. Because the Lakota-Sioux ignored these orders, in 1890, the U.S. Army retaliated which led to the massacre at Wounded Knee and the death of Chief Sitting Bull. 251 Lakota men, women and children were either wounded or killed and 64 U.S. Army cavalrymen were either wounded or killed.
Basic Elements: A shuffling-dance to the left in a circle, around the person presiding over the dance. A lot of drumming, chanting, and trance-states. Everyone who participates wears a "ghost shirt," which is a shirt that is said, erroneously, to have the magical ability to protect one from bullets.
Tribes that practiced the Ghost Dance: the Paiute, Lakota-Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Ojibwe.
The Scalp Dance
Began: At least as early as 1325 AD.
Purpose: A victory dance to celebrate the taking of a trophy from their enemies.
Basic Elements: Traditions vary depending on the tribe, but basically, scalps (which still had their hair) were attached to long decorated poles and danced around in circles by both the men and the women. Among the Cheyenne, the Scalp Dances, which were also courtship dances, were orchestrated by the Hee-Man-Eh, the gay or transvestite members, who were also the matchmakers and medicine men of the tribe.
Tribes that practiced the Scalp Dance or who were known to scalp their enemies: Tonkawa, Crow, Creek, Iroquois, Natchez, Meskwaki, Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Lakota. The British, the American Colonists and the French also took scalps of Native Americans, but utilized the scalping services of their Native American allies so they wouldn't get their lily-white hands dirty.
The War Dance
Began: Probably as soon as one tribe encroached on the territory of another.
Purpose: To purify the soul and body in preparation for battle.
Basic Elements: Singing, dancing, prayer, purification rituals, handling of sacred objects, rattles, drums, whistles, and may contain special masks, face-paint and clothing.
Tribes that practiced the War Dance: Pueblo, Iroquois, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Apache, Shoshone, Lakota, Omaha and Paiute.
Green Corn Dance / Green Corn Celebration
Began: Probably about the same time that certain tribes settled down and started to grow corn.
Purpose: Celebration of the corn harvest that centers around a central bonfire that transmits prayers to the Breath-maker, enemies reconcile, and debts and sins are forgiven. Fasting and emetics to purify the body were a big part of this celebration.
Basic Elements: Older buildings are torn down and replaced, old pottery is broken and the ovens cleaned. Brave young men are given their war-names, and the Feather Dance is performed in a square, not a circle. The Corn Dance itself is circular and involves miming the act of pouring corn into a bowl. While the women prepare the after-fast meal, the men go down to the river to purify themselves. Afterwards, participants engage in an all-night Stomp Dance. The ceremony lasts 4-8 days.
Tribes that practiced the Green Corn Dance: Muskogee, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Timucua and Seminole.
Stomp Dance / Drunken Dance / Crazy Dance / Inspirited Dance
Began: Unknown.
Purpose: Insures the wellbeing of the tribe. Often held in conjunction with the Green Corn Ceremony, Duck Dance, Friendship Dance or Bean Dance.
Basic Elements: A Dusk-to-Dawn dance of shuffle-and-stomp. Can include "medicine" prepared by a Healer. Among the Chickasaw, the leader of the dance calls out to the Creator and his alternating male-and-female followers either keep up the rhythm with ankle-rattles (women) or call out the answer (men.) Whatever the leader asks of the Creator will be theoretically be fulfilled in four days.
Tribes that practiced the Stomp Dance or some variation: Muskogee, Creek, Yuchi, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Caddo, Delaware, Miami, Ottawa, Peoria, Shawnee, Seminole, Natches, Ojibwe, Menominee, Nez Perce and Seneca-Cayuga.
Sun Dance / Sunshine Dance:
Began: Unknown
Purpose: To offer personal sacrifice for the well-being of the tribe, to heal sicknesses, and to insure the fertile continuance of the world. Also to celebrate the first menstrual periods of the girls, their initiation into womanhood and as a courtship dance. It has been banned by the U.S. Government because of the piercing.
Basic Elements: Dancing, singing, prayer with flute music, fasting and skin piercing.
Tribes that practiced the Sun/Sunshine Dance: Shoshoni, Crow, Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne.
Rain Dance / Snake Dance (Hopi) :
Began: Probably about the same time that the droughts began in the Southwest, around 300 BC.
Purpose: Usually performed by agrarian tribes, the dance is done to bring about rain, particularly in drier areas, or during unusually long droughts.
Basic Elements: The color blue for sky, and feathers for wind are part of the ceremonial dress. Unlike the usual circle dances, the Rain Dance is performed in a zig-zag, possibly to evoke lightning. The Hopi, who live in the desert, have an elaborate rain-and-ancestor dance called the "Snake Dance" in which the Snake Clan priests and their assistants gather up snakes to ask them to tell the gods who live in the Underworld (where it is cool) to send rain.
Tribes that practiced the Rain Dance: Pueblo, Zuni, Cherokee, Apache, Hopi.
Grass Dance:
Began: A very long time ago.
Purpose: To imitate the swaying of the long grasses, to stomp it down in preparation for a ceremony, and to symbolically stomp down one's enemies.
Basic Elements: Stomping on grass while dressed in roaches, fringes and ribbons.
Tribes that practice the Grass Dance: Omaha, Pawnee, Ponca, Dakota, Winnebago, Crow.
Fancy Dance;
Began: Possibly 1920's.
Purpose: Originally begun to circumvent white man's laws against Native American dances, namely the War Dance and the Ghost Dance, Fancy Dances are now part of the Gathering of Nations and other ceremonial dances.
Basic Elements: Wearing brightly-colored clothes and feathered bustles (like a spray of peacock feathers only with feathers that did not come from peacocks), long fringes, pin-feather roaches, feathered armbands, beading and bells. Both men and women participated in a very fast-paced and often competitive stomping dance set to drums, with fancy leaps and turns. Women wear brightly-colored shawls that they open to represent the slow-opening of a cocoon. Extremely strenuous and athletic. For a picture of bustles, go to http://www.red-path.org/regalia/dance-bustles.html.
Tribes that practice the Fancy Dance: Ponca, Kiowa, Comanche and probably others.
Bear Dance:
Began: Before the 1400 AD.
Purpose: To channel the spirit of the bear, its wisdom, its maternal instinct, its ferocity, protection, strength, freedom, courage, power, confidence, victory, courage and the desire for peace. It is both a pre-hunting dance and a courtship dance.
Basic Elements: This, of course, varies per tribe, but someone (usually or always a woman) wears a bear-skin, complete with head, over her dark clothes, and imitates the movements of a bear while dancing. She does imitative butt-against-tree-scratching, walking crouched as though on all fours, mock fighting, and other bear movements. Around her are several other women wearing white, long-fringed shawls and beaded buckskins, also dancing to drumbeats. In the Ute tribe, they do a line dance in which the women line up in one line and the men line up in the other, facing the women, and they dance back and forth at each other, and the women choose their partners from the line of men by flicking their shawls at them.
Tribes that practice the Bear Dance: Shoshone, Aleut, Haida, Sioux, Cree, Ute, Cherokee.
Pow Wow / Big Time / Gathering of Nations:
Began: Perhaps as long ago as the 1600's.
Purpose: To celebrate all things Native American with other Native Americans.
Basic Elements: Tribal dances, singing, drum rotations, raffles, contests, the Grand Entry parade, prayers, flags, music. The hosts of these events are also responsible for maintaining inter-tribal respect, areas for spectators, food booths, vender booths, the circular arenas and the tents or arbors. The drums cannot get wet and the ceremonial participants are not to be touched. Photographs may or may not be taken.
Tribes that participate in the Pow Wow: Most of the Pow Wows appear to be regionally-oriented or geographical-area-specific.
Disclaimer: I have not included all of the Native American dances here, because they seem to be done by only one or two tribes. It should also be noted that I have painted with a wide brush the way in which these dances are performed. Each tribe that performs them does so in their own way with their own distinctive touches. However, it is hoped that these broad strokes will give the reader a general idea.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
An Aside on the Iroquois League and the Great Law of Peace
Once upon a time, many moons ago, the vast ancestral Iroquoia tribe lived in the northeastern part of North America. Then, in about 1000 AD, they broke into many smaller tribes: the Mohawk, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida, the Cayuga, the Cherokee, the Susquehannock who were also called the Conestoga, the Wyandot who are also called the Hurons, the Wenrohronon, the Neutral, the Erie, the Tuscarora, the Nottoway and many others whose names have been lost to time. These tribes all spoke the same language, wore the same clothes, ate the same foods, lived in the same kinds of longhouses, but, as hunters and warriors, they were very territorial, violent, savage, brutal, cannibalistic and completely lawless. They fought hard against each other, took much land away from each other and took many scalps, even if those scalps belonged to their brothers from the same ancestral tribe. These men did not listen to their wives, their mothers or their grandmothers, even though these women were full of wisdom and longed for peace. Nor did these men care about their children, nor value life and life's continuance.
Then, on August 31, 1142 AD, although some say that this happened in 1451 AD, the sun was blotted out by the moon and the land of the Northeast was plunged into darkness. The people, who in all of their lives had never seen this before, were completely terrified. Shortly thereafter, a prophet came to the Mohawk people. He was of the Onondaga tribe and his name was Deganawida. Inasmuch as Deganawida, who was a favorite of the Creator, was of halting and broken speech, he brought with him a smooth-tongued disciple named Hiawatha, and Hiawatha spoke for him, as Aaron had spoken for his stuttering brother, the Prophet Moses. And so it was that this prophet, Deganawida, through his disciple Hiawatha, gave his message, which he had received from the Creator, to the Mohawk people, that all of the people who lived in longhouses, the Mohawk, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida and the Cayuga, should live as brothers in peace, that they should trade with each other, listen to the wisdom of their mothers and their grandmothers, and give up their barbarous and cannibalistic ways, at least in relation to each other.
The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, which is what came out of Deganawida's message to the people, was between the Mohawks, the Cayuga, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida and the Tuscarora. There were fifty war chieftains who represented each of the five tribes, and each tribe had a different role in the Grand Council but no one tribe and no one role was more important than the other, and all were equal under the law, regardless of the size or wealth of the tribe that they represented. Each tribe also had its own designated specialty. The war chieftains of the Onondaga were the Executive branch. The war chieftains of the Mohawk and the Seneca tribes were the legislative branch. The war chieftains of the Tuscarora, the Cayuga and the Oneida tribes were the House of Representatives and the Voice of the People. The Clan Mothers were the Judicial branch, but since they were not part of the Grand Council, they probably heard their cases back in their own tribal villages.
When a question regarding trade and war was brought before the Grand Council, it passed through the Mohawk and Seneca (the legislative branch) council members, and then through the Oneida and Cayuga (the Representative) council members, and then through the Onondaga (executive branch) council members for final judgment. This process was used whether the question was brought by an individual or a war chief on behalf of his tribe. All individual members of the Iroquois League, whether they were male or female, rich or poor, commoner or chieftain, were equal under the law. If a war chief of the Grand Council was found guilty of murder, he was deposed and his Clan Mothers were deposed, and their titles were transferred to another war chieftain and Clan Mother of the tribe, and there was likely hell to pay.
The Grand Council were required, at all times, to be honest with no collusion or corruption because The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation was designed to promote unity between the five (or six) tribes, to protect the Iroquois against other non-Iroquoian tribes, to preserve human dignity, to promote peace, discussion and decision-making, and to protect the rights of the people within the tribes through a system of checks-and-balances. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion were also a large part of the Iroquois Constitution, slavery was outlawed, and women were given an unprecedented amount of personal and political power.
The tribes agreed that there was to be no more cannibalism. This, however, didn't seem to take, since there were reports of cannibalism among the Iroquois tribes as late as the 1600's, when the Great Law of Peace was already five hundred years-old. However, the Iroquois Constitution did not rule out brutally torturing non-Iroquoian captives taken in "mourning wars" and raids. However, it is possible that before the Constitution was devised, captives were tortured in order to break their spirits, and if their spirits would not be broken, that they were then killed and eaten by the entire Iroquois tribe so that they could partake of their enemy's strength, bravery and unbroken spirits, and that after the Constitution was devised, the adoption of the stoic enemy was substituted for cannibalizing him.
Then, on August 31, 1142 AD, although some say that this happened in 1451 AD, the sun was blotted out by the moon and the land of the Northeast was plunged into darkness. The people, who in all of their lives had never seen this before, were completely terrified. Shortly thereafter, a prophet came to the Mohawk people. He was of the Onondaga tribe and his name was Deganawida. Inasmuch as Deganawida, who was a favorite of the Creator, was of halting and broken speech, he brought with him a smooth-tongued disciple named Hiawatha, and Hiawatha spoke for him, as Aaron had spoken for his stuttering brother, the Prophet Moses. And so it was that this prophet, Deganawida, through his disciple Hiawatha, gave his message, which he had received from the Creator, to the Mohawk people, that all of the people who lived in longhouses, the Mohawk, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida and the Cayuga, should live as brothers in peace, that they should trade with each other, listen to the wisdom of their mothers and their grandmothers, and give up their barbarous and cannibalistic ways, at least in relation to each other.
The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, which is what came out of Deganawida's message to the people, was between the Mohawks, the Cayuga, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida and the Tuscarora. There were fifty war chieftains who represented each of the five tribes, and each tribe had a different role in the Grand Council but no one tribe and no one role was more important than the other, and all were equal under the law, regardless of the size or wealth of the tribe that they represented. Each tribe also had its own designated specialty. The war chieftains of the Onondaga were the Executive branch. The war chieftains of the Mohawk and the Seneca tribes were the legislative branch. The war chieftains of the Tuscarora, the Cayuga and the Oneida tribes were the House of Representatives and the Voice of the People. The Clan Mothers were the Judicial branch, but since they were not part of the Grand Council, they probably heard their cases back in their own tribal villages.
When a question regarding trade and war was brought before the Grand Council, it passed through the Mohawk and Seneca (the legislative branch) council members, and then through the Oneida and Cayuga (the Representative) council members, and then through the Onondaga (executive branch) council members for final judgment. This process was used whether the question was brought by an individual or a war chief on behalf of his tribe. All individual members of the Iroquois League, whether they were male or female, rich or poor, commoner or chieftain, were equal under the law. If a war chief of the Grand Council was found guilty of murder, he was deposed and his Clan Mothers were deposed, and their titles were transferred to another war chieftain and Clan Mother of the tribe, and there was likely hell to pay.
The Grand Council were required, at all times, to be honest with no collusion or corruption because The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation was designed to promote unity between the five (or six) tribes, to protect the Iroquois against other non-Iroquoian tribes, to preserve human dignity, to promote peace, discussion and decision-making, and to protect the rights of the people within the tribes through a system of checks-and-balances. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion were also a large part of the Iroquois Constitution, slavery was outlawed, and women were given an unprecedented amount of personal and political power.
The tribes agreed that there was to be no more cannibalism. This, however, didn't seem to take, since there were reports of cannibalism among the Iroquois tribes as late as the 1600's, when the Great Law of Peace was already five hundred years-old. However, the Iroquois Constitution did not rule out brutally torturing non-Iroquoian captives taken in "mourning wars" and raids. However, it is possible that before the Constitution was devised, captives were tortured in order to break their spirits, and if their spirits would not be broken, that they were then killed and eaten by the entire Iroquois tribe so that they could partake of their enemy's strength, bravery and unbroken spirits, and that after the Constitution was devised, the adoption of the stoic enemy was substituted for cannibalizing him.
The Shoshone of the Old West
Tribe: The Shoshone, from the Shoshone word "Sosoni." There are the Eastern, Northern and Western Shoshone.
Meaning of Name: Shoshone means "High Grass People." They call themselves the "Newe" which means "People." Their ancestors had been in the high desert for thousands of years and called themselves the "Numa." They are also called the "Snake People" probably because many of them lived by the Snake River in Oregon.
Location: Originally, in 2000 BC, the Shoshone were in Nevada and Utah. Then, between 700 BC and 1500 AD, they were pushed into Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Oregon and some Shoshone migrated as far south and west as Southern California.
Original Language: Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
Tribal Affiliations: Comanche (a branch of the Shoshone), Crow, Nez Perce, Paiute. They also traded with the Spanish, who would not give them guns, which made the Shoshone susceptible to the other tribes in the Great Plains who had guns.
Traditional Enemies: The other tribes of the Great Plains, namely, the Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Lakota. The good news is that they weren't terribly interested in destroying their enemies, but in counting coup (taking slaves and trophies.)
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees and wickiups (small temporary tents made of grasses, branches and leaves.)
Traditional Attire: buckskin breechcloths and leggings for the men, long dresses with wide sleeves for the women. These were often richly adorned with fringes, quills and beadwork. In colder weather and climes, they wore rabbit robes and pants. They also wore their hair long and often in braids, and did not, originally, wear fancy headdresses.
Traditional Foods: Since this was such a wide-ranging and nomadic tribes, what they ate depended on where they were. Of those who were hunters and gatherers, they ate bison, sheep, fish, antelope, rabbit, beaver, elk, fox, roots, berries, seeds, nuts and even pulverized grasshoppers. Of those who lived in more settled areas, they had a more agrarian society and grew and ate wheat, squash, corn, pumpkins and barley. However, as their game thinned, even their more permanent villages were temporary. Shoshone were, on the whole, not particularly well-off, economically-speaking.
Position of Women: Neutral. Women were valued as artists, home-makers (literally), child-bearers and gatherers, but it is not known how great a role they had in their individual bands. Their value, along with the value of their children, seemed to have been primarily as slaves for other tribes. They and their children tended to huddle in the middle of their encampment for safety during a raid, and if a warrior from the other tribe managed to get as far into that encampment as to reach the women and children, and to capture them, this was considered a great accomplishment.
Shoshone Courtship: Outside of frequent kidnapping, not much is known.
Interesting Tidbits: The Shoshone divide themselves into the following bands: Buffalo Eaters, Sheep Eaters, Sage Brush People, Salmon Eaters, Mountain People, Jackrabbit Eaters, Wild Wheat Eaters, Mountain Sheep Eaters, Groundhog Eaters, Bitter Root Eaters, Mentzelia Seed Eaters, Fish Eaters, Redtop Grass Eaters, Pine Nut Eaters, Tulle Eaters, Ricegrass Eaters, Ryegrass Eaters, Buffalo Berry Eaters and seven or eight other bands with less-interesting translated names. So, like the Paiute, you are what you eat.
Traditional Religion: Native American religion, Christianity.
Slavery and the Shoshone: Since they lived as nomads in the Frontier, they probably didn't participate much in the Civil War, and as a group, they were generally too poor to afford slaves. Sacagawea, on the other hand, was captured during some skirmish by another tribe, and sold to a Frenchman, which would make her a slave until he married her.
Current Population: There are between 12,000 and 30,000 registered Shoshone.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, casinos in Idaho.
Famous Shoshone: Sacagawea, Shoshone guide to Lewis and Clark.
Meaning of Name: Shoshone means "High Grass People." They call themselves the "Newe" which means "People." Their ancestors had been in the high desert for thousands of years and called themselves the "Numa." They are also called the "Snake People" probably because many of them lived by the Snake River in Oregon.
Location: Originally, in 2000 BC, the Shoshone were in Nevada and Utah. Then, between 700 BC and 1500 AD, they were pushed into Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Oregon and some Shoshone migrated as far south and west as Southern California.
Original Language: Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
Tribal Affiliations: Comanche (a branch of the Shoshone), Crow, Nez Perce, Paiute. They also traded with the Spanish, who would not give them guns, which made the Shoshone susceptible to the other tribes in the Great Plains who had guns.
Traditional Enemies: The other tribes of the Great Plains, namely, the Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Lakota. The good news is that they weren't terribly interested in destroying their enemies, but in counting coup (taking slaves and trophies.)
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees and wickiups (small temporary tents made of grasses, branches and leaves.)
Traditional Attire: buckskin breechcloths and leggings for the men, long dresses with wide sleeves for the women. These were often richly adorned with fringes, quills and beadwork. In colder weather and climes, they wore rabbit robes and pants. They also wore their hair long and often in braids, and did not, originally, wear fancy headdresses.
Traditional Foods: Since this was such a wide-ranging and nomadic tribes, what they ate depended on where they were. Of those who were hunters and gatherers, they ate bison, sheep, fish, antelope, rabbit, beaver, elk, fox, roots, berries, seeds, nuts and even pulverized grasshoppers. Of those who lived in more settled areas, they had a more agrarian society and grew and ate wheat, squash, corn, pumpkins and barley. However, as their game thinned, even their more permanent villages were temporary. Shoshone were, on the whole, not particularly well-off, economically-speaking.
Position of Women: Neutral. Women were valued as artists, home-makers (literally), child-bearers and gatherers, but it is not known how great a role they had in their individual bands. Their value, along with the value of their children, seemed to have been primarily as slaves for other tribes. They and their children tended to huddle in the middle of their encampment for safety during a raid, and if a warrior from the other tribe managed to get as far into that encampment as to reach the women and children, and to capture them, this was considered a great accomplishment.
Shoshone Courtship: Outside of frequent kidnapping, not much is known.
Interesting Tidbits: The Shoshone divide themselves into the following bands: Buffalo Eaters, Sheep Eaters, Sage Brush People, Salmon Eaters, Mountain People, Jackrabbit Eaters, Wild Wheat Eaters, Mountain Sheep Eaters, Groundhog Eaters, Bitter Root Eaters, Mentzelia Seed Eaters, Fish Eaters, Redtop Grass Eaters, Pine Nut Eaters, Tulle Eaters, Ricegrass Eaters, Ryegrass Eaters, Buffalo Berry Eaters and seven or eight other bands with less-interesting translated names. So, like the Paiute, you are what you eat.
Traditional Religion: Native American religion, Christianity.
Slavery and the Shoshone: Since they lived as nomads in the Frontier, they probably didn't participate much in the Civil War, and as a group, they were generally too poor to afford slaves. Sacagawea, on the other hand, was captured during some skirmish by another tribe, and sold to a Frenchman, which would make her a slave until he married her.
Current Population: There are between 12,000 and 30,000 registered Shoshone.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, casinos in Idaho.
Famous Shoshone: Sacagawea, Shoshone guide to Lewis and Clark.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The Kiowa of Oklahoma
Tribe: The Kiowa. There is one very large tribe, called the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma.
Meaning of Name: The Kiowa call themselves the "Ka'igwu" which means "The Principal People." The name "Kiowa" may also be mangled Arapaho for "Koh'owu," which means "Creek."
Location: Originally from the upper Mississippi River, they were bumped south by the Ojibwe tribe to Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in the mid-1600's AD. In the 1800's, they were forced to relocate to reservations in Oklahoma, and now most of them live off-reservations in towns.
Original Language: Kiowa, of the Tanoan language family.
Tribal Affiliations: Pueblo and Mandan tribes for trading things like crops. Also the Crow and the Comanche for the purpose of sharing hunting grounds.
Traditional Enemies: Cheyenne, Arapaho, Navajo, Ute, Osage, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and basically everyone else on the Plains. However, they weren't terribly interested in utterly destroying their enemies. Mostly, they wanted to prove their bravery by counting coup, which was like a game of "Tag! You're it!" on horseback. And they liked to steal horses from the Spanish ranches and from other tribes like the Navajo and their own friends, the Pueblo.
Traditional Style of Housing: Buffalo-skin teepees, since they followed the bison. These were made and owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: Women wore long fringed white three-piece deerskin dresses decorated in beading and yellow and green. Men wore breechcloth and leggings and no shirt until contact with the white man, at which point, they added long-sleeved shirts with long fringes. Both wore moccasins and had long hair, sometimes in braids. The Kiowa women had tribal tattoos on their foreheads.
Traditional Foods: The Kiowa men hunted bison, elk, pronghorn sheep, turkey, wild mustang and bears. Also lizards, waterfowl, snakes, skunks, horses, mules, camp dogs, and stolen Longhorn cattle when times were lean. The women made pemmican and gathered berries, tubers (potatoes), seeds, nuts (pecans, acorns), vegetables (wild onions) and wild fruits such as prickly pear, persimmons, and plums. Since they were nomadic, they traded with agrarian tribes for squash, corn and beans.
Position of Women: The Kiowa were patrilineal, so they reckoned kinship through the father, not the mother. The women put up and took down the teepees, did the gathering, raised the children, did the sewing, and did a little hunting, but the Kiowa were a male-dominant culture, and women gained their status primarily through the achievements of their husbands, fathers and sons.
Kiowa Courtship: None that I could find. Probably patrilineal descent, with flute-playing substituting for the bride-price of horses.
Interesting Tidbits: The Kiowa liked to dress up their horses for war with beaded masks, horns and feathers.... Many non-Kiowa (probably male) who were captured by them elected to stay with them or return to them if they were "rescued" by their people, which speaks well of the way that they were treated.... Kiowa are also well represented in Native American fine arts.
Slavery and the Kiowa: The Kiowa joined forces with that Comanche in the 1800's in order to execute violent raids in Texas and Mexico for the purpose of stealing horses, taking women and children as slave-laborers, and asserting their domination over the territory.
Current Population: There are more than 12,000 registered Kiowa.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Oil and gas, casinos in Oklahoma and small businesses.
Famous Kiowa: None that I have heard of.
Meaning of Name: The Kiowa call themselves the "Ka'igwu" which means "The Principal People." The name "Kiowa" may also be mangled Arapaho for "Koh'owu," which means "Creek."
Location: Originally from the upper Mississippi River, they were bumped south by the Ojibwe tribe to Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in the mid-1600's AD. In the 1800's, they were forced to relocate to reservations in Oklahoma, and now most of them live off-reservations in towns.
Original Language: Kiowa, of the Tanoan language family.
Tribal Affiliations: Pueblo and Mandan tribes for trading things like crops. Also the Crow and the Comanche for the purpose of sharing hunting grounds.
Traditional Enemies: Cheyenne, Arapaho, Navajo, Ute, Osage, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and basically everyone else on the Plains. However, they weren't terribly interested in utterly destroying their enemies. Mostly, they wanted to prove their bravery by counting coup, which was like a game of "Tag! You're it!" on horseback. And they liked to steal horses from the Spanish ranches and from other tribes like the Navajo and their own friends, the Pueblo.
Traditional Style of Housing: Buffalo-skin teepees, since they followed the bison. These were made and owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: Women wore long fringed white three-piece deerskin dresses decorated in beading and yellow and green. Men wore breechcloth and leggings and no shirt until contact with the white man, at which point, they added long-sleeved shirts with long fringes. Both wore moccasins and had long hair, sometimes in braids. The Kiowa women had tribal tattoos on their foreheads.
Traditional Foods: The Kiowa men hunted bison, elk, pronghorn sheep, turkey, wild mustang and bears. Also lizards, waterfowl, snakes, skunks, horses, mules, camp dogs, and stolen Longhorn cattle when times were lean. The women made pemmican and gathered berries, tubers (potatoes), seeds, nuts (pecans, acorns), vegetables (wild onions) and wild fruits such as prickly pear, persimmons, and plums. Since they were nomadic, they traded with agrarian tribes for squash, corn and beans.
Position of Women: The Kiowa were patrilineal, so they reckoned kinship through the father, not the mother. The women put up and took down the teepees, did the gathering, raised the children, did the sewing, and did a little hunting, but the Kiowa were a male-dominant culture, and women gained their status primarily through the achievements of their husbands, fathers and sons.
Kiowa Courtship: None that I could find. Probably patrilineal descent, with flute-playing substituting for the bride-price of horses.
Interesting Tidbits: The Kiowa liked to dress up their horses for war with beaded masks, horns and feathers.... Many non-Kiowa (probably male) who were captured by them elected to stay with them or return to them if they were "rescued" by their people, which speaks well of the way that they were treated.... Kiowa are also well represented in Native American fine arts.
Slavery and the Kiowa: The Kiowa joined forces with that Comanche in the 1800's in order to execute violent raids in Texas and Mexico for the purpose of stealing horses, taking women and children as slave-laborers, and asserting their domination over the territory.
Current Population: There are more than 12,000 registered Kiowa.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Oil and gas, casinos in Oklahoma and small businesses.
Famous Kiowa: None that I have heard of.
An Aside: Dogs in the Americas
Domesticated dogs seem to have come across the Bering Strait at the same time as the earliest Native Americans, and probably accompanied them. They were used for hunting, fishing, as pets, as companions, as early warning systems, as protection, and as pullers of travois, those triangular wheel-less supply carts. All but the Inuit or Eskimo (Sled) Dog are extinct. For a picture of a dog pulling a travois, go to http://womenofthefurtrade.com/wst_page16.html.
The Plains Indians had dogs that looked a bit like Australian dingoes but in a variety of colors. The Tahl Tan Bear Dog of British Columbia in Canada was a small dog that was carried in a pouch and was used for hunting and worrying bears. It looked a little like a Papillon. The Clamman Indian Dog of the Northwest was another small dog that was shorn of its hair like sheep, which was then used for making sturdy blankets. (The dog's hair, not the dog, itself.)
As the European immigrants began to encroach on Native North American land, dogs became illegal to own since they could warn the tribe of invaders. And since most of the dogs were very small, they were no match, physically, for the larger, heavier dogs that the immigrants had brought with them from Europe.
On the other hand, we have the Chihuahua, the dog of Mexico. Like the Tahl Tan Bear Dog of British Columbia and the Clamman Indian Dog of the Northwest, the Chihuahua was a small dog, and is now the smallest dog in the world. They are thought to be the descendants of the Techichi, representations of which date back to 300 BC. Given their very intelligent and gallant natures, it seems a shame that the Aztecs raised and sold them as food.
The Plains Indians had dogs that looked a bit like Australian dingoes but in a variety of colors. The Tahl Tan Bear Dog of British Columbia in Canada was a small dog that was carried in a pouch and was used for hunting and worrying bears. It looked a little like a Papillon. The Clamman Indian Dog of the Northwest was another small dog that was shorn of its hair like sheep, which was then used for making sturdy blankets. (The dog's hair, not the dog, itself.)
As the European immigrants began to encroach on Native North American land, dogs became illegal to own since they could warn the tribe of invaders. And since most of the dogs were very small, they were no match, physically, for the larger, heavier dogs that the immigrants had brought with them from Europe.
On the other hand, we have the Chihuahua, the dog of Mexico. Like the Tahl Tan Bear Dog of British Columbia and the Clamman Indian Dog of the Northwest, the Chihuahua was a small dog, and is now the smallest dog in the world. They are thought to be the descendants of the Techichi, representations of which date back to 300 BC. Given their very intelligent and gallant natures, it seems a shame that the Aztecs raised and sold them as food.
The Blackfoot of Montana
Tribe: The Blackfoot, or "Niitsitapi" is a confederacy of four smaller tribes, three of which are in Canada, and the fourth is in Montana. The three Canadian tribes are the Northern Peigan, the Siksika and the Kainai, and the tribe in Montana is the Southern Peigan.
Meaning of Name: Niitsitapi means "Original People." They also call themselves "Pikuni" in Algonquin. Other than that, it is theorized by some that they are called the "Blackfoot" because the soles of their moccasins have been dipped in pine tar and ash to make them more durable, and the forested terrain darkened the tar and ash until it turned black.
Location: Originally from the forests of Eastern Canada, in about 1200 AD, the Blackfoot traveled west and settled in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, with a group of them traveling south from there to Montana in the United States. They followed the bison and wintered and summered in two different places, as did the bison. They now live on reservations located on their old hunting grounds.
Original Language: Algonquin.
Tribal Affiliations: The Gros Ventres (the "Fat Bellies"), who called themselves the Naywattamee, and the Athabascan-speaking Sarcee.
Traditional Enemies: The Cree, a Canadian tribe, as well as Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, Cheyenne, the Sioux (the Dakota, the Lakota and the Nakota), the Plains Ojibwe, the Metis and many other tribes. Wars, horse-thieving and raiding parties were common. The Blackfoot men were particularly partial to kidnapping Shoshone women and their children. They weren't too fond of white men encroaching on their hunting grounds, either.
Traditional Style of Housing: Because the Blackfoot followed the bison, and were therefore nomadic, they lived in buffalo-hide four-pole teepees. Once white men had hunted the bison close to extinction, the Blackfoot lifestyle and diet were radically altered, and they took to a more sedentary lifestyle, and moved from teepees to log cabins. The teepees and log cabins were owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: Bison-skin fur-lined breach-cloth, leggings, tunics, skirts for the women, moccasins, and split-horned headdress (one bison horn, split in half and decorated.) The men wore their hair long and decorated with feathers and beads.
Traditional Foods: The Blackfoot men hunted bison, pronghorn sheep, moose, antelope and elk, but 90% of their diet was bison meat. (One bison could weigh as much as 2000 pounds and every bit of it was used, so the relatively small bands of Blackfoot didn't need to kill many to keep themselves in bison jerky.) They traditionally avoid hunting and eating snakes, reptiles and grizzly bears, fish, seafood and fishing. The women made pemmican, jellies, and jams, and made a baked bread using the same ingredients as Indian Fry Bread. They also gathered service berries, black walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, crabapples, plums, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, persimmons, hickory nuts, acorns, agave, yucca and corn.
Position of Women: Low. This was a warrior and hunting culture. Women did all of the cooking, beading, clothing-production, moccasin-making, food-production and bison-processing. Men did the hunting, the raiding, and the wars and took the leadership roles.
Blackfoot Courtship: The girls would paint the parts of their hair in red to show that they were ready for marriage and child-bearing, but most marriages were pre-arranged by the families while the bride and groom were still children. Unlike most of the Native Americans, the brides went to live in the teepees of their in-laws. Gifts between families were exchanged, and there doesn't seem to have been a bride-price of horses, deer meat, textiles or the playing of flute-music.
Interesting Tidbits: Before they learned about horses, they used dogs to pull their supplies in travois, which is a wheel-less cart shaped like a triangle. Once they discovered how to use horses, horses became the main source of currency, and the richest man was the one who could afford to give most of his herd of horses away.... A boy was given a silly name until he had stolen his first horse or killed his first enemy, at which time he was given a respectable name.... Like other Plains Indians, they engaged in "Counting Coup" by using long feathered sticks to poke their enemies.... Their young men engaged in vision quests, and of the Indian Tribes, they were the most like the Hollywood stereotype.
Traditional Religion: Very nature-based, with story-telling and creation myths, deeply spiritual.
Slavery and the Blackfoot: It has been suggested that escaped African slaves may have been part of the Blackfoot tribe, but a more likely scenario is that they found a safe harbor with the Seminole, because southern cotton plantations are closer to Florida, and the Everglades would provide better cover for dark-skinned people than the wild open places of Montana.
Current Population: There are more than 32,000 registered Blackfoot, but most live in Canada.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: factories.
Famous Blackfoot: Nobody that I have heard of.
Meaning of Name: Niitsitapi means "Original People." They also call themselves "Pikuni" in Algonquin. Other than that, it is theorized by some that they are called the "Blackfoot" because the soles of their moccasins have been dipped in pine tar and ash to make them more durable, and the forested terrain darkened the tar and ash until it turned black.
Location: Originally from the forests of Eastern Canada, in about 1200 AD, the Blackfoot traveled west and settled in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, with a group of them traveling south from there to Montana in the United States. They followed the bison and wintered and summered in two different places, as did the bison. They now live on reservations located on their old hunting grounds.
Original Language: Algonquin.
Tribal Affiliations: The Gros Ventres (the "Fat Bellies"), who called themselves the Naywattamee, and the Athabascan-speaking Sarcee.
Traditional Enemies: The Cree, a Canadian tribe, as well as Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, Cheyenne, the Sioux (the Dakota, the Lakota and the Nakota), the Plains Ojibwe, the Metis and many other tribes. Wars, horse-thieving and raiding parties were common. The Blackfoot men were particularly partial to kidnapping Shoshone women and their children. They weren't too fond of white men encroaching on their hunting grounds, either.
Traditional Style of Housing: Because the Blackfoot followed the bison, and were therefore nomadic, they lived in buffalo-hide four-pole teepees. Once white men had hunted the bison close to extinction, the Blackfoot lifestyle and diet were radically altered, and they took to a more sedentary lifestyle, and moved from teepees to log cabins. The teepees and log cabins were owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: Bison-skin fur-lined breach-cloth, leggings, tunics, skirts for the women, moccasins, and split-horned headdress (one bison horn, split in half and decorated.) The men wore their hair long and decorated with feathers and beads.
Traditional Foods: The Blackfoot men hunted bison, pronghorn sheep, moose, antelope and elk, but 90% of their diet was bison meat. (One bison could weigh as much as 2000 pounds and every bit of it was used, so the relatively small bands of Blackfoot didn't need to kill many to keep themselves in bison jerky.) They traditionally avoid hunting and eating snakes, reptiles and grizzly bears, fish, seafood and fishing. The women made pemmican, jellies, and jams, and made a baked bread using the same ingredients as Indian Fry Bread. They also gathered service berries, black walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, crabapples, plums, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, persimmons, hickory nuts, acorns, agave, yucca and corn.
Position of Women: Low. This was a warrior and hunting culture. Women did all of the cooking, beading, clothing-production, moccasin-making, food-production and bison-processing. Men did the hunting, the raiding, and the wars and took the leadership roles.
Blackfoot Courtship: The girls would paint the parts of their hair in red to show that they were ready for marriage and child-bearing, but most marriages were pre-arranged by the families while the bride and groom were still children. Unlike most of the Native Americans, the brides went to live in the teepees of their in-laws. Gifts between families were exchanged, and there doesn't seem to have been a bride-price of horses, deer meat, textiles or the playing of flute-music.
Interesting Tidbits: Before they learned about horses, they used dogs to pull their supplies in travois, which is a wheel-less cart shaped like a triangle. Once they discovered how to use horses, horses became the main source of currency, and the richest man was the one who could afford to give most of his herd of horses away.... A boy was given a silly name until he had stolen his first horse or killed his first enemy, at which time he was given a respectable name.... Like other Plains Indians, they engaged in "Counting Coup" by using long feathered sticks to poke their enemies.... Their young men engaged in vision quests, and of the Indian Tribes, they were the most like the Hollywood stereotype.
Traditional Religion: Very nature-based, with story-telling and creation myths, deeply spiritual.
Slavery and the Blackfoot: It has been suggested that escaped African slaves may have been part of the Blackfoot tribe, but a more likely scenario is that they found a safe harbor with the Seminole, because southern cotton plantations are closer to Florida, and the Everglades would provide better cover for dark-skinned people than the wild open places of Montana.
Current Population: There are more than 32,000 registered Blackfoot, but most live in Canada.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: factories.
Famous Blackfoot: Nobody that I have heard of.
The Seminole of the Everglades
Tribe: The Seminole. They are part of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (so-designated by white people) which include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.
Meaning of Name: From the Spanish word "Cimarron," meaning "Runaway" or "Wild Man." They call themselves the "Yat-siminoli" or "Free People," because they were thrown out or ran away from their original tribes, resisted Spanish and British attempts to subdue them, and as a group, had never signed a treaty with the United States. They originally formed in the 1700's as a collection of refugees from other tribes- the Creek, the Yuchi, the Yamasee, the Hitchiti, the Choctaw and runaway slaves from Africa.
Location: Originally from Florida, most Seminoles live in Oklahoma. These two groups have developed into distinctly different subcultures, per state, with varying degrees of assimilation. In 1832, the Seminole were forced off their land in Florida and relocated to "Indian Territory." Some refused to go and escaped to the Everglades where they continue to refuse to assimilate and where they speak Miccosukee, which is a Muscogean dialect.
Original Languages: Muscogee, Creek and Miccosukee.
Tribal Affiliations: The British, the Spanish
Traditional Enemies: The Creek, the United States Army
Traditional Housing: Open-air thatched roof houses (thatched roof, no walls, or at least not all four walls, looks like a tropical patio) called a "ramada" which are sometimes elevated to avoid being flooded. Like many of the other Muscogee tribes, Seminole villages are divided into white villages for peace and red villages for war.
Traditional Attire: Before they met the Spanish in the 1500's, considering how hot and sweaty it is in Florida, the Seminole wore as little clothing as possible: breach-cloths, maybe leggings, for the men, and for the women, woven skirts, no shirts. After they met the Spanish, who appear to have been easily shocked, the women wore long full Spanish-style skirts, sometimes ruffled, comprised of horizontal ribbons of various bright colors, and what was essentially a smaller and shorter bright but solid-colored skirt that served as a blouse, or a blouse with three-quarter-length sleeves and a wide ruffled cape-collar or shawl. Seminole men wore vests, pants and long-fringed shirts, and either boxy caps with or without feathers, or turbans. Seminole men and women both wear their hair in topknots or buns (because it is cooler that way) and some women wear "board hair," which is a hairstyle that looks like the hair has been wrapped around a plate to form a hair-halo around the face.
Traditional Foods: Like most of the Native American tribes of the Southeast, the Seminole were/are an agrarian people who grew their own corn, beans and squash. They also ate fry bread, deer, turkeys, rabbits, fish, turtles, raccoons, bobcats, squirrels, otter, birds, alligators, and probably pork after the Spanish arrived. The men did the hunting and fishing and the women did the farming, gathering and cooking.
Position of Women: Low. Men held the power, but kinship was reckoned through matrilineal descent. A child is born into his/her mother's band, which is like a clan. There are eight bands in the Seminole Nation of Florida: Panther, Deer, Bear, Wind, Bigtown, Bird, Snake and Otter. There are fourteen bands in the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma which are known by their Muscogee names, and two bands are comprised of Black Seminoles, who are of African-American descent.
Seminole Courtship: In Florida, you cannot marry someone from your mother's band. In Oklahoma, you cannot marry someone from the same band as both your mother or your father. A young man decides who he wants to marry and a council is convened to discuss it. If she and her family have no objection, the groom's family gives blankets and a bed to the bride's family to signal assent. The wedding is informal and the groom lives with the bride and her family until he has built them a house nearby.
Interesting Tidbits: Like many of the tribes of the Southeast, the Seminoles drank something called "the black drink," which is like a very caffeinated coffee that induces vomiting and is used in purification rituals along with smoking pipe-tobacco.
Traditional Religion: Protestant (Baptist) and Catholic due to the Spanish and French influence. Some overlap with native customs, such as the Green Corn Dance.
Slavery and the Seminole: One would think "Against" since they openly harbored runaway black slaves and integrated them into Seminole society. However, they were considered part of the Confederacy, because if they didn't join the South, they would have lost their lands.
Current Population: There are more than 15,000 registered Seminole.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Cattle, casinos in Florida, tourism, cigarette shops, restaurants.
Famous Seminole: Osceola, a famous Chief of the Seminoles.
Meaning of Name: From the Spanish word "Cimarron," meaning "Runaway" or "Wild Man." They call themselves the "Yat-siminoli" or "Free People," because they were thrown out or ran away from their original tribes, resisted Spanish and British attempts to subdue them, and as a group, had never signed a treaty with the United States. They originally formed in the 1700's as a collection of refugees from other tribes- the Creek, the Yuchi, the Yamasee, the Hitchiti, the Choctaw and runaway slaves from Africa.
Location: Originally from Florida, most Seminoles live in Oklahoma. These two groups have developed into distinctly different subcultures, per state, with varying degrees of assimilation. In 1832, the Seminole were forced off their land in Florida and relocated to "Indian Territory." Some refused to go and escaped to the Everglades where they continue to refuse to assimilate and where they speak Miccosukee, which is a Muscogean dialect.
Original Languages: Muscogee, Creek and Miccosukee.
Tribal Affiliations: The British, the Spanish
Traditional Enemies: The Creek, the United States Army
Traditional Housing: Open-air thatched roof houses (thatched roof, no walls, or at least not all four walls, looks like a tropical patio) called a "ramada" which are sometimes elevated to avoid being flooded. Like many of the other Muscogee tribes, Seminole villages are divided into white villages for peace and red villages for war.
Traditional Attire: Before they met the Spanish in the 1500's, considering how hot and sweaty it is in Florida, the Seminole wore as little clothing as possible: breach-cloths, maybe leggings, for the men, and for the women, woven skirts, no shirts. After they met the Spanish, who appear to have been easily shocked, the women wore long full Spanish-style skirts, sometimes ruffled, comprised of horizontal ribbons of various bright colors, and what was essentially a smaller and shorter bright but solid-colored skirt that served as a blouse, or a blouse with three-quarter-length sleeves and a wide ruffled cape-collar or shawl. Seminole men wore vests, pants and long-fringed shirts, and either boxy caps with or without feathers, or turbans. Seminole men and women both wear their hair in topknots or buns (because it is cooler that way) and some women wear "board hair," which is a hairstyle that looks like the hair has been wrapped around a plate to form a hair-halo around the face.
Traditional Foods: Like most of the Native American tribes of the Southeast, the Seminole were/are an agrarian people who grew their own corn, beans and squash. They also ate fry bread, deer, turkeys, rabbits, fish, turtles, raccoons, bobcats, squirrels, otter, birds, alligators, and probably pork after the Spanish arrived. The men did the hunting and fishing and the women did the farming, gathering and cooking.
Position of Women: Low. Men held the power, but kinship was reckoned through matrilineal descent. A child is born into his/her mother's band, which is like a clan. There are eight bands in the Seminole Nation of Florida: Panther, Deer, Bear, Wind, Bigtown, Bird, Snake and Otter. There are fourteen bands in the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma which are known by their Muscogee names, and two bands are comprised of Black Seminoles, who are of African-American descent.
Seminole Courtship: In Florida, you cannot marry someone from your mother's band. In Oklahoma, you cannot marry someone from the same band as both your mother or your father. A young man decides who he wants to marry and a council is convened to discuss it. If she and her family have no objection, the groom's family gives blankets and a bed to the bride's family to signal assent. The wedding is informal and the groom lives with the bride and her family until he has built them a house nearby.
Interesting Tidbits: Like many of the tribes of the Southeast, the Seminoles drank something called "the black drink," which is like a very caffeinated coffee that induces vomiting and is used in purification rituals along with smoking pipe-tobacco.
Traditional Religion: Protestant (Baptist) and Catholic due to the Spanish and French influence. Some overlap with native customs, such as the Green Corn Dance.
Slavery and the Seminole: One would think "Against" since they openly harbored runaway black slaves and integrated them into Seminole society. However, they were considered part of the Confederacy, because if they didn't join the South, they would have lost their lands.
Current Population: There are more than 15,000 registered Seminole.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Cattle, casinos in Florida, tourism, cigarette shops, restaurants.
Famous Seminole: Osceola, a famous Chief of the Seminoles.
Monday, April 27, 2015
The Chickasaw of the Mounds
Tribe: The Chickasaw, one of the first five Native American tribes to assimilate into white culture. Very legal and democratic form of government. The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is one of the largest federally-recognized tribes in the United States. The Chaloklowa Chickasaw Indian People is a state-recognized tribe in South Carolina.
Meaning of Name: According to their grandfather-stories, the name Chickasaw seems to have come from their ancestor, Chicksah, who with his brother Chatah, migrated to the Mississippi area, with Chicksah establishing the Chickasaw Nation and Chatah establishing the Choctaw Nation. Otherwise, it comes from "Chicksa," which means "rebel."
Location: Originally from some place in the west, they immigrated before 1530 AD to the agrarian flatlands of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. In 1837, they were forced out of their homeland as part of the "Trail of Tears" so that whites could use their land as cotton fields, relocated to "Indian Territory," and most now live in SW Oklahoma.
Original Language: Muscogean.
Tribal Affiliations: Choctaw (were originally part of the same tribe), English, the French and the Americans, except during the Civil War when they allied themselves with the Confederacy.
Traditional Enemies: Also, Choctaw. And the Spanish, and later, the Union Army.
Traditional Style of Housing: Permanent rectangular wooden summer homes and round clay winter houses, (like the Creek, which I forgot to mention), plus storage buildings for surplus food, and pyramidic council buildings, like the Cherokee. Chickasaw villages also probably include storehouses, sweat-lodges, menstrual-lodges and a town hall.
Traditional Attire: Before the Spanish explorer de Soto discovered them in Mississippi, the Chickasaw wore scraps of buckskin, hide and fur, but after that, they took on the couture of the Europeans, most notably the French and Spanish. The women especially liked silk ribbons, finger-woven belts, fancy German silver (a combination of nickel, zinc and copper, with no silver in it at all) combs with long-flowing ribbons, sashes, turbans, long dresses with ruffles and ribbons, tattoos, face paint and jewelry. The men eventually traded their turbans for straw hats adorned with feathers.
Traditional Foods: The men hunted or trapped deer, bear, beaver, elk, bison, raccoons, rabbits, possum, turtles, turkey, geese, quail, ducks and other wild birds. They fished for or caught trout, bass, crayfish, catfish, paddlefish (prized for its caviar-like eggs), sturgeon (probably also prized for its eggs), eel, shad, pickerel, carp, suckers, buffalo fish, redhorse fish, crappie, walleye, drum fish and whitefish. The women gathered or grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, root vegetables, blueberries, cattail roots, chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, acorns, Indian potatoes, sunflowers, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, hickory nuts, pawpaws, persimmons, crabapples, plums, wild grains, grapes, wild onions, and melons. Their specialty meals are grape dumplings (dumplings cooked in thick sweet grape juice), pork, fry bread, hominy, cornbread, pork-and-hominy and molasses bread.
Position of Women: Low. Very male-dominant in decision-making, hunting and making war. However, they were matrilineal when it came to descent. Blood was traced through the mother and her family, not the father and his family. The women probably owned their own homes, did the cooking, housework, childcare, clothing-making, and farm-work.
Chickasaw Courtship: If a young Chickasaw man took a fancy to a young Chickasaw woman, he sent his mother or sister to present the young woman's parents with a gift of calico or some other fabric. If the gift was acceptable to the parents, they kept the gift and the match was made. The mother or sister took the news back to the groom, who dressed up, painted his face in vermillion (an orange-red), and went to his intended's house, where he had dinner with his new father-in-law. After dinner, he went to his new wife's room, to her bed, and the marriage was consummated. She didn't seem to have much choice in the matter.
Interesting Tidbits: They were the founders of forested pathways, the mound-builders (along with their "brothers," the Choctaw), and the establishers of large agricultural fields that fed whole communities. Very proud, community-oriented, family-oriented, agrarian people who fought hard for their right to retain their own identity, apart from the Plains Indians.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion, hero myths, animal and nature, Baptist and Methodist. The Chickasaw believe that animals and humans are equal.
Slavery and the Chickasaw: Owned slaves and would not allow their slaves to be adopted as part of the Chickasaw Nation or grant citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation after the Civil War. As a consequence, the U.S. Government took back half of their designated land in Oklahoma, and this was after the Trail of Tears. (Before the Trail of Tears, the United States Government had not paid them in full for their lands in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama or Kentucky, which was part of the reason that the Chickasaw fought on the side of the Confederacy.)
Current Population: There are more than 49,000 registered Chickasaw.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: tourism.
Famous Chickasaw: No one that I have heard of.
Meaning of Name: According to their grandfather-stories, the name Chickasaw seems to have come from their ancestor, Chicksah, who with his brother Chatah, migrated to the Mississippi area, with Chicksah establishing the Chickasaw Nation and Chatah establishing the Choctaw Nation. Otherwise, it comes from "Chicksa," which means "rebel."
Location: Originally from some place in the west, they immigrated before 1530 AD to the agrarian flatlands of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. In 1837, they were forced out of their homeland as part of the "Trail of Tears" so that whites could use their land as cotton fields, relocated to "Indian Territory," and most now live in SW Oklahoma.
Original Language: Muscogean.
Tribal Affiliations: Choctaw (were originally part of the same tribe), English, the French and the Americans, except during the Civil War when they allied themselves with the Confederacy.
Traditional Enemies: Also, Choctaw. And the Spanish, and later, the Union Army.
Traditional Style of Housing: Permanent rectangular wooden summer homes and round clay winter houses, (like the Creek, which I forgot to mention), plus storage buildings for surplus food, and pyramidic council buildings, like the Cherokee. Chickasaw villages also probably include storehouses, sweat-lodges, menstrual-lodges and a town hall.
Traditional Attire: Before the Spanish explorer de Soto discovered them in Mississippi, the Chickasaw wore scraps of buckskin, hide and fur, but after that, they took on the couture of the Europeans, most notably the French and Spanish. The women especially liked silk ribbons, finger-woven belts, fancy German silver (a combination of nickel, zinc and copper, with no silver in it at all) combs with long-flowing ribbons, sashes, turbans, long dresses with ruffles and ribbons, tattoos, face paint and jewelry. The men eventually traded their turbans for straw hats adorned with feathers.
Traditional Foods: The men hunted or trapped deer, bear, beaver, elk, bison, raccoons, rabbits, possum, turtles, turkey, geese, quail, ducks and other wild birds. They fished for or caught trout, bass, crayfish, catfish, paddlefish (prized for its caviar-like eggs), sturgeon (probably also prized for its eggs), eel, shad, pickerel, carp, suckers, buffalo fish, redhorse fish, crappie, walleye, drum fish and whitefish. The women gathered or grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, root vegetables, blueberries, cattail roots, chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, acorns, Indian potatoes, sunflowers, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, hickory nuts, pawpaws, persimmons, crabapples, plums, wild grains, grapes, wild onions, and melons. Their specialty meals are grape dumplings (dumplings cooked in thick sweet grape juice), pork, fry bread, hominy, cornbread, pork-and-hominy and molasses bread.
Position of Women: Low. Very male-dominant in decision-making, hunting and making war. However, they were matrilineal when it came to descent. Blood was traced through the mother and her family, not the father and his family. The women probably owned their own homes, did the cooking, housework, childcare, clothing-making, and farm-work.
Chickasaw Courtship: If a young Chickasaw man took a fancy to a young Chickasaw woman, he sent his mother or sister to present the young woman's parents with a gift of calico or some other fabric. If the gift was acceptable to the parents, they kept the gift and the match was made. The mother or sister took the news back to the groom, who dressed up, painted his face in vermillion (an orange-red), and went to his intended's house, where he had dinner with his new father-in-law. After dinner, he went to his new wife's room, to her bed, and the marriage was consummated. She didn't seem to have much choice in the matter.
Interesting Tidbits: They were the founders of forested pathways, the mound-builders (along with their "brothers," the Choctaw), and the establishers of large agricultural fields that fed whole communities. Very proud, community-oriented, family-oriented, agrarian people who fought hard for their right to retain their own identity, apart from the Plains Indians.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion, hero myths, animal and nature, Baptist and Methodist. The Chickasaw believe that animals and humans are equal.
Slavery and the Chickasaw: Owned slaves and would not allow their slaves to be adopted as part of the Chickasaw Nation or grant citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation after the Civil War. As a consequence, the U.S. Government took back half of their designated land in Oklahoma, and this was after the Trail of Tears. (Before the Trail of Tears, the United States Government had not paid them in full for their lands in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama or Kentucky, which was part of the reason that the Chickasaw fought on the side of the Confederacy.)
Current Population: There are more than 49,000 registered Chickasaw.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: tourism.
Famous Chickasaw: No one that I have heard of.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
The Creek of the Southern Midwest
Tribe: The Creek. They are part of the "Five Civilized Tribes," a confederation of tribes that include the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Seminole, as well as the Hitchiti, Nachez, Alabama, Yuchi and Shawnee tribes.
Meaning of Name: They were given the name "Creek" by white men who saw that they lived by rivers and creeks. They call themselves the "Muscogee," "Isti" or the "Istichatta" which probably means something along the lines of "People of the Waterways."
Location: The Creek, along with the Seminoles, were originally from the SE part of the United States, specifically, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. They were forced out of their homeland and into "Indian Territory" in 1834 so that whites could use their land for cotton fields. They now live in NE Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama.
Original Language: Muscogee, which is also spoken by the Seminoles.
Tribal Affiliations: The British, the Spanish, the Seminoles
Traditional Enemies: The Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Americans.
Traditional Style of Housing: Before contact with the white man, the Creek lived in large permanent palisaded villages built around a central plaza, around which were arranged round clay houses with tall peaked roofs made of bark. Their homes were similar to the traditional Cherokee homes. Their villages had an open-air summer council house and a town hall, which was a round building (a round hill-like rotunda) made of poles and mud. Creek villages also probably had storehouses, sweat-lodges, and menstrual-lodges. Once the village had 400-600 people in it, about half of the town would move to what was basically a subdivision a mile or two away, on the other side of the field of crops. The new town would set up its own rotunda for meetings, ceremonies and games, but would retain a political connection to the original town. In this way, a Creek Confederacy developed.
Traditional Attire: The men wore Mohawks or had ponytails going down the back of their bald heads, and tattoos, and the women wore topknots, and no tattoos. They adopted European dress during colonial times. The men also wore something called a "porky roach" for ceremonies. It was made of deer tail hair and porcupine hair (not the quill part) and looked like a spray of stiff straight brightly-colored hair attached to the back of the head or going down the back of the head in double or single rows. A picture of a porky roach can be found at http://nativeamericanencyclopedia.com/roach-headdresses-porcupine-roaches.
Traditional Foods: Since the Creek were a sedentary and agricultural people who lived in settled communities, the women grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, melons, peaches, apples and sweet potatoes. They also may have grown or gathered blueberries, mayapples, huckleberries, elderberries, raspberries, blackberries, serviceberries, pawpaw, mayhaw hawthorn, persimmons, plums, crabapples, mulberries, grapes and strawberries. The men fished and hunted bear, deer, wild hogs, wild turkeys and small game.
Position of Women: Low, but with matrilineal descent. Most of the movers and shakers were men, but Creek Society allowed for a "Beloved Woman" to speak to and for all of the women on the tribe. This probably harkens back to the days when they were part of the Iroquois and had Clan Mothers. Unfortunately, in Creek Society, women had no vote, but they may have owned their own homes which their husbands had made, and they could pass this house on to their daughters.
Creek Courtship: There was apparently no bride-price of horses or deer meat. If a young man wanted to court a young woman, he would play a flute under her window. Premarital sex was okay but adultery was not. When a couple married, the groom went to live with his wife in her parents' house. When he had made her a house and planted a garden, then that marriage was considered finalized. If there was a divorce, the wife kept everything.
Interesting Tidbits: They had dugout canoes, which would make sense, since they lived by waterways. They were also big on sports, and had their own sports fields near the town center.... They viewed land as community property, not individually-owned, which caused problems with white people who owned property. They also communally took care of the poor, the aged and the infirm. This was also at odds with white people's "Every man for himself" values.
Traditional Religion: Baptist, Methodists, and Four Mothers Society.
Slavery and the Creek: The Creek owned slaves and were on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Current Population: There are currently about 70,000 registered members of the Muscogee Nation.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: farming, factories, casinos, cigarette shops, convenience stores.
Famous Creek: Carrie Underwood.
Meaning of Name: They were given the name "Creek" by white men who saw that they lived by rivers and creeks. They call themselves the "Muscogee," "Isti" or the "Istichatta" which probably means something along the lines of "People of the Waterways."
Location: The Creek, along with the Seminoles, were originally from the SE part of the United States, specifically, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. They were forced out of their homeland and into "Indian Territory" in 1834 so that whites could use their land for cotton fields. They now live in NE Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama.
Original Language: Muscogee, which is also spoken by the Seminoles.
Tribal Affiliations: The British, the Spanish, the Seminoles
Traditional Enemies: The Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Americans.
Traditional Style of Housing: Before contact with the white man, the Creek lived in large permanent palisaded villages built around a central plaza, around which were arranged round clay houses with tall peaked roofs made of bark. Their homes were similar to the traditional Cherokee homes. Their villages had an open-air summer council house and a town hall, which was a round building (a round hill-like rotunda) made of poles and mud. Creek villages also probably had storehouses, sweat-lodges, and menstrual-lodges. Once the village had 400-600 people in it, about half of the town would move to what was basically a subdivision a mile or two away, on the other side of the field of crops. The new town would set up its own rotunda for meetings, ceremonies and games, but would retain a political connection to the original town. In this way, a Creek Confederacy developed.
Traditional Attire: The men wore Mohawks or had ponytails going down the back of their bald heads, and tattoos, and the women wore topknots, and no tattoos. They adopted European dress during colonial times. The men also wore something called a "porky roach" for ceremonies. It was made of deer tail hair and porcupine hair (not the quill part) and looked like a spray of stiff straight brightly-colored hair attached to the back of the head or going down the back of the head in double or single rows. A picture of a porky roach can be found at http://nativeamericanencyclopedia.com/roach-headdresses-porcupine-roaches.
Traditional Foods: Since the Creek were a sedentary and agricultural people who lived in settled communities, the women grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, melons, peaches, apples and sweet potatoes. They also may have grown or gathered blueberries, mayapples, huckleberries, elderberries, raspberries, blackberries, serviceberries, pawpaw, mayhaw hawthorn, persimmons, plums, crabapples, mulberries, grapes and strawberries. The men fished and hunted bear, deer, wild hogs, wild turkeys and small game.
Position of Women: Low, but with matrilineal descent. Most of the movers and shakers were men, but Creek Society allowed for a "Beloved Woman" to speak to and for all of the women on the tribe. This probably harkens back to the days when they were part of the Iroquois and had Clan Mothers. Unfortunately, in Creek Society, women had no vote, but they may have owned their own homes which their husbands had made, and they could pass this house on to their daughters.
Creek Courtship: There was apparently no bride-price of horses or deer meat. If a young man wanted to court a young woman, he would play a flute under her window. Premarital sex was okay but adultery was not. When a couple married, the groom went to live with his wife in her parents' house. When he had made her a house and planted a garden, then that marriage was considered finalized. If there was a divorce, the wife kept everything.
Interesting Tidbits: They had dugout canoes, which would make sense, since they lived by waterways. They were also big on sports, and had their own sports fields near the town center.... They viewed land as community property, not individually-owned, which caused problems with white people who owned property. They also communally took care of the poor, the aged and the infirm. This was also at odds with white people's "Every man for himself" values.
Traditional Religion: Baptist, Methodists, and Four Mothers Society.
Slavery and the Creek: The Creek owned slaves and were on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Current Population: There are currently about 70,000 registered members of the Muscogee Nation.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: farming, factories, casinos, cigarette shops, convenience stores.
Famous Creek: Carrie Underwood.
The Cherokee of Oklahoma
Tribe: The Cherokee. They call themselves the "Ani-yu-wiya." The word "Cherokee" probably comes from the Choctaw word "Cha-la-kee," meaning, "those who live in the mountains," which in this case means the Appalachians. The Creek Indians, who spoke Muscogee and were their enemies, called them "Speakers of another language."
Meaning of Name: "Ani-yu-wiya" means "The Principal People."
Location: They seemed to have occupied the Carolinas as early as 11,000 years ago, and the Great Lakes area as early as 1800 BC, given that they speak Iroquoian. In roughly 800 AD, they moved or were pushed south by the other Iroquoian tribes to Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. They currently live all over the US, but mostly in NE Oklahoma and N. Carolina.
Original Language: Iroquoian.
Tribal Affiliations: Chickasaw, Shawnee, the British, the Scots, the Germans, the Irish.
Traditional Enemies: Creek, Muscogee, the French, the Osage.
Traditional Style of Housing: Like several of the southern tribes, like the Creek, the Cherokee had summer homes and winter homes in two different large palisaded villages. The summer homes were rectangular, made of wooden sticks which let in much of the fresh air, and the bark-and-grass roofs were conical. The winter homes were round or pyramid-shaped, made of wood and mud, with bark roofs. They were well-insulated with rugs and wall-hangings. Both the summer village and the winter village had a plaza, a large council house, and probably storehouses, sweat-lodges and menstrual-lodges.
Traditional Attire: The Cherokee probably dressed much like other Woodland area tribes did, and some of their clothing was made from the pounded bark of mulberry trees. After they came in contact with Europeans, they adopted European-style clothing, and like many of the other tribes, they preferred turbans to feathered head-dresses. The men wore ribbon-shirts, and the women wore one or two-piece wool or cotton "tear" dresses (so-called because during the Trail of Tears, the women didn't have access to scissors and had to tear their fabric) with wide horizontal appliqued ribbons sown onto the skirts near the bottom third, with matching appliqued ribbons sewn onto the puffy long or three-quarter-length sleeves and on the shoulders. These dresses were worn with or without concho belts, which are sectional belts made of metal and leather.
Traditional Foods: wild onions, wild greens, huckleberries, watercress, crawdads, wild green beans, blackberries, squash, corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, corn, turtles, fish, and probably small game, deer and elk, and whatever else could be found in the areas they occupied. Like the other Native Americans, the Cherokee cannot digest milk or milk products, which makes distributing government cheese to them very insensitive. They also grew tobacco for smoking in pipes (calumet.)
Position of Women: Like most of the Iroquois-speaking tribes, the Cherokee were traditionally matriarchal, and Cherokee women seemed to have more rights than Cherokee men and non-Cherokee women. Women owned all of the property, made most of the decisions, and had to be consulted before their husbands could make decisions regarding hunting and war. The husbands also had no say regarding disciplining their children because they, the men, were never really considered part of the family. The kids' maternal uncles handled discipline.
Cherokee Courtship: Who gets to marry whom depends largely on the agreements made by the grandmothers. There can be no intermarriage between clans. The price of the bride is paid in deer meat, not the offering of horses as in the Arapaho, Apache and Cheyenne tribes. If she liked the guy, she cooked the deer meat. If not, she didn't, and it could be let to rot as far as she was concerned.
Interesting Tidbits: "Cherokee" seems to be the default position of people who claim Native American ancestry, whether they are really part-Cherokee or not.... The Cherokee were
considered by whites to be the first of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole) because they were one of the few tribes who traded with the Europeans and adopted their customs, language, clothing, religion and culture. In "gratitude" for this, in 1837, the Cherokee walked the long "Trail of Tears" as the last of the same "Five Civilized Tribes" to be forced from their homes in the South so that their land could be used for white-owned cotton fields. They were resettled in "Indian Territory" which at that time was a designated area between north-east Texas and Canada, and eventually was whittled down to Oklahoma.
Traditional Religion: Nature-based, spiritual, some Protestant.
Slavery and the Cherokee: The Cherokee owned slaves who probably worked in the fields and did the more tedious chores.
Current Population: There are more than 316,000 registered Cherokee.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: casinos in North Carolina and Oklahoma, real estate and corporations.
Famous Cherokee: Sequoyah (wrote the Cherokee alphabet.) People who claim to be part Cherokee include the Jonas Brothers, Kevin Cosner, Johnny Depp, Carmen Electra, Val Kilmer, Wayne Newton, Lou Diamond Philips, Elvis Presley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tommy Lee Jones, Jennifer Garner, James Garner and Garth Brooks.
Meaning of Name: "Ani-yu-wiya" means "The Principal People."
Location: They seemed to have occupied the Carolinas as early as 11,000 years ago, and the Great Lakes area as early as 1800 BC, given that they speak Iroquoian. In roughly 800 AD, they moved or were pushed south by the other Iroquoian tribes to Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. They currently live all over the US, but mostly in NE Oklahoma and N. Carolina.
Original Language: Iroquoian.
Tribal Affiliations: Chickasaw, Shawnee, the British, the Scots, the Germans, the Irish.
Traditional Enemies: Creek, Muscogee, the French, the Osage.
Traditional Style of Housing: Like several of the southern tribes, like the Creek, the Cherokee had summer homes and winter homes in two different large palisaded villages. The summer homes were rectangular, made of wooden sticks which let in much of the fresh air, and the bark-and-grass roofs were conical. The winter homes were round or pyramid-shaped, made of wood and mud, with bark roofs. They were well-insulated with rugs and wall-hangings. Both the summer village and the winter village had a plaza, a large council house, and probably storehouses, sweat-lodges and menstrual-lodges.
Traditional Attire: The Cherokee probably dressed much like other Woodland area tribes did, and some of their clothing was made from the pounded bark of mulberry trees. After they came in contact with Europeans, they adopted European-style clothing, and like many of the other tribes, they preferred turbans to feathered head-dresses. The men wore ribbon-shirts, and the women wore one or two-piece wool or cotton "tear" dresses (so-called because during the Trail of Tears, the women didn't have access to scissors and had to tear their fabric) with wide horizontal appliqued ribbons sown onto the skirts near the bottom third, with matching appliqued ribbons sewn onto the puffy long or three-quarter-length sleeves and on the shoulders. These dresses were worn with or without concho belts, which are sectional belts made of metal and leather.
Traditional Foods: wild onions, wild greens, huckleberries, watercress, crawdads, wild green beans, blackberries, squash, corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, corn, turtles, fish, and probably small game, deer and elk, and whatever else could be found in the areas they occupied. Like the other Native Americans, the Cherokee cannot digest milk or milk products, which makes distributing government cheese to them very insensitive. They also grew tobacco for smoking in pipes (calumet.)
Position of Women: Like most of the Iroquois-speaking tribes, the Cherokee were traditionally matriarchal, and Cherokee women seemed to have more rights than Cherokee men and non-Cherokee women. Women owned all of the property, made most of the decisions, and had to be consulted before their husbands could make decisions regarding hunting and war. The husbands also had no say regarding disciplining their children because they, the men, were never really considered part of the family. The kids' maternal uncles handled discipline.
Cherokee Courtship: Who gets to marry whom depends largely on the agreements made by the grandmothers. There can be no intermarriage between clans. The price of the bride is paid in deer meat, not the offering of horses as in the Arapaho, Apache and Cheyenne tribes. If she liked the guy, she cooked the deer meat. If not, she didn't, and it could be let to rot as far as she was concerned.
Interesting Tidbits: "Cherokee" seems to be the default position of people who claim Native American ancestry, whether they are really part-Cherokee or not.... The Cherokee were
considered by whites to be the first of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole) because they were one of the few tribes who traded with the Europeans and adopted their customs, language, clothing, religion and culture. In "gratitude" for this, in 1837, the Cherokee walked the long "Trail of Tears" as the last of the same "Five Civilized Tribes" to be forced from their homes in the South so that their land could be used for white-owned cotton fields. They were resettled in "Indian Territory" which at that time was a designated area between north-east Texas and Canada, and eventually was whittled down to Oklahoma.
Traditional Religion: Nature-based, spiritual, some Protestant.
Slavery and the Cherokee: The Cherokee owned slaves who probably worked in the fields and did the more tedious chores.
Current Population: There are more than 316,000 registered Cherokee.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: casinos in North Carolina and Oklahoma, real estate and corporations.
Famous Cherokee: Sequoyah (wrote the Cherokee alphabet.) People who claim to be part Cherokee include the Jonas Brothers, Kevin Cosner, Johnny Depp, Carmen Electra, Val Kilmer, Wayne Newton, Lou Diamond Philips, Elvis Presley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tommy Lee Jones, Jennifer Garner, James Garner and Garth Brooks.
The Cheyenne of the Plains
Tribe: The Cheyenne. The name is actually Sioux for the Cree Indians. They called themselves the "So-tea-o'o" and the "Tsististas" to represent their two locations, the Northern Cheyenne who live in Montana and the Southern Cheyenne who live in Oklahoma.
Meaning of Name: They roughly translate to "People like us" and "Those who are like this."
Location: Originally from their own tribal earthen villages in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region, they grew corn, squash, beans and harvested wild rice. They were forced by the Ojibwe into the Dakotas in the 1700's where they, like the Arapaho, took up the horse culture and nomadic lifestyle. They currently live in reservations in Oklahoma and Montana.
Original Language: Algonquin.
Tribal Affiliations: The Sioux and the Arapaho.
Traditional Enemies: The Crow, the Kiowa, the U.S. Army and just about any tribe that wasn't Cheyenne, Sioux or Arapaho.
Traditional Style of Housing: They used to live in small villages in houses made of mud, but then, like the Arapaho and the rest of the People of the Plains, they moved to transportable teepees when they started the nomadic life.
Traditional Attire: Like the Sioux and the Arapaho, the Cheyenne men wore beaded and fringed buckskin breechcloths, leggings, tunics and moccasins, with long feathered head-dresses for the chiefs and single-feathers for the other men. After European contact, the men wore vests, shirts and pants. Before contact, the Cheyenne women wore long fringed and beaded dresses and moccasins, and both wore their hair in two long braids. After contact, they switched to cotton dresses. Many of the women and some of the men wore jewelry made of bird-bones. Chokers, bibs and long rectangular pieces to wear like long scarves were made of rows of beads and bird-bone by the medicine men or their assistants. They not only protected the wearer's throat and heart from attack, but symbolically put the wearer's in touch with nature, especially the nature of the birds.
Traditional Foods: The Cheyenne were a hunting and gathering tribe, and so the men hunted bison, small game, black bears, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, mountain goats, deer, caribou, pronghorn and fished. The women gathered service berries, black walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pinions, cranberries, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, crabapples, plums, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, persimmons, agave, yucca, and probably traded for corn, squash and beans.
Position of Women: Neutral. Not as bad as the Arapaho and not as good as the Apache, the Cherokee or the Iroquois. Like most of the People of the Plains, they set up the teepees, which they owned, did the cooking, made the clothes, butchered the meat, cleaned and tanned the hides, raised the children, and took care of the horses. They were not allowed to become chiefs, but they could become healers or warriors. However, the dominant power base was male, and the widows and children could inherit nothing from their husbands and fathers when they died because their goods were either buried with them, or they were distributed to non-relatives. On the other hand, the widow and her children could receive goods from dead non-relatives, which was something and at least meant that they would be taken care-of.
Cheyenne Courtship: Like the Arapaho, the Cheyenne valued virginity in their young women. They did practice bride-prices, probably of horses or buffalo skins. Marriage was expected to last for life. Polygamy was allowed if there was a deficit of men due to war so that the widows and their children would be looked after and supported by the surviving men of the tribe.
Interesting Tidbits: As in the movie "Little Big Man," the Cheyenne Indians considered riding up to their enemies, touching them with a stick and then riding away to be an award-worthy enterprise. This was called "counting coup."
Traditional Religion: Native American Church, part of the peyote culture. Also Catholic and Mennonite influences.
Slavery and the Cheyenne: Like most of the Plains Indians, they probably took slaves in raids and used them for menial labor.
Current Population: There are more than 22,000 registered Cheyenne.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos, real estate, corporations.
Famous Cheyenne: None that I have heard of.
Meaning of Name: They roughly translate to "People like us" and "Those who are like this."
Location: Originally from their own tribal earthen villages in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region, they grew corn, squash, beans and harvested wild rice. They were forced by the Ojibwe into the Dakotas in the 1700's where they, like the Arapaho, took up the horse culture and nomadic lifestyle. They currently live in reservations in Oklahoma and Montana.
Original Language: Algonquin.
Tribal Affiliations: The Sioux and the Arapaho.
Traditional Enemies: The Crow, the Kiowa, the U.S. Army and just about any tribe that wasn't Cheyenne, Sioux or Arapaho.
Traditional Style of Housing: They used to live in small villages in houses made of mud, but then, like the Arapaho and the rest of the People of the Plains, they moved to transportable teepees when they started the nomadic life.
Traditional Attire: Like the Sioux and the Arapaho, the Cheyenne men wore beaded and fringed buckskin breechcloths, leggings, tunics and moccasins, with long feathered head-dresses for the chiefs and single-feathers for the other men. After European contact, the men wore vests, shirts and pants. Before contact, the Cheyenne women wore long fringed and beaded dresses and moccasins, and both wore their hair in two long braids. After contact, they switched to cotton dresses. Many of the women and some of the men wore jewelry made of bird-bones. Chokers, bibs and long rectangular pieces to wear like long scarves were made of rows of beads and bird-bone by the medicine men or their assistants. They not only protected the wearer's throat and heart from attack, but symbolically put the wearer's in touch with nature, especially the nature of the birds.
Traditional Foods: The Cheyenne were a hunting and gathering tribe, and so the men hunted bison, small game, black bears, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, mountain goats, deer, caribou, pronghorn and fished. The women gathered service berries, black walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pinions, cranberries, cherries, huckleberries, blueberries, crabapples, plums, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, persimmons, agave, yucca, and probably traded for corn, squash and beans.
Position of Women: Neutral. Not as bad as the Arapaho and not as good as the Apache, the Cherokee or the Iroquois. Like most of the People of the Plains, they set up the teepees, which they owned, did the cooking, made the clothes, butchered the meat, cleaned and tanned the hides, raised the children, and took care of the horses. They were not allowed to become chiefs, but they could become healers or warriors. However, the dominant power base was male, and the widows and children could inherit nothing from their husbands and fathers when they died because their goods were either buried with them, or they were distributed to non-relatives. On the other hand, the widow and her children could receive goods from dead non-relatives, which was something and at least meant that they would be taken care-of.
Cheyenne Courtship: Like the Arapaho, the Cheyenne valued virginity in their young women. They did practice bride-prices, probably of horses or buffalo skins. Marriage was expected to last for life. Polygamy was allowed if there was a deficit of men due to war so that the widows and their children would be looked after and supported by the surviving men of the tribe.
Interesting Tidbits: As in the movie "Little Big Man," the Cheyenne Indians considered riding up to their enemies, touching them with a stick and then riding away to be an award-worthy enterprise. This was called "counting coup."
Traditional Religion: Native American Church, part of the peyote culture. Also Catholic and Mennonite influences.
Slavery and the Cheyenne: Like most of the Plains Indians, they probably took slaves in raids and used them for menial labor.
Current Population: There are more than 22,000 registered Cheyenne.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos, real estate, corporations.
Famous Cheyenne: None that I have heard of.
The Arapaho of the Midwest
Tribe: The Arapaho. There are currently two Arapaho tribes: the Northern Arapaho and the Southern Arapaho. The Arapaho also splintered into the Gros Ventre tribe and the Blackfoot tribe, and many Arapaho became part of the Comanche tribe.
Meaning of Name: They call themselves the "Hinono-eino" or "Inun-ina" meaning "our people" or "people of our own kind." There are also many other names for them, depending on who is talking and how they choose to describe them. The term "Arapaho" comes from "Alappaho," which is a Crow term for "People of many tattoos."
Location: Three thousand years ago, the Arapaho were a settled agricultural people who lived in the Red River Valley section of the Great Lakes region. Sometime in the 1600's or early 1700's, they and the Cheyenne were forced southward to the Colorado and Wyoming plains and into the nomadic life by the Ojibwe who had acquired guns and horses. They are now in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Original Language: Algonquin
Tribal Affiliations: The Cheyenne, the Shoshone, the Lakota and the Dakota, and also, later, the Comanche. They also traded with the Hidatsa, the Arikara and the Mandan tribes who traded their home-grown produce for excess meat and precious or semi-precious stones.
Traditional Enemies: The Ojibwe/Chippewa (who had the horses and guns), the Comanche, the Pawnee, the Osage, the Pawnee, the Omaha, the Ho-chunk, the Ponca, the Kaw, the Crow, the Blackfoot, the Gros Ventre, the Flathead, the Arikara, the Assiniboine, the Cree, the Saulteaux, the Nakota, the Shoshone, the Ute, the Navajo, the Apache, the Pueblo, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Kiowa and white people. Many of these tribes later became their allies.
Traditional Style of Housing: Tee-pees which were probably made, set up and owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: The men very brightly and intricately-beaded buckskin and buffalo-skin tunics, leggings, breechcloths with long fringes, moccasins and long feathered head-dresses for the chiefs. They were particularly fond of big blue beads which they used for earrings, necklaces and in beadwork. The women wore long fringed buckskin dresses or skirts and poncho-like blouse adorned with quill-work, beading, elk's teeth, cowrie shells, bird-bone necklaces, and yellow ochre paint, with knee-length leggings and beaded moccasins.
Traditional Foods: The Arapaho men hunted bison, deer, elk, and fished. About 90% of the Arapaho diet was comprised of meat, and they were particularly partial to bison humps, brains, kidneys tongues and blood. They traded bison, deer and elk skins and precious and semi-precious stones for corn, squash, beans, coffee, sugar, bacon and bleached flour. The Arapaho women gathered pine nuts, pinion, acorns, sunflower seeds, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, service berries, chokecherries, currants, cherries, plums, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, gooseberries, celery root, wild green beans, morels, wild onions, wild turnips, wild potatoes, wild pumpkins, strawberries, wild turkey peas, wild tomatoes and whatever else they could find growing on the Plains that was edible.
Position of Women: Low. Very male-dominant culture, probably dating from when they went from being agricultural-based and settled society to being forced into a nomadic and war-like lifestyle. The power-base was male, but the majority of work was done by the women: literal home-making, cooking, cleaning, butchering and preparing meat, preparing hides, sewing, doing beading and quillwork, making baskets, raising children, making bison jerky, making pemmican, fetching, carrying...
Arapaho Courtship: The Arapaho men sang love and courtship songs and played the flute in order to attract the women of their dreams. If she returned his interest, then he had to meet the bride-price demanded by her father. If he could not come up with the bride-price, usually horses, there was a long engagement or there was no wedding. This sometimes resulted in the suicide of the heartsick young man, in which case, his grieving next-of-kin might seek revenge against the bride's father. On the other hand, engagements could last for years until the would-be groom had gathered enough horses or war trophies in order to be considered acceptable to the bride's father.
Interesting Tidbits: The Arapaho have eight age-based military societies who were not only responsible for winning wars, but keeping the peace, and providing for their families.... Arapaho warriors painted their faces and bodies, as well as their horses, with individual and distinctive war-paint.... Every year, around June 21, the Arapaho gather for eight days to celebrate the Sun Dance Festival....The Arapaho were a tall, stately, attractive tribe, and believed that their enemies the (shorter, fatter) Utes likes to steal their women in order to improve their own genetic stock.... The Arapaho kept ledger books in pictograph of their accomplishments and history. Only a few of these books have managed to survive....The Arapaho Way is to be generous, dignified, respectful, loyal and courageous....The eagle is seen as a mediator between people and the Creator.
Traditional Religion: The Native American Church.
Slavery and the Arapaho: The Arapaho took slaves in raids and wars.
Current Population: There are more than 10,000 registered Arapaho.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos, cigarette shops, oil leases (oil companies lease Arapaho land.)
Famous Arapahos: Hiawatha was said by some to have been Arapaho, dating from the time that they lived in the Great Lakes region.
Meaning of Name: They call themselves the "Hinono-eino" or "Inun-ina" meaning "our people" or "people of our own kind." There are also many other names for them, depending on who is talking and how they choose to describe them. The term "Arapaho" comes from "Alappaho," which is a Crow term for "People of many tattoos."
Location: Three thousand years ago, the Arapaho were a settled agricultural people who lived in the Red River Valley section of the Great Lakes region. Sometime in the 1600's or early 1700's, they and the Cheyenne were forced southward to the Colorado and Wyoming plains and into the nomadic life by the Ojibwe who had acquired guns and horses. They are now in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Original Language: Algonquin
Tribal Affiliations: The Cheyenne, the Shoshone, the Lakota and the Dakota, and also, later, the Comanche. They also traded with the Hidatsa, the Arikara and the Mandan tribes who traded their home-grown produce for excess meat and precious or semi-precious stones.
Traditional Enemies: The Ojibwe/Chippewa (who had the horses and guns), the Comanche, the Pawnee, the Osage, the Pawnee, the Omaha, the Ho-chunk, the Ponca, the Kaw, the Crow, the Blackfoot, the Gros Ventre, the Flathead, the Arikara, the Assiniboine, the Cree, the Saulteaux, the Nakota, the Shoshone, the Ute, the Navajo, the Apache, the Pueblo, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Kiowa and white people. Many of these tribes later became their allies.
Traditional Style of Housing: Tee-pees which were probably made, set up and owned by the women.
Traditional Attire: The men very brightly and intricately-beaded buckskin and buffalo-skin tunics, leggings, breechcloths with long fringes, moccasins and long feathered head-dresses for the chiefs. They were particularly fond of big blue beads which they used for earrings, necklaces and in beadwork. The women wore long fringed buckskin dresses or skirts and poncho-like blouse adorned with quill-work, beading, elk's teeth, cowrie shells, bird-bone necklaces, and yellow ochre paint, with knee-length leggings and beaded moccasins.
Traditional Foods: The Arapaho men hunted bison, deer, elk, and fished. About 90% of the Arapaho diet was comprised of meat, and they were particularly partial to bison humps, brains, kidneys tongues and blood. They traded bison, deer and elk skins and precious and semi-precious stones for corn, squash, beans, coffee, sugar, bacon and bleached flour. The Arapaho women gathered pine nuts, pinion, acorns, sunflower seeds, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, service berries, chokecherries, currants, cherries, plums, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, gooseberries, celery root, wild green beans, morels, wild onions, wild turnips, wild potatoes, wild pumpkins, strawberries, wild turkey peas, wild tomatoes and whatever else they could find growing on the Plains that was edible.
Position of Women: Low. Very male-dominant culture, probably dating from when they went from being agricultural-based and settled society to being forced into a nomadic and war-like lifestyle. The power-base was male, but the majority of work was done by the women: literal home-making, cooking, cleaning, butchering and preparing meat, preparing hides, sewing, doing beading and quillwork, making baskets, raising children, making bison jerky, making pemmican, fetching, carrying...
Arapaho Courtship: The Arapaho men sang love and courtship songs and played the flute in order to attract the women of their dreams. If she returned his interest, then he had to meet the bride-price demanded by her father. If he could not come up with the bride-price, usually horses, there was a long engagement or there was no wedding. This sometimes resulted in the suicide of the heartsick young man, in which case, his grieving next-of-kin might seek revenge against the bride's father. On the other hand, engagements could last for years until the would-be groom had gathered enough horses or war trophies in order to be considered acceptable to the bride's father.
Interesting Tidbits: The Arapaho have eight age-based military societies who were not only responsible for winning wars, but keeping the peace, and providing for their families.... Arapaho warriors painted their faces and bodies, as well as their horses, with individual and distinctive war-paint.... Every year, around June 21, the Arapaho gather for eight days to celebrate the Sun Dance Festival....The Arapaho were a tall, stately, attractive tribe, and believed that their enemies the (shorter, fatter) Utes likes to steal their women in order to improve their own genetic stock.... The Arapaho kept ledger books in pictograph of their accomplishments and history. Only a few of these books have managed to survive....The Arapaho Way is to be generous, dignified, respectful, loyal and courageous....The eagle is seen as a mediator between people and the Creator.
Traditional Religion: The Native American Church.
Slavery and the Arapaho: The Arapaho took slaves in raids and wars.
Current Population: There are more than 10,000 registered Arapaho.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos, cigarette shops, oil leases (oil companies lease Arapaho land.)
Famous Arapahos: Hiawatha was said by some to have been Arapaho, dating from the time that they lived in the Great Lakes region.
The Apache of the Southwest
Tribe: Apache, a loose confederation of Apachean tribes that includes the Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, Plains Apache, and many others.)
Meaning of Name: The word "Apache" is Zuni for "Enemy" and Yuman for "fighting men." The Apache refer to themselves as "Dine" or "Inde," meaning "Person."
Location: One theory is that the Apache originally came from Athabascan-speaking Western Canada between 1000 AD and 1500 AD and moved down to the warmer climes of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado, and the Great Plains. The Apache themselves say that they started in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado and the Great Lakes, and then some of them moved north into Western Canada and Alaska. The truth is probably a combination of the two, that they started off in Alaska and Western Canada, went south, developed Southern Athabascan, and then some of them returned north. Many Apache now live in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Original Language: Southern Athabascan.
Tribal Affiliations: The Navajo and Pueblo for the purposes of acquiring produce.
Traditional Enemies: The Zuni, the Comanche, and later, the Spanish and Mexican people and authorities, and still later, the United States and other Apachean groups.
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees, wigwams or wickiup (grass house) or a more permanent hogan (dirt house), depending on location. All houses were made and decorated by the women, and probably owned by them as well. For a picture of a wigwam or wickiup (because everybody knows what a teepee looks like), go to http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/wickiup.html.
Traditional Style of Clothing: The men wore intricately-beaded and fringed buckskin shirts, breechcloths, leggings, high moccasin boots and headbands worn across the forehead. They later adopted the cotton pants, tunics and vests of the Mexican peasants, and later the outfits of the American military (especially after skirmishes in which they were successful.) The women wore fringed and beaded buckskin dresses and ponchos over high moccasin boots, and then later switched to cotton gingham dresses.
Traditional Foods: Depending on where they lived, the Apache men hunted deer, rabbit, bison, opossums, surplus horses, surplus mules, squirrels, elk, cattle, wood rats, beavers, minks, musk rats, weasels and other large wild rodents, doves, quail, duck, wild boar and snow birds. The Apache women grew or gathered saguaro fruit, prickly pears, chollo buds, yucca, wild onions, squash, beans, melons, chilies, corn, ironwood seeds, mesquite seed pods, palo verde seeds, nopal cacti, corn, watermelons, pecans, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, herbs, tomatillo, mustard greens, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet peppers, potatoes, green beans, Jerusalem artichokes, blackberries, mulberries, hackberries, barberries, crabapples, pawpaws, persimmons, cherries, fiddleheads, nettles, ramps, service berries, chokecherries, currants, elderberries, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, plums, strawberries, and acorns, pinions and sunflower seeds which could be ground into flour for bread. People were expected to share half of the slaughtered animals with less-fortunate members of the group. Forbidden foods included bear, snakes, fish, peccaries, turkeys, insects, owls, coyotes, dogs, depending on the mores and religion of the group.
Position of Women: High, matrilineal, with matrilocal residence. Apache mothers held the families and the tribes together. The Apache husband moved in with his wife and her mother, father and grandparents, and if his wife should predecease him, he would continue to live with his late wife's family, who would arrange for him to have a new wife, probably from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, he was not allowed to look at or speak to his mother-in-law. If the Apache husband should predecease his wife, his family would arrange for her to get a new husband, usually from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, the wives and mothers did the cooking, the cleaning, the meat-and-hide processing, the beading, the gardening, the quill-work, and put up and took down their homes which they owned.
Apache Courtship: Young women were considered marriageable after their second year of puberty and pulled out their eyebrows to indicate their willingness to marry. Virginity was deeply valued, as was faithfulness in marriage. Whether or not a man's horse is fed and watered by the woman he is courting depends completely on the woman in question. If she does not want him, she won't water his horse. The more horses a young man offers for the bride, the better, but the choice of whether or not she accepts his suit, or his horse, is entirely up to her. Taking more than one wife was considered okay since many men were killed off during skirmishes and war, which means that the widows and their children needed protection and financial support.
Interesting Tidbits: The Apache claim to have been the second Native Americans who learned how to ride horses from the Spanish. The first were the Pueblo.... The Jicarilla Apache, who lived in northern Colorado, were raiders who attacked Spanish camps and stole dogs, horses, and anything else they desired....The Chiricahua Apache lived in brush wickiups in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico. They ate, drank and used fibers from the mescal cactus.... The Mescalero Apache lived east of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and probably used the mescal cactus, too, for food, drink and fiber clothing.... When girls reached puberty, they had to undergo a torturous four-day endurance test called the Sunrise Dance, which is supposed to teach them the Apache values of language, food, love, Apache culture, prayers, respect, wisdom, cooperation, appreciation and endurance... There were apparently has never been a form of centralized Apache government, or Apache Chiefs, per se, just headsmen of the local tribe who was free to make peace or not, without consulting other headsmen.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion and Christianity.
Slavery and the Apache: Were not mentioned as having owned slaves, but the Apache, along with other Native Americans, were used as slaves in Spanish missions.
Current Population: There are more than 50,000 registered Apache.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, trade stores, small businesses, and casinos in Arizona and New Mexico.
Famous Apaches: Geronimo and Cochise
Meaning of Name: The word "Apache" is Zuni for "Enemy" and Yuman for "fighting men." The Apache refer to themselves as "Dine" or "Inde," meaning "Person."
Location: One theory is that the Apache originally came from Athabascan-speaking Western Canada between 1000 AD and 1500 AD and moved down to the warmer climes of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado, and the Great Plains. The Apache themselves say that they started in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Northern Mexico, Colorado and the Great Lakes, and then some of them moved north into Western Canada and Alaska. The truth is probably a combination of the two, that they started off in Alaska and Western Canada, went south, developed Southern Athabascan, and then some of them returned north. Many Apache now live in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Original Language: Southern Athabascan.
Tribal Affiliations: The Navajo and Pueblo for the purposes of acquiring produce.
Traditional Enemies: The Zuni, the Comanche, and later, the Spanish and Mexican people and authorities, and still later, the United States and other Apachean groups.
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees, wigwams or wickiup (grass house) or a more permanent hogan (dirt house), depending on location. All houses were made and decorated by the women, and probably owned by them as well. For a picture of a wigwam or wickiup (because everybody knows what a teepee looks like), go to http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/wickiup.html.
Traditional Style of Clothing: The men wore intricately-beaded and fringed buckskin shirts, breechcloths, leggings, high moccasin boots and headbands worn across the forehead. They later adopted the cotton pants, tunics and vests of the Mexican peasants, and later the outfits of the American military (especially after skirmishes in which they were successful.) The women wore fringed and beaded buckskin dresses and ponchos over high moccasin boots, and then later switched to cotton gingham dresses.
Traditional Foods: Depending on where they lived, the Apache men hunted deer, rabbit, bison, opossums, surplus horses, surplus mules, squirrels, elk, cattle, wood rats, beavers, minks, musk rats, weasels and other large wild rodents, doves, quail, duck, wild boar and snow birds. The Apache women grew or gathered saguaro fruit, prickly pears, chollo buds, yucca, wild onions, squash, beans, melons, chilies, corn, ironwood seeds, mesquite seed pods, palo verde seeds, nopal cacti, corn, watermelons, pecans, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, herbs, tomatillo, mustard greens, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet peppers, potatoes, green beans, Jerusalem artichokes, blackberries, mulberries, hackberries, barberries, crabapples, pawpaws, persimmons, cherries, fiddleheads, nettles, ramps, service berries, chokecherries, currants, elderberries, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, plums, strawberries, and acorns, pinions and sunflower seeds which could be ground into flour for bread. People were expected to share half of the slaughtered animals with less-fortunate members of the group. Forbidden foods included bear, snakes, fish, peccaries, turkeys, insects, owls, coyotes, dogs, depending on the mores and religion of the group.
Position of Women: High, matrilineal, with matrilocal residence. Apache mothers held the families and the tribes together. The Apache husband moved in with his wife and her mother, father and grandparents, and if his wife should predecease him, he would continue to live with his late wife's family, who would arrange for him to have a new wife, probably from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, he was not allowed to look at or speak to his mother-in-law. If the Apache husband should predecease his wife, his family would arrange for her to get a new husband, usually from within that family's extended reach. Otherwise, the wives and mothers did the cooking, the cleaning, the meat-and-hide processing, the beading, the gardening, the quill-work, and put up and took down their homes which they owned.
Apache Courtship: Young women were considered marriageable after their second year of puberty and pulled out their eyebrows to indicate their willingness to marry. Virginity was deeply valued, as was faithfulness in marriage. Whether or not a man's horse is fed and watered by the woman he is courting depends completely on the woman in question. If she does not want him, she won't water his horse. The more horses a young man offers for the bride, the better, but the choice of whether or not she accepts his suit, or his horse, is entirely up to her. Taking more than one wife was considered okay since many men were killed off during skirmishes and war, which means that the widows and their children needed protection and financial support.
Interesting Tidbits: The Apache claim to have been the second Native Americans who learned how to ride horses from the Spanish. The first were the Pueblo.... The Jicarilla Apache, who lived in northern Colorado, were raiders who attacked Spanish camps and stole dogs, horses, and anything else they desired....The Chiricahua Apache lived in brush wickiups in New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico. They ate, drank and used fibers from the mescal cactus.... The Mescalero Apache lived east of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and probably used the mescal cactus, too, for food, drink and fiber clothing.... When girls reached puberty, they had to undergo a torturous four-day endurance test called the Sunrise Dance, which is supposed to teach them the Apache values of language, food, love, Apache culture, prayers, respect, wisdom, cooperation, appreciation and endurance... There were apparently has never been a form of centralized Apache government, or Apache Chiefs, per se, just headsmen of the local tribe who was free to make peace or not, without consulting other headsmen.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion and Christianity.
Slavery and the Apache: Were not mentioned as having owned slaves, but the Apache, along with other Native Americans, were used as slaves in Spanish missions.
Current Population: There are more than 50,000 registered Apache.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, trade stores, small businesses, and casinos in Arizona and New Mexico.
Famous Apaches: Geronimo and Cochise
A Timeline
2 million to
160,000 BC: (The latter part of the Pleistocene Epoch. People are standing upright in the Oldevai Gorge in Tanzania in East Africa, gathering together in bands, scanning the grasslands for predators, making simple tools and weapons, hunting, gathering, cooking with fire, tanning hides, and raising children.)
125,000's BC: (Some people start to move out of Africa.)
100,000's BC: (Some people have made it as far as India and the Levant.)
50,000's BC: Some people have made it as far as China, where they discover wild cannabis plants and learn how to make rope out of hemp, and then they travel on to Siberia. Sea levels fall, making it possible to cross from Siberia to Alaska across the Bering Strait. The first wave of Siberian people, probably the ancestors of the Yenet or Yupik tribe, follows the herds of migratory animals to "Turtle Island" near Alaska. They may have probably brought with them their wild cannabis seeds for growing hemp with which to make their ropes, their style of houses (wickiups), their tools, their styles of clothing, and their dogs, including Siberian Husky-like dogs, Southeast Asian dingo-like dogs and tiny, nervous, brave, hairy or hairless "carrier" dogs who are carried around in pouches.
(People have made it as far as Indonesia and Australia.)
40,000's BC: People have made it as far as Mexico and left their footprints in the muddy Valley of Mexico by the shores of Lake Texcoco. Shortly thereafter, people have made it as far as Columbia and Brazil in South America.
38,000's BC: (People are painting the walls of their caves in Romania, France and Spain.)
35,000's BC:
30,000's BC: (People are in the Czech Republic.)
(People are painting the walls of their caves in Indonesia.)
26,000's BC: (People are doing charcoal sketches on the walls of their caves in Australia.)
25,000's BC: (People are painting the walls of their caves in Namibia.)
23,000's BC: People are lighting campfires in the Valley of Mexico.
20,000's BC: (Wild grains like rye are cultivated in the Levant and Egypt, and so Agriculture begins.
17,000's BC: Horses, which were native to South America, have migrated across the land bridge to Siberia by this time.
(Earliest depictions of wrestling and sprinting on the caves at Lascaux, France.)
15,000's BC: The Haidu tribe is established in Alaska. The Powhatan settle in Virginia.
14,000's BC:
13,000's BC: The pygmy mammoth goes extinct on the Channel Islands off the Californian coast.
12,000's BC: People are spreading their way across Canada.
People arrive in Columbia at the northern part of South America.
(People are in Germany.)
11,700 BC: The end of the last Ice Age and the Pleistocene Era. The land bridge between Siberia and Alaska disappears due to rising sea levels. The mastodon, the giant ground sloth, the American camel, the saber-toothed tiger, the giant armadillos and the short-nosed bear all go extinct, possibly due to a combination of climate change and because the "Clovis" people are busy making arrowheads in the southwest North America.
People arrive in Chile and Argentina.
The Chumash Tribe are in Southern California and the Channel Islands.
(People are planting crops of lentils, vetch, pistachios and almonds in Greece.)
10,000's BC: Native people arrive in the Great Plains. The Kumeyaay are already living in Southern California.
The City of Tibito in Columbia is founded.
(People in the Middle East and Europe invent beer and wine.)
(People are planting crops of oats and wild barley in Greece.)
9,000's BC: Last of the mastodon goes extinct.
People move to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northern Mexico.
People are now living in Peru and probably cultivating peanuts.
(People start planting wheat, barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas, flax and figs in the Levant. The walled city of Jericho was built and people start to make beer with the barley.)
8,000's BC: Establishment of a Yaguan Indian settlement at the southern-most tip of South America.
The Inupiat are established in Alaska.
People start deliberately planting teocinte (wild corn) in Mexico. The beginning of agriculture in the Americas.
People are painting the walls of their caves in Argentina.
(People start planting wheat crops in Egypt and rice crops and millet crops in China.)
(People start living in permanent round or rectangular stone houses in the Levant.)
7,000's BC: The Kumeyaay, the Chumash, the Tongva and the Patayan people of Southern California are actively trading together.
(People start working on the City of Catal Hoyuk in Anatolia.)
(People are planting wheat and barley crops near the Persian Gulf.)
(People are planting wheat and bean crops and planting orange orchards in India.)
6,000's BC: Different kinds of corn is domesticated in Mexico, quickly followed by potatoes, tomatoes, peppers,, squash, and various kinds of beans in the Andes in South America. Tobacco plants are cultivated by the ancient people of Peru.
(People are engaged in archery and swimming as a sport in Libya.)
(People are deliberately cultivating cannabis crops in Siberia.)
5,000's BC The "Ancient Pueblo" People enter the Southwest (modern Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.)
The Chantuto People live in the tropics of Central America.
People in the Ohio Valley are planting crops of squash, barley, amaranth, knotweed and maygrass.
(The Mesopotamians start building ziggurats in Iran.)
(People are planting sorghum and rice crops in Africa.)
4,000's BC People have started to paint the walls of their caves in Tennessee.
People are planting corn in South America.
(The wheel is invented in Mesopotamia, the Caucasus Mountains and in Central Europe. The Sumerians invent cuneiform, a form of writing.)
(People are planting wheat, pea, sesame and barley crops and gate and mango groves in India.)
3,000's BC Japanese fishermen may have boated around the Pacific Rim to settle in Ecuador.
Peruvians start domesticating potatoes.
(The rise of the Egyptian, the Nubian, the Sumerian and the Akkadian Empires.)
(Stonehenge goes up in England.)
(People are planting cotton and rice in India.)
(The Mesopotamians invent a form of writing.)
(According to some, the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age.)
2,000's BC The first Iroquois settle in the Northeastern part of North America.
Mammoths go extinct in North America.
The Chantuto are supplanted by the Mokaya People in the tropics of Central America.
The first Shoshone arrive in Nevada.
The first Mayans cultivate crops in Belize.
The Miwok arrive in Northern California.
Cultivation of corn spreads across the Americas.
People in the Andes grow amaranth from which they get quinoa.
People in Mexico and South America are playing a particularly brutal ballgame.
(The rise of the Minoan civilization.)
(The rise of the Nigerian kingdom.)
(Pyramid of Djoser is built in Saqqara, Egypt in 2667 BC.)
(The Sphinx goes up in Egypt in 2500 BC.)
(People are planting cannabis crops in China.)
1,900's BC
1,800's BC The Cherokee settle in the Great Lakes region.
1,700's BC (The rise of the Chinese dynasties.)
The Olmecs, who are just coming into power, play a game like racquetball with a heavy rubber ball.
1,600's BC The beginning of the Olmec Empire in Central America.
(The Rise of the Hittite Empire.)
(The Thera Volcano in the Greek Islands explodes.)
1,500's BC The Olmec Empire spreads to Mexico.
(The rise of the Phoenician Empire.)
1,400's BC
1,300's BC (The Trojan War.)
(Moses may have led the Israelites out of Egypt.)
1,200's BC The Tehuelche People arrive on the pampas in Argentina.
(The rise of the Japanese Kingdom.)
(The Chinese invent their style of writing.)
(The "Sea People" start endangering the other kingdoms of the Mediterranean.)
(According to some, the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age.)
1,100's BC (The rise of the Philistine Kingdom.)
1,000's BC The Inuit in Alaska begin their slow migration to Greenland.
The Zapotec settle in Mexico.
(King Solomon of Israel builds a temple in Jerusalem.)
900's BC (The rise of the Greek Empire.)
(The "Sea People" disappear from history.)
800's BC (The rise of the Ethiopian Empire.)
700's BC The rise of the Mayan Empire in Central America.
The Olmec start building pyramids in Mexico.
Llamas are domesticated in Peru.
600's BC The Olmecs invent their own style of writing.
(The rise of the Carthagians in North Africa.)
500's BC (Sports enthusiasts are hurling in ancient Ireland, playing an early form of field hockey in Scotland, and an early form of rugby in Rome, football in China, and polo in Persia.)
(The original travelogue-writer, Herodotus, is touring the Middle East.)
(The Phoenicians are exploring the African coast.
400's BC The end of the Olmec Empire in Mexico.
300's BC The beginning of the Mayan Empire in Central America.
Somebody paints a picture of a Techichi, the ancestor of the Chihuahua, on the walls of a Toltec tomb.
(The rise of the Roman Empire.)
(The Babylonians conquer Israel.)
200's BC
100's BC The Nanih Waiya ("Beloved Mother") Cave Mound in Mississippi is built by the ancestral tribe of the Chickasaw and the Choctaw.
The Hohokam tribe is in Southern Arizona.
The City of Teotihuacan, the largest city in the Americas, is built in Mexico.
(Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on the steps of the Roman Senate.)
(Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh and Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.)
1 BC/AD (Jesus of Nazareth is preaching in Israel and Phoenicia.)
People start settling in Bolivia.
100's AD
200's AD
300's AD The Mogollon culture is in Southern California, Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. And the Rain Dance is invented.
400's AD (The Fall of the Roman Empire.)
500's AD
600's AD The early Mississippian culture build the mound-city of Cahokia in western Illinois. It is the largest city north of Mexico.
(The Dark Ages begin in Europe.)
700's AD The Nahuatl (the early Aztecs) people move into Mexico.
800's AD The Cherokee leave the Great Lakes region and arrived in Georgia, Tennessee, Vermont, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina.
900's AD The Anasazi are building cliff-houses in New Mexico.
The Toltec and the Mayans start mining for gold and silver in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northern Mexico.
1000's AD The slow decline of the Mayan Empire begins.
The Paiute arrive in the American Southwest.
1100's AD The Iroquois League is formed.
The Vikings meet the Inuit in Greenland.
The first Paiute arrive in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona and Utah.
The Hopi village of Oraibi in the Arizona desert is founded.
The Mojave arrive in the Arizonan/Californian desert.
1200's AD The first Apaches arrive in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.
The first Blackfoot leave Canada and arrive in Montana.
The Aztec are slowly rising to power in Mexico.
The Quapaw are pushed out of the Ohio Valley.
Cahokia is abandoned.
The Anasazi disappear.
The first Pawnee are in Nebraska.
1300's AD The Kachina religion of the Hopi is established.
The Aztec Empire begins in earnest.
The Scalp Dance is invented.
(The Dark Ages end in Europe and some aspects of the Renaissance begin.)
1400's AD The Incans rise to power in Peru.
The Bear Dance is invented.
(The Inquisition begins in Spain.)
(Christopher Columbus bumps into the Islands of the Caribbean and plants the flag for Spain. And so the begins the end of life as they know it for Native Americans.)
1500's AD (The Spanish found the City of St. Augustine in Florida.)
The Miwoks migrate to the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The Yuroks are in Northern California.
(The Spanish settle in the Dominican Republic.)
The Spanish conquistadores conquer the Aztec and the Mayan Empires in Mexico.
(Sir Francis Drake of England arrives in San Francisco, two hundred years before the Spanish claim California as their own.)
The Chickasaw leave the West and move east to Mississippi, Kentucky and other Southern states.
1600's AD The first Kiowa arrive in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
The Pueblo Indians band together to rebel against the Spanish missionaries.
The Spanish conquistadores conquer the failing Mayan Empire in Central America.
(Jamestown, which is on Powhatan land, is founded by the British in Virginia.)
(The French arrive in Quebec and the Germans arrive in Pennsylvania.)
(The Mayflower lands on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, carrying more English.)
The Pow Wow or Gathering of Nations begins, probably to help rally tribes against the worrisome Europeans and their strange customs.
The Shawnee leave Delaware and start wandering around the eastern part of the Colonies.
The Nakota break away from the Lakota and move to Canada.
1700's AD The first Seminole tribes are formed out of the refugees from other tribes and escaped slaves brought over from Africa to work on the plantations.
The Spanish missionaries enslave thousands of Native Americans in California.
(The American Colonists win their freedom from the very weary British.)
(Thomas Jefferson expands the Colonies to parts of the Midwest, thus claiming more land occupied by Native Americans.)
(The end of the Renaissance in Europe and the beginning of the Industrial Age.)
1800's AD The appearance of a comet in 1811, immediately followed by the New Madrid Earthquake, rattles nerves from the Midwest to the East Coast and is seen by the Native Americans as proof that the white man has got to go. The white man has, I am sure, another interpretation, probably anti-Native American.
The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes, the "Five Civilized Tribes," are forced to sell their land in the 1830's to make way for cotton fields in the South, and are resettled on reservations in Oklahoma. Other tribes are relegated to "Indian Territory."
(The United States expands to include "Indian Territory," parts of the Southwest and California. Immediately thereafter, in 1849, gold is discovered in California.)
(The Civil War results in the destruction of the South and the end of slavery.)
The Ghost Dance is invented by Wovoka, a Paiute, in 1890, and it is immediately banned as subversive.
1900's AD More "Indian Land" is considered part of the United States.
The Fancy Dance is invented.
(Hawaii and Alaska become part of the United States.)
(Several wars, both large and small, break out.)
2000's AD
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