Below is a table of Eastern Native American Tribes. Use the links to answer the questions the questions in your email, for each tribe.
Use the table to answer the questions on page 13, in your American History Activity Book. Scroll down this page to the comments and submit your answers in the comment box. I want an individual comment for each tribe equaling a total of 27 comments.
These are NOT essay questions. Just get the info down and in a complete sentence or two.
Cherokee
1. In the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains /The Cherokee Indians lived along the Tennessee River in the Appalachian Mountains. They thrived in the bottom lands from Virginia southward.
2. Villages united into networks bordered by natural barriers. Dugout canoes were invented and networks enlarged into nations of people who shared certain customs and gestures.Culture grew rapidly with the exchange of news, foods, clothing, metals, and art.”Fire,” the center of life, became the Cherokee word for “home.”
3. Village chieftains lead and represented the people to the tribe as a whole.
4. When Hernando DeSoto followed their roads into their villages in 1540 everything changed. DeSoto brought foreign diseases, horses, whips, swords and vicious dogs to America; he took women, food and slaves as he went. Interior North America withstood the onslaught to become the only place in the New World that Spain never colonized.
5. No, there was not. None that I could find.
6. Everything I read, I didn’t really know much about them.
7. Yes.
Fox
1. he Foxes lived in the vicinity of Lake Winnebago or along Fox river, Wis. Verwyst (Missionary Labors, 178, 1886) says they were on Wolf river when Allouez visited them in 1670. there is no satisfactory historical evidence that the Foxes ever resided farther north than Fox river in Wisconsin.
2. Besides being warlike, the Foxes were described by neighboring tribes as stingy, avaricious, thieving, passionate, and quarrelsome; their bravery, however, was proverbial. Like most of the tribes of the region of the great lakes they were polygamists. They were familiar with both dug-out and birch-bark canoes. Spears and clubs were among their weapons of war. Schoolcraft states that a band of warriors seen by him wore headdresses consisting of red-dyed horsehair tied in such manner to the scalplock as to present the shape of the decoration of a Roman helmet.
3. A Chieftain government.
4. Members of the Fox clan, were hunting, they met the French, who asked who they were; the Indians gave the name of their clan, and ever since the whole tribe has been known by the name of the Fox clan.
5. Black Hawk (Ma‘katawimeshekā‘käa, from ma‘katäwi ‘it is black, mishi `big,’ kā‘käa ‘ the name referring to the description of a bird, or sparrow hawk. W. J.)
A subordinate chief of the Sank and Fox Indians and leader in the Black Hawk war of 1832. He was born at the Sauk village at the mouth of Rock River, Ill., in 1767.When only 15 years of age he distinguished himself in war; and before he was 17, at the head of a war party of young men, he attacked an Osage camp of 100 persons and came away safely with the scalp of a warrior. The next party that he led out, however, he brought to a deserted village, on account of which all except 5 of his party left him; but with these he kept on and brought away 2 scalps with which to efface his disgrace. At the age, of 19 he led 200 Sauk and Foxes in a desperate engagement with an equal number of Osage, destroying half of his opponents, killing 5 men and a woman with his own hands.
6. That they existed, and they were war-like and mean.
7. The 345 “Sauk and Fox of Mississippi” still (1905) in Iowa are said to be all Foxes. There are also 83 “Sauk and Fox of Missouri” under the Kickapoo school in Kansas.
Algonquin:
1. The Algonquin Indians are the most populous and widespread North American Native groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds and speaking several related dialects. They inhabited most of the Canadian region south of Hudson Bay between the Rockies and the Atlantic Ocean and, bypassing select territories held by the Sioux and Iroquois, the latter of whom had driven them out of their territory along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
2. Algonquin or Algonkin is used in reference to the tribe, but Algonquian either refers to the Algonquin language or to the group of tribes that speak related dialects.
3.
The shaman held a powerful place in Algonquin society. He was believed to be able to heal the sick and communicate with the spirit world: A great spirit or supreme being, lesser spirits in control of the elements, evil spirits at the root of illness and misfortune, and benevolent spirits bringing fortune and good health. The shaman was also called upon as an interpreter of dreams, in which the Algonquin found great significance.
4. The Algonquins first met Europeans when Samuel de Champlain came upon a party of Algonquins, led by the Kitcisìpirini Chief Tessouat at Tadoussac in the summer of 1603. They were celebrating with the Montagnais and Etechemins (Malecite) a recent victory over the Iroquois. Champlain did not understand the strong totem/clan system that socially united the Algonquins rather than the European-styled politically united concept of nationhood. Consequently, there were several Algonquin bands, each with its own chief, needing political approval from each of the band’s clan leaders. So, from 1603 some of the Algonquins allied themselves with the French under Samuel de Champlain.
5. no
6.
The Algonquin social structure was patriarchal; men were the leaders and the heads of the family and territorial hunting rights were passed from father to son.
7. There are presently about 8,000 Algonquin living in Canada, organized into ten separate (wha? ) First Nations, nine are in Quebec and one in Ontario.
Julie,
Thanks for all the hard work. Only a bunch more to go!
Miami
1. The Miami Indians had their original home land in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. However, many of them were forced to move to Oklahoma during the Indian Removals. Here is a map showing Miami, Wea, and Piankashaw Indian migrations. Today, there are two Miami Indian communities: one in Indiana, and one in Oklahoma.
2. Where did the name “Miami” come from?
It comes from the Miami-Illinois word Myaamia, which means “allies.”
In the past, they spoke their native Miami-Illinois language. It has this long name because two tribes, the Illini and the Miamis, spoke the same language with different accents–just like Americans and Canadians both speak English. Unfortunately, no Miami Indian people are fluent in this language anymore. However, the Miami tribe is working hard to teach young people their ancestral language again.
Miami is a musical language with complicated verbs. If you’d like to know a few easy Miami words, “aya” (pronounced ah-yah) means “hello” and “niihka” (pronounced nee-ka) means “friend.”
3. Miami Indian men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Miami women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. Only men could be Miami Indian chiefs in the past, but women had important roles overseeing religious festivals and negotiating peace treaties. Today, a Miami woman could be chief too… and a Miami man can be a farmer.
4. The earliest Europeans to come here were traders, and since the Miami were also traders, the two cultures coexisted more or less comfortably for about a century.
But as more and more settlers came West, conflicts developed.
The Indians, under the leadership of the Miami War Chief Little Turtle, won several notable battles, but they were decisively defeated by Anthony Wayne in 1794.
5. Little Turtle, who was a famous Miami leader, or of Frances Slocum, who was a Quaker girl who ended up the wife of a Miami chief. If you want to know more about Miami culture and history, one interesting source is The Miami Indians of Indiana. You can also browse through our recommendations of Native American books in general.
6. The Miami tribe is known for their quillwork, beadwork, and embroidery. Miami hunters and warriors used bows and arrows, tomahawks, and spears. Miami men also used shields of buffalo hide to deflect enemy arrows. The Miamis were farming people. Miami food crops included corn, beans, and squash. Miami Indian men also hunted buffalo. They set controlled fires to drive the large animals towards the hunters. Miami recipes included soup, cornbread, and stews.
7.Today, there are two Miami Indian communities: one in Indiana, and one in Oklahoma.
Go over the Miami again please, and put answers in your own words
did you go over this one, to put it in your own words?
Missouri
1. The Missouri Indians are original people of Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. The Iowa tribe was forced to move to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma in the 1800′s along with many other tribes. Most Missouri people are still living in Oklahoma today.
2. The Missouri people speak English today. In the past they spoke their native Chiwere language, which they shared with the neighboring Otoe and Ioway tribes. Only a few elders still remember the Chiwere language today. But some young Missouri Indian people are working to learn their ancient language again. If you’d like to know an easy Missouri word, “aho” (pronounced ah-hoe) is a friendly greeting used by men and boys, and “aha” (pronounced ah-hah) is a greeting used by women and girls.
3. The Missouris share a single nation with the Otoe tribe. According to legend, the Missouris and Otoes were once the same tribe, but split in half after a quarrel between two chiefs’ families. Since then, the Missouris and Otoes lived in separate villages and each had their own government and leadership. But after many of their people died of smallpox in the 1800′s, the two tribes merged again. Today the Otoes and Missouris live on a reservation in Oklahoma, which is land that belongs to them and is under their control. The Otoe-Missouria tribe has its own government, laws, police, and services, just like a small country. However, the Missouris are also US citizens and must obey American law. Missouri men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Missouri women were farmers and also did most of the child care and cooking. Only men became Missouri chiefs, but both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.
4. Lewis and Clark’s expedition first encountered the Missouri settlements in summer 1804, when the Missouri were away buffalo hunting and their villages were empty.
5. no. not that I could find.
6. Missouri artists are famous for their wood-working, beadwork, and parfleche (decorated rawhide containers.) Here are some photographs of Otoe-Missouri beadwork. Missouri hunters used bows and arrows. Fishermen used fishing spears and basket traps. In war, Missouri men fired their bows or fought with war clubs and hide shields.
7. yes, most in Oklahoma.
Ottawa
1. Most Ottawa Indian people live in their original homeland in southern Ontario and Michigan state. Other Ottawas were deported to Oklahoma by the US government, and some Ottawas assimilated into Ojibway bands. There are about 15,000 Ottawa Indians today.
2. How do you pronounce ‘Ottawa’? What does it mean?
It’s pronounced “AH-ta-wa,” the same as the city in Canada (which was named after them.) It is spelled Odawa in their native language, and it means “traders.” The Ottawa people call themselves Anishinabe in their own language, which means ‘original person’. The Ottawa tribe is related to the Chippewa tribe (also known as the Ojibway tribe.) The Chippewas and Ottawas have similar customs and speak dialects of the same language–just like Americans and Canadians speak English with different accents. But like America and Canada, the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes were politically independent. After Europeans arrived, some Chippewa and Ottawa bands merged together, but in most cases, the two nations remain independent today.
3. The political leader of an Ottawa band is called a chief (gimaa or ogimaa in the Ottawa/Ojibway language.) In the past Ottawa chiefs were men chosen by tribal councilmembers, often from among the last chief’s sons, nephews, or sons-in-law. Today Ottawa chiefs are elected in most Ottawa bands, like mayors and governors.
4. The Ottawa were never a large tribe, probably no more than about 8,000 in 1600 before contact. Although heavily exposed to Europeans through the fur trade, their population suffered far less the Huron from epidemic.
5. Pontiac or Obwandiyag (c. born 1720 – April 20, 1769), was the Ottawa tribe leader who became famous for his role in Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763–1766), an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British and Iroquois victory in the French and Indian War. Historians disagree about Pontiac’s importance in the war that bears his name. Nineteenth century accounts portrayed him as the mastermind and leader of the revolt, while some subsequent interpretations have depicted him as a local leader with limited overall influence.
6. How do you pronounce ‘Ottawa’? What does it mean?
It’s pronounced “AH-ta-wa,” the same as the city in Canada (which was named after them.) It is spelled Odawa in their native language, and it means “traders.” The Ottawa people call themselves Anishinabe in their own language, which means ‘original person.’
Ottawa women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking. Ottawa men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Both genders practiced story-telling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. In the past, Ottawa chiefs were always men, but today an Ottawa Indian woman could be chief too.
7. There are about 15,000 citizens of Ottawa Indian bands in Michigan, Ontario, and Oklahoma today.
Quapaw
1. The Quapaw Indians are original people of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The Quapaw tribe was forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800′s along with many other tribes, and most Quapaw people are still living in Oklahoma today.
2. They do the same things all children do–play with each other, go to school and help around the house. Many Quapaw children like to go hunting and fishing with their fathers. In the past, Indian kids had more chores and less time to play in their daily lives, just like colonial children. But they did have dolls, toys, and games to play. Here is a picture of a hoop game played by Plains Indian kids. A Quapaw mother traditionally carried a young child in a cradleboard on her back–a custom which many American parents have adopted now.
3. In the past, each Quapaw band was led by a chief and a tribal council. Today, the Quapaw tribe is governed by councilmembers who are elected by all the tribal members.
4. In the colonial years, the Quapaw and Europeans did not often confront each other. By the early 1800s, however, the federal government started taking over the Quapaw land. In 1824, they were moved to Texas near the Red River, which often flooded.
5. no.
6. It’s pronounced “quaw-paw.” It comes from their own tribal name, which means “downstream people.” The Quapaws have also been known as the Alkansea or Arkansas Indians after a tribal town named Acansa, which meant “southern.” That is where the name of the state of Arkansas came from.
7. yes, most live in Oklahoma.
Chickasaw
1. The Chickasaws are original people of the American southeast, particularly Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. Most Chickasaws were forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800′s, and their descendants live in Oklahoma today. Some Chickasaws escaped by hiding or pretending to be white, and the descendants of these people are still living in the original Chickasaw homelands.
2. In ancient times, Chickasaws placed great importance and meaning on those locations defined as important by history and tribal religion. The great migration legend, describing how the tribe moved from the “place of the setting sun” to the east as ordained by Aba Binili (God), was central in explaining the importance of the homelands. One can only imagine the sorrow experienced by our ancestors when it was determined that they would have to be “removed” from their sacred home.
explanations of natural phenomena and descriptions of one’s place in the universe were common themes as well. Chickasaw elders conveyed ancient knowledge as a sacred obligation, thereby instilling in younger generations cultural identity and tribal cohesiveness. The stories of the elders had significance in describing tribal history, not in terms of chronological dates, but more in terms of how events and locations impacted nature and people.
3. In the past, the Chickasaw tribe was ruled by a council of hereditary clan chiefs, led by a minko, or war chief, who made military and political decisions for the whole tribe. Today, the Chickasaw council members and governor are popularly elected.
4. During the winter of 1540-41, Chickasaw warriors boldly resisted Hernando de Soto’s effort to force them to assist him in his search for gold. When, by the close of the seventeenth century, European traders firmly established themselves among these Indians, mixed blood children of native women became important intercultural brokers for the tribe, setting the economic and social tone and serving as the principal spokespersons for the Chickasaws for over a century.
5. no.
6. I read that the Chickasaw were part of the Five Civilized Tribes. Was that an alliance like the Iroquois Confederacy?
No. Many people guess this, but it isn’t true. “The Five Civilized Tribes” was just a name that the white settlers used to refer to the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole, and Chickasaw tribes of the Southeast. These five tribes were never part of an alliance together, and they did not call themselves the Civilized Tribes in their own languages. Originally, the white settlers probably called them this because these five tribes were early converts to Christianity. They were also farmers who lived in settled towns under sophisticated government systems, which Europeans and early Americans considered a higher level of civilization than independent bands of hunters who moved from place to place. However, there were dozens of other Native American tribes who also led farming lifestyles, not just these five.
7. The Chickasaws are original people of the American southeast, particularly Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. Most Chickasaws were forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800′s, and their descendants live in Oklahoma today. Some Chickasaws escaped by hiding or pretending to be white, and the descendants of these people are still living in the original Chickasaw homelands.
forget the first number seven
7. There are not many Chickasaws today. According to the 1990 census there are about 20,631 Chickasaws alive. The majority of them live through out the United States. About 12,772 Chickasaws live in Oklahoma and 2,000 live in both Texas and California. Today, Chickasaws are focused on education for both the young and the old. Programs for tutoring dropouts to get high school equivalency diplomas and adult education centers, are some of the programs.
Ojibwa
1.The Ojibwa first settled in Hudson’s Bay, but then moved down to Mackinac Strait. Later on, they migrated to Lake Superior. Then, they had a war with the Iroquois, and defeated them, driving them out of their territory. Then, they had war with the Dakota tribe, driving them out of their territory aswell. By the 1800′s, the Ojibwa controlled Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Illinios, Indiana, and Ohio. This made them the most powerful and largest aboriginal group in North America.
2. According to their own tradition, they came from the east, advancing along the Great Lakes, and had their first major settlement, referred as their “fourth stopping place”, in their present country at Sault Ste.
3. The political leader of an Ojibway band is called a chief (gimaa or ogimaa in the Ojibway language.) In the past Ojibway chiefs were men chosen by tribal councilmembers, often from among the last chief’s sons, nephews, or sons-in-law.
4. The Ojibwa met non-Native Americans in the 1600s, possibly hearing about Europeans through the Huron people. The first written European accounts about the Ojibwa appeared in Jesuit diaries, published in collected form as the Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. The Jesuits were followed by French explorers and fur traders, who were succeeded by British fur traders, explorers, and soldiers and later by U.S. government officials and citizens.
5. No
6. Ojibway bands lived in different environments, so they didn’t all eat the same food. Woodland Chippewas were mostly farming people, harvesting wild rice and corn, fishing, hunting small game, and gathering nuts and fruit. The Plains Ojibwa were big-game hunters, and buffalo meat made up most of their diet.
7. The Chippewas are one of the largest American Indian groups in North America. There are nearly 150 different bands of Chippewa Indians living throughout their original home land in the northern United States (especially Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) and southern Canada (especially Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan).
Alabama
1. In Modern day Alabama but not anymore.
2. It’s pronounced “al-uh-BAM-uh,” the same as the state (which was named after the tribe.) No one knows exactly where this name came from. It could be an English form of the word albina, which means “campsite” in their own language and may have been the name of an Alabama town. Or it could be an English form of the Choctaw words alba amo, which means “clearing brush.”
3. In the past, each Alabama band was ruled by a chief called a miko, and the Alabama and Coushatta tribes had separate leadership.
4. I don’t know.
5. no, for such a big tribe I cant find many specific details.
6. Most Alabama people speak English today, but some people, especially elders, also speak their native Alibamu or Alabama language. If you’d like to know a few easy Alabama words, “ch�kmaa” (pronounced chick-mah) is a friendly greeting, and “alila mo” (pronounced ah-lee-lah moh) means ‘thank you.’ You can also read an Alabama picture glossary here.
Today Alabama is an endangered language because most children aren’t learning it anymore. However, some Alabama people are working to keep their language alive.
7. Alabama people joined the Seminoles and were absorbed into that powerful Florida tribe, and some live in Louisiana with the Coushattas there. The total population of Alabama Indians is about 2000.
Huron or Wyandots.
1. The Wyandots are original residents of the St. Lawrence Valley in Quebec.
2. Ancient story:The people were living beyond [the sky]. They were Wyandots.
The news spread, one day, that the chief’s only daughter was sick, and that the medicine-men had declared themselves unable to bring relief to her. A moccasin, or runner, was sent out to bring back a very old shaman living far away from the other people.
As soon as he saw the young woman, the old shaman told the People at once to dig into the roots of the wild apple tree standing by the chief’s lodge. A party of men began digging all around the tree; and following the old man’s advice, they laid down the young woman at the edge of the trench; for he had said, “When you dig into the roots of the tree, you will find the remedy that will cure her. Lay her down so near that she may get it merely by stretching out her arm as soon as she detects it.”
With all their might the men went on digging. Others replaced them as soon as they felt tired, and carried on the work. The sick girl was there, lying close by, when a party of men stepped out of the trench. The sudden approach of a terrific roar startled them all. Gazing at the place whence it had come, they saw the ground around the tree fall through, and the tree vanish underground with the young woman entangled in its brandies.
The world underneath was a vast sheet of water. No land was anywhere in sight. A pair of large ‘white birds with long crooked necks’ – Swans we are told were swimming about on the waters. They heard a peal of thunder, the first ever heard in this world. They glanced upwards. They saw the tree and the woman as they fell from the sky. One of them exclaimed, “What a strange creature it is that is coming down from above!”; and he added, “I know that she cannot be borne up by the waters. Let us swim close together and hold her upon our backs.” They swam close together and the woman fell lightly upon their backs and rested.
3. In the past, the Wyandots had a political confederacy, similar to the Iroquois Confederacy. The Wendat or Huron Confederacy was governed by a council of chiefs, one from each Wyandot band.
4. The french were the first to meet them, but i don’t know when or how.
5. No.
6. The Wyandots and Hurons the are same people. Huron was the French name for the Wyandot tribe. It means “wild boar” in French. The French thought that the Mohawk haircuts of the Huron warriors looked like the bristles on a wild boar’s neck.
7. The Wyandots are original residents of the St. Lawrence Valley in Quebec. Some Wyandot people still live there today, in the Huron-Wendat First Nation. Many other Wyandots fled to Ohio and Michigan after a defeat by the Iroquois. Most of their descendants were forced to move to Kansas and Oklahoma along with other US tribes during the Indian Removals of the 1800′s.
Sauk
1. The Sauks are original residents of the eastern woodlands and prairie regions, particularly in Michigan and Wisconson.
2. The Sauk culture is based on the respect they have for life. Within themselves, families their communities, and all creation. The creator gave this life to the sauk people. Their culture is the way things are done in relation to each other and all creation.
3. The Sauk tribe was ruled by two chiefs. The peace chief, who inherited the position of his father, and the war chief who was elected by other warriors.
4. The first recorded encounter between the Sauk and the Europeans is when members of the Sauk met French explorer Samuel De Champlain in the early 1600′s.
5. no.
6. The Sac and Fox were farming people. Sac and Fox women grew corn, beans, and squash on small farms on the outskirts of their village. Sac and Fox men hunted deer, small game, and sometimes buffalo. The Sac and Fox also ate berries, fruit, and honey, baked cornbread, and cooked soups.
7. today most Sauk’s live on reservations in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa.
Shawnee
1. The original shawnee homeland was in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
2. Among the people, the elders were the ones who trained youngsters in history, culture and traditions. Tribal history was passed in this way from one generation to the next. The Shawnee live by a Golden Rule which is reminiscent of that laid out by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. It states, “Do not kill or injure your neighbor, for it is not him you injure but yourself. But love him, for Moneto loves him as he loves you.”
3. Each Shawnee tribe or band was governed by it’s own chief and tribal council. The Shawnee also had war chiefs, who were chosen by other warriors. But all of them owed allegiance to the principal chief.
4. Europeans reported encountering them over a widespread geographic area from the beginning of their exploration.
5. Yes, Tecumeseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy that opposed the united states during Tecumeseh’s war and the War of 1812. He grew up in Ohio county during the Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian war where he was constantly exposed to war fair. Which is probably why he was a good war leader.
6. The Shawnee tribe is known for their beadwork, pottery, and wood carving. Like other eastern American Indians, the Shawnee also crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads.
7. Today, most Shawnees live in Oklahoma, where they were deported by the US government.
Creek PUT THE ANSWERS IN YOUR OWN WORDS!!!
1. The Creeks are original residents of the American southeast, particularly Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina.
2. The towns are based around a mother town. When the town reached 400 to 600 people, part of the town would move to a new area just outside the mother town. They would start their own village which would maintain the same layout. They were centered around a plaza used for dancing, religious ceremonies, and games. This plaza also contained a rotunda for council meetings. The plaza had houses around it for the members of the village. The town government consisted of a Chief, Assistant Chief and a Chief Speaker. This arrangement is still used today. The traditional home of the Creek people is the hut which is roofed with grass or wood.
3. The Creek Nation has its own government, laws, police, and other services, like a small country. However, the Creeks are also US citizens and must obey American law.
4. I do not know.
5. Bosomworth, Mary, A noted Creek Indian woman, also known as Mary Mathews and Mary Musgrove, who created much trouble for the Georgia colonial government about 1752, nearly rousing the Creek confederacy to war against the English. She seems to have been of high standing among her own people, being closely related to leading chiefs both of the Upper and Lower Creeks, possessed of unusual intelligence and knowledge of English, for which reason, and to secure her good will, Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony, made her his interpreter and negotiator with the Indians at a salary of $500 per year.
6. Creek men wore breechcloths and leather leggings. Creek women wore wraparound skirts and mantles made of deerskin or woven fiber. Creek men did not originally wear shirts, but both genders wore cloaks in cooler weather. The Creeks also wore moccasins on their feet. Later the Creeks adapted European costume into their own characteristic style, including cloth blouses, jackets, and full skirts decorated with ribbon applique. Here is a webpage with pictures of traditional Creek dress, and here are some photographs and links about Indian clothes in general. The Creeks didn’t wear long headdresses like the Sioux. Creek men usually shaved their heads in the Mohawk style, and sometimes they would also wear a porcupine roach. (These headdresses were made of porcupine hair, not their sharp quills!) Creek women usually wore their long hair in topknots on top of their heads. Creek men, especially warriors, decorated their bodies with complex tribal tattoos, and often painted their faces bright red during battles and dances. Creek women didn’t usually tattoo or paint themselves. today, some Creek people still wear moccasins or a ribbon shirt, but they wear modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths… and they only wear roaches in their hair on special occasions like a dance.
7. There are 20,000 Muskogee Creeks in Oklahoma today. Other Creek people are living in southern Florida as part of the Seminole tribe, in the Poarch Creek band in Alabama, or scattered throughout the original Muskogee homelands.
Illinois
1. The Illini were original inhabitans of modern day Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri.
2. he Illini were a confederation of tribes, united
by language and culture. The Confederation, at it’s strongest, numbered twelve tribes. This was to give the Illini a measure of power that allowed them to wield control over their neighboring tribes. The Illini were woodland Indians who, as typical of the tribes of the region, would divide their year in accordance with the seasons between farming and hunting. They would locate their villages in river valleys to take advantage of the soil conditions that would aid in their agricultural pursuits. The Illini were farmers of maize, squash and tobacco. After planting was completed, they would divide into smaller bands and head off to their hunting camps. They would hunt primarily the Bison, which was so plentiful on the Illinois Plains in the 17th Century. Before they acquired the horse, the Illini would set the prairies on fire in order to trap the Bison herds. Then parties of as many as three hundred hunters would close in on the massive beasts and let loose with an onslaught of arrows.
3. each Illini village had its own chief and was independent of the others. Illini chiefs made joint decisions in long councils.
4. I can’t find anything on them meeting the Europeans.
5. no none.
6. Illini is pronounced “ih-LIE-nee,” and Illinois is pronounced “ih-lih-NOY” like the state, which is named after the tribe. They are both European adaptations of the Illinois Indians’ original word for themselves, Illiniwek pronounced “ih-lih-new-eck,” which means “the best people.”a few easy Illinois words, aya (pronounced ah-yah) means “hello” and niihka (pronounced nee-ka) means “friend.”
7. The Illini tribe was nearly wiped out by war in the 1700′s, and the survivors had to move to Kansas and Oklahoma. The Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma is made up of original Illinois Indians.
Mohican
1. Originally the Mohicans lived along the banks of the Hudson River, in modern-day New York state. Mohican people also lived in parts of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut.
2. The culture of the Mahican Indians has been confused with that of the Mohegan Indians, because of Thomas Cooper’s book, The Last of the Mohicans. However, the Mohegan Indians were a separate tribe, which migrated and settled in Connecticut. And so, there culture differs.
The Mahican culture was shaped by their constant warfare with the neighboring Iroquois, and also by the “cultures of the surrounding tribes- Mohawk, Esopus, Wapinger, Housatonic and Sokoki”(Brasser 198). The latter tribes influence was predominantly on their social organization and intertribal relationships. The Mahican Indians were a confederacy of five tribes, and as many as forty villages.
3. In the past, the Mohican tribe was ruled by sachems, or chiefs. The Wappingers and Housatonics were also part of the Mahican Nation, but each of them had their own sachem as well. Today, the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe is governed by a council that is elected by all the people of both tribes, just like a city council.
Mohican (continued)
4. The Mahicans were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609.
5. no
6. The Mohicans did not originally have a written language, so when Europeans wrote down Mohican words, they made up their own spellings. Some wrote “Mohican,” and others wrote “Mahican.” Both spellings are used today.
7. After Europeans arrived, disease and warfare killed many Mohican people, and the survivors were driven west. They eventually settled in Wisconsin, where the Stockbridge Mohicans still live today. There are also small Mohican communities remaining in New York and Massachusetts.
Natchez
1. The Natchez were original residents of Mississippi and Louisiana.
2. The Natchez were farmers who supplemented their diets through hunting and gathering. The daily life of a Natchez would with no doubt consist of these very things. This would be providing for the tribe. The Natchez society is organized into what is called a chiefdom. This chiefdom was divided into two ranks: nobility and commoners. Membership in one rank or the other was determined by heredity through the female line. Being in a certain social class also determined the daily activities done. If one were a “commoner” they would be responsible for the farming, hunting, and gathering of wild fruits and vegetables. If one were of nobility they were responsible for the decisions of the tribe and also for the tribe’s well being and success.
3. The Natchez king was called the Great Sun, because the Natchez people believed he was descended from the sun. Unlike European kings, Natchez royalty was traced through the mother’s bloodline, not the father’s. So the son of the Great Sun would not become the next Great Sun, his oldest sister’s son would. The Natchez Great Sun was an absolute ruler, which means that he had the power to make all the decisions for the tribe himself.
4. The Natchez first encoutered Europeans in 1682.
5. Grand Soleil (French: Great Sun). The title of a noted Natchez chief, whose individual name is unknown, in the first half of the 18th century. He was a friend of the whites until the French commandant demanded the site of his village.
6. In English, it is pronounced “natch-ez.” In French, it was pronounced “notch-ay,” which is closer to the original Indian pronunciation. This was originally the name of their main village. Later, it began to be used to refer to the people as well.
7. The Natchez tribe was defeated by the French in the early 1700′s, and the survivors scattered. People of Natchez descent live in many different places today, but most of them live among the Chickasaw, Creek and Cherokee tribes of Oklahoma. Those three tribes absorbed many Natchez refugees. Other Natchez people were sent to the West Indies as slaves by the French, and some Afro-Caribbean people today have Natchez and other Indian ancestry.
Delaware Or Lenape
1. The Lenni Lenapes were original people of the mid-Atlantic area, in New Jersey, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania.
2. In selecting the required medicinal plants in field or forest, an herbalist would stop by the first specimen, leaving it untouched. A ceremony would then be performed to appease the spirit of the plant. Following this the herbalist would dig a small hole on the east side of the plant’s roots and place a pinch of native tobacco into the hole as an offering to the manetuwak or spirits who cared for the plants.
3. In the past, Lenape chiefs were always men, but today a Delaware Indian woman could be chief too.
4. Giovanni Da Verrazano first met the Lenape in 1524 off the coast of Sandy Hook.
5. 1661 Pinna, Chief of Passyunk Lenape. Made a treaty of peace with Phillip Calvert, Governor of Maryland.
6. Lenape is pronounced Len-NAH-Pay and means “The People.
7. Most Lenape Indians were driven out of their homeland by the British.
Powhatan
1. The Powhatans lived in Virginia where they met the Jamestown colony.
2. The Powhatans believed in reincarnation and worshiping of the sun.
3. There were many different tribes of the Algonquian Powhatan being on of them. They all shared the same language and culture but were still independent from the others.
4. The first Europeans they met would be the Jamestown people.
5. Besides Pocahontas the most important Indian was Chief Powhatan whose real name was Wahunsonacock. He was actually more like a European king than a Algonquian chief. In Algonquian tribes the chiefs came together in councils to make important decisions, but Chief Powhatan was an absolute ruler. Village chiefs had to obey Powhatan’s commands and pay tribute to him.
6. The Powhatans didn’t live in tepees. They lived in small round houses called wigwamsPowhatan warriors used tomahawks or heavy wooden war clubs.
7. Yes, some still live in Virgina, others live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Catawba
1. They lived in North and south Carolina
2. They flattened the foreheads of their baby boys, and lived in circular villages and had many religious ceremonies in the center .
3. The Catawba tribe was ruled by a chief from a leading clan.
4. Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, made first contact with the Catawbas in 1540.
5. none that i can find.
6. The Catawba hunters used blowguns to kill small animals, and spears or bows and arrows to hunt large game.
7. Yes, most still live in South Carolina although others were forced to move to Oklahoma with the Cherokee
Menominee
1. The lived in Wisconsin.
2. They believed animals were placed on this earth so they could help the humans. This is why a lot of the things they used were made from parts of the animals.
3. In the past the Menominee tribe was led by a chief called okemaw, who was the hereditary head of one of the tribal clans.
4. The Menominee lived around Green Bay when the French explorer Jean Nicolet arrived there in 1634.
5. none that i can find.
6. The most important Menominee food was wild rice. Menominee men hunted deer and fished. Menominee Indians also raised squash and beans, gathered nuts and berries, and tapped trees for maple syrup like people in Wisconsin do today.
7. Today most Menominee people live in Wisconsin on a reservation.
Osage
1. The Osage Indians lived in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas.
2.They believed all life forms and in the universe were the product of a single force called Wa-kon-tah. Humans were merely one creation of Wa-kon-tah.
3. In the past each Osage band was led by a chief who was chosen by a tribal council.
4. The earliest record of European and Osage contact is on a 1673 map by French Jesuit priest and explorer Jacques Marquette.
5. Ballerina Maria Tallchief an Osage born in 1925 in Fairfax, Oklahoma, contributed greatly to the success of ballet in the United States. She danced with the New York City Ballet as it created a new American dance style.
6. Osage hunters used bows and arrows. The Osage were known for their especially well made longbows.
7. Most Osage live in Oklahoma today.
Iowa
1. In modern day Iowa then they moved to Oklahoma.
2. They were nomadic and hunted but also had an agricultural lifestyle similar to the tribes inhabiting the Eastern woods. They planted maize, manufactured alum pipes and traded these along with furs with the French colonizers.
( did I spell that right?)
3. They had chiefs ruling them.
4. I don’t know the exact date when they contacted them but they were constantly trading papes and fur with the French.
5. Yes. Chief White cloud, he became chief at an early age after killing several enemy Sioux to avenge his father’s death. He was later imprisoned in St. Louis, Missouri for killing a French trader. After he escaped, he decided that his father’s death was finally avenged. He refused to let his men avenge for death. The next year one of the Ioway escaped from Fort Leavenworth and killed White Cloud.
Chief White Cloud became a symbol of the virtues of his native lifestyle and of the possibility of peace between natives and settlers.
6. Ioway means “asleep” or “the sleepy ones”
7. Yes in an Iowa Reservation.