Abenaki - Pronounced OBB-uh-nah-kee, the name means "people of the dawn." The Abenaki people were native New Englanders for thousands of years.  As members of the Wabanaki Confederacy that controlled much of New England and the Canadian Maritimes, the Abenakis themselves are original natives of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. After European colonists came here, many Abenakis fled to Canada or moved in with neighboring tribes. Today, Abenaki Indians live on two reservations in Quebec and are scattered around New England. Not officially recognized in the United States, they do not have a reservation in the U.S. nor Native American rights afforded to other Indians, even though it was there original home.

Absentee - A division of the Shawnee Indians living in Kansas, they left the rest of the tribe in about 1845 and moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma.)

Acolapissa  - The mild climate of the lower Mississippi required little clothing. Acolapissa men limited themselves pretty much to a breechcloth, women a short skirt, and children ran nude until puberty. With so little clothing with which to adorn themselves, the Acolapissa were fond of decorating their entire bodies with tattoos. In cold weather a buffalo robe or feathered cloak was added for warmth.

Acuera - Part of the Timucuan linguistic division of the Muskhogean family, the Acuera were located at the headwaters of the Ocklawaha River in Florida. They were first noted by Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto, in a letter written at Tampa Bay to the Civil Cabildo of Santiago de Cuba. De Soto described where they lived as being "a large town where with much convenience we might winter." though the Spaniards did not pass through the village, while they were at Ocale, they sent to Acuera for corn. The name appears later in French explorer, René Goulaine de Laudonnière's narrative of the second French expedition to Florida in 1564-65, as a tribe allied with the Utina. Later, they were noted briefly in Spanish documents and in 1604, the an encounter between the tribe and Spanish troops. By 1655, there were Acuera missions -- San Luis and Santa Lucia, both of which had disappeared by 1680. The inland position of the Acuera is partly responsible for the few early descriptions of them. Later, the tribe was probably gathered into the "Pueblo de Timucua," which stood near St. Augustine, Florida in 1736, and was finally removed to the Mosquito Lagoon and Halifax River in Volusia County. The tribe is entirely extinct today.

Alabama - A Muskogean tribe of the southern United States, the tribe lived primarily within the state that now bears their name. They, along with other Muskogean speaking tribes, the Creek, Hitchiti, and Coushatta, formed the Creek Confederacy.

Algonquian - One of the most populous and widespread Native American groups, these tribes consist of peoples that speak Algonquian languages. Algonquian tribes of the New England area include Mohegan, Pequot, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusett, Nipmuck, Pennacook, Abenaki, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy. Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, and a variety of Cree groups lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan. In the Midwest lived the Shawnee, Illiniwek, Kickapoo, Menominee, Miami, and Sac and Fox. The Great Plains were called home to the Arapaho, Blackfoot and Cheyenne. In the mid- and south-Atlantic were the traditional homes of the Powhatan, Lumbee, Nanticoke, Lenape, Munsee and Mahican peoples. Other Algonquian tribes reside in Canada.

Algonquin/Algonkin - Often confused with other Indian tribes known as "Algonquian," the Algonquin lived in villages of small round buildings called wigwams. With tribes originally numbering in the hundreds, they spoke several different dialects. The Algonquin were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, collecting food primarily from fishing and hunting. They held that a single supernatural force called Manitou imbued all nature. The Algonquin were first encountered by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1603. The closeness of the Algonquin to the French led to their temporary dislodgement from the Ottawa River area by the Iroquois. Today they live live in the modern Ontario/Quebec area of Canada.

Alsea/Alsi - A Yaquina tribe formerly occupying a small territory at the mouth of Alsea River in western Oregon. In 1910, there were only 29 Alsea in the census report. They are now part of the Confederated Siletz Indians of Oregon.

Anasazi - Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning "The Ancient Ones." The Anasazi tribe lived from A.D. 1 to the 14th century in the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. The Anasazi were a highly cultured tribe, known mostly for their great creativity. The Anasazi Indians were the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo Indians, more precisely, of the Hopi. More ...

Anishinaabe - A large Algonquin nation inhabiting the Lake Superior region. The name means "Original Men" in their own tongue. The Algonquian term for them, Ojibway, was later corrupted into the English "Chippewa." They are very closely related to the Ottawa and the Potawatomi, the collectivity forming the "Three Fires." They lived in cone-shaped and domed wigwams covered in bark and rushes, and were considered especially adept at the construction and use of birch bark canoes. They were fierce enemies of the Santee Sioux.

Apache Teepees in Arizona, 1907.

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

Arikara maiden at the water's edge, 1908