Summary of Native American Tribes

NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS

Summary of Native American Tribes

Abenakis - 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.

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.

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 - Primarily located in the southwest, "Apache" is most likely derived from ápachu, a Zuni name for "enemy." The Apache were not so numerous in the 17th century, but they were a hostile tribe and increased their numbers by taking captives from other tribes, particularly the Pueblo, Pima, Papago, and other peaceful Indians, as well as from the settlements of northern Mexico. Made up of several tribal groups, including Mescaleros, Jicarillas, Faraones, Llaneros, Chiricahua, and more, they were collectively known as Apache. More...

Arapaho - The Arapahos were originally farming people, but once horses were introduced to the Americas, they began to follow the buffalo herds like the Cheyennes and Sioux. The Arapahos were probably original residents of Minnesota and North Dakota, but as expansion pushed the tribes westward, population pressures forced the Arapahos to resettle in what is now Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. Later, the Americans deported one group of Arapahos to Oklahoma, where they share a reservation with the Cheyenne people there; another group of Arapahos remain in Wyoming today, sharing a reservation with the Shoshone people. More ...

Apache Teepees in Arizona, 1907.

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Arikara maiden at the water's edge, 1908

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Arikara (also Arikaree, Ree) - This semi-nomadic group lived in tipis on the plains of South Dakota for several hundred years. Primarily an agricultural society, corn was their main crop and was so important it was often referred to as "Mother Corn." In 1823, the Arikara, frustrated with traders encroaching upon their lands, attacked a group of white travelers, resulting in the short-lived Arikara War. In the late 1830's, the tribe was almost destroyed by small pox. In the 1870's they were forced by the Sioux out of the Black Hills and migrated into North Dakota where they began to work closer with the Hidatsa and Mandan tribes who inhabited the area. Today, they are still associated with the Hidatsa and Mandan, known collectively as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The Arikara live primarily on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. More ...

Assegun - A tribe that originally occupied the region around Mackinaw and Sault Ste Marie, they were later driven southward by the Anishinaabe and Ottawa into Lower Michigan. They were once thought to be connected to the Mascoutens, but are now believed to have been a Siouan tribe. The name probably derives from Anishinaabe word meaning "Black Bass."

Assiniboine, aka: Stoney - A tribe with very close affinities to the Nakota Sioux, the differences in dialect between the two suggesting a time of separation sometime before 1640. The Assiniboine call themselves "Nakoda." In 1658, they were living at Lake Alimibeg, between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay. At an earlier time they were probably at the headwaters of the Mississippi and drifted north from the constant warfare with the Dakota. They are of plains culture, and in dress are not much different from their neighbors, the Cree. They also practice polygamy an were known to sacrifice dogs to the spirits. Their name comes from Anishinaabe word that translates to "cooks by the use of stones."

Atikameks - The Atikamekw are a small, traditional tribe that still speaks their native language and lives off their ancestral land in Quebec, Canada. Closely related to the Cree and often discussed together, the Atikamekw consider themselves a distinct people and have their own First Nation with a separate government from the Cree.

Awani/Awanichi - A division of the Miwok that were living in the Yosemite Valley in Mariposa County, California. The name applied by the natives of the Valley, was the principal village, which by extension was given to the whole valley and its inhabitants, who occupied it when snow permitted. The Awani had nine villages, containing 450 people, when the white settlers first came upon them.

Bannock - The Bannock Indians are a Shoshonean tribe who long lived in the Great Basin in what is now southeastern Oregon and Southern Idaho. Today many of the Bannock still live on the 544,000 acre Fort Hall Indian Reservation in southeastern Idaho, along with the Lemhi and Northern Shoshone Indians. More ...

Bayougoula - Their name meaning "bayou people, the Bayougoula were a Muskhogean tribe located on the west side of the Mississippi River in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. They spoke a Choctaw dialect. Living in thatched roof houses, the tribe kept flocks of turkey and farmed corn, bean, squash, melons, sunflowers and tobacco. In 1700 they were said to have numbered about 200-250. Not long after the Bayogoula almost exterminated the Mugulasha as the result of a dispute between the chiefs of the two tribes. In 1706, they received the Tonica into their village but were surprised and almost all massacred by their perfidious guests. Smallpox destroyed most of the remainder, so that by 1721 not a family was known to exist.

Beothuks - The Beothuks or "Red Indians" were the original inhabitants of Newfoundland, Canada. The Beothuks loved the color red, hence the name. They covered their bodies, faces, hair, clothing and personal possessions with red paint made from a powdered ochre mixed with fish oil or animal grease. Through displacement, disease and killings by the white man, the tribe died out in the 1800's.

Biloxi - A small Siouan speaking tribe, formerly living near the city in Mississippi that now bears their name. Their long lodges had walls made of mud and roofs of bark. After the defeat of the French in 1763, the Biloxi moved into Louisiana, some going as far west as Texas (near Biloxi Creek in Angelina County).

Blackfoot - Four tribes make up this powerful Plains Indian nation: the Blackfoot (Blackfeet) in Montana and the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai in Canada. The Blackfoot was a nomadic group who's wanderings took them as far West as the Rocky Mountains and as far east as Manitoba, Canada. Following the buffalo herds, for which they depended upon for food and clothing, the Blackfoot lived in teepees. Most Blackfeet live in Montana and Alberta, Canada today. More ...

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Blackfoot Teepee.

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Apache Teepees in Arizona, 1907.

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