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Tlingit - Their name for themselves is Lingít,
meaning "people." The tribe once controlled all
the land that extends more than 500 miles from Yakutat Bay to the
British Columbia border south of present day Ketchikan. Scientists
believe the natives came to this continent from Asia many thousands of
years ago, entering Alaska over a land mass that is now cover by the
Bering Strait. The Tlingit were a
matrilineal society who developed a complex hunter-gatherer culture in
the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaska coast. They built large houses using beams and wooden planks.
They had a hierarchical society, that included slaves, and they
performed the potlatch ceremony, in which wealth was ostentatiously
given away. They also fashioned totem poles. In war the Tlingits used
wooden slat armor and wore masks designed to terrorize their enemies.
The Tlingit fought the Russians on many occasions, and sacked their
greatest fort on Baraxou Island. Today, the
Yakutat Tlingit Tribe is a federally recognized Indian tribe located
in Yakutat, Alaska with over 450 tribal members.
Tionontati - The tribe, numbering
around 8,000 in the 1600s, occupied the highlands south and west of
Nottawasaga Bay extending west to the southeastern shores of Lake
Huron in Ontario. After a series of epidemics swept the area during
the 1630s, only 3,000 Tionontati, in nine villages, had survived by
1640. Of these, about 1,000 Huron and Tionontati managed to escape the
Iroquois in 1650 and reach temporary safety on Mackinac Island (Upper
Michigan). The remainder of the Tionontati were either killed, or
captured and later adopted into the Iroquois. The mixed Huron-Tionontati
group that escaped became known afterwards as the Wyandot.
Umatilla - A
Sahaptin-speaking tribe lived on the Columbia River Plateau in
northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.
They were included under the Walla Walla
by
Lewis and Clark
in 1805, though their language is distinct. Because the Umatilla were
frequently raided by neighboring Paiute, they were terrified when the
Lewis and Clark
Expedition approached them. However, determined to placate them,
Clark forced his way into one of the lodges and convinced the
inhabitants of his good will through the liberal distribution of
gifts. The Umatilla depended on the great numbers of salmon found in
the rivers for food and trade, even using the dried fish for fuel. In
1855 they joined in a treaty with the United States and settled on the
Umatilla Reservation in eastern Oregon. Today, the Umatilla share land
and a governmental structure with the Cayuse and the Walla Walla
tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation. The reservation is located near Pendleton, Oregon near
the Blue Mountains.
Ute - Of
Shoshonean liguistic
stock, the Ute occupied the Four Corners region which was formerly
ruled by the Anasazi, a close relative of the
Shoshone
Indians. The Ute lived in small groups, mainly familial
units, and were a gatherer tribe. It isn't until the 1800s, when
the Ute acquired the horse, that they would become hunters. The
state of
Utah
is named after the Ute.
More ...
Wabanaki - The
Wabanaki
Confederacy was a powerful alliance of east-coast
Indian
tribes.
Waccamaw -
One of the small tribes formerly dwelling on the Lower Pedee and
its branches in South Carolina and the adjacent border of North
Carolina. Nothing is known of their language, and very little else
concerning them, as they were never prominent in history. Their
associations indicate that they were Siouan. Their habitat was along
Waccamaw river, which enters the Pedee from the north almost at its
mouth. They were mentioned first in 1715 as living near the Winyaw,
both tribes receiving ammunition from the Cheraw, who attempted to
gain them as allies of the Yamasee and other tribes against the
English. At this time they were living in 6 villages with a population
of 610. In 1755 the
Cherokee and Notchee were reported to have
killed some Pedee and Waccamaw in the white settlements. Like the
Pedee, Cheraw, and other tribes of that region, they probably finally
incorporated with the Catawba.
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Ute Tipi, 1915, by William J. Carpenter.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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Walapai - See
Hualupai
Walla
Walla
- A Shahaptian tribe formerly living on lower Walla Walla
River and along the east bank of the Columbia from Snake River nearly
to the Umatilla in
Washington and
Oregon. There name translates to
"Little River." While a distinct dialect, their language is closely
related to the Nez Percé. Their number was estimated by
Lewis and Clark as 1,600 in 1805, but it is certain this figure included other
bands now recognized as independent. By treaty of 1855 they were
removed to the Umatilla Reservation in
Oregon, where many of them
still live today. In the Wasco treaty of 1855, by which the Warm
Springs Reservation was established, a number of Shahaptian tribes or
bands were mentioned as divisions of the Walla Walla which had no real
connection with that tribe. The Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla
Indian Reservation, located in the near of Pendleton,
Oregon is today
home to not only the Wallawalla, but also the Cayuse and the
Umatilla
tribes.
Wampanoags
-
The Wampanoag people were original natives of Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, and it was Wampanoag people who befriended the pilgrims at
Plymouth Rock and brought them corn and turkey for the famous first
Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the relationship went downhill from
there, and disease and British attacks killed most of the Wampanoag
people. Today about 300 Wampanoag people live on a small reservation
on Martha's Vineyard, which belongs to them and is under their
control. However, the US government still considers them citizens and
controls some of their decisions. Other people of Wampanoag descent
live in communities within Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Wappinger -
Originally the tribe was located on the east side of the Hudson River between the Bronx and
Rhinebeck extending east to the crest of the Taconic Mountains on the
border between New York and Connecticut. Except for a few small
groups, most Wappinger had left the lower Hudson Valley by 1760 and
settled in western Massachusetts with the Mahican at Stockbridge, the
Iroquois in New York, or the Delaware
in Pennsylvania. Once numbering around 8.000 in 30 villagtes,
disease and warfare evenutually wiped out most of the tribe. One
possible group of Wappinger remain in northern New Jersey today -- the
Ramapough Mountain
Indians (Ramapo Mountain People). With 2,500 members, they have
state recognition but were denied federal status in 1993.
Wichita - A Caddoan speaking
people of
Kansas, the Wichita lived in villages of grass huts resembling
haystacks. For most of the year their economy was based on farming, but
during the buffalo hunt they were nomadic and lived in teepees. They were
fond of tattoos, and called themselves Kitikiti'sh, "Raccoon-Eyed," after
a popular tattoo pattern. After a defeat at the hands of the Spanish in
1662, the Wichita moved south into
Oklahoma. In the mid-eighteenth
century, they also migrated to Texas under pressure from the Osage. They
formed an alliance with the powerful Comanche nation, which held their
enemies in check. Today, the Wichita tribal lands are centered around Gracemont,
Oklahoma with their tribal headquarters in Anadarko,
Oklahoma.
Wiyots
- The Wiyots are original
people of Northern
California, where their surviving descendents
still live today along with Wiyot descendents live together with Yurok,
Hupa, Tolowa, and Mattole
Indians
on four rancheros. These
California
Indians
have partial control over the rancherias and each tribe has its own
government, laws, police, and other services. However, the US
government still considers the Wiyots citizens and controls some of their
decisions. Today, since the rancherias comprise
Indians
from several different tribes, they are ruled by tribal councils which
represent all the ethnicities of each rancheros.
Winnebago/Hotcagara - The Winnebago do not
remember a time when they did not live at Red Banks on the south shore of
Green Bay. Their clothing was fringed buckskin, which the Winnebago
frequently decorated with beautiful designs created from porcupine quills,
feathers and beads - a skill for which they are still renown. Men
originally wore their hair in two long braids, but in time this changed to
the scalplock and roach headdress favored by the Algonquin. Body tattooing
was common to both sexes.
Yakama - The Yakima (as it
was pronounced at the time,) a Shahaptian tribe,
were living on the banks of the Columbia, Wénatchee, and northern branches
of the Yakima Rivers, when
Lewis and Clark came along in 1806. Numbering
about 1,200 people at the time, they called themselves Waptailmim,
"people-of-the-narrows", or Pakintlema, "people of the gap", from the
situation of their village near Union Gap on the Yakima River. At that
time, they primarily lived on salmon, roots, berries and nuts. By the
treaty of 1855 they and 13 other tribes gave up the territory from the
Cascade Mountains to the Snake and Palus River, and from Lake Chelan to
the Columbia, and were to form the Yakima Reservation under Kamaiakan, a
Yakima chief. However, before the treaty could be ratified the Yakima war,
broke out, and it was not until 1859 that the provisions of the treaty
were carried into effect. Today, the vast majority of the over 8,000
tribal members live upon the Yakama Reservation south central
Washington.
Yaquina -
This small tribe of
Indians
on the
Oregon coast formed a small linguistic
family speaking the Alsean or Yakokna language that is now extinct. They
lived on the Yaquina River and bay near present Newport,
Oregon. By the
early explorers and writers they were classed with the Salishan tribes to
the north, but later were shown to be linguistically independent. A
coastal and river people they survived as fishermen, and primarily hunted
seals. Because of their coastal location they came into contact with white
trading vessels in the late 18th century; at which time they reported to
have numbered as many as 5,000. The tribe began to diminish as white
settlers moved in, hastened by the activities of the
Hudson's Bay
Company,
miners, and the Rogue Wars of the 1850s. The remaining Yaquina people live
on the Siletz Reservation in
Oregon, and are mostly of mixed blood.
Yahooskin -
A
Shoshonean band which prior to 1864 roved and hunted with the Walpapi
about the shores of Goose, Silver, Warner, and Harney Lakes in
Oregon. On
October 14, 1864 they made a treaty with the U.S. Government ceding their
lands and being placed on the Klamath Reservation, established at that
time. With the Walpapi and a few
Paiute who had joined them, the Yahooskin were assigned lands in the
southern part of the reservation, where they were engaged in agriculture,
lived in willow lodges and log houses, and gradually abandoned their
roaming proclivities. At the turn of the century they were reported to
have had a little more than 100 members. Unfortunately, for those living on the Klamath
Reservation in
Oregon,
including the Modoc, Klamath and Yahooskin tribes, an act of congress
terminated federal recognition in 1954 and took away some
1.8 million acres of their reservation. In 1986, the Klamath
Indian
Tribe Restoration Act returned their federal recognition, but did not
return their land. Today, they are scattered primarily in Klamath County,
Oregon.
Yuki - A tribe
from the Round Valley of Mendicino County in northern
California,
their name means "alien" or "enemy" The Yuki were of a much more warlike
character than most
California
Indians.
In the 1850's they were forced onto a reservation in Round Valley, where
conditions led to the revolt known as the "Mendicino War" in 1859, which
further decimated the tribe. Today there remain but a hundred Yuki only a
dozen of which speak the language.
Yurok
- The Yurok tribe, whose name means
"downriver people," have lived near the
Pacific Ocean coast of northern
California
and southern
Oregon for as many
as 10,000 years. The Yurok language, is Algonquin, the farthest west that
the language has been found. The nomadic bands lived on hunting and
fishing, and gathering nuts, roots, and berries. In the winter, they
concentrated in villages, where they lived in rectangular houses with
slanted cedar roofs. Social status was determined by wealth, and unlike
other
Native
Americans, the practiced the owning and selling of land.
After the gold rush of 1849, the Yurok lost most of their land; however,
they now own a number of ranches in
California,
flourishing with hotels and gaming resorts. They are the largest
Indian
tribe in
California, with
nearly 5,000 enrolled members.
Zuni
- The Zuni
Indians
of today are one of 19 original tribes that once inhabited the area that
is now called
New Mexico
and Arizona.
The Zuni tribe
is said to have originated from the ancient
Anasazi a large society that encompassed large amounts of land, riches
and many distinct cultures and civilizations. The
Zuni people
are, in a way, a mysterious tribe. Their culture is very reclusive and
isolated much as is their city and their language. They are a very
interesting people who are well known for their beautiful artwork,
sculpture and dishware. The
Zuni are one of
the few fortunate tribes who have managed to keep their ways of life the
same throughout the years despite the westward push of the European
immigrant settlers, the Mexican-American war, and the rough treatment they
endured during all of the conflicts that they dealt with.
More ...
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated May, 2008
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