Summary of Native American Tribes - "C"

Native American Tribes - C - Page 7

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Clowwewalla - This tribe to the Clackamas division of the Chinookan linguistic stock and lived at the falls of the Willamette River in Oregon. Subdivisions may have included the Cushook, Chahcowah, and Nemalquinner. The Cushook were estimated by Lewis and Clark to have numbered about 650 people in 1806. They were greatly reduced by the epidemic of 1829 and in 1851 numbered 13. They are now apparently extinct.

Coahuiltecan - A linguistic family that included numerous tribes in southwestern Texas and in Mexico. It is probable that most of the so-called Tamaulipecan family of Mexico were really related to this, and that the Karankawan and Tonkawan groups were connected as well, though more remotely. They were spread over the eastern part of Coahuila, Mexico, and almost all of Texas west of San Antonio River and Cibolo Creek. The tribes of the lower Rio Grande may have belonged to a distinct family, but the Coahuiltecans reached the Gulf coast at the mouth of the Nueces River. Northeast of that point they were succeeded by Karankawan tribes. Toward the north it is probable that the Coahuiltecans originally extended for a long distance before they were displaced by the Apache and Comanche.

Coaque - A tribe formerly living on Malhado Island, off the coast of Texas. Spanish explorer, Alvar Cabeza de Vaca found two tribes, the Han and the Coague living there, each with its own language. They subsisted on a root taken from the shoal water, on fish, and visited the mainland for berries and oysters. The houses of the Coaque were of mats and were set up on a "mass of oyster shells." The men wore a piece of cane, half a finger thick, inserted in the lower lip, and another longer piece thrust through one or both nipples. They are said to have spoken a dialect of the Karankawa. In 1778, about 20 families were living between the Colorado and the Brazos Rivers, opposite the island of La Culebra. They are extinct today.

Cochimi - A term originally used to designate a Yuman dialect. It was once spoken in Baja California but has not been spoken since the 1800's and the Cochimi people no longer exist as a distinct people

Cochiti - A Keresan tribe and its pueblo on the west bank of the Rio Grande River, is about 35 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before the earliest Spanish explorations, their ancestors divided into two groups, one branch going southward, where they built the pueblo of Katishtya (later called San Felipe), while the other took refuge on the Potrero Viejo, a mesa in north central New Mexico, where they established a temporary pueblo known as Hanut Cochiti, about 12 miles northwest of the present-day Cochiti Pubelo. Later, this group moved again to 6 or 7 miles southeast of the present Cochiti Pubelo, where they were found by Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate in 1598. The Cochiti took an active part in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, but remained in their pueblo for 15 months after the outbreak, when, learning of the return of Governor Otertnin to reconquer New Mexico, they retreated with the Keresan tribes of San Felipe and Santo Domingo (now called Kewa), re-enforced by some Tewa from San Marcos and by Tigua from Taos and Picuris, to the Potrero Viejo. In the fall of 1692, they were visited by Don Diego de Vargas, the re-conqueror of New Mexico, who induced them to promise to return to their permanent villages on the Rio Grande. But, only San Felipe proved sincere, while the Cochiti remained on the Potrero Viejore until early in the following year, when Vargas, with 70 soldiers, 20 colonists, and 100 warriors from the friendly villagers of San Felipe, Santa Ana, and Zia, assaulted the pueblo at midnight and forced the Cochiti to flee. However, the Cochiti returned, surprised the Spaniards, and succeeded in liberating most of the Indian captives. Vargas remained a short time, then burned the pueblo and evacuated the Potrero Viejore, taking with him to Santa Fe, a large quantity of corn, other booty, and nearly 200 captive women. Today, the Pueblo de Cochiti contains some 53,779 acres of reservation land and sustains about 1,200 pueblo members. For more information see the Pueblo de Cochiti.

Cocopa - A division of the Yuman family which in 1604-05 lived in nine villages on the Rio Colorado River of Arizona. At a later period they also extended into the mountains of Lower California and into Mexico. They were estimated to number about 3,000 in 1775, but by the turn of the 20th Century, were reported to have only about 800 people. They were less hostile than the Yuma or the Mohave, who frequently raided their villages; but were sufficiently war-like to retaliate when necessary. They resembled the Yuma in arms, dress, manners, and customs and depended for subsistence chiefly on corn, melons, pumpkins, and beans, which they cultivated, adding native grass seeds, roots, mesquite beans, etc. The Cocapa Reservation was established in 1917 about 13 miles south of Yuma, Arizona. The reservation comprises approximately 6,500 acres and about 1,000 tribal members live and work on or near the Reservation today. In 1964, the Tribe founded its first Constitution and established a Tribal Council. For more information see the Cocopa Indian Tribe.

Colville - A division of the Salish who lived between Kettle Falls and Spokane River in eastern Washington. Speaking the Wenatchi dialect, they were estimated to number 2,500 when Lewis and Clark visited them in 1806. They are now one of the twelve bands or tribes that make up the federally recognized Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

Comanche - A nomadic offshoot of the Eastern Shoshoni Indians, the Comanche lived on the North-American Southern Great Plains during 1800-1900s. The word "Comanche" is believed to come from from the Spanish "interpretation" of their Ute name "Kohmahts, "meaning: those who are against us, or want to fight us. The Comanche People call themselves "Numunuh", which means: The People. The Comanche epitomized the mounted plains warrior. The Texas Rangers were organized during the 1840s primarily to fight Comanche. More ...

Conestoga - An important Iroquoian tribe that formerly lived on Susquehanna River and its branches. When first met by Captain John Smith, in 1608, and until their conquest by the Iroquois confederation in 1675, they were in alliance with the Algonquiantribes of the east shore of Chesapeake Bay and at war with those on the west shore. They were described as warlike and as possessed of a physique far superior to that of all the other neighboring tribes. In 1675, after their defeat by the iroquois, they established themselves on the east bank of the Potomac River in Maryland, immediately north of Piscataway Creek. They formed a close alliance with the Dutch and Swedes, and with the English of Maryland. The Iroquois had carried on relentless war against them, with varying success, which finally reduced them from about 3,000 warriors in 1608 to about 550 in 1648. The Iroquois of the north drove the Conestoga down on the tribes to the south and west, who were allies of the English, a movement involving the Conestoga in a war with Maryland and Virginia in 1675. Finding themselves surrounded by enemies on all sides, a portion of them abandoned their country and took refuge with the Occaneechi on Roanoke River, while the rest remained in Pennsylvania. They were all finally removed to the country of the Oneida, where they remained until they lost their language. Later, they were allowed to return to Conestoga, their ancient town where they rapidly wasted By the , close of the year 1763, the remnant, numbering only 20, were massacred by a party of rioters inflamed by the accounts of the Indian war then raging along the Pennsylvania frontier.

Congaree - A small tribe, supposed to be Siouan, who formerly lived in South Carolina. In 1693 the Cherokee complained that the Shawnee, Catawba, and Congaree took prisoners from among them and sold them as slaves in Charleston. In 1701 they were found on the northeast bank of Santee River below the junction of the Wateree. However, on a 1715 map of 1715 they were placed on the south bank of Congaree River, about opposite the site of Columbia. A fort bearing the tribal name was established near the village in 1718. They were a small tribe, having lost many by tribal feuds but, more by smallpox. The Congaree, like their neighbors, took part in the Yamasi War in 1715, as a result of which they were so reduced that they were compelled to move up the country and join the Catawba, with whom they were still living in 1743.

Conoy - An Algonquian tribe, related to the Delaware, from whose ancestral stem they apparently sprang. But, their closest relations were with the Nanticoke, with whom it is probable they were in late prehistoric times united, the two forming a single tribe. Their language is supposed to have been somewhat closely allied to that spoken in Virginia by the Powhatan. The Conoy were a sedentary hunter-farmer tribe who lived between the Potomac River and the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. In 1670, they were devasted by a smallpox epidemic. Most confederated with other tribes as a result of white settlement. Their descendants today number about 200 and belong to the Maryland Indian Heritage Society, Piscataway Conoy Confederacy, and the Piscataway Indian Nation.

Coos - When first encountered there were 40-50 villages in the Coos tribes situated around the Coos Bay and North Bend area of Oregon. Most of them were hunters, fishermen, and gatherers. Today, they are one of the three Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians living on the southwest Oregon Pacific coast. The Coos language is nearly extinct.

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