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Lakota
or Lakhota
-
Lakota is
the name that this branch of the
Sioux
give themselves and means "Allies" or "Confederates," expressing their
intimate relationship with the
Dakota
and Nakota.
Known more fully as the Teton
Lakota,
they were allied with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. In the 17th
century but were driven west by the Anishinaabe, who had acquired guns
from the French. In their westward progress, they drove the
Kiowa out of the
Black Hills in 1765. Their
other chief enemies were the
Pawnee, the
Crow, and the Arikara. They
adapted to their new environment and became practitioners of the
Plains Culture. They are most famous for having led their allies to
victory over George Armstrong Custer at the Little Big Horn in 1876.
More
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Lenape -
See
Delaware.
Lumbee
- The Lumbee are
original residents of North Carolina, primarily Robeson County, where
they still live today. Unlike most
Indian tribes in the United States,
the Lumbee
Indians do not have a reservation or a recognized tribal
leadership. The Lumbees own their own land and have a strong
community, but they are considered regular U.S. and North Carolina
citizens and do not have sovereignty rights. Some Lumbee people are
dissatisfied with this situation and are working to change it.
Mahican - A confederacy of Native
People of the Eastern Woodlands with an Algonquian language. They
occupied both banks of the Hudson River, almost to Lake Champlain. The Mohegans were a tribe of the Mahican group; both have been called
Mohicans. By 1664 the Mohawk had driven the Mahicans East to
Massachusetts. Their complete dispersal was hastened when their
enemies were armed by the Dutch.
Maliseets - The
Maliseet nation was a member of the Wabanaki Confederacy that
controlled much of New England and the Canadian Maritimes. The
Maliseets themselves are original natives of the area between Maine
and New Brunswick. They lived on both sides of the border, because
they were there before Canada and the United States became countries.
Today, most Maliseets live on the Canadian side of the border, in New
Brunswick and Quebec, with the exception of one band that lives in
Maine.
Mandan -
These indigenous people of the Plains,
spoke a Siouan
language. Said to have come from the East, by mid-18th century they
lived in
North Dakota. The
Mandan
were agricultural people with distinctive cultural traits, including a
myth of origin in which their ancestors climbed from beneath the earth
on the roots of a grapevine. Their numbers were severely depleted in
the 19th century by war and epidemics; in 1990 there were 1,207
Mandans in the U.S. Today,
the
Mandan,
Arikara,
and Hidatsa
(a band of 'Gros Ventre') live together on reservations in
North
Dakota.
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Mascouten - Mascouten apparently comes from a Fox word meaning
"little prairie people." The first occupied parts of southwestern
Michigan but abandoned their location and joined
Algonquin tribes in
Wisconsin after having been attacked by the Ottawa and Neutrals
tribes. Continuing to move south and westward, the Mascouten tribe was
eventually assimilated into the
Algonquin, Wasbash, Kicapoo and other
groups until they were completely absorbed.
Massachusett - Contact with Europeans
probably occurred at an early date, perhaps as soon as John Cabot in 1497,
but they were first mentioned specifically by Captain John Smith when he
explored the coast of New England in 1614. Disaster struck immediately
afterwards in the form of three separate epidemics that swept across New
England between 1614 and 1617 destroying 3/4 of the original native
population. No organized groups of the Massachusett are known to have
survived after 1800.
Mattabesic - Mention is often made
of the Wappinger and Mattabesic Confederations, but these organizations
never really existed. In truth, the Mattabesic and Wappinger were not even
tribes within the usual meaning of the word. What they really were was a
collection of a dozen, or so, small tribes which spoke
Algonquin, shared a
common culture, and occupied a defined geographic area. The name of the Mattabesic comes from a single village that was on the Connecticut River
near Middletown.
Menominee - Original people of Wisconsin, the Menominee tribe is
named after their staple food, wild rice.
A most noteworthy characteristic of the
Menominee was their amazing ability to survive as an independent tribe in
the midst of large and powerful neighbors:
Dakota,
Ojibwe, and Winnebago. Their initial resistance to encroachment almost
resulted in their destruction, but the Menominee adapted to the changed
situation and maintained good relations with these tribes.
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Mandan Man
making an offer of the
buffalo
skull, 1908.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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Metoac - The Metoac had the
misfortune to occupy Long Island which was regarded as the best land in
the Northeast. Each summer from the waters of Long Island Sound, the
Metoac harvested clam shells which, during the winter, were painstakingly
fashioned into small beads they called "wampompeag" - shortened later by
the English into the more familiar form "wampum." The population of
all of the Metoac tribes in 1600 was about 10,000, but the combined
effects of warfare and epidemics left the Metoac at less than 500 by 1659. Today, there are two reservations on Long Island: the Shinnecock with
nearly 400 residents; and the 200 Unkechaug at the Poospatock Reserve.
Besides those on the reservations, there are more than 1,400 Metoac living
in the immediate area. Although state recognition of the Shinnecock
and Unkechaug dates from the colonial period, because they have never
signed treaties with the United States, neither tribe is federally
recognized.
Miami - Originally from norther
Indiana and the adjacent areas of
Illinois
and Ohio, the Miami had the reputation of being slow-spoken and polite
with an inclination towards elaborate dress, especially among their
chiefs. Tattooing was common to both sexes. Two Miami tribes, the
Wea and
Piankashaw ,were removed to
Missouri
during the 1820s, and moved again in 1832 moved to the Marais des Cygnes
River in eastern
Kansas
where they later merged with the remnants of the
Illinois.
In 1867 the combined tribe was forced to relocate for a final time to
northeastern
Oklahoma. The remainder of the Miami tribes remained in Indiana until 1846 when 600
left for
Kansas
only to be moved to
Oklahoma
after the
Civil War. Descendents of the Miami who remained in northern
Indiana still live in their original homeland of northern Indiana.
 Micmac
- Together with the Beothuk on
Newfoundland, the Micmac were probably the first
Native
Americans to have regular contact with Europeans. This may have
occurred as early as the 11th century with the early Viking settlements on
the coast of North America, or perhaps with Basque fishermen who visited
the Grand Banks before Columbus' voyage in 1492 but kept quiet about where
they were catching all their fish.
The Micmac (or Mi'kmaq)
people still live in their original homeland in Nova Scotia today, where
they are fighting for the right to fish and hunt as their ancestors used
to.
Missouri - A Siouian tribe, they lived in and gave their name to
the state of Missouri. Their name means "one who has dugout canoes" in the
Illinois language . In their own language, the Missouri called themselves
Niúachi. In the 17th Century, they lived on the river after which they
were named and extended as far north as the Platte River. In a war against
the Sac and Fox, in1798, they were soundly defeated, and were scattered
among the
Kanza,
Osage, and
Otoe; but in time they recovered and were again
established in their own villages. They suffered greatly from the smallpox
and from a war with the
Osage, so that by 1885 only 40 were known to have
survived. Today they remain part of the
Otoe-Missouria Tribe of
Oklahoma.
Miwok,
also spelled Miwuk or Me-Wuk - this refers to a number of Native American
groups who spoke the Miwokan language and lived in northern
California.
The word "Miwok" means people in their native language. Generally the
Miwok were a hunting and gathering people who lived in small bands without
centralized political authority before contact with white settlers.
Modoc -
The
Modoc, meaning "southerners,” were a warlike and aggressive offshoot from
the Klamath tribe of southeast
Oregon,
occupying the territory immediately to the south of the latter, extending
across the
California
border and including the Lost River Country and the famous Lava-bed
region. After the Modoc War, they were confined to reservations in
Oregon and
Oklahoma.
More ...
Mogollon -
One of four major prehistoric
archaeological culture areas of the American Southwest and Northern
Mexico, the Mogollon lived in the southwest from approximately 150
A.D.
until about 1450 A.D. The name Mogollon comes from
the Mogollon Mountains, which were named after Don Juan Ignacio Flores
Mogollón, the Spanish Governor of New Mexico from 1712-1715. They are
thought to be the first of the southwestern peoples to farm, build
shelters, and make pottery.
To supplement their diet they also harvested wild
plants and hunted small game. When they took up the bow and arrow about
500
A.D.,
hunting became more prevalent. They lived a
sedentary village life-style near
streams, often in canyons or other easily
defendable locations. Their homes
were similar to
Hohokam
pit houses though smaller and taller.
The largest structure called kiva served as the social
and ceremonial center of the village.
Mohegan - Mohegan means
wolf. So does Mahican, but these are the names of two distinct
Algonquin
tribes with different locations and histories. It is all too common for
the Mohegan of the Thames River in eastern Connecticut to be confused with
the Mahican from the middle Hudson Valley in New York (a distance of about
a hundred miles).
Frequently confused with the Mohicans due to a poorly-researched literary
classic, the Mohegan people consist of many originally independent tribes
including the Pequot and Montauk.
 Mohawk
- Of the Iroquoian linguistic stock and Eastern Woodlands area, the
Mohawk were once the chief people of the Five Nations of the Iroquoian
Confederacy. Their first contact with the European settlers came in the
form of conflict, fighting against Samuel De Champlain. Dutch explorers
managed to trade with the Mohawk, exchanging rifles for furs. In latter
years, the British formed an alliance with the Mohawk, to fight the French
and American colonists. After the American Revolution, most of the Mohawk
relocated to Canada, where the vast majority still reside today.
Mohican
- Frequently confused with the Mohegans due to a poorly-researched
literary classic, the Mohican tribe was not driven to extinction, merely
exiled to Wisconsin.
Mojave - Living along the banks of
the Lower
Colorado River in
California
and Arizona,
their tribal structure was based on the family unit. They
practiced agriculture, growing corn and beans amongst other things,
and were also skilled at fishing and hunting. Their belief system was
based on a singular supreme entity, and their own personal value
system revolved around courage in battle. There are currently around
fifteen hundred Mojave
Indians living on reservations in
Arizona.
Montagnais - Nitassinan, the
Montagnais homeland, is a vast area which includes most of Quebec east of
the St. Maurice River extending along the north side of the St. Lawrence
to the Atlantic Ocean in Labrador. Diet relied heavily on the hunting of
moose and seal but with a heavy reliance on fishing for salmon and eel.
Montagnais considered porcupine a delicacy. So much so, they were
sometimes referred to as the "Porcupine
Indians."
Currently, there are almost 13,000 Montagnais in Quebec with another 800
living in Labrador.
Munsee - The name derives
from the people's original band name, Minisink, which means "from the
rocky land." The Munsees originally lived in the mid-Atlantic, in areas
that are now southern New York, northern New Jersey, and southeastern
Connecticut. Dutch and British colonists forced them to leave their
homeland in the 1700's. Some of them retreated to Canada, where most
Munsee live today. Others joined the
Mahican
Indians
in New York; the two tribes were eventually deported to Wisconsin,
where they live together today. Still others sought shelter with their
relatives the
Delaware (Lenape,) and continue to live among them now.
Muscogean
- A language family containing
Alabama,
Apalachee,
Calusa,
Chickasaw,
Choctaw,
Coushatta,
Creek, Hitchiti,
Seminole, and
Yamasee tribes.
Originally they were confined chiefly to the Gulf states east of almost
all of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida,
and South Carolina. According to a tradition held in common by most of
their tribes, they had reached their historic seats from some starting
point west of the Mississippi, usually placed, somewhere on the upper Red River. Later, most were moved to Indian Territory.
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