Native American Indians Essay Example for Free

primordial American Indians demonstrateIndian Nations ar s overeign governments, recognized in and hundreds of treaties with the U. S. President. The history of this continents original inhabitants encompasses a broad melt down of cultures and experiences. American Indians varied greatly from region to region, as did their reactions to European settlement. This website will delve into the vast and notable background of near tribes and seek to supply the visitors with as much knowledge as possible slightly the proud history of native-born Americans.Please join us on this journey into the past, experience the inclose and dream about the future of the American Indian. When Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492 he was welcomed by a brown-skinned sight whose material appearance confirmed him in his opinion that he had at cultivation reached India, and whom, whence, he c some(prenominal)ed Indios, Indians, a cook which, however mistaken in its prototypi cal application continued to look at its own, and has long since won general acceptance, except in strictly scientific writing, where the more exact border American is commonly used.As exploration was extended north and south it was found that the same hunt down was spread over the whole continent, from the Arctic shores to Cape Horn, everywhere alike in the main physical characteristics, with the exception of the Eskimo in the extreme North, whose features suggest the Mongolian. Tribes and Nations Native Americans (American Indians) make up less than one per centum of the total U. S. population solely re shew half the languages and cultures in the nation.The term Native American includes over 500 different groups and reflects great diversity of geographic location, language, socioeconomic conditions, school experience, and retention of traditional weird and cultural practices. However, most of the commercially prepared teaching materials available present a generalized protot ype of Native American people with undersized or no regard for differences that exist from tribe to tribe. mohawk (Iroquois)The Iroquois League, or Five Nations of the Iroquois, was the most powerful Indian military alliance in the eastern set off of North America and probably the most successful alliance of whatever kind between so human racey important tribes. There were three principal clans deer, turtle and wolf existing within the flipper nations, and this was probably an important unifying factor in the league. The league was formed in the late ordinal century at which time the five nations had a combined population of 7000.Mohican (Mohegan) and/or Mahican What a perplexity of facts. After reading through some(prenominal) texts and visiting many sites on the web, it has become clear as mud that everyone has a differing opinion about the relationships between these three tribes. We will therefore include them all on one page and maybe through your wanderings, you wil l discover the truth. If you do, please let us in on it. Creek The Creek were originally one of the dominant tribes in the mid-south and later became know as one of the Five Civilized Tribes.They were known in their own language as Muskoke or Muskoge, by the Shawnee as Humaskogi, by the Delaware as Masquachki and by the British as the Ochese Creek Indians, hence the present foretell. Their name has been adapted for that of their linguistic group and for Muskogee, Oklahoma, which was a major city of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory. Cherokee The Cherokee were one of the largest tribes in the Southeast and were among the earliest to adapt to European civilization. Their name is written Tsalagi in their own language, and they were called Chalakki by the Choctaw, whose language was the language of trade in the Southeast.South air jacket Navajo (Dineh, Navaho) The Navajo tribe is the largest in the linked States, with some 200,000 people occupying the largest and area reserved for Native Americans 17 zillion acres in Arizona, Utah, and smart Mexico. The word Navajo derives from the Spanish word for people with big fields. At the time of the arrival of the white man they had developed agriculture, though on a smaller scale than the nearby Hopi and Pueblo peoples. The Navajo were less sedentary than the Hopi and Pueblo tribes, but more so than the Apache of the same region. ZuniThe Zuni, like the Hopi, were linguistically distinct from the Pueblo tribes but related to them culturally. The three groups, Zuni, Hopi and Pueblo, had several(prenominal) important characteristics in common. First of all, they lived in pueblos (Spanish for village), which were a composite of adobe brick houses, frequently interconnected and from time to time multistoried, much like a modern apartment complex. While each Pueblo tribe was associated with a one pueblo, the Hopi and Zuni were each associated with several, and not all members of these tribes lived in pueblos.Hopi Th e Hopi, whose name comes from hopitu meaning the peaceful ones, are traditionally associated culturally with the Zuni and with eht Pueblo Indians. All of these people live in pueblos or cities comprised of a complex of sometimes jultistoried, rectangular houses. The name pueblo drives from the Spanish word for people. The Hopi are descendants of people who migrated into the Southwest prior to 1000 BC. By 700 AD they had developed agriculture and were raising corn, beans, squash and cotton.By 1100 AD they had abandoned their aboriginal pit housed for multi-level adobe houses, and had founded cities at Oraibi and Mesa Verde. Yavapai From prehistoric times, the Yavapai lived as hunters and gatherers practicing occasional agriculture on over nine million acres of central and western Arizona. The three primary groups of Yavapai maintained good relationships with each another(prenominal) and are now located at Ft. McDowell, Camp Verde and Prescott. The Yavapai are known for weaving excel lent baskets, which are displayed in many museums. ApacheThe Apache (from a Zuni word meaning enemy) are a North American Indian people of the Southwest. Their name for themselves is Inde, or Nde (the people). The major wandering tribe in the American Southwest, the Apache, was also the Last major tribe to surrender to government control in the 1880s Plains Kiowa The Kiowa name is derived from kai-gwa, meaning principal people, and romance has it that they originated in the Yellowstone River country of central Montana. In the eighteenth century, having obtained horses, they moved onto the plains to hunt buffalo.During this time they made alliances with both the Kiowa-Apache as well as their former enemies, the Comanche. This latter association was the basis for the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation formed in Indian Territory in 1892. The Kiowa are noted for having kept a written history. This historical tape was kept in the form of a pictographic calendar painted and updated twice a year , in winter and summer, on buffalo skins. Pawnee (Pani, Pana, Panana, Panamaha, Panimaha) The Pawnee name may have derived from Caddoan pariki, meaning horn, a reference to the erratic manner inwhich the tribe wore the scalplock.The Paunee lived in established villages similar to those of the Mandan. They practiced agriculture but also run buffalo on the plains part of the year. They had a complex religion unrelated to other Plains tribes that included offer female captives as a sacrifice to ensure abundant crops. Comanche The Comanche are an offshoot of the Shoshone and one of several numanic speaking tribes. They are linguistically related to the Shoshone, Ute and Paiute, whose language is remotely related to Aztec.Their name comes from the Spanish camino ancho, which factor wide trail. They once lived in the Rocky Mountains near the Shoshone, but migrated to the plains to hunt buffalo. Though they became nomadic Plains Indians, they cool it maintained good relations with th e Shoshone. Osage (Wazhazhe) Closely related to the Omaha, Kansa, Quopaw and Ponca, the Osage are thought to have once lived in the Ohio River valley, but they were first encountered by the white man in Missouri, where they were recorded as having large cornfields.They commonly lived in earth lodges, but when on hunting trips to the northern plains in search of buffalo, they carried and used the plains tipi. large Lakes Miami (Maumee, Twightwee) The Miami, whose name comes from the Chippewa omaumeg, or people who live on the peninsula, first came into contact with white men in 1658 near Green Bay, Wisonsin, but they soon withdrew to the headwaters of the Fox River and later to the headwaters of the Wabash and Maumee rivers. The Miami had good relations with the French, with whom they were allied.They were also well associated with the Piankashaw, who were once thought to be part of the Miami tribe. Huron (Wyandot) The name Wyandot (or Wendat) is Iroquoian for people of the penins ula, a reference to a peninsula in sourthern Ontario eas of Lake Huron where they originally lived. Their population was estimated at 20,000 in 1615 when first encountered by the French under Samuel de Champlain, who referred to them as Huron (bristly-headed ruffian). The first Wyandot groups inthe region probably arrived in the early fourteenth century.In addition to maize, the Wyandot raised beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. Ottawa The name Ottawa is derived from the Algonquian adawe, meaning to trade, an apt name for the tribe, who had an active trading relationship with the related Chippewa and Potawatomi as well as other tribes of the region. Like the Chippewa, they built birch talk canoes and harvested wild rice. Ottawa foreman Pontiac rose by 1755 as one of the most important Indian leaders of the era. Ojibwa (Chippewa)To end any confusion, the Ojibwa and Chippewa are not only the same tribe, but the same word pronounced a little differently due to accent. If an O is p laced in front of Chippewa (Ochippewa), the relationship becomes apparent. Ojibwa is used in Canada, although Ojibwa west of Lake Winnipeg are sometime referred to as the Saulteaux. In United States, Chippewa was used in all treaties and is the official name. The Chippewas were the largest and most powerful tribe in the vast Lakes country, with a range that extended from the edge of Iroquois territory in the Northeast to the Sioux-dominated Great Plains.Both of these major tribes were traditional Chippewa rivals, but neither was powerful enough to endanger the Chippewa heartland, where the Chippewa was master. The tribe used the lakes and rivers of the region like a vast highway network, and developed the birch bark canoe into one of the continents major means of transportation. Northwest Nez Perce Nez Perce is a misnomer given by the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark trip team of 1805. The French translate it as pierced weave. This is untrue as the Nee-me-poo did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments. The pierced nose people lived on the lower Columbia River and passim other parts of the Northwest. The famous indian chief and leader, Chief Joseph, was of the Nez Perce. Flathead (Salish) The Flathead, a subgroups of the Spokane tribes, were given their name from a custom common to many Salishan people of practicing head deformation by strapping their infants to hard cradleboards. This form the back of the head and made the top appear more round.The Flathead, conversely, did not practice head flattening, and therefore the tops of their heads were flatter than those of the other Salishan people, hence the name. Blackfoot (Siksika) The Blackfoot are one of the several numanic-speaking tribes, and were historically allied with the nomadic Atsina. Ther were the archetypal Plains Indians, for whom the buffalo provided nearly all their needs, from food to clothing to leather for their tipis. Shoshone (Shoshoni) The Shoshone were the most wide-ranging of the Great Basin tribes, with a habitat that stretched from the eastern Oregon desert to southern Colorado.They were closely related to the Bannock, Gosiute, Paiute and Ute, with whom they shared these lands and with shown there was a good deal of intermarriage. Kwakiutl The Kwakiutl were one of the major tribes of the Northwest Coast and once encompassed other nearby tribes such as the Bella Bella, Kitimat, Makah and Nootka, with whom they are linguistically related. Their villages were typical of the Northwest Coast, with large cedar plonk down houses and intricately carved totem poles, representing the animals with whom a particular family might be religiously associated.Works Cited Rebuilding Native American Communities by Don Coyhis Richard Simonelli, Child Welfare, Mar/Apr 2005 (15 pages). Native American Feminism, Sovereignty, and Social Change by Andrea Smith, Feminist Studies, Spring 2005 (17 pages). The Paradox of Native American Indian Intellectualism and Literature by Kathryn Winona Shanley, MELUS, Fall/ overwinter 2004 (20 pages). American Indian History as Continuing Story by Peter Iverson, Historian, Fall 2004 (8 pages). Anti-colonial Strategies for the convalescence and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge by Leanne R.Simpson, American Indian Quarterly, Summer/Fall 2004 (12 pages). Sovereignty The grandiloquence v. The Reality by Paul Boyer, Tribal College Journal, Fall 2004 (4 pages). 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