Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico

Hodge, Frederick Webb, Compiler. The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office. 1906.

Mahican Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes. Barton gives the Mahican 3 clans: Muchquauh (bear) Mechchaooh (wolf) Toonpaooh (turtle) According to Morgan they had originally the same clans as the Delaware and Munsee-the Wolf, Turtle, and Turkey; but these ultimately developed into phratries, subdivided into clans as follows: The Tooksetuk (wolf) phratry into the Nehjao (wolf) Clan Makwa (bear) Clan Ndeyao (dog) Clan Wapakwe (opossum) Clan The Tonebao (turtle) phratry into the Gakpomute (little turtle) … Read more

Machapunga Tribe

Machapunga Indians (‘bad dust’; from matchi ‘bad’, pungo ‘dust’ (Heckewelder), or perhaps ‘much dust,’ from massa ‘great’, in allusion to the sandy soil of the district). An Algonquian tribe formerly living in Hyde county, north east North Carolina. In 1701 they numbered only about 30 warriors, or perhaps 100 souls, and lived in a single village called Mattamuskeet. They took part in the Tuscarora War of 1711-12 and at its conclusion the remnant, together with the Coree, were settled on a tract on Mattamuskeet lake, where the two tribes occupied one village.

Lutuamian Indians

Lutuamian Family. A linguistic family consisting of two branches, the Klamath and the Modoc, residing in south west Oregon east of the Cascade range and along the California border. Their former boundary extended from the Cascades to the headwaters of Pit and McCloud rivers, thence east to Goose lake, thence north to lat. 44°, and thence west to the Cascades. The more permanent settlements of the of family were on the shores of Klamath lakes, Tule lake, and Lost river, the remainder of the territory which they claimed being hunting ground.  In 1864 both divisions of the family entered into … Read more

Lummi Tribe

Lummi Indians. A Salish tribe on an inland from Bellingham Bay, north west Washington.  They are said to have lived formerly on part of a group of islands east of Vancouver Island, to which they still occasionally resorted in 1863.  According to Gibbs their language is almost unintelligible to the Nooksak, their northern neighbors.  Boas classes it with the Songish dialect.  The Lummi are now under the jurisdiction of the Tulalip school superintendent, Washington, and numbered 412 in 1905. Their former villages were Hutatchl, Lemaltcha, Statshum, and Tomwhiksen.  The Klalakamish, of orcas Island, were a former band.

Luiseno Tribe

Luiseño Indians. The southernmost Shoshonean division in California, which received its name from San Luis Rey, the most important Spanish mission in the territory of these people. They form one linguistic group with the Aguas Calientes, Juaneños, and Kawia. They extended along the coast from between San Onofre and Las Animas creeks, far enough south to include Aguas Hedionda, San Marcos, Escondido, and Valley Center. Inland they extended north beyond San Jacinto river, and into Temescal creek; but they were cut off from the San Jacinto divide by the Diegueños, Aguas Calientes, Kawia, and Serranos. The former inhabitants of San … Read more

Lohim Tribe

Lohim Indians. A small Shoshonean band living on Willow Creek, a south affluent of the Columbia, in Southern Oregon, and probably belonging to the Mono-Paviotso group.  They have never made a treaty with the Government and are generally spoken of as renegades belonging to the Umatilla Reservation. In 1870 their number ws reported as 114, but the name has not appeared in recent official reports.  Ross mistook them for Nez Percé.

Lipan Apache Tribe

Lipan Apache Indians (adapted from Ipa-n’de, apparently a personal name; n’de=’people’). An Apache tribe, designating themselves Náizhan (‘ours,’ ‘our kind’), which at various periods of the 18th and 19th centuries roamed from the lower Rio Grande in New Mexico and Mexico eastward through Texas to the Gulf coast, gaining a livelihood by depredations against other tribes and especially against the white settlements of Texas and Mexico. The name has probably been employed to include other Apache groups of the southern plains, such as the Mescaleros and the Kiowa Apache. The Franciscan mission of San Saba was established among the Lipan … Read more

Lillooet Tribe

Lillooet Indians (‘wild onion’). One of the 4 principal Salish tribes in the interior of British Columbia, situated on Fraser River around the mouths of Cayoosh Creek and Bridge River, on Seton and Anderson Lakes, and southward from them to Harrison Lake. Pop. 978 in 1904. Bands: Anderson Lake Bridge River Cavoosh Creek (2) Douglas Enias Fountain Kanlax Lillooet (2) Mission Niciat Pemberton Meadows Schloss It is sometimes divided into the Lower Lillooet, including the Douglas and Pemberton Meadows bands, and the Upper Lillooet, including all the rest.

Lenape Tribe

Lenape Tribe, Lenape Indians, Lenape People, Delaware Indians, Delaware tribe, Delaware People, Lenni-Lenape, Lenni-Lenapi People, Lenni-Lenape Tribe, Lenni-Lenape Indians. A confederacy, formerly the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape, equivalent to ‘real men,’ or ‘native, genuine men’; the English knew them as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called them Loups, ‘wolves,’ a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee … Read more

Lassik Tribe

Lassik (Las’-sik, the name of their last chief). A people of the Athapascan family formerly occupying a portion of main Eel River, Cal., and its east tributaries, Van Dozen, Larrabee, and Dobbin creeks, together with the headwaters of Mad River. They had for neighbors toward the north the Athapascan inhabitants of the valley of Mad River and Redwood Creek; toward the east the Wintun of Southfork of Trinity River; toward the south the Wailaki, from whom they were separated by Kekawaka Creek; toward the west the Sinkine on Southfork of Eel River. They occupied their regular village sites along the … Read more

Lakmiut Tribe

Lakmiut Indians. A Kalapooian tribe formerly residing on a river of the same name, a western tributary of the Willamette, in Oregon.  They are now on Grande Ronde Reservation, where they were officially stated to number 28 in 1905.  They are steadily decreasing.  The following were Lakmiut bands as ascertained by Gatschet in 1877; Ampalamuyu, Chantkaip, Chepenafa, Mohawk, Tsalakmiut, Tsampiak, Tsantatawa and Tsantuisha.

Kwalhioqua Tribe

Kwalhioqua ( from Tkulxiyo-goa(‘ikc:kulxi, ‘at a lonely place in the woods’, their Chinook name.-  Boas) An Athapascan tribe which formerly lived on the upper course of Willopah river, western Washington.  Gibbs extends their habitat east into the upper Chehalis, but Boas does not believe they extended east of the Coast range.  They have been confounded by Gibbs and others with a Chinookan tribe on the lower course of the river called Willopah.  The place where they generally lived was called Nq!ul´was. The Kwalhioqua and Willopah have ceded their land to the United States .  In 1850 two males and several … Read more

Kwakiutl Tribe

Kwakiutl Indians, Kwakiutl People, Kwakiutl First Nation (according to their own folk etymology the name signifies ‘smoke of the world’, but with more probability it means ‘beach at the north side of the river’). In its original and most restricted sense this term is applied to a group of closely related tribes or septs living in the neighborhood of Ft Rupert, British Columbia. These septs are the Guetela, Komkutis, Komoyue, and Walaskwakiutl, and their principal village Tsahis, surrounding Ft Rupert. Other former towns were Kalokwis, Kliksiwi, Noohtamuh, Tsaite, and Whulk, of which the last two were summer villages shared with the Nimkish … Read more

Kwakiutl Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes. Gamgamtelatl. A gens of the Tenaktok, a Kwakiutl tribe. Guetela (northern people). A sept of the true Kwakiutl which formerly formed one tribe with the Komoyue, but separated on account of some quarrel. The clans are Maamtagyila, Kukwakum, Gyeksem, Laalaksentaio, and Sisintlae. They now live at Ft Rupert, Brit. Col. Guetela. A clan of the Wikeno, a Kwakiutl tribe. Gyagyilakya (G·ēg·g:ilak·a, always wanting to kill people). A gens … Read more

Kwaiailk Tribe

Kwaiailk Indians. A body of Salish on the upper course of Chehalis river, above the Satsop and on the Cowlitz, Washington. In 1855, according to Gibbs, they numbered 216, but were becoming amalgamated with the Cowlitz.

Kutenai Tribe

Kutenai Indians (corrupted form, possibly by way of the language of the Siksika, of Kútonâqa, one of their names for themselves). A people forming a distinct linguistic stock, the Kitunahan family of Powell, who inhabit parts of south east British Columbia and north Montana and Idaho, from the lakes near the source of Columbia river to Pend d’Oreille lake. Their legends and traditions indicate that they originally dwelt east of the Rocky mountains, probably in Montana, whence they were driven westward by the Siksika, their hereditary enemies. The two tribes now live on amicable terms, and some intermarriage has taken … Read more

Kutchin Tribe

Kutchin Indians, Kutchin People, Kutchin First Nation (Kutchin = ‘people’). A group of Athapascan tribes in Alaska and British North America, inhabiting the region on the Yukon and its tributaries above Nuklukayet, the Peel river basin, and the lower Mackenzie valley. They have decreased to half their former numbers owing to wars between the tribes and the killing of female children. Chiefs and medicine-men and those who possess rank acquired by property have two or more wives. They usually live in large parties, each headed by a chief and having one or more medicine-men, the latter acquiring an authority to … Read more

Kuneste Tribe

Kuneste Indians (Wailaki: ‘Indian’). The southernmost Athapascan group on the Pacific Coast, consisting of several tribes loosely or not at all connected politically, but speaking closely related dialects and possessing nearly the same culture. They occupied the greater part of Eel River basin, including the whole of Van Duzen Fork, the main Eel to within a few miles of Round Valley, the south fork and its tributaries to Long and Cahto Valleys, and the coast from Bear River range south to Usal. Their neighbors were the Wishosk on the north, the Wintun on the west, and on the south the … Read more