Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico Collections – Page 32 of 65

Indian Shamans and Priests

Mediators between the world of spirits and the world of men may be divided into two classes: The shamans, whose authority was entirely dependent on their individual ability, and the priests, who acted in some measure for the tribe or nation, or at least for some society. Shaman is explained variously as a Persian word meaning ‘pagan’, or, with more likelihood, as the Tungus equivalent for ‘medicine-man’, and was originally applied to the medicine-men or exorcists in Siberian tribes, from which it was extended to similar individuals among the Indian tribes of America. Among the Haida and Tlingit, shamans performed … Read more

Indian Secret Societies

Societies or brotherhoods of a secret and usually sacred character existed among very many American tribes, among many more, doubtless, than those from which there is definite information. On the Plains the larger number of these were war societies, and they were graded in accordance with the age and attainments of the members. The Buffalo society was a very important body devoted to healing disease. The Omaha and Pawnee seem to have had a great number of societies, organized for all sorts of purposes. There were societies concerned with the religious mysteries, with the keeping of records, and with the … Read more

Indian Rights Association

Indian Rights Association – A nonpolitical, nonsectarian body organized in Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 1882, by gentlemen who met in response to an invitation of Mr John Welsh to consider the best method of producing such public feeling and Congressional action as should secure civil rights and education to the Indians, and in time bring about their civilization and admission to citizenship. When the association began its work much of the country over which the Indians roamed was sparsely settled; outbreaks had been frequent; comparatively little attention was paid to the Indians rights and wrongs, and ignorance concerning Indian affairs was … Read more

Indian Reservations 1908

Schedule showing each Federal Indian Reservation in 1908, under what agency or School, Tribes occupying or belonging to it, area not allotted or specially reserved, and authority for its establishment. (Compiled by the Office of Indian Affairs) Reservation History Current Federally Recognized Indian Tribes by State Arizona Indian Reservations California Indian Reservations Colorado Indian Reservations Idaho Indian Reservations Iowa Indian Reservations Kansas Indian Reservations Michigan Indian Reservations Minnesota Indian Reservations Montana Indian Reservations Nebraska Indian Reservations Nevada Indian Reservations New Mexico Indian Reservations New York Indian Reservations North Carolina Indian Reservations North Dakota Indian Reservations Oklahoma Indian Reservations Oregon Indian Reservations South Dakota Indian Reservations … Read more

Indian Reservation History

Provides a brief history of Indian Reservations in the United States and how they came from a natural result of land cessions.

Indian Religion

For the purpose of a brief description of the religion of the American Indians we may define religion as that group of concepts and acts which spring from the relation of the individual to the outer world, so far as these relations are not considered as due to physical forces the action of which is accounted for by purely rationalistic considerations. The scope of religious concepts will depend to a certain extent, therefore, on the knowledge of the laws of nature; and, since the border-line of the natural and the supernatural, as conceived in the mind of primitive man, does … Read more

Indian Pueblos in New Mexico

Indian Population

The question of the number of the native population of America, and particularly of the United States and British America, at the coming of the white man, has been the subject of much speculation. Extremists on the one hand have imagined a population of millions, while on the other hand the untenable claim has been made, and persistently repeated, that there has been no decrease, but that on the contrary, in spite of removals, wars, epidemics, and dissipation, and the patent fact that the aboriginal population of whole regions has completely disappeared, the Indian has thriven under misfortune and is … Read more

Indian Physiology

Indian Ordeals

An ordeal is strictly a form of trial to determine guilt or innocence, but the term has cone to be applied in a secondary sense to any severe trial or test of courage, endurance, and fortitude. In accordance with these two usages of the term, ordeals among the North American tribes may be divided into: (1) those used to establish guilt and to settle differences, and (2) those undergone for the sake of some material or supernatural advantage. The ordeals corresponding closest to the tests to which the name was originally applied were those undertaken to determine witches or wizards. … Read more

Indian Naming

Among the Indians personal names were given and changed at the critical epochs of life, such as birth, puberty, the first war expedition, some notable feat, elevation to chieftainship, and, finally, retirement from active life was marked by the adoption of the name of one’s son. In general, names may be divided into two classes: (1) True names, corresponding to our personal names, and (2) names which answer rather to our titles and honorary appellations. The former define or indicate the social group into which a man is born, whatever honor they entail being due to the accomplishments of ancestors, … Read more

Indian Mixed-Blood

To gauge accurately the amount of Indian blood in the veins of the white population of the American continent and to determine to what extent the surviving aborigines have in them the blood of their conquerors and supplanters is impossible in the absence of scientific data. But there is reason to believe that intermixture has been much more common than is generally assumed. The Eskimo of Greenland and the Danish traders and colonists have intermarried from the first, so that in the territory immediately under European supervision hardly any pure natives remain. The marriages (of Danish fathers and Eskimo mothers) … Read more

Indian Missions of the Southern States

Missions among Indigenous peoples in the southern US, initially driven by Spain and later France and England, aimed to convert Native Americans and integrate them into European societies. Beginning in 1544, Catholic missionaries established mission towns across the region, facing resistance. These missions aimed to introduce agriculture, education, and religion but were often disrupted by conflict. Despite some successes, many failed due to hostilities and competing European interests.

Indian Missions of the Middle Atlantic States

The earliest mission establishment within this territory was that founded by a company of 8 Spanish Jesuits and lay brothers with a number of educated Indian boys, under Father Juan Bautista Segura, at “Axacan,” in Virginia, in 1570. The exact location is uncertain, but. it seems to have been on or near the lower James or Pamunkey River. It was of brief existence. Hardly had the bark chapel been erected when the party was attacked by the Indians, led by a treacherous native interpreter, and the entire company massacred, with the exception of a single boy. The massacre was avenged … Read more

Indian Missions of the Interior States

The whole interior region of the United States, stretching from the English seaboard colonies to the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, was included under the French rule in the two provinces of Canada and Louisiana, and with one or two exceptions the mission was in charge of French Jesuits from the first occupancy up into the American period. The very first mission worker, however, within this great region was the heroic Spanish Franciscan, Father Juan de Padilla, who gave up his life for souls on the Kansas prairies, as narrated elsewhere, nearly as early as 1542 (see New Mexico, … Read more

Indian Missions of the Columbia Region

Through the influence of Catholic Caughnawaga and of some of the employees of the Hudson’s Bay Co., many individuals among the tribes of the Columbia River, particularly Flatheads and Nez Percé, had adopted the principles and ceremonials of the Christian religion as early as 1820, leading later to the request for missionaries, as already noted. The first mission of the Columbia region was established in 1834 by a party tinder Rev. Jason Lee, for the Methodists, on the east side of the Willamette at French Prairie, about the present Oregon City, Oregon. In 1840 it was removed to Chemeketa, 10 … Read more

Indian Missions of New Mexico and Arizona

The earliest exploration of the territory west of the Rio Grande was made by the Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, in 1539, and it was through his representations that the famous exploration of Coronado was undertaken a year later.

Indian Missions of New England

The earliest New England mission was attempted by the French Jesuit Father Peter Biard among the Abnaki on Mt Desert Island, Maine, in 1613, in connection with a French post, but both were destroyed by an English fleet almost before the buildings were completed. In the next 70 years other Jesuits, chief among whom was Father Gabriel Druillettes (1646-57), spent much time in the Abnaki villages and drew off so many converts to the Algonkin mission of Sillery as to make it practically an Abnaki mission. In 1683 the mission of St Francis de Sales was founded at the Falls … Read more

Indian Missions of Alaska

Alaska was discovered by the Russians in 1741 and remained a possession of Russia until transferred to the United States in 1867. In 1794 regular missionary work was begun among the Aleut on Kodiak Island by monks of the Greek Catholic (Russian orthodox) church, under the Archimandrite Joassaf, with marked success among the islanders, lint with smaller result among the more warlike tribes of the mainland. Within a few years the savage A lent were transformed to civilized Christians, many of whom were able to read, write, and speak the Russian language. Among the pioneer workers were Fathers Juvenal, murdered … Read more