Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico

While I was adding Indian Villages North of Mexico to our site, I discovered many things I didn’t know, (not that I know everything Indian!!) but I thought some of these were very interesting and would share them with our readers.  Some you may agree with while others are quite questionable. The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico was compiled by some of the best and well known Indian researchers of that time.  Many of which wrote only about specific tribes.  The work began in 1873 and was submitted to the Bureau of Ethnology for publication in 1905.  There … Read more

Indian Ethics and Morals. It is difficult for a person knowing only one code of morals or manners to appreciate the customs of another who has been reared in the knowledge of a different code; hence it has been common for such a one to conclude that the other has no manners or no morals. Every community has rules adapted to its mode of life and surroundings, and such rules may be found more rigorously observed and demanding greater self-denial among savages than among civilized men. Notwithstanding the differences which necessarily exist between savage and civilized ethics, the two systems … Read more

The Indians of North America had their own systems of education, through which the young were instructed in their coming labors and obligations, embracing not only the whole round of economic pursuits hunting, fishing, handicraft, agriculture, and household work but speech, fine art, customs, etiquette, social obligations, and tribal lore. By unconscious absorption and by constant inculcation the boy and girl became the accomplished man and woman. Motives of pride or shame, the stimulus of flattery or disparagement, wrought constantly upon the child, male or female, who was the charge, not of the parents and grandparents alone but of the … Read more

Indian Eagle. Among the many birds held in superstitious and appreciative regard by the aborigines of North America, the eagle, by reason of its majestic, solitary, and mysterious nature, became an especial object of worship. This is expressed in the employment of the eagle by the Indian for religious and esthetic purposes only. The wing-bones were fashioned into whistles to be carried by warriors or used in ceremonies, and the talons formed powerful amulets or fetishes, having secondary value as ornaments; the feathers were, however, of greatest importance. The capture of eagles for their feathers was a hazardous branch of … Read more

Most of the Indian tribes of North America made permanent dyes from organic materials. The demand for these dyes arose when basketry, quill work, and other textile industries had reached a considerable degree of advancement.

Most revelations of what was regarded by the Indians as coming from the supernatural powers were believed to be received in dreams or visions. Through them were bestowed on man magical abilities and the capacity to foresee future events, to control disease, and to become able to fill the office of priest or of leader. It was the common belief of the Indians that these dreams or visions must be sought through the observance of some rite involving more or less personal privation; an exception is found in the Mohave who believe that the dream seeks the individual, corning to … Read more

Indian dolls were common among all the American tribes. They were fashioned from stone, wood, clay, skin, dough, corncobs, plants, and rags. Those used merely as playthings were frequently elaborately dressed by the mother in accordance with tribal costumes. Human hair was sometimes fastened to the head and arranged in the tribal style, the face was painted, the eyebrows were marked, and tattoo lines were indicated. Labrets of bone or shell were put in place among the tribes which used these objects, and the doll was further adorned with ear rings, bracelets, and necklaces. The Eskimo father carved the small … Read more

Indian Dishes for the preparation and serving of food and other purposes were manufactured by all Indian tribes. While their use as receptacles prescribes a concavity of circular, oval, or oblong outline, there is a great variety of shape, decoration, etc., according to individual taste or tribal custom, and a wide range of material, as stone, shell, bone, ivory, horn, rawhide, bark, wood, gourd, pottery, and basketry. The vessels for serving food were not used to hold individual portions, for the Indians ate in common; but the little dishes held salt and other condiments, small quantities of delicate foods, etc. … Read more

Dictionaries have been made of at least 63 different North American Indian languages belonging to 19 linguistic families, besides many vocabularies of other languages. Of 122 dictionaries mentioned below more than half are still in manuscript. Beginning with the Eskimauan family, vocabularies of Greenland Eskimo have been supplied by the labors of Egede (1750), Fabricius (1804), Kleinschmidt (1871), Rink (1877), and Kjer and Rasmussen (1893); of Labrador Eskimo, by Erdmann (1864); of Chiglit (Kopagmiut), by Petltot (1876); and there are collections by Pinart of the Aleutian Fox (Unalaskan Aleut) dialect (1871, MS.), and of that of the Kaniagmiut (1871-72, MS.). … Read more

Indian Defense – The simplest defenses were furnished to the Indians by nature. In the forest regions battles were fought in the shelter of trees, and in stony sections from sheltering rocks. That war was waged and defensive measures were necessary in prehistoric times is shown by the remains of fortifications in the mound area of the United States. These are of different types, the most common being the so-called hill forts, where defensive walls of earth or stone surround a peak or hilltop or skirt a bluff headland, as at Ft Ancient (q. v.) , Ohio. There are also … Read more

Nature is prodigal of life and energy. The dance is universal and instinctive. Primarily the dance expresses the joy of biotic exaltation, the exuberance of life and energy; it is the ready physical means of manifesting the emotions of joy and of expressing the exultation of conscious strength and the ecstasy of successful achievement the fruitage of well-directed energy. Like modern music, through long development and divergent growth the dance has been adapted to the environment of many and diverse planes of culture and thought; hence it is found among both savage and enlightened peoples in many complex and differing … Read more

Indian Currency – Before the arrival of Europeans intertribal trade had resulted almost everywhere in America in the adoption of certain standards of value of which the most important were shell beads and skins. The shell currency of the Atlantic coast consisted of small white and black or purplish beads cut from the valves of quahog and other shells and familiarly known as wampum, q. v. These were very convenient, as they could be strung together in quantities and carried any distance for purposes of trade, in this respect having a decided advantage over skins. In exchange two white beads … Read more

Two systems of counting were formerly in use among the Indians of North America, the decimal and the vigesimal. The latter, which was used in Mexico and Central America, was also in general use N. of Columbia r. , on the Pacific slope, while between that area and the border of Mexico it was employed by only a few tribes, as the Pomo, Tuolumne, Konkan, Nishinam, and Achomawi. On the Atlantic side the decimal system was used by all except the Eskimo tribes. Both Indian counting systems, based apparently on the finger and hand count, were as a rule fundamentally … Read more

Evidences of widespread commerce and rude media of exchange in North America are found in ancient shell-heaps, mounds, and graves, the objects having passed from hand to hand often many times. Overland, this trade was done on foot, the only domestic animal for long-distance transportation being the dog, used as a pack beast and for the travois and the sled. In this respect the north temperate zone of America was in marvelous contrast with the same latitudes of the Old World, where most of the commercial animals originated. The deficiency in the means of land commerce was made up by … Read more

To the aboriginal inhabitant of this continent civilization entails the overturning of his ancient form of government, the abolition of many of his social usages, the readjustment of his ideas of property and personal rights, and change of occupation. No community of natives was devoid of a social organization and a form of government. These varied, some tribes being much more highly organized than others (see Clan and Gens), but all possessed rules of conduct which must be obeyed, else punishment would follow. Native organization was based on kinship, which carried with it the obligation of mutual protection. The tribe, … Read more