Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico

This is not a complete list of Indian Chiefs.  As we build more pages, they will be added also, or others are submitted by readers they will be added to these pages. Chiefs, Leaders, and Sachem Abbigadasset Adoeette Adario Ahyouwaighs Allaquippa American Horse Amisquam Anacamegishca Annawan Appanoose Mark Arthur Aspenquid Aspinet Assacumbuit Crispus Attacks Awashonks Big Bill Big Foot Big Jim Big Mouth Big-mush Big Warrior Biauswah Big Canoe Billy Bowlegs Billy Bowlegs or Halpatter Micco, A Seminole Chief Black Beaver Blackbird Black Bob Black Fox Black Hawk Black Hawk or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak Black Kettle (Cheyenne) Black Kettle (Onondaga) Blacksnake Black … Read more

Among the North American Indians a chief may be generally defined as a political officer whose distinctive functions are to execute the ascertained will of a definite group of persons united by the possession of a common territory or range and of certain exclusive rights, immunities, and obligations, and to conserve their customs, traditions, and religion. He exercises legislative, judicative, and executive powers delegated to him in accordance with custom for the conservation and promotion of the common weal. The wandering band of men with their women and children contains the simplest type of chieftaincy found among the American Indians, … Read more

Camping and Camp circles. Each North American tribe claimed a certain locality as its habitat and dwelt in communities or villages about which stretched its hunting grounds. As all the inland people depended for food largely on the gathering of acorns, seeds, and roots, the catching of salmon when ascending the streams, or on hunting for meat and skin clothing, they camped in makeshift shelters or portable dwellings during a considerable part of the year. These dwellings were brush shelters, the mat house and birch-bark lodge of the forest tribes, and the skin tent of the plains. The rush mats … Read more

Indian C Tribes

Boulder mosaics (spelled as bowlder outlines by Hodge). Certain outline surface figures, probably of Siouan origin, usually formed of bowlders a foot or less in diameter, though a few consisted of buffalo bones. The name “boulder mosaics” was first applied to them by Todd. According to Lewis, structures of this type have been found from w. Iowa and Nebraska to Manitoba, and from w. Minnesota through North and South Dakota to Montana; but they appear to be, or rather to have been, more frequent in South Dakota than in any other section. These animal, human, and remains consist of other … Read more

In the popular mind the North American Indian is everywhere associated with the robe or the blanket. The former was the whole hide of a large mammal made soft and pliable by much dressing; or pelts of foxes, wolves, and such creatures were sewed together; or bird, rabbit, or other tender skins were cut into ribbons, which were twisted or woven. The latter were manufactured by basketry processes from wool, hair, fur, feathers, down, bark, cotton, etc., and had many and various functions. They were worn like a toga as protection from the weather, and, in the best examples, were … Read more

Bird Stones: A name given to a class of prehistoric stone objects of undetermined purpose, usually resembling or remotely suggesting the form of a bird. In many cases the resemblance is so slight that without the aid of a series of specimens, grading downward from the more realistic bird representations through successive simplifications, the life form would not be suggested. In its simplest form the body is an almost featureless bar of polished stone. Again, the ends are curved upward, giving a saddle shape; but usually the head, tail, and eyes are differentiated, and in the more graphic forms the … Read more

The Bible has been printed in part or in whole in 32 Indian languages N. of Mexico. In 18 one or more portions have been printed; in 9 others the New Testament or more has appeared; and in 5 languages, namely, the Massachuset, Cree, Labrador Eskimo, Santee Dakota, and Tukkuthkutchin, the whole Bible is in print. The Norwegian missionaries, Hans and Paul Egede, were the first to translate any part of the Bible into Greenland Eskimo, their version of the New Testament being printed in part in ] 744, and as a whole in 1766. A revision of this translation, … Read more

Attractive and precious objects, perforated usually through the middle and strung for various purposes, constitute a class of ornaments universally esteemed, which the Indians of North America did not fail to develop. Akin to beads, and scarcely separable from them, were objects from the same materials called pendants. They were perforated near the end or edge and hung on the person or on garments. All were made from mineral, vegetal, or animal substances, and after the discovery the introduction of beads of glass and porcelain, as well as that of metal tools for making the old varieties, greatly multiplied their … Read more

Basketry, including wattling, matting, and bagging, may be defined as the primitive textile art. Its materials include nearly the whole series of North American textile plants, and the Indian women explored the tribal habitat for the best. Constant digging in the same favorite spot for roots and the clearing away of useless plants about the chosen stems constituted a species of primitive agriculture. They knew the time and seasons for gathering, how to harvest, dry, preserve, and prepare the tough and pliable parts for use and to reject the brittle, and in what way to combine different plants with a … Read more

This page provides a jumping off point for further study on the sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry of North American Indian Tribes. Often very little information is known about this information or the referenced term no longer exists.

Many varieties of Indian bags and pouches were made by the Indians of the United States and were used for a great number of purposes. The costume of the aborigines was universally destitute of pockets, and various pouches served in their stead. On occasion articles were tucked away in the clothing or were tied up in bits of cloth or skin. The blanket also served at times for a bag, and among the Eskimo the woman s coat was enlarged over the shoulders and at the back to form a pouch for carrying the baby. The pouch was a receptacle … Read more

Indian B Tribes

Indian Amusements. When not bound down by stern necessity, the Indian at home was occupied much of the time with dancing, feasting, gaming, and story-telling. Though most of the dances were religious or otherwise ceremonial in character, there were some which had no other purpose than that of social pleasure. They might take place in the day or the night, be general or confined to particular societies, and usually were accompanied with the drum or other musical instrument to accentuate the song. The rattle was perhaps invariably used only in ceremonial dances. Many dances were of pantomimic or dramatic character, … Read more

Indian affairs are conducted under the administrative bureau in Washington by local Indian agents. This agency system was gradually developed to meet the various exigencies arising from the rapid displacement of Indian tribes by white settlers.

Indian – The common designation of the aborigines of America. The name first occurs in a letter of Columbus dated Feb., 1493, wherein the discoverer speaks of the Indios he had with him (F. F. Hilder in Am. Anthrop., n. s., i, 545, 1899). It was the general belief of the day, shared by Columbus, that in his voyage across the Atlantic he had reached India. This term, in spite of its misleading connotation, has passed into the languages of the civilized world: Indio in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; Indien in French; Indianer in German, etc. The term American Indian, … Read more