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.

Chippewa Indian Clans, Bands and Gens

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. Ahmeekkwun – eninnewug (Chippewa: Ŭmĭ‛kuwĭ′nĭnĭwŭg, beaver people). A tribe living, according to Tanner (Narr., 310, 1830), among the Fall Indians, by which name he seems to mean the Atsina or, possibly, the Amikwa. Anibiminanisibiwininiwak. (Pemhina (cranberry) river men, from nibimina high-bush cranberry, sibiw ‘river’, ininiwak ‘men’). A Chippewa band living on Pembina r. in extreme N. Minnesota and the adjacent part of Manitoba. They removed from Sandy lake, … Read more

Chippewa Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Biauswah A Chippewa chief, also known as Byianswa, son of Biauswah, a leading man of the Loon gens which resided on the south shore of Lake Superior, 40 miles west of La Pointe, northwest Wisconsin. He was taken prisoner by the Fox Indians when a boy, but was saved from torture and death by his father, who became a voluntary substitute. After the death of his father he moved with his people to Fond du Lac. Being made chief he led the warriors of various bands in an expedition against the Sioux of Sandy lake and succeeded in driving the … Read more

Chinookan Indians

Chinookan Family, Chinookan People. An important linguistic family, including those tribes formerly living on Columbia River, from The Dalles to its mouth (except a small strip occupied by the Athapascan Tlatskanai), and on the lower Willamette as far as the present site of Oregon City, Oregon. The family also extended a short distance along the coast on each side of t he mouth of the Columbia, from Shoal Water Bay on the north to Tillamook Head on the south. The family is named from the Chinook, the most important tribe. With the exception of a few traders near the mouth … Read more

Chinook Tribe

Chinook (from Tsinúk, their Chehalis name). The best-known tribe of the Chinookan family. They claimed the territory on the north side of Columbia River, Washington, from the mouth to Grays bay, a distance of about 15 miles, and north along the seacoast as far as the north part of Shoalwater bay, where they were met by the Chehalis, a Salish tribe. The Chinook were first described by Lewis and Clark, who visited them in 1805, though they had been known to traders for at least 12 years previously. Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 400, but referred only to … Read more

Chinook Indian Clans, Bands and Gens

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. Charcowa. A band, probably of the Chinookan tribe of Clowwewalla, found in 1806 on the w. bank of Willamette r., Oreg., just above the falls. Their number was estimated at 200.

Chinook Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Comcomly Comcomly was a Chinook chief. He received the Lewis and Clark expedition hospitably when it emerged at the mouth of Columbia river in 1805, and when the Astor expedition arrived to take possession of the country for the United States he cultivated close friendship with the pioneers, giving his daughter as wife to Duncan M’Dougal, the Canadian who was at their head. Yet he was probably an accomplice in a plot to massacre the garrison and seize the stores. When a British ship arrived in 1812 to capture the fort at Astoria, he offered to fight the enemy, with … Read more

Chimariko Tribe

Chimariko Indians (from Djimaliko, the name they apply to themselves; derived from (djimar ‘man’). A small tribe, comprising the Chimarikan family, formerly on Trinity River, near the mouth of New River, Northern California, extending from Hawkins Bar to about Big Bar, and probably along lower New River; they adjoined the Hupa downstream and the Wintun upstream. The Chimariko first became known to the whites on the influx of miners about 1850. They were then a small tribe, friendly with the Hupa and the neighboring Shastan tribes, but at war with the Wintun of Hay fork of Trinity River. In 1903 … Read more

Chimalakwe Tribe

Chimalakwe Indians. Mentioned by Powers as an extinct tribe that once lived on New River, northern California, and included in his map, as by Powell with the Chimariko. The name Chimalakwe is undoubtedly only a variant of Chimariko, often pronounced Chimaliko. The Chimariko, however, did not occupy upper New River, which region, together with the adjacent territory about the headwaters of Salmon River, was held by a group of people belonging to the Shastan family, though markedly divergent from the Shasta proper in dialect. This Shastan group, the proper name of which is unknown, has been described by Dixon under … Read more

Chimakum Tribe

Chimakum Indians. A Chimakuan tribe, now probably extinct, formerly occupying the peninsula between Hood’s canal and Port Townsend, Washington. Little is known of their history except that they were at constant war with the Clallam and other Salish neighbors, and by reason of their inferiority in numbers suffered extremely at their hands. In 1855, according to Gibbs, they were reduced to 90 individuals. The Chimakum were included in the Point no Point treaty of 1855 and placed upon the Skokomish Reservation, since which time they have gradually diminished in numbers. In 1890 Boas was able to learn of only three … Read more

Chimakuan Indians

Chimakuan Family. A linguistic family of the N. W. coast, now represented by one small tribe, the Quileute, on the coast of Washington.

Chilula Tribe

Chilula Indians (Tsu-lu’-la, from Tsula, the Yurok name for the Bald hills.)  A small Athapascan division which occupied the lower (north west) portion of the valley of Redwood Creek, north California and Bald hills, dividing it from Klamath valley. They were shut off from the immediate coast of Yurok, who inhabited villages at the mouth of Redwood Creek.  The name of the Chilula for themselves is not known; it is probable that like most of the Indians of the region they had none, other than the word for “people”  above them on Redwood creek was the related Athapascan group known … Read more

Chilluckittequaw Tribe

Chilluckittequaw Indians (Chilû’ktkwa). A Chinookan tribe formerly living on the north side of Columbia river in Klickitat and Skamania counties, Washington, from about 10 miles below the Dalles to the neighborhood of the Cascades. In 1806 Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 2,400. According to Mooney a remnant of the tribe lived near the mouth of White Salmon river until 1880, when they removed to the Cascades, where a few still resided in 1895. The Smackshop were a subtribe.

Chilliwack Tribe

Chilliwack Indians, Chilliwack First Nation, Chilliwack People. A Salish tribe on a river of the same name in British Columbia, now speaking the Cowichan dialect, though anciently Nooksak according to Boas. Pop. 313 in 1902. Their villages, mainly on the authority of Hill-Tout, are: Atselits Chiaktel Kokaia Shlalki Siraialo Skaukel Skway Skwealets Stlep Thaltelich Tsoowahlie Yukweakwioose The Canada Indian Affairs Reports give Koquapilt and Skwah (distinct from Skway), and Boas gives Keles, which are not identifiable with any of the above.

Chilkat Indian Clans, Bands and Gens

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. Hlukahadi. A division of the Raven phratry of the Chilkat, formerly living in the town of Yendestake, Alaska. According to the Chilkat themselves the name means quick people, but according to in formants at Wrangell, ‘people of Hlukak’ (Łuqā′x), a creek near Wrangell.

Chickasaw Tribe

Chickasaw Indians. An important Muskhogean tribe, closely related to the Choctaw in language and customs, although the two tribes were mutually hostile. Aside from tradition, the earliest habitat traceable for the Chickasaw is north Mississippi. Their villages in the 18th century centered about Pontotoc and Union counties, where the headwaters of the Tombigbee meet those of Yazoo river and its affluent, the Tallahatchie, about where the De Soto narratives place them in 1540, under the name Chicaza. Their main landing place on the Mississippi was at Chickasaw Bluffs, now the site of Memphis, Tennessee, whence a trail more than 160 … Read more

Chickasaw Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Colbert, William. A Chickasaw chief. During the Revolutionary war he aided the Americans, and in the army of Gen. Arthur St Clair led the Chickasaw allies against the hostile tribes and was known as the great war-chief of his nation. In the war of 1812 he served 9 months in the regular infantry, then returned to lead his warriors against the hostile Creeks, whom he pursued from Pensacola almost to Apalachicola, killing many and bringing back 85 prisoners to Montgomery, Ala. He was styled a general when he visited Washington at the head of a Chickasaw delegation in 1816. In … Read more