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.

Castake Tribe

Castake Indians. One of several tribes formerly occupying “the country from Buena Vista and Carises [Kern] lakes and Kern River to the Sierra Nevada and Coast range, California. By treaty of June 10, 1851, these tribes reserved a tract between Tejon pass and Kern River and ceded the remainder of their lands to the United States. In 1862 they were reported to number 162 on Fort Tejon Reservation. Probably Shoshonean, though possibly Mariposan or Chumashan. Castac lake, in the Tejon pass region, derives its name from this tribe and affords a further clue to its former habitat.

Carrizo Tribe

Carrizo Indians. The Coahuiltecan Indians between Camargo and Matamoras and along the Gulf coast in North East Tamaulipas, Mexico, including the remnants of the Comecrudo, Pinto or Pakawa, Tejon, Cotonam, and Casas Chiquitas tribes or bands, gathered about Charco Escondido; so called comprehensively by the white Mexicans in later years. Previous to 1886, according to Gatschet, who visited the region in that year, they used the Comecrudo and Mexican-Spanish languages, and he found that of the 30 or 35 then living scarcely 10 remembered anything of their native tongue. They repudiated the name Carrizo, calling themselves Comecrudo. It is probable … Read more

Captain Jack, Modoc Indian Tribe

The famous warrior, more correctly called Keiutpoos, was born about the year 1840. Little is known of his early history. His fame rests upon his desperate fighting in the lava beds in the winter of 1872-73. In some respects the most extraordinary warrior in the annals of Indian fighting, it is yet a very difficult matter to decide whether Keiutpoos is to be regarded as an accident or a veritable Indian Hannibal. The location of that war was so singular, the forces of the Indians so small in comparison with those of the Whites, the slaughter of the latter so … Read more

Capinan Tribe

Capinan Indians, Capinans. A small tribe or band noted by Iberville, in 1699, together with the Biloxi and Pascagoula, in Mississippi.  The three tribes then numbered 100 families.  Judging by the association of names, the Capinans may be identical with the Mocobi.

Cape Fear Tribe

Cape Fear Indians. A small tribe, possibly Siouan, formerly living near the mouth of Cape Fear river, North Carolina. The proper name of the tribe is unknown, this local term being applied to them by the early colonists. They were first known to the English in 1661, when a colony from New England made a settlement near the mouth of the river, and soon incurred the ill will of the Indians by seizing their children and sending them away under pretense of instructing them in the ways of civilization, resulting in the colonists being finally driven from the country. In … Read more

Canarsee Tribe

Canarsee Indians. Formerly one of the leading tribes on Long Island, New York, occupying most of what is now Kings County and the shores of Jamaica Bay, with their center near Flatlands. According to Ruttenber they were subject to or connected with the Montauk; however, is doubtful, as the Indians of the west end of the island appear to have been paying tribute, at the time of the Dutch settlement of New York, to the Iroquois. Their principal village, of the same name, was probably as Canarsee, near Flatlands, in addition to which they had others at Maspeth and apparently … Read more

Calusa Tribe

Calusa Indians. An important tribe of Florida, formerly holding the southwest coast from about Tampa Bay to Cape Sable and Cape Florida, together with all the outlying keys, and extending inland to Lake Okeechobee. They claimed more or less authority also over the tribes of the east coast, north to about Cape Canaveral. The name, which can not be interpreted, appears as Calos or Carlos (province) in the early Spanish and French records, Caloosa and Coloosa in later English authors, and survives in Caloosa village, Caloosahatchee river, and Charlotte (for Carlos) harbor within their old territory. They cultivated the ground … Read more

California Indian Reservations

A list of California Indian reservations showing the Indian tribes the land was set aside for, the amount of acres if known, and the acts, treaties, and executive orders used to establish the reservation.

California Indian Missions

As in other parts of Spanish America, the Catholics were the sole mission workers in California until within a very recent period. The most noted of all the Spanish missions were the Franciscan missions of California, whose story is so closely interwoven with the history and romance of the Pacific coast, and whose ruins still stand as the most picturesque landmarks of the region. Their story has been told so often that we need not here go into details. The first one was established in 1769 at San Diego, near the south boundary, by Father Junípero Serra (to whose memory … Read more

Calapooya Tribe

Calapooya Indians. The name, properly speaking, of a division of the Kalapooian family formerly occupying the watershed between Willamette and Umpqua Rivers, Oregon. The term as usually employed, however, includes all the bands speaking dialects of the Kalapooian language and is made synonymous with the family name. This double use of the term, coupled with the scanty information regarding the division, has wrought confusion in the classification of the bands which can not be rectified. The following were ascertained by Gatschet to have been bands of this division: Ampishtna, Tsanchifin, Tsanklightemifa, Tsankupi, and Tsawokot.

Cajuenche Tribe

Cajuenche Indians. A Yuman tribe speaking the Cocopa dialect and residing in 1775-76 on the east bank of the Rio Colorado below the mouth of the Gila, next to the Quigyuma, their rancherias extending south to about lat. 32° 33º and into central south California, about lat. 33° 08′, where they met the Comeya. At the date named the Cajuenche are said to have numbered 3,000 and to have been enemies of the Cocopa . Of the disappearance of the tribe practically nothing is known, but if they are identical with the Cawina, or Quokim, as they seem to be, … Read more

Cahokia Tribe

Cahokia Indians. A tribe of the Illinois confederacy, usually noted as associated with the kindred Tamaroa. Like all the confederate Illinois tribes they were of roving habit until they and the Tamaroa were gathered into a mission settlement about the year 1698 by the Jesuit Pinet. This mission, first known as Tamaroa, but later as Cahokia, was about the site of the present Cahokia, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi, nearly opposite the present St Louis. In 1721 it was the second town among the Illinois in importance. On the withdrawal of the Jesuits the tribe declined rapidly, … Read more

Cahokia Mound

The ancient civilization at Cahokia took advantage of the nearby waterways and the rich soil to sustain life in the American Bottom.

Cahokia Mound. The largest prehistoric artificial earthwork in the United States, situated in Madison County, Illinois, in what is known as the American bottom, about 6 miles East of St Louis, Missouri, and in plain view of the railroads entering that city from the East. Before their partial destruction by the plow the principal mound was surrounded by an extensive mound group, numbering, according to Brackenridge (Views La., 187, 1814), who visited the place in 1811, “45 mounds or pyramids, besides a great number of small artificial elevations.” The name Cahokia is that of a tribe which formerly occupied a … Read more

Cahinnio Tribe

Cahinnio Indians. A tribe visited by Cavelier de la Salle on his return from Texas in 1687, at which time they probably resided in south west Arkansas, near Red River. They were possibly more closely allied to the northern tribes of the Caddo confederacy (the Kadohadacho, Natchitoches, Yatasi, etc.) than to the southern tribes, with whom, according to Joutel, they were at enmity. During the vicissitudes of the 18th century the tribe moved north west, and in 1763 were on upper Arkansas River, near their old allies, the Mento. By the close of the 18th century they were extinct as … Read more

Caddo Tribe

Caddo Indians (contracted from Kä’dohädä’cho, ‘Caddo proper,’ ‘real Caddo,’ a leading tribe in the Caddo confederacy, extended by the whites to include the confederacy). A confederacy of tribes belonging to the southern group of the Caddoan linguistic family. Their own name is Hasínai, our own folk.’ See Kadohadacho Tribe. Caddo Indian History According to tribal traditions the lower Red river of Louisiana was the early home of the Caddo, from which they spread to the northwest, and south. Several of the lakes and streams connected with this river bear Caddo names, as do some of the counties and some of … Read more