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.

Blackfoot Tribe

Sihasapa (‘black feet’, so called because they wore black moccasins). A small division of the Teton Sioux. The name, like the names of some other Teton tribes, does not appear to have come into notice until a recent date, no mention being made of it by Lewis and Clark, Long, or earlier authorities. Catlin in his Letters and Notes, written during his stay among the northwestern Indians (1832-39), mentions the Blackfoot Sioux. In a note to De Smet’s Letters they were estimated to number 1,500. Culbertson estimated the tribe at 450 lodges, an exaggeration, and mentions five bands or subtribes, … Read more

Blackfeet Tribe

Blackfeet Indians, Siksika Tribe, Siksika Indians (‘black feet’, from siksinam ‘black’, ka the root of oqkatsh, ‘foot’. The origin of the name is disputed, but it is commonly believed to have reference to the discoloring of their moccasins by the ashes of the prairie fires; it may possibly have reference to black-painted moccasins such as were worn by the Pawnee, Sihasapa, and other tribes). An important Algonquian confederacy of the northern plains, consisting of three subtribes, the Siksika proper or Blackfeet, the Kainah or Bloods, and the Piegan, the whole body being popularly known as Blackfeet. In close alliance with … Read more

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more

Black Tribe

Black Indians. Mentioned by Bontemantel and Van Baerlein 1656 (Bontemantel and Van Baerlein, N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., I, 588, 1856). They and “the Southern Indians, called Minquas,” are spoken of as bringing furs to trade with the Dutch on Schuylkill River. Possibly the Nanticoke, who were said to be darker than their neighbors.

Black Drink

Black drink (“Carolina tea”; Catawba yaupon; Creek ássi-lupútski, small leaves, commonly abbreviated ássi). A decoction, so named by British traders from its color, made by boiling leaves of the Ilex cassine in water. It was employed by the tribes of the Gulf states and adjacent region as “medicine” for ceremonial purification. It was a powerful agent for the production of the nervous state and disordered imagination necessary to spiritual power. Hall says that among the Creeks the liquid was prepared and drank before councils in order, as they believed, to invigorate the mind and body and prepare for thought and debate. … Read more

Biography of Red Cloud

redcloud

Red Cloud was born at the forks of Platte River, Nebraska, in 1822, and died at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Dec. 10, 1909. This page takes a brief look at his life.

Biography of Osceola

Osceola (also spelled Oseola, Asseola, Asseheholar, properly Asi-yaholo, ‘Blackdrink halloer,’ from asi, the ‘black drink’, yaholo, the long drawn-out cry sung by the attendant while each man in turn is drinking). A noted Seminole leader to whom the name Powell was sometimes applied from the fact that after the death of his father his mother married a white man of that name. He was born on Tallapoosa river, in the Creek country, about 1803 his paternal grandfather was a Scotchman, and it is said the Caucasian strain was noticeable in his features and complexion. He was not a chief by … Read more

Biography of Mikanopy

Mikanopy (`head chief’). A Seminole chief. On May 9, 1832, a treaty was signed purporting to cede the country of the Seminole to the United States in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi. The Seminole had already relinquished their desirable lands near the coast and retired to the pine barrens and swamps of the interior. Mikanopy, the hereditary chief, who possessed large herds of cattle and horses and a hundred Negro slaves, stood by young Osceola and the majority of the tribe in the determination to remain. Neither of them signed the agreement to emigrate given on behalf of … Read more

Biography of Hillis Hadjo

Hillis Hadjo, Francis the Prophet – (hilis ‘medicine’, hadsho ‘crazy’, an official at the busk, q. v.). A noted Seminole leader in the early part of the 19th century, usually known among the whites as Francis the Prophet, and whose name is also recorded as Hidlis Hadjo, Hillishago, Hillishager, etc. He took an active part in the Seminole war, and is accused of having been one of the chief instigators of the second uprising. He seems to have come into public notice as early as 1814, as on Apr. 18 of that year Gen. Jackson wrote from his camp at … Read more

Biography of Chief Joseph – Nez Percé

Chief Joseph 1877

Chief Joseph. Hinmaton-yalatkit. The leader of the Nez Percé in the hostilities of 1877. His mother was a Nez Percé, his father a Cayuse, who re­ceived the name Joseph from his teacher, the missionary Spalding, who was with Dr. A. Whitman and who went to the Idaho country in the late thirties of the 19th century. Chief Joseph’s native name was Hinmaton-yalatkit (Hinmaton, `thunder’; yalatkit, ‘coming from the water up over the land.’ – Miss McBeth), but both he and his brother Ollicot were often called Joseph, as if it were a family name. Joseph was a man of fine presence and impressive features, and was one of the most remarkable Indians within the borders of the Union.

Biography of Captain Jack – Kintpuash

Kintpuash ‘having the water-brash’ – Gatschet; also spelled Keiutpoos, but commonly known as Captain Jack. A subchief of the Modoc on the Oregon-California border, and leader of the hostile element in the Modoc war of 1872-73. The Modoc, a warlike and aggressive offshoot front the Klamath tribe of south east Oregon, occupied the territory immediately to the south of the latter, extending across the California border and including the Lost River Country and the famous Lava-bed region. They had been particularly hostile to the whites up to 1864, when, under the head chief Sconchin, they made a treaty agreeing to … Read more

Biography of Bloody Knife

Bloody Knife

A famous Arikara warrior and chief, who was long in the Government service. His father was a Hunkpapa Sioux and his mother an Arikara. He was born on the Hunkpapa Reservation, North Dakota, but as he approached manhood his mother determined to return to her people and he accompanied her. Prior to the building of the Northern Pacific R. R. the mail for Ft Stevenson, North Dakota, and other Missouri River points, was carried overland from Ft Totten. The high country east of the Missouri was at that time a hunting ground for hostile Sioux who had been driven west … Read more

Biography of Black Hawk

Black Hawk

Black Hawk (Ma´katawimeshekā´käa, from ma´katäwi ‘it is black, mishi ‘big,’ kā´käa the name referring to the description of a bird, or sparrow hawk.­ W. J.) A subordinate chief of the Sauk and Fox Indians and leader in the Black Hawk wars of 1832. He was born at the Sauk village at the mouth of Rock River, Illinois, in 1767, and belonged to the Thunder gens of the Sauk tribe. When only 15 years of age he distinguished himself in war; and before he was 17, at the head of a war party of young men, he attacked an Osage camp of … Read more

Biographies of Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Epanow Epanow. One of the first Indians to be taken across the Atlantic by the English from New England—a member of the party forcibly taken from Marthas Vineyard, Mass., by Capt. Harlow in 1611. He was shown in England as a wonder, and managed to escape from the English on the return voyage by pretending to pilot them to a gold mine. In 1619 he was at the Island of Capoge, near Cape Cod, and in that year a body of Indians under his guidance attacked Capt. Dormer’s men while attempting to land on Marthas Vineyard. Epanow is spoken of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mark Arthur – Nez Percé

Nez Perce' Agency

A full-blood Nez Percé, born in 1873. His mother being captured with Chief Joseph’s band in 1877, Mark became a wanderer among strange tribes until about 1880, when he found his way back to the Nez Percé Reservation, Idaho, where he entered the mission school of Miss McBeth and soon began to prepare for the ministry. When the Nez Percé captives sent to the Indian Territory were returned to their northern home, Mark found his mother among them and cared for her until her death. About 1900 he was ordained by the Walla Walla presbytery and became pastor, at Lapwai, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Hornotlimed

Hornotlimed: A Seminole chief who came into notice chiefly through a single incident of the Seminole war of 1817-18. He resided at the Fowl Town, in northwest Florida, at the beginning of hostilities, but was forced to flee to Mikasuki. On Nov. 30, 1817, three vessels arrived at the mouth of Apalachicola River with supplies for the garrison farther up the stream, but on account of contrary winds were unable to ascend. Lieutenant Scott was sent to their assistance with a boat and 40 men, who, on their return from the vessels, were ambushed by Hornotlimed and a band of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Chief Bowlegs

Bowlegs (probably corrupted from Bolek). An inferior Seminole chief who was brought temporarily into notice in 1812 during the Indian war on the Georgia frontier. When early in that year King Paine, also a Seminole chief, at the head of sundry bands of Seminole and blacks, started on a mission of blood and plunder, Bowlegs joined him. A small force under Capt. Williams was met and defeated Sept. 11. Their force being considerably increased, they soon there after marched from the Alachua towns to attack Gen. Neuman, who had been sent against them with orders to destroy their towns. After … Read more

Biloxi Tribe

Biloxi Indians. A name of uncertain meaning, apparently from the Choctaw language. They call themselves Taneks haya, ‘first people.’ A small Siouan tribe formerly living in south Mississippi, now nearly or quite extinct. The Biloxi were supposed to belong to the Muskhogean stock until Gatschet visited the survivors of the tribe in Louisiana in 1886 and found that many of the words bore strong resemblance to those in Siouan languages, a determination fully substantiated in 1892 by J. Owen Dorsey. To what particular group of the Siouan family the tribe is to be assigned has not been determined; but it … Read more