Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico Collections – Page 58 of 65

Big Valley Tribe

Pomo girl photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1924

Big Valley Tribal members are descendants of the Xa-Ben-Na-Po Band of Pomo Indians that historically have inhabited the Clear Lake area of Lake County, California. In 1851, Big Valley Pomo leaders met with a representative of the President of the United States and all agreed upon a treaty that would allow them to live in peace and harmony with the new settlers coming to the area. This treaty established a reservation with a habitable area of approximately 72 square miles on the South side of Clear Lake which encompassed Mt. Konocti east of Kelsey Creek. The area also included significant … Read more

Big Swamp Tribe

Big Swamp Indians. A name applied to Seminole, principally of the Mikasuki division, near Miccosukee Lake, Leon County, Florida. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Big Swamp Tribe as both an ethnological study, and as a people. McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, II, 157, 1854. Alternate Spellings Long Swamp Indians – McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, II, 157, 1854.

Bidai Tribe

Bidai (Caddo for ‘brushwood,’ probably referring to the peculiar growth characteristic of the region). An extinct tribe, supposed to have belonged to the Caddoan stock, whose villages were scattered over a wide territory, but principally about Trinity river , Texas, while some were as far north as the Neches or beyond. A creek emptying into Trinity river between Walker and Madison Counties, Texas, bears the name of the tribe, as did also, according to La Harpe, a small bay on the coast north of Matagorda bay. A number of geographic names derived from this tribe survive in the region. The … Read more

Bersiamite Tribe

Bersiamite Indians. One of the small Algonquian tribes composing the eastern group of the Montagnais, inhabiting the banks of Bersimis River , which enters St. Lawrence River near the gulf. These Indians became known to the French at an early date, and being of a peaceable and tractable disposition, were soon brought under the influence of the missionaries. They were accustomed to assemble once a year with cognate tribes at Tadoussac for the purpose of trade, but these have melted away under the influence of civilization. A trading post called Bersimis, at the mouth of Bersimis River, had in 1902 … Read more

Beothuk Tribe

Beothukan Family, Beothuk Indians (from the tribal or group name Béothuk, which probably signifies ‘man,’ or ‘human being,’ but was employed by Europeans to mean ‘Indian,’ or ‘Red Indian’; in the latter case because the Beothuk colored themselves and tinted their utensils and arms with red ocher). So far as known only a single tribe, called Beothuk, which inhabited the island of Newfoundland when first discovered, constituted this family, although existing vocabularies indicate it marked dialectic differences. At first the Beothuk were classified either as Eskimauan or as Algonquian, but now, largely through the researches of Gatschet, it is deemed best … Read more

Bellacoola Tribe

Bellacoola Indians, Bellacoola People, Bellacoola First Nation (Bí’lxula). A coast Salish tribe, or rather aggregation of tribes, on north and south Bentinck arm, Dean inlet, and Bellacoola river, British Columbia. This name is that given them by the Kwakiutl, there being no native designation for the entire people. They form the northernmost division of the Salishan stock, from the remaining tribes of which they are separated by the Tsilkotin and the Kwakiutl. In the Canadian reports on Indian affairs the name is restricted by the separation of the Tallion and the Kinisquit (people of Dean inlet), the whole being called the … Read more

Bellabella Tribe

Bellabella Indians, Bellabella People, Bellabella First Nation (an Indian corruption of Milbank taken back into English). The popular mame of an important Kwakiutl tribe living on Milbank sound., British Cololumbia. Their septs or subtribes are Kokaitk Oetlitk Oealitk The following clans are given: Wikoktenok (Eagle) Koetenok (Raven) Halhaiktenole (Killerwhale) Pop. 330 in 1901. The language spoken by this tribe and shared also by the Kitamat, Kitlope, China Hat, and Wikeno Indians is a peculiar dialect of Kwakiutl, called Heiltsuk from the native name of the Bellabella. These tribes resemble each other furthermore in having a system of clans with descent … Read more

Bellabella 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. Halkaiktenok (Ha′lx’aix·tenor, ‘killer whale’). A division of the Bellabella. Boas in Rep. Nat. Mus., 328, 1895. Hamtsit (Hámtsīt, ‘having food’, named from an ancestor). A Bellacoola division at Talio, Brit. Col. Boas in 7th Rep. N. W. Tribes Can., 3, 1891.

Bear River Tribe

Bear River Indians. A tribe mentioned by Lawson (Lawson, North Carolina, 383, 1860) as living in North Carolina in 1701, and having then a single village, Raudauquaquank, with 50 warriors. According to Hawks (Hawks, History of North Carolina, 1858-59) they lived in Craven County, probably on a branch of the Neuse.

Bayogoula Tribe

Bayogoula Indians (Choctaw: Báyuk-ókla ‘Bayou people’). A Muskhogean tribe which in 1700 lived with the Mugulasha in a village on the west bank of the Mississippi, about 64 leagues above its mouth and 30 leagues below the Huma town. Lemoyned’ Iberville gives a brief description of their village, which he says contained 2 temples and 107 cabins; that a fire was kept constantly burning in the temples, and near the door were kept many figures of animals, as the bear, wolf, birds, and in particular the choucoüacha, or opossum, which appeared to be a chief deity or image to which … Read more

Basawunena Tribe

Basawunena Indians (Bä′sawuně′na, ‘wood-lodge men’). Formerly a distinct though cognate tribe that made war on the Arapaho, but with whom they have been incorporated for 150 years. About 100 are still recognized in the northern and a few in the southern group For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Basawunena as both an ethnological study, and as a people. Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 955, 1896.

Bannock Tribe

Bannock Indians (from Panátǐ, their own name). A Shoshonean tribe whose habitat previous to being gathered on reservations can not be definitely outlined. There were two geographic divisions, but references to the Bannock do not always note this distinction. The home of the chief division appears to have been south east Idaho, whence they ranged into west Wyoming. The country actually claimed by the chief of this southern division, which seems to have been recognized by the treaty of Ft Bridger, July 3, 1868, lay between lat. 42° and 45°, and between long. 113° and the main chain of the … Read more

Bankalachi Tribe

Bankalachi (Yokuts name). A small Shoshonean tribe on upper Deer Creek, which drains into Tulare lake, southern California With the Tübatulabal they form one of the four major linguistic divisions of the family. Their own name is unknown.

Bahacecha Tribe

Bahacecha Indians. A tribe visited by Onate in 1604, at which time it resided on the Rio Colorado in Arizona, between Bill Williams fork and the Gila. Their language was described as being almost the same as that of the Mohave, whose territory adjoined theirs on the north and with whom they were friendly. Their houses were low, of wood covered with earth. They are not identifiable with any present Yuman tribe, although they occupied in Onate’s time that part of the Rio Colorado valley inhabited by the Alchedoma in 1776. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will … Read more

Bagiopa Tribe

Bagiopa Indians. A tribe of whom Fray Francisco Garcés (Garcés, Diary, 1900) heard in 1776, at which time they lived north of the Rio Colorado, where they are located on Font’s map of 1777. The fact that Padre Eusebio Kino, while near the mouth of the Rio Colorado in 1701, heard of them from other Indians and placed them on the gulf coast of Lower California on his map of that date, has created the impression that the Bagiopa were one of the Lower Colorado Yuman tribes; but because they were never actually seen in this locality by the Jesuit … Read more

Bagaduce Tribe

Bagaduce Indians. Bagaduce is the name of the peninsula in Hancock County, Maine, on which Castine is situated. Purchas mentions Chebegnadose (n should probably be u) as a town in 1602-1609 on Penobscot River in Abnaki territory, with 30 houses and 90 men, which may be connected with the more modern name. It is also, according to Willis under the form Abagadusset (from a sachem of that name), the name of a tributary of the Kennebec. It is introduced here for the reason that Sullivan applies the name, under the plural form Abagadusets, to a body of Indians which, in … Read more