Ponca Tribe

Chief Standing Bear

Ponca Indians. One of the five tribes of the so-called Dhegiha group of the Siouan family, forming with the Omaha, Osage, and Kansa, the upper Dhegiha or Omaha division. The Ponca and Omaha have the same language, differing only in some dialectic forms and approximating the Quapaw rather than the Kansa and Osage languages. The early history of the tribe is the same as that of the other tribes of the group, and, after the first separation, is identical with that, of the Omaha. After the migration of the combined body to the mouth of Osage river the first division of the Omaha group … Read more

Otoe Tribe

Mission School for Omaha and Otoe

Otoe Tribe: An extensive resource for researching the facts, history, culture, genealogy, names, towns, treaties or ethnology of the Otoe Nation.

Osage Tribe

Osage Indians, Osage Nation (corruption by French traders of Wazhazhe, their own name). The most important southern Siouan tribe of the western division. Dorsey classed them, under the name Dhegiha, in one group with the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, and Quapaw, with whom they are supposed to have originally constituted a single body living along the lower course of the Ohio river. Geographically speaking, the tribe consists of three bands: the Pahatsi or Great Osage, Utsehta or Little Osage, and Santsukhdhi or Arkansas band. These appear to be comparatively modern, however, and the Osage recognize three more closely amalgamated divisions which … Read more

Omaha Tribe

The Village of the Omahas - Photograph by W. H. Jackson, 1871.

Omaha Tribe – Omaha Indians (‘those going against the wind or current’ ). One of the 5 tribes of the so called Dhegiha group of the Siouan family, the other 4 being the Kansa, Quapaw, Osage, and Ponca. Hale and Dorsey concluded from a study of the languages and traditions that, in the westward migration of the Dhegiha from their seat on Ohio and Wabash rivers after the separation, at least as early as 1500, of the Quapaw, who went down the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio, the Omaha branch moved up the great river, remaining awhile near … Read more

Wea Tribe

Wea Indians (probably a contraction of the local name Wawaagtenang, ‘place of the round, or curved, channel’ (Schoolcraft); possibly contracted from Wayahtónuki, ‘eddy people,’ from waysqtonwi, `eddy,’ both renderings coming from the same root. Wawaqtenang was the common Algonquian name for Detroit. (Cf. Wawyachtonoc). A subtribe of the Miami. They are first mentioned in the Jesuit Relation for 1673 as living in east Wisconsin. In the later distribution of the tribes of the confederacy they occupied the most westerly position. Allouez in 1680 found a Wea town on St Joseph River, Indiana. Marquette visited a Wea village at Chicago which … Read more

Kickapoo Tribe

Kickapoo Indians, Kickapoo People (from Kiwǐgapawa, ‘he stands about,’ Or ‘he moves about, standing now here, now there’). A tribe of the central Algonquian group, forming a division with the Sauk and Foxes, with whom they have close ethnic and linguistic connection. The relation of this division is rather with the Miami, Shawnee, Menominee, and Peoria than with the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa. Kickapoo Tribe History The people of this tribe, unless they are hidden under a name not yet known to be synonymous, first appear in history about 1667-70. At this time they were found by Allouez near the portage … Read more

Ioway Tribe

Wun-pan-to-mee and Tunk-aht-oh-ye

Ioway Tribe: An extensive resource for researching the facts, history, culture, genealogy, names, towns, treaties and ethnology of the Ioway Nation.

Michigamea Tribe

A tribe of the Illinois confederacy, first visited by Marquette when he descended the Mississippi in 1673. Their village was situated at that time on the west side of the Mississippi and near a lake bearing the same name as the tribe

Peoria Tribe

Peoria Indians (through French Peouarea, from Peoria Piwarea, ‘he comes carrying a pack on his back’: a personal name. Gerard). One of the principal tribes of the Illinois confederacy. Franquelin in his map of 1688 locates them and the Tapouaro on a river west of the Mississippi above the mouth of Wisconsin River, probably the upper Iowa River. Early references to the Illinois which place them on the Mississippi, although some of the tribes were on Rock and Illinois rivers, must relate to the Peoria and locate them near the mouth of the Wisconsin. When Marquette and Joliet descended the … Read more

Fox Tribe

Fox Indians (trans. in plural of wagosh, ‘red fox,’ the name of a clan). An Algonquian tribe, so named, according to Fox tradition recorded by Dr. William Jones, because once while some Wagohugi, members of the Fox clan, were hunting, they met the French, who asked who they were; the Indians gave the name of their clan, and ever since the whole tribe has been known by the name of the Fox clan. Their own name for themselves, according to the same authority, is Měshkwa`kihŭg’, ‘red-earth people,’ because of the kind of earth from which they are supposed to have … Read more

Lenape Tribe

Lenape Tribe, Lenape Indians, Lenape People, Delaware Indians, Delaware tribe, Delaware People, Lenni-Lenape, Lenni-Lenapi People, Lenni-Lenape Tribe, Lenni-Lenape Indians. A confederacy, formerly the most important of the Algonquian stock, occupying the entire basin of Delaware river in east Pennsylvania and south New York, together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-lenape, equivalent to ‘real men,’ or ‘native, genuine men’; the English knew them as Delaware, from the name of their principal river; the French called them Loups, ‘wolves,’ a term probably applied originally to the Mahican on Hudson rivers, afterward extended to the Munsee … Read more

Arapahoe Tribe

Powder Face And Squaw. Northern Arapaho

Arapahoe Indians, Arapaho Tribe, Arapaho Indians. An important Plains tribe of the great Algonquian family, closely associated with the Cheyenne for at least a century past. They call themselves Iñunaina, about equivalent to ‘our people.’ The name by which they are commonly known is of uncertain derivation, but it may possibly be, as Dunbar suggests, from the Pawnee tirapihu or larapihu, ‘trader.’ By the Sioux and Cheyenne they are called ” Blue-sky men ” or “Cloud men,” the reason for which is unknown.

Condition of Tribes by State in 1890

Condition of the Arkansas Indians in 1890 Total                    250 Indians in prisons, not otherwise enumerated        32 Self-supporting Indians, Taxed                            218 The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Arkansas number 218, 146 males and 72 females, and are distributed as follows: Pulaski County, 47; Sebastian County, 47; other counties with 11 or less in each, 124. The Indians of Arkansas are mostly in a county bordering on the Indian Territory, and in the county containing the state capital.  There are not enough to form a distinctive class. Condition of the Connecticut Indians in 1890 The civilized, (self-supporting) Indians of Connecticut, counted in the … Read more

Move to Neosho Missouri

The next year we moved to NEOSHO [Not sure about the name of this place.] Missouri. Me and Dad and my older brothers worked on a fruit farm called the SOEAKMAN farm. We stayed up there until the fruit harvest was over then we moved back to FLINT. Dad rented a place from Rich BECK the man who ran the BECK store and Post Office. We were just across the creek from the water mill. Tony BECK ran the mill. He was a brother of Rich BECK. I was big enough to go to the mill several times a day … Read more

Shawnee Indians

The Shawnee Tribe, meaning “southerners,” is recognized for its significant role in the history of numerous regions across the United States, with its name reflected in places from Pennsylvania to Georgia. The Shawnee were part of the Algonquian linguistic group, closely related to tribes such as the Fox, Sauk, and Kickapoo. Known for their frequent migrations, the Shawnee had historic settlements in locations like the Cumberland River Valley and Ohio, forming five primary divisions, including Chillicothe and Piqua. Their complex history of relocation, resistance against European settlers, and leadership under figures like Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa has made them a central part of early American history. Shawnee populations were dispersed over time, eventually settling primarily in Oklahoma by the 20th century.

Mammoth Skeletons found in Missouri

Scarcely a year passes that does not add to the number of localities, of the former existence of an animal era in America, attesting great changes. These discoveries are not alone confined to the Mississippi Valley, where they were first made. The borders of the sea-shore in South Carolina; the great marine deposits of Georgia and Alabama; and the clay and alluvial beds of the valleys of the Hudson River, have yielded some of the largest specimens of these antique bones; even the uplands of Vermont have recently given proofs of this kind. But it is to the valley of … Read more

Society of Mississippi Choctaw 1916

A sharp distinction is to be drawn between the Indians in Mississippi and the so-called Mississippi Choctaw “claimants.” The former are few in numbers and easily ascertainable, while the latter are numerous and scattered from Bayou Labatre, Alabama on the east to Mesa City, Arizona on the west. A number of these claimants are banded together in an organization known as “Society of Mississippi Choctaws.” Bayou Labatre, Alabama Sarah E. Bosarge Andrews Armenia Bosarge Andrews Claral Bosarge Akridge Bessie Golman Bosarge Amile Bosarge Hubert Bosarge Hubbard Bosarge John J. Briant George H. Briant Albert L. Demore Nora Wintzell Golman Mac … Read more

Potawatomi Tribe Declared Citizens

The Potawatomi wove light weight huts out of cattail plants to live in while harvesting wild rice in the autumn season.

In several cases advanced aboriginal Indian tribes, have by act of Congress been declared citizens and endowed with all the rights and privileges of citizenship. Still they were conscious of their inability to properly exercise and enjoy those rights and privileges. They knew they could not exercise the franchise side by side with the white man, with the same degree of intelligence and judgment, and so they scorned to use it. Perhaps it would have been better for them could they have ignored the real distinction which existed between them and the white race, and persuaded themselves, or been persuaded … Read more