Native American

The list of items below have been tagged as part of the Native American historical collection here at AccessGenealogy.

Powhatan Genealogy and History

Powhatan Indians (Southern Renape pawd’tan, ‘falls in a current’ of water.-Gerard). A confederacy of Virginian Algonquian tribes. Their territory included the tidewater section of Virginia from the Potomac south to the divide between James River and Albemarle sound, and extended into the interior as far as the falls of the principal rivers about Fredericksburg and Richmond. They also occupied the Virginia counties east of Chesapeake Bay and possibly included some tribes in lower Maryland. In the Piedmont region west of them were the hostile Monacan and Manahoac, while on the south were the Chowanoc, Nottoway, and Meherrin of Iroquoian stock. … Read more

Powhatan Tribe Divisions

Appomattoc. A tribe of the Powhatan confederacy formerly living on lower Appomattox River, Virginia. They had 60 warriors in 1608, and were of some importance as late as 1671, but were extinct by 1722. Their principal village, which bore the same name was on the site of Bermuda Hundred, Prince George County, was burned by the English in 1611.  Appomatox was also one of the terms applied to the Matchotic, a later combination of remnants of the same confederacy. Consult Further: Appomattoc Tribe Chickahominy (from K’chick-ahän-min’-nough, ‘course-pounded corn people.’ ‘hominy people’ Tooker; or from Tshi-kĕjämĕn, a place name meaning ‘swept,’ … Read more

Pottawatomie Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Chechawkose. A Potawatomi chief of this name formerly lived at a village commonly called ” Chechawkose’s village,” on the s. side of Tippecanoe r., about Harrison tp., Kosciusko co., Ind. The reserve was sold in 1836. The name is also spelled Chechawkose and Chitchakos. (J. M.) Shavehead. A well known Pottawatomie chief, so named by the whites because, like many of his ancestors, he kept the hair shaved from the greater part of his scalp. The dates of his birth and death are not known, but lie lived during the early part of the 19th century in the southeast part … Read more

Potawatomi Tribe

Potawatomi Indians, Nation of Fire. An Algonquian tribe, first encountered on the islands of Green Bay, Wis., and at its head. According to the traditions of all three tribes, the Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa were originally one people, and seem to have reached the region about the upper end of Lake Huron together.

Assegun Tribe

Assegun Indians (probably from Chippewa ŭ’shigŭn ‘black bass.’ W. J.) A traditional tribe said to have occupied the region about Mackinaw and Sault Ste Marie on the first coming of the Ottawa and Chippewa, and to have been driven by them southward through lower Michigan.  They are said, and apparently correctly, to have been either connected with the Mascouten or identical with that tribe, and to have made the bone deposits in northern Michigan. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Assegun as both an ethnological study, and as a people. Mascouten Tribe

Potawatomi Indian Research

Pottawatomie Indians   J. B. Bottineau, speaking Chippewa and Cree fluently, gives Potawatanubñk or Potawaganiñk, i. e. ‘People of the place of the fire,’ as the primary form of the name. This derivation is strongly confirmed by the Huron name Asistagueroüon (Champlain, 1616), for Otsistă’ge`roñnoñ’, likewise signifying ‘People of the place of fire,’ which was applied by them to their enemies who dwelt in 1616 on the west shores of Lake Huron. Read More about the Potawatomie History Potawatomi Indian Biography Pottawatomie Chiefs and Leaders Chief Kack-kack (hosted at Pottawatomie Web) Bureau of Indian Affairs Bureau of Indian Affairs Tracing … Read more

Mascouten Tribe

Mascouten Indians (‘little prairie people,’ from muskuta (Fox) or mashcodé, (Chippewa), prairie’; ens, diminutive ending. By the Hurons they were called Assistaeronon, ‘Fire people,’ and by the French ‘Nation do Fen.’ These last names seem to have arisen from a mistranslation of the Algonquian term. In the Chippewa dialect ‘fire’ is ishkote, and might easily be substituted for mashkodé, ‘prairie’ ). A term used by some early writers in a collective and indefinite sense to designate the Algonquian tribes living on the prairies of Wisconsin and Illinois; LaSalle even includes some bands of Sioux under the name. The name (Mashkótens) … Read more

Pomo Tribe

Pomo Indians, Poma Indians. The name of the Indian linguistic stock, technically known as Kulanapan, living in parts of Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Colusa, and Glenn Counties, California. In the northern Pomo dialect Pomo means ‘people,’ and added to a place name forms the name for a group of people. Although Poma is almost as frequently heard as Pomo, the latter has come into general use in both scientific and popular literature. The territory occupied by the Pomo is in two parts: a main area which extends, generally speaking, from west to east, from the coast to the crest of the … Read more

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

Papago Tribe

A Piman tribe, closely allied to the Pima, whose original home was the territory south and south east of Gila River, especially south of Tucson, Arizona, in the main and tributary valleys of the Rio Santa Cruz, and extending west and south west across the desert waste known as the Papaguería, into Sonora, Mexico

Pima Tribe

Pima Huts showing Home Life and Utensils

As popularly known, the name of a division of the Piman family living in the valleys of the Gila and Salt in south Arizona. Formerly the term was employed to include also the Nevome, or Pimas Bajos, the Pima as now recognized being known as Pimas Altos (‘Upper Pima’ ), and by some also the Papago. These three divisions speak closely related dialects. The Pima call themselves A’â’tam, the people.

Sobaipuri Tribe

Sobaipuri Indians. A Piman tribe formerly inhabiting the main and tributary valleys of San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers, between lon. 110° and 111°, and the Rio Gila between the month of the San Pedro river and the ruins of Casa Grande, and possibly eastward of this area in south Arizona. Missions were established among them by the Spaniards in the latter part of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries at Guevavi, Suamca, and San Xavier del Bac, to which numerous visitas were attached. According to Bourke “the Apaches have among them the Tze-kinne, or Stone-house people, descendants … Read more

Pawnee Tribe

Petalesharro

Pawnee Indians. A confederacy belonging to the Caddoan family.  The name is probably derived from parika, a horn, a term used to designate the peculiar manner of dressing the scalp-lock, by which the hair was stiffened with paint and fat, and made to stand erect and curved like a horn.  This marked features of the Pawnee gave currency to the name and its application to cognate tribes. The people called themselves Chahiksichahiks, `men of men.’ In the general northeastwardly movement of the Caddoan tribes the Pawnee seem to have brought up the rear. Their migration was not in a compact … Read more

Pecos Tribe

Pecos Indians (from P’e’-a-ku’, the Keresan name of the pueblo). Formerly the largest and most populous of the pueblos of New Mexico in historic times, occupied by a people speaking the same language of the Tanoan family, with dialectic variations, as that of Jemez; situated on an upper branch of Pecos River, about 30 miles south east of Santa Fe. In prehistoric times the Pecos people occupied numerous pueblos containing from 200 to 300 rooms each, and many compactly built single-story house groups of from 10 to 50 rooms each. These were scattered along the valley from the north end … Read more

Pascagoula Tribe

A small tribe of Indians formerly living on Pascagoula river in south Mississippi, in intimate connection with the Biloxi, but now extinct as a separate division.

Chaui Tribe

Chaui Indians (‘in the middle.’ – Grinnell). A tribe of the Pawnee confederacy, spoken of by the French as Grand Pawnee. In the positions maintained by the 4 tribes of the Pawnee confederacy the villages of the Chaui were always between those of the Pitahauerat on the east and Kitkehahki on the west. In the council of the confederacy the Chaui held a prominent place, their head chiefs outranking all others, and being accepted as representative of the Pawnee, although without power to dominate all the tribes. Little that is distinctive is known of this tribe. In 1833 they ceded … Read more

Skidi Tribe

Skidi Indians (probably from tski, ‘i, `wolf,’ or skirircrra, ‘ wolves standing in water,’ referring to a tribal tradition) . One of the tribes of the Pawnee Confederacy, sometimes called Wolf Pawnee, and by the French Pawnee Loup. That the Skidi were closely associated with the idea of the wolf is evident from the sign language, in which they are designated by the sign for that animal. The speech of the Skidi differed slightly from that of the other 3 Pawnee tribes. According to tradition the Skidi and Arikara were once united, but became separated during the northward migration, the … Read more