Native American

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

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

Paiute Tribe

Paiute Indians. A term involved in great confusion. In common usage it has been applied at one time or another to most of the Shoshonean tribes of west Utah, northern Arizona, southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, and eastern and southern California. The generally accepted idea is that the term originated from the word pah, ‘water,’ and Ute, hence ‘water Ute’ ; or from pai, ‘true,’ and Ute – ‘true Ute’; but neither of these interpretations is satisfactory. Powell states that the name properly belongs exclusively to the Corn Creek tribe of south west Utah, but has been extended to include … Read more

Ottawa Indian Chiefs and Leaders

The following were chiefs or leaders of the Ottawa Indians. Pontiac An Ottawa chief, born about 1720, probably on Maumee river, Ohio, about the mouth of the Auglaize. Though his paternity is not positively established, it is most likely that his father was an Ottawa chief and his mother a Chippewa woman. J. Wimer says that as early as 1746 he commanded the Indians, mostly Ottawa, who defended Detroit against the attack of the northern tribes. It is supposed he led the Ottawa and Chippewa warriors at Braddock’s defeat. He first appears prominently in history at his meeting with Maj. Robert Rogers, in … Read more

Ottawa Indian Divisions

In the latter part of the 17th century the Ottawa tribe consisted of 4, possibly 5, divisions. It is repeatedly stated that there were 4 bands, and no greater number is ever mentioned, yet 5 names are given, as follows: Kishkakon Sinago Keinouche Nassauaketon Sable La Mothe Cadillac says there were 4 bands : Kiskakon Sinago Sable Nassauaketon Outaoutiboy, chief of the Ottawa, speaking at the conference with Gov. de Callidres, Sept. 3, 1700, said: “I speak in the name of the four Outaouais nations, to wit: The Outaouaes of the Sable, the Outaouaes Sinago, the Kiskakons, and the people … Read more

Ottawa Tribe

Ottawa Indians, Ottawa First Nation, Ottawa Nation, Ottawa People (from ǎdāwe, ‘to trade’, `to buy and sell,’ a term common to the Cree, Algonkin, Nipissing, Montagnais, Ottawa, and Chippewa, and applied to the Ottawa because in early traditional times and also during the historic period they were noted among their neighbors as intertribal traders and barterers, dealing chiefly in cornmeal, sunflower oil, furs and skins, rugs or mats, tobacco, and medicinal roots and herbs). Ottawa Tribe History On French river, near its mouth, on Georgian bay, Champlain in 1615 met 300 men of a tribe which, he said, “we call … 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