Menominee Indian Totems

Chauvignerie gives their principal totems as the Large-tailed Bear Stag Kilou (a sort of eagle). Neill (Hist. Minn., 1858) classes the Menominee, evidently on French authority, as Folles Avoines of the Chat and Orignal or Wild Moose and Elk. Hoffman gives the modern totems as follows: The Owa’sse wi’dishi’anun, or Bear phratry, consisting of the following totems and sub-phratries: Owa’sse (Bear), Miqkä’no (Mud-turtle), Kitä’mi (Porcupine), with the Namä’nu (Beaver) and O’sass (Muskrat) and sub-phratries. The Kině’uv wi’dishi’anun, or Eagle phratry, consisting of the following totems: Pinäsh’iu (Bald Eagle), Kaka’k (Crow), Inä’qtěk (Raven), Ma’qkuana’ni (Red-tail Hawk), Hinanä’shiuv (Golden Eagle), Pe’niki’konau (Fish-hawk). … Read more

Massachuset Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Attacks, Crispus Attacks, Crispus. An Indian-Negro half-blood of Framingham, Massachusetts, near Boston, noted as the leader and first person slain in the Boston massacre of Mar. 5, 1770, the first hostile encounter between the Americans and the British troops, and therefore regarded by historians as the opening fight of the great Revolutionary struggle. In consequence of the resistance of the people of Boston to the enforcement of the recent tax laws a detachment of British troops had been stationed in the town, to the great irritation of the citizens. On Mar. 5 this feeling culminated in an attack on the … Read more

Mariposan Indians

Mariposan Family, Mariposan Tribes, Mariposan Stock, Yokuts Tribe, Yokuts Indians (adapted from Span. mariposa, ‘butterfly,’ the name of a county in California). The name applied by Powell to a linguistic stock of Indians, generally known as Yokuts, in San Joaquin valley, Cal. Their territory extended from the lower Sierra Nevada to the Coast range, and from mounts Pinos and Tehachapi to Fresno and Chowchilla Rivers. A separate body dwelt in the north, in a narrow strip of territory along the San Joaquin, between Tuolumne and Calaveras Rivers, about the site of Stockton. These were the Cholovone. The Coconoon, said to have … Read more

Chaushila Tribe

Chaushila Indians. A Yokuts (Mariposan) tribe in central California, north of Fresno River, probably on lower Chowchilla River, in the plains and lowest foothills, their neighbors on the north being of Moquelumnan stock. As a tribe they are now extinct. They are confused with, but are distinct from, the Chowchilla, under which name the synonymy of both is given.

Mandan Tribe

Mandan Indians. A Siouan tribe of the northwest. The name, according to Maximilian, originally given by the Sioux is believed by Matthews to be a corruption of the Dakota Mawatani. Previous to 1830 they called themselves simply Numakiki, ‘people’ (Matthews). Maximilian says “if they wish to particularize their descent they add the name of the village whence they came originally.” Hayden gives Miah’tanēs, ‘ people on the bank,’ as the name they apply to themselves, and draws from this the inference that “they must have resided on the banks of the Missouri at a very remote period.” According to Morgan … Read more

Klamath Tribe

Klamath Indians (possibly from máklaks, the Lutuami term for `Indians,’ `people,’ ‘community’; lit. ‘the encamped’). A Lutuamian tribe in south west Oregon. They call themselves Eukshikni or Auksni,’ people of the lake,’ referring to the fact that their principal seats were on Upper Klamath lake. There were also important settlements on Williamson and Sprague Rivers. The Klamath are a hardy people and, unlike the other branch of the family, the Modoc, have always lived at peace with the whites. In 1864 they joined the Modoc in ceding the greater part of their territory to the United States and settled on … Read more

Lutuamian Indians

Lutuamian Family. A linguistic family consisting of two branches, the Klamath and the Modoc, residing in south west Oregon east of the Cascade range and along the California border. Their former boundary extended from the Cascades to the headwaters of Pit and McCloud rivers, thence east to Goose lake, thence north to lat. 44°, and thence west to the Cascades. The more permanent settlements of the of family were on the shores of Klamath lakes, Tule lake, and Lost river, the remainder of the territory which they claimed being hunting ground.  In 1864 both divisions of the family entered into … Read more

Kiowa Tribe

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

Kiowa Tribe – An exhaustive resource for anyone researching the history, culture, genealogy, names, towns, treaties or ethnology of the Kiowa Indians.

Kiowa Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Sleeping Wolf and Wife

Dohasan Dohasan (Dohásän, ‘little bluff’; also Dohá, Doháte, ‘bluff’). The hereditary name of a line of chiefs of the Kiowa for nearly a century. It has been borne by at least four members of the family, viz: The first of whom there is remembrance was originally called Pá-do‛gâ′-i or Padó‛gå, ‘White-faced-buffalo-bull’, and this name was afterward changed to Dohá, or Doháte. He was a prominent chief. His son was originally called Ä′anoñ′te (a word of doubtful etymology), and afterward took his father’s name of Doháte, which was changed to Dohasan, Little Doháte, or Little-bluff, for distinction. He became a great … Read more

Kiowa Indian Research

Kiowa Indians (from Gǎ’-i-gwŭ, or Kǎ’-i-gwŭ, ‘principal people,’ their own name). A tribe at one time residing about. the upper Yellowstone and Missouri, but better known as centering about the upper Arkansas and Canadian in Colorado and Oklahoma, and constituting, so far as present knowledge goes, a distinct linguistic stock. Read more about the Kiowa Tribe History Libraries AccessGenealogy Library – Provides a listing of our on line books, books we own, and books we will be putting on line Genealogy Library – Read books online for Free! Kiowa Indian Biographies Kiowa Indian Chiefs and Leaders (hosted at AccessGenealogy) Big … Read more

Keyauwee Tribe

Keyauwee Indians. A small tribe formerly living in North Carolina, affiliated with the Tutelo, Saponi, and Occaneechi. Nothing retrains of their language, but they perhaps belonged to the Siouan family, from the fact of their intimate association with well known Siouan tribes of the east. In 1701 Lawson found them in a palisaded village about 30 miles north east of Yadkin River, near the present Highpoint, Guilford County, North Carolina. Around the village were large fields of corn. At that time they were about equal in number to the Saponi and had, as chief, Keyauwee Jack, who was by birth … Read more

Kickapoo Indian Tribe Customs

Customs and Beliefs. The Kickapoo, lived in fixed villages, occupying bark houses in the summer and flag-reed oval lodges during the winter. They raised corn, beans, and squashes, and while dwelling on the east side of the Mississippi they often wandered out on the plains to hunt buffalo. On these hunting trips they came to know the horse, and previous to the Civil war they had gone as far as Texas for the sole purpose of stealing horses and mules from the Comanche. No other Algonquians of the central group were more familiar with the Indians of the plains than … 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

Keresan Indians

Keresan Family, Keresan People, Keresan Pueblos (adapted from K’eres, the aboriginal name). A linguistic family of Pueblo Indians including the inhabitants of several villages on the Rio Grande, in north central New Mexico, between the Rito de los Frijoles (where, before being confined to reservations, they joined the Tewa on the north) and the Rio Jemez, as well as on the latter stream from the pueblo of Sia to its month. The west division, comprising Acoma and Laguna pueblos, are situated westward from the Rio Grande, the latter on the Rio San Jose. Like the other Pueblo tribes of New … Read more