Native American

Chaunis Temoatan (Chaun-istem-oatan, ‘salt-making village’. Topker). A country situated, in 1586, indefinitely westward from the English settlement on Roanoke Island, N. C. Ralph Lane, from misinterpreted Indian information, believed it to have been a copper-producing region, and that it was situated “vp that riuer Moratoc [Roanoke],” 20 days journey overland from the Mangoaks (Nottoway), who then dwelt about 160 m. above the Roanoke settlement. Lane’s version of the Indian report shows that the Indians referred to salt making rather than copper mining. By Bozman, Bancroft, and others, this Indian report, as given by Lane, has been regarded as a fiction … Read more

Camping and Camp circles. Each North American tribe claimed a certain locality as its habitat and dwelt in communities or villages about which stretched its hunting grounds. As all the inland people depended for food largely on the gathering of acorns, seeds, and roots, the catching of salmon when ascending the streams, or on hunting for meat and skin clothing, they camped in makeshift shelters or portable dwellings during a considerable part of the year. These dwellings were brush shelters, the mat house and birch-bark lodge of the forest tribes, and the skin tent of the plains. The rush mats … Read more

Busk (Creek: púskita, ‘a fast’). A festival of the Creeks, by some early writers termed the green-corn dance. According to Gatschet the solemn annual festival held by the Creek people of ancient and modern days. As this authority points out, the celebration of the púskita was an occasion of amnesty, forgiveness, and absolution of crime, injury, and hatred, a season of change of mind, symbolized in various ways. The day of beginning of the celebration of the púskita, which took place chiefly in the “town square,” was determined by the miko, or chief, and his council; and the ceremony itself, … Read more

Boulder mosaics (spelled as bowlder outlines by Hodge). Certain outline surface figures, probably of Siouan origin, usually formed of bowlders a foot or less in diameter, though a few consisted of buffalo bones. The name “boulder mosaics” was first applied to them by Todd. According to Lewis, structures of this type have been found from w. Iowa and Nebraska to Manitoba, and from w. Minnesota through North and South Dakota to Montana; but they appear to be, or rather to have been, more frequent in South Dakota than in any other section. These animal, human, and remains consist of other … Read more

Boston Indian Citizenship Committee was an association for the protection of the rights of Indians; organized in 1879 on the occasion of the forcible removal of the Ponca. The tribe returned to their old home in South Dakota from the reservation in Indian Territory. Chief Standing Bear, released on a Writ of habeas corpus, went to Boston, and, on the plea that most of the signatures in favor of removal were fraudulent, enlisted the sympathy of Hon. John D. Long, then governor of Massachusetts, and other organizers of this committee, who finally secured the rescission of the edict and the … Read more

In the popular mind the North American Indian is everywhere associated with the robe or the blanket. The former was the whole hide of a large mammal made soft and pliable by much dressing; or pelts of foxes, wolves, and such creatures were sewed together; or bird, rabbit, or other tender skins were cut into ribbons, which were twisted or woven. The latter were manufactured by basketry processes from wool, hair, fur, feathers, down, bark, cotton, etc., and had many and various functions. They were worn like a toga as protection from the weather, and, in the best examples, were … Read more

Bird Stones: A name given to a class of prehistoric stone objects of undetermined purpose, usually resembling or remotely suggesting the form of a bird. In many cases the resemblance is so slight that without the aid of a series of specimens, grading downward from the more realistic bird representations through successive simplifications, the life form would not be suggested. In its simplest form the body is an almost featureless bar of polished stone. Again, the ends are curved upward, giving a saddle shape; but usually the head, tail, and eyes are differentiated, and in the more graphic forms the … Read more

The Bible has been printed in part or in whole in 32 Indian languages N. of Mexico. In 18 one or more portions have been printed; in 9 others the New Testament or more has appeared; and in 5 languages, namely, the Massachuset, Cree, Labrador Eskimo, Santee Dakota, and Tukkuthkutchin, the whole Bible is in print. The Norwegian missionaries, Hans and Paul Egede, were the first to translate any part of the Bible into Greenland Eskimo, their version of the New Testament being printed in part in ] 744, and as a whole in 1766. A revision of this translation, … Read more

Attractive and precious objects, perforated usually through the middle and strung for various purposes, constitute a class of ornaments universally esteemed, which the Indians of North America did not fail to develop. Akin to beads, and scarcely separable from them, were objects from the same materials called pendants. They were perforated near the end or edge and hung on the person or on garments. All were made from mineral, vegetal, or animal substances, and after the discovery the introduction of beads of glass and porcelain, as well as that of metal tools for making the old varieties, greatly multiplied their … Read more

Basketry, including wattling, matting, and bagging, may be defined as the primitive textile art. Its materials include nearly the whole series of North American textile plants, and the Indian women explored the tribal habitat for the best. Constant digging in the same favorite spot for roots and the clearing away of useless plants about the chosen stems constituted a species of primitive agriculture. They knew the time and seasons for gathering, how to harvest, dry, preserve, and prepare the tough and pliable parts for use and to reject the brittle, and in what way to combine different plants with a … Read more

Among the resources of nature utilized by the tribes of North America bark was of prime importance. It was stripped from trees at the right season by hacking all around and taking it off in sheets of desired length. The inner bark of cedar, elm, and other trees was in some localities torn into strips, shredded, twisted, and spun or woven. The bark of wild flax (Apocynum) and the Asclepias were made into soft textiles. Bark had a multitude of functions. In connection with the most important of wants, the necessity for food, it supplied many tribes with an article … Read more

Many varieties of Indian bags and pouches were made by the Indians of the United States and were used for a great number of purposes. The costume of the aborigines was universally destitute of pockets, and various pouches served in their stead. On occasion articles were tucked away in the clothing or were tied up in bits of cloth or skin. The blanket also served at times for a bag, and among the Eskimo the woman s coat was enlarged over the shoulders and at the back to form a pouch for carrying the baby. The pouch was a receptacle … Read more

Deformations of the human head have been known since the writings of Herodotus. They are divisible into two main classes, those of pathological and those of mechanical or artificial origin. The latter, with which this article is alone concerned, are again divisible into  un-intentional and intentional deformations. One or the other of these varieties of mechanical deformation has been found among numerous primitive peoples, as the ancient Avars and Krimeans, some Turkomans, Malays, Africans, etc., as well as among some civilized peoples, as the French and Wends, in different parts of the Old World, and both varieties existed from prehistoric … Read more

Amer+Ind. A word composed of the first syllables of “American Indian,” suggested in 1899 by an American lexicographer as a substitute for the inappropriate terms used to designate the race of man inhabiting the New World before its occupancy by Europeans. The convenience of such derivatives as Amerindic, Amerindize, Amerindian, proto-Amerind, pre-Amerindic, pseudo-Amerind, etc., argues in favor of the new word. The introduction of “Amerind” was urged by the late Maj. J. W. Powell, and it has the support of several anthropologists. A plea by Dr W J McGee for its general adoption appeared in 1900 in the Journal of … Read more