Native American Archives – Page 67 of 341

King Philip’s War

The events of which we shall now proceed to give a brief synopsis, were of more momentous interest, and fraught with more deadly peril to the New England colonies, than aught that had preceded them. The wild inhabitants of the forest had now become far more dangerous opponents than when they relied upon their rude flint-headed arrows, or heavy stone tomahawks, as the only efficient weapons of offense. Governor Bradford, many years before the breaking out of the hostilities which we are about to detail, had given a graphic description of the effect produced upon their deportment and self-confidence by … Read more

The Pequot Indian War

For several years the tribe had been engaged in a desultory war with the Narragansetts, arising from a quarrel, in 1632, respecting the boundary of their respective do mains. Sassacus at once perceived the necessity or policy of healing this breach, and procuring the assistance of his powerful neighbors in the anticipated struggle. He therefore sent ambassadors to Canonicus, charged with proposals of treaty, and of union against the usurping English. A grand council of the Narragansett sachems was called, and the messengers, according to Morton, “used many pernicious arguments to move them thereunto, as that the English were strangers, … Read more

The Narragansetts and Pequot Indians

The islands and western shores of the beautiful bay which still bears their name were, at the time of the first European settlement, in the possession of the great and powerful tribe of the Narragansetts. Their dominions extended thirty or forty miles to the westward, as far as the country of the Pequots, from whom they were separated by the Pawcatuck River. Their chief sachem was the venerable Canonicus, who governed the tribe, with the assistance and support of his nephew Miantonimo. The, celebrated Roger Williams, the founder of the Rhode Island and Providence plantations, always noted for his kindness, … Read more

The Mandan

"The interior of the hut of a Mandan chief" - Karl Bodmer, 1833

To a description of this last people, now, as a separate race, entirely extinct, Mr. Catlin has devoted no small portion of his interesting descriptions of western adventure. They differed widely from all other American Indians in several particulars. The most noticeable of these were the great diversity in complexion and in the color and texture of the hair. “When visited by this traveler, in 1832, the Mandan were established at two villages, only two miles asunder, upon the left bank of the Missouri, about two hundred miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone. There were then not far from … Read more

Indians of the Great Western Prairies

Upon the Yellowstone, and about the headwaters of the Missouri, the most noted tribes are the Crows and Blackfeet. Bordering upon them at the north and northeast are their enemies, the Ojibbeways, Knisteneaux, and Assinaboins, of some of whom brief mention has been made in former chapters. In 1834 the Blackfeet were computed to number over thirty thousand, but when the small-pox swept over the western country, in 1838, they were frightfully reduced. By the returns of 1850, they were represented as amounting to about thirteen thousand. As these Indians are among the farthest removed from the contaminating influence of … Read more

The Bull Band

The people had built a great pis’kun, very high and strong, so that no buffalo could escape; but somehow the buffalo would not jump over the cliff. When driven toward it, they would run nearly to the edge, and then, swerving to the right or left, they would go down the sloping hills and cross the valley in safety. So the people were hungry, and began to starve. One morning, early, a young woman went to get water, and she saw a herd of buffalo feeding on the prairie, right on the edge of the cliff above the pis’kun. “Oh!” … Read more

Siege of the City of Mexico

On the death of Montezuma, his brother Cuitlahua, governor of Iztapalapa, had taken the supreme command over the Aztecs. He had been prime mover in the revolt, which resulted in the expulsion of the Spaniards from the city, and it was by his orders that their flight had been so fiercely followed up. At the present juncture, he sent heralds to propose a treaty of peace with the friendly tribe by whose hospitality the Spanish army was now supported, proposing the destruction of the whites, who had brought such woes upon the whole country. A portion of the Tlascalan assembly … Read more

Expedition Of Pamphilo De Narvaez

The jealous Cuban governor, Velasquez, enraged at his presumption in throwing off the authority under which he had sailed, fitted out a formidable armament, to overthrow the newly acquired power of Cortez. The fleet, under the command of Pamphilo de Narvaez, reached the Mexican coast, and news of its arrival were conveyed to Cortez in the month of May 1520. With his usual decision and promptness, the general divided his forces, and leaving the larger portion under Alvarado to maintain possession of the capital, he marched to check the advance of Narvaez. By the boldness of a night attack, followed … Read more

The Zempoallans And Quiavistlans

About this time, Bernal Diaz and another sentinel being stationed on the beach, at some distance from the camp, perceived five Indians of a different appearance from any hitherto seen, approaching them upon the level sands. Diaz conducted them to the general, who learned, by Marina s interpretation, that they came in behalf of the cacique of Zempoala, or Cempoal, to proffer the services of their king and his people. This tribe held the Mexicans in great fear and detestation, and rejoiced in the opportunity now presented for attempting some retaliation for former oppressions and injuries. The exploring expedition had … Read more

Hernando Cortez

The Cuban governor, Velasquez, determined to pursue discoveries and conquest at the west, and appointed Hernando Cortez, a Spanish cavalier, resident upon the island, to command the new expedition. That the reader may judge what strange contradictions may exist in the character of the same individual, how generosity and cupidity, mildness and ferocity, cruelty and kindness, may be combined, let him compare the after conduct of this celebrated hero with his character as sketched by the historian. “Cortez was well made, and of an agreeable countenance; and, besides those common natural endowments, he was of a temper which rendered him … Read more

Indian Confederacy Of 1781

The spring of 1781 was a terrible season for the white settlements in Kentucky and the whole border country. The natives who surrounded them had never shown so constant and systematic a determination for murder and mischief. Early in the summer, a great meeting of Indian deputies from the Shawanees, Delawares, Cherokees, Wyandot, Tawas, Pottawatomie, and diverse other tribes from the north-western lakes, met in grand council of war at Old Chilicothe. The persuasions and influence of two infamous whites, one McKee, and the notorious Simon Girty, “inflamed their savage minds to mischief, and led them to execute every diabolical scheme.”

Tecumseh

Nearly ten years of peace succeeded the treaty of Greenville, an interval which proved little less destructive to the tribes of the north-west than the desolation of their last calamitous war. The devastating influence of intemperance was never more fearfully felt than in the experience of these Indian nations at the period whose history we are now recording. General Harrison, then commissioner for Indian affairs, reported their condition in the following terms: “So destructive has been the progress of intemperance among them, that whole villages have been swept away. A miserable remnant is all that remains to mark the names … Read more

Illinois Indian Land

With the rapid increase of a white population between the Lakes and the Mississippi, which followed the conclusion of hostilities with England and her Indian allies, new difficulties began to arise between the natives and the settlers. Illinois and Wisconsin were inhabited by various tribes of Indians, upon terms of bitter hostility among themselves, but united in their suspicions and apprehensions at the unprecedented inroads of emigrants from the east. The Winnebago, dwelling in Wisconsin; the Pottawatomie, situated around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; and the Sac, (afterwards mingled with the Foxes, and usually coupled with that tribe,) of … Read more

The Shawnees

The Shawanees (Shawnees) were a very extensive and warlike tribe. They were, according to Indian tradition, originally from the south, having inhabited the country in the vicinity of Savannah, in Georgia, and a portion of West Florida. Being engaged in continual war with the Creeks and other southern nations, and being of an adventurous and roving disposition, they finally emigrated northward, and were received upon terms of friendship by the Delawares. They settled in Western Pennsylvania, extending themselves gradually farther west, and mingling with other neighboring nations. Their head-quarters were, in early times, not far from Pittsburgh. In their new … Read more

Mounds and Fortifications

The mural remains, in the United States alone, are of almost incredible number, and of most imposing magnitude. It has been asserted by an accurate western antiquarian should not exaggerate if I were to say that more than five thousand might be found, some of them enclosing more than a hundred acres.” The mounds and tumuli, he remarks, are far more numerous. Professor Rafinesque ascertained the existence of more than five hundred ancient monuments in Kentucky alone, and fourteen hundred in other states, most of which he had personally examined. These remains appear most numerous in the vicinity of the … Read more

Antiquities of South America

At the Spanish discovery, South America, like the Northern continent, was, in a great portion, peopled by half-savage tribes, resembling the Indians of our own country. Some powerful and partially civilized kingdoms, however, yet survived, and of these, the empire of the Peruvian Incas was the first. Under the sway of these powerful sovereigns was comprehended an extensive district, lying along the Pacific coast for many hundreds of miles. Other nations, in their vicinity, of whose history we are ignorant, also possessed a considerable share of power and independent government. The antiquities of these regions, so similar to those of … Read more

Antiquities of Mexico

The Southwestern regions of North America present a most extensive and interesting field for antiquarian research. The long-continued existence of powerful, civilized, and populous races is fully proved by the occurrence of almost innumerable ruins and national relics. Even in the sixteenth century, the Spanish invaders found these regions in the possession of a highly prosperous and partially civilized people. Government and social institutions were upon that firm and well-defined basis which betokened long continuance and strong national sentiment. In many of the arts and sciences, the subjugated races were equal, and in others superior, to their Christian conquerors. Their … Read more

1896 Census of New York Indians

Census of the New York Indians taken in 1896. The following census extractions provide the details from the 1896 census for the Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, St. Regis and Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians.

As the progression of white settlers moved west into the territories of the New York Indians, the tribes were decimated by disease and war, and “forced” into treaties that eventually restricted their settlements onto five Reservations set aside in the state of New York, Oklahoma, or for those siding with the British, in Ontario Canada. While at one time independent, these tribes (Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, St. Regis and Tonawanda) over time came together and were known as the Seneca Indians.

Tribal Genealogy Research

This series provides a collection of online resources specific to a tribe. It’s intention is to incorporate a larger collection of links to offsite content then what could be included from within the tribal page.

The MOWA Choctaws

Chief Wilford "Longhair" Taylor (Courtesy of MOWA Choctaw Cultural Center)

Extinction by Reclassification: The MOWA Choctaws of South Alabama and Their Struggle for Federal Recognition – In the 1930s, Carl Carmer, a professor at the University of Alabama and author of Stars Fell on Alabama, traveled around Alabama collecting unusual stories. He said that he chose “to write of Alabama not as a state which is part of a nation, but as a strange country in which I once lived.” One of his stories describes his efforts to determine the ancestry of the so-called Cajuns who lived around Citronelle in southwest Alabama. Carmer’s story provoked a flurry of interest in the “Cajans,” when in reality they were not Cajun at all. Instead, they were descendants of the indigenous Choctaw Indians of southwest Alabama. Originally appearing in The Alabama Review, Volume 59, July 2006, pages 163-204.