History for ready reference, Volumes 1 to 5

Part 27

Chapter 273,617 wordsPublic domain

"Cree. Old Algonkin. Montagnais. Chipeway, Ottawa, Pottawattomie, Miami, Peoria, Pea, Piankishaw, Kaskaskia, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kikapoo. Sheshatapoosh, Secoffee, Micmac, Melisceet, Etchemin, Abnaki. Mohegan, Massachusetts, Shawnee, Minsi, Unami, Unalachtigo [the last three named forming, together, the nation of the Lenape or Delawares], Nanticoke, Powhatan, Pampticoke. Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Sheyenne. … All the Algonkin nations who dwelt north of the Potomac, on the east shore of Chesapeake Bay, and in the basins of the Delaware and Hudson rivers, claimed near kinship and an identical origin, and were at times united into a loose, defensive confederacy. By the western and southern tribes they were collectively known as Wapanachkik—'those of the eastern region'—which in the form Abnaki is now confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. … The members of the confederacy were the Mohegans (Mahicanni) of the Hudson, who occupied the valley of that river to the falls above the site of Albany, the various New Jersey tribes, the Delawares proper on the Delaware river and its branches, including the Minsi or Monseys, among the mountains, the Nanticokes, between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic, and the small tribe called Canai, Kanawhas or Ganawese, whose towns were on tributaries of the Potomac and Patuxent. … Linguistically, the Mohegans were more closely allied to the tribes of New England than to those of the Delaware Valley. Evidently, most of the tribes of Massachusetts and Connecticut were comparatively recent offshoots of the parent stem on the Hudson, supposing the course of migration had been eastward. … The Nanticokes occupied the territory between Chesapeake Bay and the ocean, except its southern extremity, which appears to have been under the control of the Powhatan tribe of Virginia."

_D. G. Brinton, The Lenape and their Legends. chapters 1-2._

"Mohegans, Munsees, Manhattans, Metöacs, and other affiliated tribes and bands of Algonquin lineage, inhabited the banks of the Hudson and the islands, bay and seaboard of New York, including Long Island, during the early periods of the rise of the Iroquois Confederacy. … The Mohegans finally retired over the Highlands east of them into the valley of the Housatonic. The Munsees and Nanticokes retired to the Delaware river and reunited with their kindred, the Lenapees, or modern Delawares. The Manhattans, and numerous other bands and sub-tribes melted away under the influence of liquor and died in their tracks."

_H. R. Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, chapter 5._

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"On the basis of a difference in dialect, that portion of the Algonquin Indians which dwelt in New England has been classed in two divisions, one consisting of those who inhabited what is now the State of Maine, nearly up to its western border, the other consisting of the rest of the native population. The Maine Indians may have been some 15,000 in number, or somewhat less than a third of the native population of New England. That portion of them who dwelt furthest towards the east were known by the name of Etetchemins. The Abenaquis, including the Tarratines, hunted on both sides of the Penobscot, and westward as far as the Saco, if not quite to the Piscataqua. The tribes found in the rest of New England were designated by a greater variety of names. The home of the Penacook or Pawtucket Indians was in the southeast corner of what is now New Hampshire and the contiguous region of Massachusetts. Next dwelt the Massachusetts tribe, along the bay of that name. Then were found successively the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, in the southeasterly region of Massachusetts, and by Buzzard's and Narragansett Bays; the Narragansetts, with a tributary race called Nyantics in what is now the western part of the State of Rhode Island; the Pequots, between the Narragansetts and the river formerly called the Pequot River, now the Thames; and the Mohegans, spreading themselves beyond the River Connecticut. In the central region of Massachusetts were the Nipmucks, or Nipnets; and along Cape Cod were the Nausets, who appeared to have owed some fealty to the Pokanokets. The New England Indians exhibited an inferior type of humanity. … Though fleet and agile when excited to some occasional effort, they were found to be incapable of continuous labor. Heavy and phlegmatic, they scarcely wept or smiled."

_J. G. Palfrey, Compendious History of New England, book 1, chapter 3 (volume 1)_.

"The valley of the 'Cahohatatea,' or Mauritius River [i. e., the Hudson River, as now named] at the time Hudson first ascended its waters, was inhabited, chiefly, by two aboriginal races of Algonquin lineage, afterwards known among the English colonists by the generic names of Mohegans and Mincees. The Dutch generally called the Mohegans, Mahicans; and the Mincees, Sanhikans. These two tribes were subdivided into numerous minor bands, each of which had a distinctive name. The tribes on the east side of the river were generally Mohegans; those on the west side, Mincees. They were hereditary enemies. … Long Island, or 'Sewan-hacky,' was occupied by the savage tribe of Metowacks, which was subdivided into various clans. … Staten Island, on the opposite side of the bay, was inhabited by the Monatons. … Inland, to the west, lived the Raritans and the Hackinsacks; while the regions in the vicinity of the well-known 'Highlands,' south of Sandy Hook, were inhabited by a band or sub-tribe called the Nevesincks or Navisinks. … To the south and west, covering the centre of New Jersey, were the Aquamachukes and the Stankekans; while the valley of the Delaware, northward from the Schuylkill, was inhabited by various tribes of the Lenape race. … The island of the Manhattans" was occupied by the tribe which received that name (see MANHATTAN). On the shores of the river, above, dwelt the Tappans, the Weckquaesgeeks, the Sint Sings, "whose chief village was named Ossin-Sing, or 'the Place of Stones,'" the Pachami, the Waorinacks, the Wappingers, and the Waronawankongs. "Further north, and occupying the present counties of Ulster and Greene, were the Minqua clans of Minnesincks, Nanticokes, Mincees, and Delawares. These clans had pressed onward from the upper valley of the Delaware. … They were generally known among the Dutch as the Æsopus Indians."

_J. R Brodhead, History of the State of New York, volume 1, chapter 3_

"The area formerly occupied by the Algonquian family was more extensive than that of any other linguistic stock in North America, their territory reaching from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and from Churchill River of Hudson Bay as far south at least as Pamlico Sound of North Carolina. In the eastern part of this territory was an area occupied by Iroquoian tribes, surrounded on almost all sides by their Algonquian neighbors. On the south the Algonquian tribes were bordered by those of Iroquoian and Siouan (Catawba) stock, on the southwest and west by the Muskhogean and Siouan tribes, and on the northwest by the Kitunahan and the great Athapascan families, while along the coast of Labrador and the eastern shore of Hudson Bay they came in contact with the Eskimo, who were gradually retreating before them to the north. In Newfoundland they encountered the Beothukan family, consisting of but a single tribe. A portion of the Shawnee at some early period had separated from the main body of the tribe in central Tennessee and pushed their way down to the Savannah River in South Carolina, where, known as Savannahs, they carried on destructive wars with the surrounding tribes until about the beginning of the 18th century they were finally driven out and joined the Delaware in the north. Soon afterwards the rest of the tribe was expelled by the Cherokee and Chicasa, who thenceforward claimed all the country stretching north to the Ohio River. The Cheyenne and Arapaho, two allied tribes of this stock, had become separated from their kindred on the north and had forced their way through hostile tribes across the Missouri to the Black Hills country of South Dakota, and more recently into Wyoming and Colorado, thus forming the advance guard of the Algonquian stock in that direction, having the Siouan tribes behind them and those of the Shoshonean family in front. [The following are the] principal tribes: Abnaki, Algonquin, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Conoy, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Kickapoo, Mahican, Massachuset, Menominee, Miami, Micmac, Mohegan, Montagnais, Montauk, Munsee, Nanticoke, Narraganset, Nauset, Nipmuc, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Pamlico, Pennacook, Pequot, Piankishaw, Pottawotomi, Powhatan, Sac, Shawnee, Siksika, Wampanoag, Wappinger. The present number of the Algonquian stock is about 95,600, of whom about 60,000 are in Canada and the remainder in the United States."

_J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, pages 47-48._

ALSO IN _J. W. De Forest, History of the Indians of Connecticut._

_A. Gallatin, Synopsis of the Indian Tribes (Archæologia Americana, volume 2), intro., section 2._

_S. G. Drake, Aboriginal Races of North America, book 2-3._

See, also, below: DELAWARES; HORIKANS; SHAWANESE; SUSQUEHANNAS; OJIBWAS; ILLINOIS.

For the Indian wars of New England,

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1637 (THE PEQUOT WAR); A. D. 1674-1675 to 1676-1678 (KING PHILIP'S WAR).

See, also, PONTIAC'S WAR.

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AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Alibamus, or Alabamas.

See below: MUSKHOOEAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Alleghans, or Allegewi, or Talligewi.

"The oldest tribe of the United States, of which there is a distinct tradition, were the Alleghans. The term is perpetuated in the principal chain of mountains traversing the country. This tribe, at an antique period, had the seat of their power in the Ohio Valley and its confluent streams, which were the sites of their numerous towns and villages. They appear originally to have borne the name of Alli, or Alleg, and hence the names of Talligewi and Allegewi. (Trans. Am. Phi. Society, volume 1.) By adding to the radical of this word the particle 'hany' or 'ghany,' meaning river, they described the principal scene of their residence—namely, the Alleghany, or River of the Alleghans, now called Ohio. The word Ohio is of Iroquois origin, and of a far later period; having been bestowed by them after their conquest of the country, in alliance with the Lenapees, or ancient Delawares. (Phi. Trans.) The term was applied to the entire river, from its confluence with the Mississippi, to its origin in the broad spurs of the Alleghanies, in New York and Pennsylvania. … There are evidences of antique labors in the alluvial plains and valleys of the Scioto, Miami, and Muskingum, the Wabash, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Illinois, denoting that the ancient Alleghans, and their allies and confederates, cultivated the soil, and were semi-agriculturists. These evidences have been traced, at late periods, to the fertile table-lands of Indiana and Michigan. The tribes lived in fixed towns, cultivating extensive fields of the zea-maize; and also, as denoted by recent discoveries, … of some species of beans, vines, and esculents. They were, in truth, the mound builders."

_H. R. Schoolcraft, Information respecting the Indian Tribes, part 5, page 133._

This conclusion, to which Mr. Schoolcraft had arrived, that the ancient Alleghans or Tallegwi were the mound builders of the Ohio Valley is being sustained by later investigators, and seems to have become an accepted opinion among those of highest authority. The Alleghans, moreover, are being identified with the Cherokees of later times, in whom their race, once supposed to be extinct, has apparently survived; while the fact, long suspected, that the Cherokee language is of the Iroquois family is being proved by the latest studies. According to Indian tradition, the Alleghans were driven from their ancient seats, long ago, by a combination against them of the Lenape (Delawares) and the Mengwe (Iroquois). The route of their migrations is being traced by the character of the mounds which they built, and of the remains gathered from the mounds. "The general movement [of retreat before the Iroquois and Lenape] … must have been southward, … and the exit of the Ohio mound-builders was, in all probability, up the Kanawah Valley on the same line that the Cherokees appear to have followed in reaching their historical locality. … If the hypothesis here advanced be correct, it is apparent that the Cherokees entered the immediate valley of the Mississippi from the northwest, striking it in the region of Iowa."

_C. Thomas, The Problem of the Ohio Mounds (Bureau of Ethnology, 1889)._

ALSO IN _C. Thomas, Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States (Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-84)._

_J. Heckewelder, Account of the Indian Nations, chapter 1._

See, below: CHEROKEES, and IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY; also AMERICA, PREHISTORIC.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Amahuacas.

See below: ANDESIANS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Andastés.

See below: SUSQUEHANNAS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Andesians.

"The term Andesians or Antesians, is used with geographical rather than ethnological limits, and embraces a number of tribes. First of these are the Cofan in Equador, east of Chimborazo. They fought valiantly against the Spaniards, and in times past killed many of the missionaries sent among them. Now they are greatly reduced and have become more gentle. The Huamaboya are their near neighbors. The Jivara, west of the river Pastaca, are a warlike tribe, who, possibly through a mixture of Spanish blood, have a European cast of countenance and a beard. The half Christian Napo or Quijo and their peaceful neighbors, the Zaporo, live on the Rio Napo. The Yamco, living on the lower Chambiva and crossing the Marañon, wandering as far as Saryacu, have a clearer complexion. The Pacamora and the Yuguarzongo live on the Maranon, where it leaves its northerly course and bends toward the east. The Cochiquima live on the lower Yavari; the Mayoruna, or Barbudo, on the middle Ucayali beside the Campo and Cochibo, the most terrible of South American Indians; they dwell in the woods between the Tapiche and the Marañon, and like the Jivaro have a beard. The Pano, who formerly dwelt in the territory of Lalaguna, but who now live in villages on the upper Ucayali, are Christians. … Their language is the principal one on the river, and it is shared by seven other tribes called collectively by the missionaries Manioto or Mayno. … Within the woods on the right bank live the Amahuaca and Shacaya. On the north they join the Remo, a powerful tribe who are distinguished from all the others by the custom of tattooing. Outside this Pano linguistic group stand the Campa, Campo, or Antis on the east slope of the Peruvian Cordillera at the source of the Rio Beni and its tributaries. The Chontaquiros, or Piru, now occupy almost entirely the bank of the Ucayali below the Pachilia. The Mojos or Moxos live in the Bolivian province of Moxos with the small tribes of the Baure, Itonama, Pacaguara. A number of smaller tribes belonging to the Antesian group need not be enumerated. The late Professor James Orton described the Indian tribes of the territory between Quito and the river Amazon. The Napo approach the type of the Quichua. … Among all the Indians of the Provincia del Oriente, the tribe of Jivaro is one of the largest. These people are divided into a great number of sub-tribes. All of these speak the clear musical Jivaro language. They are muscular, active men. … The Morona are cannibals in the full sense of the word. … The Campo, still very little known, is perhaps the largest Indian tribe in Eastern Peru, and, according to some, is related to the Inca race, or at least with their successors. They are said to be cannibals, though James Orton does not think this possible. … The nearest neighbors of the Campo are the Chontakiro, or Chontaquiro, or Chonquiro, called also Piru, who, according to Paul Marcoy, are said to be of the same origin with the Campo; but the language is wholly different. … Among the Pano people are the wild Conibo; they are the most interesting, but are passing into extinction."

_The Standard Natural History (J. S. Kingsley, editor), volume 6, pages 227-231._

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AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Apache Group [Footnote: See Note, Appendix E.]

Under the general name of the Apaches "I include all the savage tribes roaming through New Mexico, the north-western portion of Texas, a small part of northern Mexico, and Arizona. … Owing to their roving proclivities and incessant raids they are led first in one direction and then in another. In general terms they may be said to range about as follows: The Comanches, Jetans, or Nauni, consisting of three tribes, the Comanches proper, the Yamparacks, and Tenawas, inhabiting northern Texas, eastern Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Durango, and portions of south-western New Mexico, by language allied to the Shoshone family; the Apaches, who call themselves Shis Inday, or 'men of the woods,' and whose tribal divisions are the Chiricaguis, Coyoteros, Faraones, Gileños, Lipanes, Llaneros, Mescaleros, Mimbreños, Natages, Pelones, Pinaleños, Tejuas, Tontos, and Vaqueros, roaming over New Mexico, Arizona, North-western Texas, Chihuahua and Sonora, and who are allied by language to the great Tinneh family; the Navajos, or Tenuai, 'men,' as they designate themselves, having linguistic affinities with the Apache nation, with which they are sometimes classed, living in and around the Sierra de los Mimbres; the Mojaves, occupying both banks of the Colorado in Mojave Valley; the Hualapais, near the head-waters of Bill Williams Fork; the Yumas, on the east bank of the Colorado, near its junction with the Rio Gila; the Cosninos, who, like the Hualapais, are sometimes included in the Apache nation, ranging through the Mogollon Mountains; and the Yampais, between Bill Williams Fork and the Rio Hassayampa. … The Apache country is probably the most desert of all. … In both mountain and desert the fierce, rapacious Apache, inured from childhood to hunger and thirst, and heat and cold, finds safe retreat. … The Pueblos … are nothing but partially reclaimed Apaches or Comanches."

_H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 1, chapter 5_.

Dr. Brinton prefers the name Yuma for the whole of the Apache Group, confining the name Apache (that being the Yuma word for "fighting men") to the one tribe so called. "It has also been called the Katchan or Cuchan stock."

_D. G. Brinton, The American Race, page 109._

See, also, below: ATHAPASCAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Apalaches.

"Among the aboriginal tribes of the United States perhaps none is more enigmatical than the Apalaches. They are mentioned as an important nation by many of the early French and Spanish travellers and historians, their name is preserved by a bay and river on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and by the great eastern coast range of mountains, and has been applied by ethnologists to a family of cognate nations that found their hunting grounds from the Mississippi to the Atlantic and from the Ohio river to the Florida Keys; yet, strange to say, their own race and place have been but guessed at." The derivation of the name of the Apalaches "has been a 'questio vexata' among Indianologists." We must "consider it an indication of ancient connections with the southern continent, and in itself a pure Carib word. 'Apáliché' in the Tamanaca dialect of the Guaranay stem on the Orinoco signifies 'man,' and the earliest application of the name in the northern continent was as the title of the chief of a country, 'l'homme par excellence,' and hence, like very many other Indian tribes (Apaches, Lenni Lenape, Illinois), his subjects assumed by eminence the proud appellation of 'The Men.' … We have … found that though no general migration took place from the continent southward, nor from the islands northward, yet there was a considerable intercourse in both directions; that not only the natives of the greater and lesser Antilles and Yucatan, but also numbers of the Guaranay stem of the southern continent, the Caribs proper, crossed the Straits of Florida and founded colonies on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico; that their customs and language became to a certain extent grafted upon those of the early possessors of the soil; and to this foreign language the name Apalache belongs. As previously stated, it was used as a generic title, applied to a confederation of many nations at one time under the domination of one chief, whose power probably extended from the Alleghany mountains on the north to the shore of the Gulf; that it included tribes speaking a tongue closely akin to the Choktah is evident from the fragments we have remaining. … The location of the tribe in after years is very uncertain. Dumont placed them in the northern part of what is now Alabama and Georgia, near the mountains that bear their name. That a portion of them did live in this vicinity is corroborated by the historians of South Carolina, who say that Colonel Moore, in 1703, found them 'between the head-waters of the Savannah and Altamaha.' … According to all the Spanish authorities, on the other hand, they dwelt in the region of country between the Suwannee and Appalachicola rivers—yet must not be confounded with the Apalachicolos. … They certainly had a large and prosperous town in this vicinity, said to contain 1,000 warriors. … I am inclined to believe that these were different branches of the same confederacy. … In the beginning of the 18th century they suffered much from the devastations of the English, French and Creeks. … About the time Spain regained possession of the soil, they migrated to the West and settled on the Bayou Rapide of Red River. Here they had a village numbering about 50 souls."

_D. G. Brinton, Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, chapter 2._

See, also, below: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Apelousas.

See TEXAS: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Araicu.

See below: GUCK ON COCO GROUP.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Arapahoes.

See above: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Araucanians.

See CHILE.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Arawaks, or Arauacas.

See below: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Arecunas.

See below: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Arikaras.

See below: PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Arkansas.

See below: SIOUAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Assiniboins.

See below: SIOUAN FAMILY.

AMERICAN ABORIGINES: Athapascan Family. Chippewyans. Tinneh. Sarcees [Footnote: See Note, Appendix E.]