Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, April 16th, 2024
the Third Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Encyclopedias
North American Indians

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
North America
Next Entry
North and South Uist
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

The name of " American Indians " for the aborigines of America had its origin in the use by Columbus, in a letter (February 1493) written "Ameri- soon after the discovery of the New World, of the term Indios (i.e. natives of India) for the hitherto unknown human beings, some of whom he brought back to Europe with him. He believed, as did the people of his age in general, that the islands which he had discovered by sailing westward across the Atlantic were actually a part of India, a mistaken idea which later served to suggest many absurd theories of the origin of the aborigines, their customs, languages, culture, &c. From Spanish the word, with its incorrect connotation, passed into French ( Indien ), Italian and Portuguese (Indio ), German (Indianer ), Dutch (Indiane ), &c. When the New World came to be known as America, the natives received, in English especially, the name " American Indians," to distinguish them from the " Indians " of south-eastern Asia and the East Indies. The appellation " Americans " was for a long time used in English to designate, not the European colonists, but the aborigines, and when, in 1891, Dr D. G. Brinton published his notable monograph on the Indians he entitled it The American Race, recalling the early employment of the term. The awkwardness of such a term as " American Indian," both historically and linguistically, led Major J. W. Powell, the founder of the Bureau of American Ethnology, to put forward as a substitute " Amerind," an arbitrary curtailment which had the advantage of lending itself easily to form words necessary and useful in ethnological writings, e.g. pre-Amerind, post-Amerind, pseudo-Amerind, Amerindish, Amerindize, &c. Purists have objected strenuously to " Amerind," but the word already has a certain vogue in both English and French. Indeed, Professor A. H. Keane does not hesitate, in The World's Peoples (London, 1908), to use " Amerinds " in lieu of " American Indians." Other popular terms for the American Indians, which have more or less currency, are " Red race," " Red men," " Redskins," the last not in such good repute as the corresponding German Rothdute, or French Peaux-rouges, which have scientific standing. The term " American Indians " covers all the aborigines of the New World past and present, so far as is known, although some European writers, especially in France, still seek to separate from the " Redskins " the Aztecs, Mayas, Peruvians, &c., and some American authorities would (anatomically at least) rank the Eskimo as distinct from the Indian proper. When the name " Indian " came to be used by the European colonists and their descendants, they did not confine it to " wild men," but applied it to many things that were wild, strange, nonEuropean in the new environment (see Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore, 1902, pp. 107-116; Handbook of Amer. Inds., 1907, pt. i. pp. 605-607). Thus more than one hundred popular names of plants in use in American English (e.g. " Indian corn," " Indian pink," &c.) contain references to the Indian in this way; also many other things, such as " Indian file," " Indian ladder," " Indian gift," " Indian pudding," " Indian summer." The CanadianFrench, who termed the Indian sauvage (i.e. " savage "), remembered him linguistically in botte sauvage (moccasin), traine sauvage (toboggan). The term " Siwash," in use in the Chinook jargon of the North Pacific coast, and also in the English of that region, for " Indian "is merely a corruption of this CanadianFrench appellation. In the literature relating to the Pacific coast there is mention even of " Siwash Indians." Throughout Canada and the United States the term " Indian " occurs in hundreds of place-names of all sorts (" Indian River," " Indian Head," " Indian Bay," " Indian Hill," and the like). There are besides these Indiana and its capital Indianapolis. In Newfoundland " Red Indian," as the special term for the Beothuks, forms part of a number of place-names. Pope's characterization of the American aborigine, " Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears Him in the wind," is responsible for the creation in the mind of the people of a Mr Lo," who figures in newspaper lore, cartoons, &c. The reputations, deserved and undeserved, of certain Indian tribes north of Mexico have been such that their names have passed into English or into the languages of other civilized nations of Europe as synonyms for " ruffian," " thug," " rowdy," &c. Recently " les Apaches " have been the terror of certain districts of Paris, as were the " Mohocks " (Mohawks) for certain parts of London toward the close of the 18th century.

The North American Indians have been the subject of numerous popular fallacies, some of which have gained world-wide currency. Here belongs a mass of pseudo-scientific and thoroughly unscientific literature embodying absurd and extravagant theories and speculations as to the origin of the aborigines and their " civilizations "which derive them (in most extraordinary ways sometimes), in recent or in remote antiquity, from all regions of the Old World - Egypt and Carthage, Phoenicia and Canaan, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, Assyria and Babylonia, Persia and India, Central Asia and Siberia, China and Tibet, Korea, Japan, the East Indies, Polynesia, Greece and ancient Celtic Europe and even medieval Ireland and Wales. Favourite theories of this sort have made the North American aborigines the descendants of refugees from sunken Atlantis, Tatar warriors, Malayo-Polynesian sea-farers, Hittite immigrants from Syria, the " Lost Ten Tribes of Israel," &c., or attributed their social, religious and political ideas and institutions to the advent of stray junks from Japan, Buddhist votaries from south-eastern Asia, missionaries from early Christian Europe, Norse vikings, Basque fishermen and the like.

Particularly interesting are the theories of " Welsh (or white) Indians " and the " Lost Ten Tribes." The myth of the " Welsh Indians," reputed to be the descendants of a colony founded about A.D. 1170 by Prince Madoc (well known from Southey's poem), has been studied by James Mooney (Amer. Anthrop. iv., 1891, 393-394), who traces its development from statements in an article in The Turkish Spy, published in London about 1730. At first these " Welsh Indians," who are subsequently described as speaking Welsh, possessing Welsh Bibles, beads, crucifixes, &c., are placed near the Atlantic coast and identified with the Tuscaroras, an Iroquoian tribe, but by 1776 they had retreated inland to the banks of the Missouri above St Louis. A few years later they were far up the Red river, continuing, as time went on, to recede farther and farther westward, being identified successively with the Mandans, in whose language Catlin thought he detected a Welsh element, the Mogul., a Pueblos tribe of north-eastern Arizona, and the Modocs (here the name was believed to re-echo Madoc) of south-western Oregon, until at last they vanished over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The theory that the American Indians were the " Lost Ten Tribes of Israel " has not yet entirely disappeared from ethnological literature. Many of the identities and resemblances in ideas, customs and institutions between the American Indians and the ancient Hebrews, half-knowledge or distorted views of which formed the basis of the theory, are discussed, and their real significance pointed out by Colonel Garrick Mallery in his valuable address on " Israelite and Indian: A Parallel in Planes of Culture " ( Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. vol. xxxviii., 1889, pp. 287-331). The whole subject has been discussed by Professor H. W. Henshaw in his " Popular Fallacies respecting the Indians " ( Amer. Anthrop. vol. vii. n.s., 1905, pp. 104-113).

Of ways of classifying the races of mankind and their subdivisions the number is great, but that which measures them by their speech is both ancient and convenient. The multiplicity of languages among the American Indians was one of the first things that struck the earliest investigators of a scientific turn of mind, no less than the missionaries who preceded them. The Abbe Hervas, the first serious student of the primitive tongues of the New World, from the classificatory point of view, noted this multiplicity of languages in his Catalogo delle lingue conosciute e notizia della loro of nitet e diversit¢ (Cesena, 1784); and after him Balbi, Adelung and others. About the same time in America Thomas Jefferson, who besides being a statesman was also a considerable naturalist (see Amer. Anthrop. ix. n.s., 1907, 499-5 0 9), was impressed by the same fact, and in his Notes on the State of Virginia observed that for one " radical language " in Asia there would be found probably twenty in America. Jefferson himself collected and arranged (the MSS. were afterwards lost) the vocabularies of about fifty Indian languages and dialects, and so deserves rank among the forerunners of the modern American school of comparative philologists. After Jefferson came Albert Gallatin, who had been his secretary of the treasury, as a student of American Indian languages in the larger sense. He had also himself collected a number of Indian vocabularies. Gallatin's work is embodied in the well-known " Synopsis of the Indian Tribes within the United States East of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America," published in the Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society (ii. 1-422) for 1836. In this, really the first attempt in America to classify on a linguistic basis the chief Indian tribes of the better-known regions of North America, Gallatin enumerated the following twenty-nine separate divisions: Adaize, Algonkin-Lenape, Athapascas, Atnas, Attacapas, Blackfeet, Caddoes, Catawbas, Chahtas, Cherokees, Chetimachas, Chinooks, Eskimaux, Fall Indians, Iroquois, Kinai, Koulischen, Muskhogee, Natches, Pawnees, Queen Charlotte's Island, Salish, Salmon River (Friendly Village), Shoshonees, Sioux, Straits of Fuca, Utchees, Wakash, Woccons. These do not all represent distinct linguistic stocks, as may be seen by comparison with the list given below; such peoples as the Caddo and Pawnee are now known to belong together, the Blackfeet are Algonkian, the Catawba Siouan, the Adaize Caddoan, the Natchez Muskogian, &c. But the monograph is a very good first attempt at classifying North American Indian languages.

Gallatin's coloured map of the distribution of the Indian tribes in question is also a pioneer piece of work. In 1840 George Bancroft, in the third volume of his History of the Colonization of the United States, discussed the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi, listing the following eight families: Algonquin, Catawba, Cherokee, Huron-Iroquois, Mobilian (Choctaw and Muskhogee), Natchez, Sioux or Dahcota, Uchee. He gives also linguistic map, modified somewhat from that of Gallatin. The next work of great importance in American comparative philology is Horatio Hale's monograph forming the sixth volume (Phila., 1846), Ethnography and Philology, of the publications of the " United States Exploring Expedition, during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1842, under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S. Navy," which added much to our knowledge of the languages of the Indians of the Pacific coast regions. Two years later Gallatin published in the second volume of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society (New York) a monograph entitled " Hale's Indians of North-west America, and Vocabularies of North America," in which he recognized the following additional groups: Arrapahoes, Jakon, Kalapuya, Kitunaha, Lutuami, Palainih, Sahaptin, Saste, Waiilatpu. In 1853 he contributed a brief paper to the third volume of Schoolcraft's Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, adding to the "families" already recognized by him the following: Cumanches, Gros Ventres, Kaskaias, Kiaways, Natchitoches, Towiacks, Ugaljachmutzi. Some modifications in the original list were also made. During the period1853-1877many contributions to the classification of the Indian languages of North America, those of the west and the north-west in particular, were made by Gibbs, Latham, Turner, Buschmann, Hayden, Dall, Powers, Powell and Gatschet. The next important step, and the most scientific, was taken by Major J. W. Powell, who contributed to the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-1886 (Washington, 1891) his classic monograph (pp. 1-142) on " Indian Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico." In 1891 also appeared Dr D. G. Brinton's The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America (New York, p. 392). With these two works the adoption of language as the means of distinction and classification of the American aborigines north of Mexico for scientific purposes became fixed. Powell, using the vocabulary as the test of relationship or difference, enumerated, in the area considered, 58 separate linguistic stocks, or families of speech, each " as distinct from one another in their vocabularies and apparently in their origin as from the Aryan or the Scythian families " (p. 26).

The 58 distinct linguistic stocks of American Indians north of Mexico, recognized by Powell, were as follows: (1) Adaizan; (2) Algonquian; (3) Athapascan; (4) Attacapan; (5) Beothukan; (6) Caddoan; (7) Chimakuan; (8) Chimarikan; (9) Chimmesyan; (io) Chinookan; (r1) Chitimachan; (12) Chumashan; (13) Coahuiltecan; (14) Copehan; (15) Costanoan; (16) Eskimauan; (r7) Esselenian; (18) Iroquoian; (iv) Kalapooian; (20) Karankawan; (21) Keresan; (22) Kiowan; (23) Kitunahan; (24) Koluschan; (25) Kulanapan; (26) Kusan; (27) Lutuamian; (28) Mariposan; (29) Moquelumnan; (30) Muskhogean; (31) Natchesan; (32) Palaihnihan; (33) Piman; (34) Pujunan; (35) Quoratean; (36) Salinan; (37) Salishan; (38) Sastean; (39) Shahaptian; (40) Shoshonean; (41) Siouan; (42) Skittagetan; (43) Takilman; (44) Tanoan; (45) Timuquanan; (46) Tonikan; (47) Tonkawan; (48) Uchean; (49) Waiilatpuan; (50) Wakashan; (51) Washoan; (52) Weitspekan; (53) Wishoskan; (54) Yakonan; (J5) Yanan; (56) Yukian; (S7) Yuman; (58) Zunian.

This has been the working-list of students of American Indian languages, but since its appearance the scientific investigations of Boas, Gatschet, Dorsey, Fletcher, Mooney, Hewitt, Hale, Morice, Henshaw, Hodge, Matthews, Kroeber, Dixon, Goddard, Swanton and others have added much to our knowledge, and not a few serious modifications of Powell's classification have resulted. With Powell's monograph was published a coloured map showing the distribution of all the linguistic stocks of Indians north of Mexico. Of this a revised edition accompanies the Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1907-1910, now the standard book of reference on the subject. The chief modifications made in Powell's list are as follows: The temporary presence in a portion of south-west Florida of a new stock, the Arawakan, is now proved. The Adaizan language has been shown to belong to the Caddoan family; the Natchez to the Muskogian; the Palaihnian to the Shastan; the Piman to the Shoshonian. The nomenclature of Powell's classification has never been completely satisfactory to American philologists, and a movement is now well under way (see Amer. Anthrop. vii. n.s., 1905, 579-593) to improve it. In the present article the writer has adopted some of the suggestions made by a committee of the American Anthropological Society in 1907, covering several of the points in question.

Stock.

Area.

Earliest Home

Tribes, &c.

Population.

I. ALGONKIAN.

Most of N. and E.

North America,

between lat. 35°

N. of the St

Lawrence

and E. of

Some 50-60,

with many

minor

About 90,000,

of which

some50,000

and S5°; centred

in the region of

the Great Lakes

and Hudson's

LakeOntario

(Brinton);

N.W. of the

Great Lakes

groups.

in Canada.

Bay.

(Thomas).

2. ARAWAKAN.

Within the terri-

Central South

Small colony

Extinct about

tory of the Calu-

s as in S.W.

America.

from Cuba.

end of 16th

century.

Florida.

3. ATAKAPAN.

In part of S.W.

Somewhere in

2.

Practically

Louisiana and

E. or N.E.

extinct; in

N.E. Texas.

Texas.

1885 4 indi-

viduals liv-

ing in

Louisiana,

and 5 in

Texas.

4.ATHABASKAN.

Interior of Alaska

and Canada; W.

Interior of

Alaska or

Some 5 o,

withnumer

About 54,000,

of which

of Hudson's Bay

N.W. Can-

ous minor

some 20,000

and N. of the

ada.

groups.

in Canada.

Algonkian; also

represented in

Oregon, Cali-

fornia, Arizona,

New Mexico,

Texas, and

northern Mexico.

5. BEOTHUKAN.

Newfoundland.

Some part of

Newfound-

land or Lab-

rador.

Local settle-

mentsonly,

Extinct; last

representa-

tive died in

1829.

6. CADDOAN.

Country between

the Arkansas and

Colorado rivers

in Louisiana,

Texas, &c., par-

ticularly on the

On the lower

Red River,

or, perhaps,

somewhere

to the S.W.

Some 12-15.

About 2000.

Red River and its

affluents; later

also in Kansas,

Nebraska, Da-

kota, and Okla-

homa.

7. CHEMAKUAN.

On the N.W. shore

of Puget Sound,

Washington; also

on Pacific coast,

near Cape Flat-

tery.

Some part of

N.W. Wash-

ington.

2.

About zoo.

8. CHIMARIKAN.

III N. California,

on Trinity river,

N.W. of the

Copehan.

Somewhere in

N.California.

a.

Practically

extinct; in

1903 only 9

individu a I s

reported

living.

9. CHINOOKAN.

On the 1 ow e r

N. of the Col-

Some to or

About 300.

Columbia river,

from the Cascades

to the Pacific

umbia, in W.

Washington.

12 with nu-

merous vil-

lages.

Ocean; on the

coast, N. to Shoal-

water Bay and S.

to 'Tillamook

Head,inWashing-

ton and Oregon.

IO.CHITIMACHAN.

Part of S.E. Louisi-

Region of

I.

Nearly ex-

ana.

Grand Lake

and river,

Louisiana.

tinct; in 1881

only So indi-

viduals sur-

viving.

II. CHUMASHAN.

In S.W. California,

S. of the Salinan

Somewhere in

S. W. Cali-

7 or more

dialects .

Nearly ex-

tinct; only

and Mariposan;

fornia.

with many

15-20 indi-

in the basins of

small settle-

viduals still

the Sta Maria,

Sta Inez, lower

ments.

living.

Sta Clara, &c., on

the coast, and the

northernSta.

Barbara Islands.

12. COPEHAN

In central N. Cali-

Somewhere in

2 chief di-

About 130 at

(Wintun).

fornia, W. of the

N.California.

visions,with

various vil-

Pujunan; W. of

many small

lages, and

the Coast range,

from San Pablo

and Suisun Bays

N. to Mount

settlements.

as many on

Round Val-

ley Reserva-

tion.

Shasta.

13. COSTANOAN.

In the coast region

Somewhere in

No true

Nearly ex-

of central Cali-

central Cali-

tribes, but

tinct; only

fornia, N. of the

fornia.

15-20 settle-

25 or 30 indi-

Salinan; from

about San Fran-

cisco S. to Point

ments.

viduals still

living.

Sur and Big

Panoche Creek,

Stock.

Area.

Earliest Home.

Tribes, &c.

Population.

and from the

Pacific Ocean to

the San Joaquin

river.

14. ESKIMOAN.

Greenlandandsome

of the Arctic

Interior of

Alaska

9 well-

marked

About 28,000,

of which

islands, the whole

northern coast N.

(Rink); in

the region

g r o u p s,

with 60-70

there are

in Green-

of the Alonkian

W. of Hud-

"set t 1 e-

land I I,000

and Athabaskan,

from the straits of

Belle Isle to the

son's Bay

(Boas); pre-

ferably the

ments,"

&c.

Alas k a

1 3, 0 0 0 ,

Canada

endoftheAleutian

latter.

4500, and

Islands; also in

extreme N.E.

Asia 1200.

Asia W. to the

Anadyr river; in

E. North America

in earlier times

possibly consider-

ablyfarthersouth.

15. ESSELENIAN.

On the coast of W.

Somewhere in

Many small

Extinct; last

California, S. of

W. or central

settlements.

speaker of

Monterey, N. of

the Salinan.

California.

language

died about

1890.

16. HAIDAN(Skit-

tagetan).

The Queen Char-

lotte Islands, off

Interior of

Alaska or

2 dialects;

about 25

About 900,

of which

the N.W. coast

N.W. Can-

c hi e f

300 are in

of British Colum-

bia, and part of

the Prince of

Wales Archi-

pelago, Alaska.

ada.

" towns,"

and many

minor set-

tlements.

Alaska.

17. IROQUOIAN.

The region about

Lakes Erie and

Somewhere be-

tween the

Some Ischief

tribes with

About 40,000,

of which

Ontario (Ontario,

New York, Penn-

sylvania, Ohio,

&c.),and on both

lower St

L a wren ce

and Hub-

son's Bay

many minor

subdivisions,

Io,000 are

in Canada;

of those in

the United

banks of the St

Lawrence, on the

(Brinton,

Hale); in S.

States 28,000

are Chero-

N. to beyond the

Ohio and

kee.

Saguenay, on the

Kentucky

S. to Gaspe; also

represented in the

(B o y 1 e ,

Thomas).

S.E.United States

by the Tuscarora,

Cherokee, &c.

(now chiefly in

Oklahoma).

18. KALAPUYAN.

In N.W. Oregon,

in the valley of

Somewhere in

N.W. Ore-

About 15-18,

withminor

Only some

140 indi-

the Willamette,

above the Falls.

gon.

divisions.

viduals still

living.

19. KARANKAWAN.

On the Texas coast,

from Galveston to

Somewhere in

S. Texas.

5-6, with

minor divi-

Extinct prob-

ably in 1858;

Padre Island.

sions.

a few sur-

vived later,

possibly, in

Mexico.

20. KERESAN.

In N. central New

Somewhere in

17 "villages"

3990, in 6

Mexico, on the

the New

(pueblos);

pueblos

Rio Grande and

Mexico-

earliermore.

(some 150

its tributaries- the

Jemez, San Jose,

&c.

Arizona

region.

at Isleta).

21. KIOWAN.

On the upper Ark-

At the foot of

I.

1219 in Okla-

ansas and Can-

adian rivers, in

Colorado, Kansas,

Oklahoma, &c.;

formerly on the

head-waters of

the Platte, and

still earlier on the

upper Yellowstone

and Missouri, in

the Rocky

Mountain s

i n S. W.

Montana.

homa.

S.W. Montana.

22. KITUNAHAN.

In S.E. British Col-

Somewhere E.

2 chief divi-

About IIoo;

umbia, N. Idaho,

and part of N.W.

of the Rocky

Mountains in

sions and 3

others.

half in

Canada and

Montana.

Montana or

half in the

Alberta.

United

States.

23. KOLUSCHAN

On the coast and

Somewhere in

Some 12-15.

About 2000.

(Tlingit).

adjacent islands

of S. Alaska, from

55° to 60° N. lat.;

also some in

the interior

of A l a s k a

o r N. W.

Canada.

Canada.

24. KULANAPAN

On the coast in

Somewhere in

About 30

About 1000.

(Pomo).

N.W. California

N.W. Cali-

local divi-

(Sonoma, Lake

and Mendocino

counties), W. of

the Yukian.

fornia.

sions, &c.;

no true

tribes.

25. KUSAN.

On the coast of

Somewhere in-

4, earlier

About 50.

central Oregon,

on Coos Bay and

I and from

Coos Bay,

Cregon.

more.

Stock.

Area.

Earliest Home.

Tribes, &c.

Population.

Coos and Coquille

rivers, S. of the

Yakonan; now

mostly on Siletz

Reservation.

26. LUTUAMIAN

(Klamath).

In the region of the

Klamath and Tule

In S. Oregon,

N. of the

2, with local

subdivisions.

1034; of these

7 5 5 K I a-

lakes, Lost and

K1 a math

math, and

Sprague rivers,

&c., in Oregon

(chiefly) and N.E.

lakes.

279 Modoc

(56 in Okla-

homa).

California; now

on Klamath Re-

servation, Oregon,

with a few also in

Oklahoma.

27. MARIPOSAN

In S. central Cali-

Somewhere in

3 0-40 groups

About 150, at

(Yokuts).

fornia, in the

central Cali-

with special

Tule river

valley of the San

Joaquin, on the

fornia.

dialects.

reservation,

&c.

Tule, Kaweah,

King's rivers,&c.;

E. of the Salinan,

S. of the Moque-

lumnan.

28.MOQUELUMNAN

In central Cali-

Somewhere in

7 dialects, no

Several hun-

(Miwok).

fornia, in three

central Cali-

true tribes;

dred; much

sections: the main

area on the W.

slope of the Sier-

ras, from the Cos-

umnes river on

the N. to the

fornia.

about 20

local groups

with numer-

ous minor

ones.

scattered.

Fresno on the S.;

a second on the

N. shore of San

Francisco B a y,

and a third (small)

S. of Clear Lake

on the head-waters

of Putah Creek.

29. MUSKOGIAN

(Muskhogean).

In the Gulf States,

E. of the Missis-

Somewhere

W. of the

A. bout 12,

with many

About 40,000;

of t h es e

sippi,most of Mis-

lower Missis-

minor divi-

38,000 in

sissippi, Alabama

and Georgia,part

of Tennessee, S.

Carolina, Florida

and Louisiana;

now mostly in

sippi.

sions.

Oklahoma,

t0001n Mis-

sissippi, 350

in Florida,

and a few in

Louisiana.

Oklahoma.

30. PAKAWAN

On both banks of

Some part of

20-25, some

Practically

(Coahuiltecan).

the Rio Grande

in Texas and

N.E. Mexico.

very small.

extinct; in

1886 about

Mexico, from its

mouth to beyond

Laredo; at one

t?me possibly E.

to Antonio, and

W. to the Sierra

30 individu-

als still liv-

ing, mostly

on the

M ex i c a n

side of the

Madre.

Rio Grande.

31. PUJuNAN

(Maidu).

In N.E. California,

E. of the Sacra-

mento river, be-

tween the Shastan

and Moquel-

umnan.

N.E. C a l i-

fornia.

No t r u e

t r i b e s;

several

larger and

very many

smaller loc-

al divisions,

" villages, "

About 250

full-bloods.

&c.

32. QUORATEAN

In extreme N.W.

Somewhere in

Many "vil-

In 1889 some

(Karok).

California, on the

Klamath river,

&c.; W. of the

Shastan.

N.California.

lages," &c.

600; much

reduced

since; pos-

sibly 300.

33. SAHAPTIAN.

In the region of

the Columbia and

its tributaries, in

parts of Washing-

ton, Idaho and

Somewhere in

the region of

theColumbia,

or farther N.

5-7.

About 4200.

Oregon; between

lat. 44° and 470,

and from the Cas-

cades to the Bitter

Root Mountains.

34. SALINAN.

On the Pacific coast

Somewhere in

2 or 3 larger

Practically

of S. W. California,

from above S.

S. W. C a 1 i-

fornia.

divisions;

n o true

extinct; in

1884 only

Antonio, to below

S. Louis Obispo;

W. of the Mari-

posan.

tribes.

10-12 indi-

v i d u a 1 s

living.

35. SALISHAN.

A large part of S.

British Columbia

and Washington,

with parts of

Central or N.

British Col-

umbia.

Some 60-65,

of which a

number are

merelylocal

About 15,000

in Canada,

and some

6300 in

Idaho and Mon-

tans; also part of

divisions.

the United

States.

Vancouverlsland,

and outliers in N.

British Columbia

(Bilqula), and

S.W. Oregon.

Stock.

Area.

Earliest Home.

Tribes, &c.

Population.

36. SHASTAN.

In N. California

In N. Cali-

6 or more

Less than 40

and S. Oregon, in

fornia or

linguistic

Shasta full-

the basins of the

Pit and Klamath

rivers, on Rogue

river and to be-

yond the Siskiyou

Oregon.

divisions.

bloods;

some 1200

Achomawi.

Mountains; S. of

the Lutuamian.

37. SHOSHONIAN.

In the W. part of

Foot-hills and

Somer2-r51n

In the United

the United States;

plains E. of

the United

States, some

most of the

the Rock y

S t a t es;

24,000.

country between

Mountains in

many more

lat. 35° and 45°

and long.105° and

N.W. United

States or

in Mexico,

ancient and

120°, with exten-

sions N., S., and

S.E. outside this

area; represented

also in California,

and in Mexico

by the Piman,

Sonoran and Na-

huatlan tribes.

Canada, but

residence

in P1 a t eau

region long-

continued.

modern.

38. SIOUAN.

In the basin of the

In the Caro-

Some 20

About 38,000;

Missouri and the

lina - Virginia

large and

of w hi c h

upperMississippi;

region.

many minor

some 1400

from about N.

lat. 33° to 53° and,

at the broadest,

from 89° to Ito°

ones.

in Canada.

W. long.; also

represented in

Wisconsin (Win-

nebago), Louisi-

ana,the Carolinas,

and Virginia

(formerly).

39. TAKELMAN.

In S. W. Oregon,

in the middle

valley of Rogue

river, on the upper

Rogue, and to

about the Cali-

fornia line or

beyond.

In some part

of S. Oregon.

2.

Practically

extinct;

perhaps 6

speakers of

the language

alive.

40. TANOAN.

In New Mexico, on

Some part of

Some 14-15

About 4200

the Rio Grande,

&c., from lat. 33°

to 36°; also a

settlement with the

New Mexico.

pueblos.

in 12 pueb-

los.

Moqui in N.E.

Arizona, and

another on the

Rio Grande at the

boundary line,

partly in Mexico.

41. 'I'IMUQuAN.

In Florida, from the

Some part of

Some 60 or

Extinct in

N. border and the

Florida.

more settle-

18th cen-

Ocilla river to

ments.

tury.

Lake Okeecho-

bee, perhaps

farther N. and S.

42. TONIKAN.

In part of E. Louisi-

Somewhere in

3.

Practically

ana and part of

the Louisi-

extinct; i n

Mississippi; in

ana - Missis-

1886 some

Avoyelles parish,

La., &c.

sippi region.

25 indivi-

duals living

at Marks-

ville, La.

43. TONKAWAN.

In S. E. Texas,

N.W. of the

Somewhere in

S. or W.

a.

Nearly ex-

tinct; in

Karankawan;

remnants now in

Oklahoma.

Texas.

18840nly78

individuals

living; in

2905 but 47,

with Pon-

k a s, in

Oklahoma.

44. TSIMSHIAN

In N.W. British

On the head-

3 main and

About 3200

(Chimmesyan).

Columbia, on the

Nass and Skeena

waters of the

Skeena river.

se v e r a 1

minor divi-

in Canada,

and 950 in

rivers, and the

adjacent islands

and coast S. to

sions.

Alaska.

Millbank Sound;

also (since 1887)

on Annette Island,

Alaska.

4 5. WAILATPUAN.

A western section

In Oregon, S.

2.

Language

(Molala) in the

of the Colum-

practically

Cascade region

between Mounts

bia river.

extinct; 405

Cayuse (in

Hood and Scott,

in Washington

and Oregon; an

eastern (Cayuse)

on the head-

waters of the

Wallawalla, Uma-

tilla and Grande

1888 only 6

spoke their

mother

tongue) are

still living;

i n 1881

about 20

Molalas.

Ronde rivers.

Bibliography Information
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'North American Indians'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​n/north-american-indians.html. 1910.
adsFree icon
Ads FreeProfile

Stock.

Area.

Earliest Home.

Tribes, &c.

Population.

46. WAKASHAN

Most of Vancouver

Somewhere in

3 main divi-

4765,ofwhich

(Kwakiutl-

Island (except

the interior

sions, with

435 are in

Nootka).

some 3 of the E.

of British

more than

the United

coast) and most

of the coast of

Columbia.

so" tribes."

States.

British Columbia

from Gardner

channel to Cape

Mudge; also part

of extreme N.W.

Washington.

47.

In E. central Cali-

In N.W. Ne-

I.

About zoo, in

fornia and the ad-

joining part of

Nevada, in the

region of Lake

vada.

the region

of Carson,

Reno, &c.

Tahoe and the

lower Carson

valley.

48. WEITSPEKAN

(Yurok).

In N.W. California,

W. of the Quo-

In N. Cali-

fornia or S.

6 divisions;

no true

A few hun-

dreds; in

ratean.

Oregon.

tribes.

1870 esti-

mated at

2000 or

more.

49. WISHOSKAN

(Wiyot).

In N.W. California,

in the coast

region, S. of the

I n N. C a I i-

fornia.

3-5 divisions;

no true

tribes.

Nearly ex-

tinct.

Weitspekan.

50. YAKONAN.

In W. Oregon, in

W. c en t r al

4 chief divi-

About30o,on

the coast region

and on the rivers

Oregon.

sions, with

numerous

the Siletz

Reserva-

from the Yaquina

to the Umpqua.

villages.

tion.

51.

In central N. Cali-

So m e w h e r e

a.

Practically

fornia in the region

of Round Moun-

tain, &c., S. of

the Shastan.

farther E.

extinct; in

1884hut 35

individuals

living.

YUCHIAN.

In E. Georgia, on

the Savannah

Somewhere E.

of the Chata-

1.

About Soo,

with Creeks

river from above

Augusta down to

the Ogeechee, and

also on Chatahoo-

chee river; rem-

nants now in

hoochee.

in O k I a-

homa.

Oklahoma.

YUKIAN.

In N.W. California,

E.of the Copehan,

with a N. and a

N. or central

California.

divisions;

no true

tribes.

About 25u.

S. section; in the

Round Valley

region.