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American Indian
or Native American
totem poles Member of one of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas; the Arctic peoples (Inuit and Aleut) are often included, especially by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the US Department of the Interior, responsible for overseeing policy on US American Indian life, their reservations, education, and social welfare. The first American Indians arrived during the last ice age, approximately 20,00030,000 years ago, passing from northeastern Siberia into Alaska over a land-bridge across the Bering Strait. The earliest reliably dated archaeological sites in North America are about 13,00014,000 years old. In South America they are generally dated at about 12,00013,000 years old, but discoveries made in 1989 suggest an even earlier date, perhaps 35,00040,000 years ago. There are about 1.9 million (1995) American Indians in the USA and Canada. Lifestyle Hunting, fishing, and moving camp throughout the Americas, the migrants inhabited both continents and settled all the ecological zones, from the tropical to the frozen, including woodlands, deserts, plains, mountains, and river valleys. As they specialized, many kinds of societies evolved, speaking many languages. Traditionally, American Indians were agriculturalists and were the first cultivators of maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes, manioc, peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, cacao, and chilli. They also grew tobacco, coca, peyote, and cinchona (the sources of nicotine, cocaine, mescaline, and quinine respectively). Almost everything necessary for everyday life was made from local materials. The bison on the Plains, the trees of the northwest coast, and the animals of the Arctic provided ample raw materials for tools, clothing, and ceremonial objects. Trade networks also existed between American Indians, and between American Indians and Europeans for European goods. Erosion of culture Adoption of white ways has been the dominant process since American Indians were first contacted by Europeans in the early 1500s. Initially this involved simply borrowing cultural traits through trade and by living in close proximity. Unceasing missionary activity led to the adoption of Christianity by most American Indians, and the destruction of traditional ways of living caused by forced migration, the disappearance of the buffalo, and

The American West Exploration: The Age of Discovery

Aadijookaanag, Dibaajimowin: Traditional and True Native American Stories First Nations Histories History of the Northwest Coast Native American Maps Oral Narratives and Aboriginal Pasts: An Interdisciplinary Review of the Literatures on Oral Traditions and Oral Histories Relations Between the USA and Native Americans Role of the Indians in the Conflict between France, Spain, and

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relocation onto reservations, led to a dependence on whites. Many programmes of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 19th and early 20th centuries were aimed at assimilation, which fostered the loss of American Indian cultures. These programmes, were, however, accompanied by a growing American Indian identity centred on tribal symbols, forms of religious belief, music, dance, and selected items of dress. Except perhaps for those American Indians living in the far north, all American Indian communities are composed of genetically mixed peoples. Intermixture with Europeans, blacks, and other American Indians has been taking place since colonial times. American Indian groups range in size from over 100,000 to fewer than 100. In total they number about 1.9 million (1995) in the USA and Canada, and about half live on or near reservations, with the rest living within the general population. Native South Americans In South America the American Indians were massacred by the Spanish, died from introduced diseases and serious famines, and were forced to work as slaves in Spanish mines. Interbreeding with the Spanish produced a mestizo population. In Brazil, the modern population is the result of interbreeding between American Indians, Portuguese immigrants, and slaves imported from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. In the 19th century many of the remaining indigenous people were decimated by disease and had their land expropriated for huge cattle ranches. Languages There are 175 American Indian languages still spoken, and although about half of the American Indian population still speak their native language in addition to English, only about 20 of the languages are being passed along to the next generation. One-third of American Indian languages have fewer than 100 speakers. In 1990 the US Congress passed the Native American Languages Act to encourage states to make exceptions to teacher certification requirements so tribal elders can teach their languages in public schools. Several southwestern universities offer courses in American Indian languages. Cherokee, Cree, Creek, Crow, Navajo, Ojibwa, and Lakota Sioux have their own orthographies. There are about 60 American Indian language families, although these are customarily classified into seven major groupings reflecting historical relationships: Hokan spoken by the Maricopa, Mohave, Pomo, and Quechan;

England, 1761 Treaty of Greenville, 1795

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Macro-Algonquian that includes Algonquian languages spoken by the Chippewa, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Kickapoo, Natchez, Shawnee, Arapaho, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Mohican, Menominee, Miami, Mohegan, Sauk, and Shawnee, and Muskogean languages spoken by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole; Penutian spoken by, among others, the Cayuse, Klamath, Modoc, Yakima, Zuni, Chinook, Nez Perc, Tsimshian and Maidu; AztecTanoan which includes Kiowan-Tanoan languages spoken by the Kiowa, and Tewa, and the Uto-Aztecan languages spoken by the Comanche, Hopi, Paiute, Pima, Yaqui, Shoshone, and Ute; NaDene spoken by, among others, Tlingit, Haida, and Athabaskan languages spoken by the Carrier, Navajo, Apache, Hupa, and Jicarilla; Macro-Siouan, which includes the Caddoan languages spoken by the Pawnee, the Siouan languages spoken by the Crow, Omaha, and Sioux, and the Iroquoian spoken by the Erie, Mohawk, Huron, Oneida, Cherokee, Tuscarora, and Seneca; ArcticPalaeosiberian spoken by the Aleut, and Inuit. Salish and the Wakashan language Kwakiutl are unclassified into the larger groupings. Distribution Canada There is a population of 300,000, including the Inuit; the largest group is the Six Nations (Iroquois), with a reserve near Brantford, Ontario, of 7,000. They are organized in the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada. USA There are 1.6 million, almost 900,000 (including Inuit and Aleuts) living on or near reservations, mainly in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah (where the Navajo have the largest of all reservations), Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Washington, and North and South Dakota. Nearly half live in Oklahoma, Arizona, and California. The large population in Oklahoma is due to eastern tribes being deported there beginning in the 1830s. Arizona's large population is due largely to the relative isolation and the rapid growth of the Navajo tribes who numbered about 9,000 in 1600. Reservations were never created in California and much of its population of American Indians is due to migration from reservations further east to the cities. Latin America The population includes many mestizo (having some Spanish ancestry), of whom 6 million (half the population) are in Bolivia and Peru. Since the 1960s they have increasingly stressed their American Indian inheritance in terms of language and culture. The

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environment of the few American Indians formerly beyond white contact is being destroyed by the clearing and industrialization of the Amazon Basin. Culture areas American Indian cultures are generally categorized into nine geographic areas with common cultural traits. Northeast American Indians living in the deciduous woodlands between the Atlantic Ocean and Mississippi River north of Virginia and Kentucky were primarily farmers, cultivating maize, squash, and beans heavily supplemented with hunting and gathering. They lived in semi-permanent villages which were often pallisaded for protection. The forest provided most of their material needs, including wood for their longhouses, and dugout and birch-bark canoes; animals provided skins for clothing. Their communities were hierarchically organized and they had an elaborate system of names and titles with mythological genealogies to validate the claims of rich and powerful chiefs. Most tribes spoke either Algonquian or Iroquoian languages. Southeast From the Atlantic to eastern Texas, and south of Virginia and Kentucky, American Indians were primarily cultivators of maize, pumpkins, beans, tobacco, and other crops. They lived in villages, often stockaded and fortified, along waterways. Each village, which was almost a tribe in itself, consisted of mud-covered houses encircling a central square containing religious buildings. The Muskogean language family dominated. Plains Extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi Valley, and from Texas and Oklahoma to Canada, the Great Plains were sparsely populated until about 1750. Agriculture was seasonally alternated with buffalo hunting. Horses, introduced by the Spanish about 1600, and guns, introduced about the same time, revolutionized buffalo hunting. Agriculture was abandoned for an entirely new way of life. The buffalo provided the basis of every aspect of life. Bands, organized into seasonal buffalo hunts, lived in tepees and engaged in warfare and raiding. Plains Indian men acquired status through exhibiting bravery in warfare, scalping their enemies, and stealing their horses. The sun dance, practised by most tribes, was the most important religious ceremony. Southwest

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In the desert areas of New Mexico and Arizona, three types of culture existed. In Pueblos, farmers such as the Hopi and Zuni lived in villages along rivers with a history going back more than 1,000 years. In the same areas the Navajo and Apache were nomadic hunters using horses. The Papago and Pima are hunters and gatherers, known for their baskets. Northwest The Native Americas living on the Pacific coast of America, north from Oregon to Alaska depended for their survival on salmon supplemented by marine mammals and, to a lesser extent, land mammals. They lived in permanent, hierarchically organized communities, and were well known for the potlatch ceremony. The forests were used to build wooden houses and canoes. So rich were the resources in the area that the various tribes had the highest population density on the continent and produced the most highly developed art style of North America. Great Basin Covering a large area centring on Nevada and Utah, American Indians inhabiting the Great Basin were primarily Shoshoneanspeaking nomadic hunter-gatherers. In the 18th and 19th centuries many groups acquired horses and adopted characteristics typical of the Plains Indians. Plateau The plateau region between the Rocky Mountains and the coastal mountains was inhabited by small bands of hunter-gatherers; roots, berries, vegetables, and small animals, forming the staple diet. Those living along the Fraser and Columbia rivers subsisted on salmon. California The complex geography of the area west of the Sierra Nevada, resulted in a diversity of small bands, subsisting primarily on hunting and gathering. Acorns, which were leached to make a flour, provided the staple for many groups, while those along the rivers lived on salmon. The reservation system was never introduced in California and today many American Indians live in the major cities. Arctic The Inuit and Aleut people inhabit a vast area stretching from the Aleutian Islands in the west to Labrador and Greenland in the east. Small nomadic bands fished and hunted caribou and musk oxen in the summer and seals and walruses in winter. Tents were used in the summer, while earth or ice igloos were the winter dwelling

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places. For transport in summer the open umiak and closed kayaks were used on water, while in winter the dog sledge was used on ice. Religion Over 400 years of missionary activity has been successful in converting most American Indians to Christianity. Many, however, also participate in one of the American Indian religions that have emerged since European contact, especially the Native American Church which spread from Mexico to many Plains Indians and midwest groups in the 19th century. It combines Christian ritual with the taking of the hallucinogenic peyote. Other religions, such as the Drum and Dance cult practised in the midwest, combine elements from more traditional religions. Native religions have been maintained by some groups such as the Hopi, Navajo, and Sioux. History Lithic period The archaeology of the American Indians can be divided into three phases: the first, the Lithic, took place in the southwest between 15000 and 5000 BC. The oldest documented American Indian cultures in North America are Clovis (12000 BC) and Folsom (8000 BC). Clovis culture (named after Clovis, New Mexico, where their artefacts were first found) made pressure-flaked fluted projectile points as well as scrapers and other tools. Folsom cultures (named after Folsom, New Mexico) were characterized by lance-shaped projectile points. People of the Clovis and Folsom cultures are associated with kill sites of the large herbivores of the grasslands: the elephant, mammoth, horse, and tapir, which they may have hunted to extinction. (climatic changes may also have contributed to their extinction.) Medium-sized game such as deer, bison, caribou, and sheep, which reproduce more quickly, continued to be hunted in large numbers and there is evidence that wild plants were also gathered as food. Hunting methods involved driving animals into swamps or over cliffs. More diversified, regional cultures based on collecting and hunting but who also used copper, have also been identified after 4000 BC (for example the Archaic of the East Woodlands and the Desert Culture of the southwest). Archaic period The Archaic period, which lasted until 1500 BC and spread over most of North America, was characterized by a change from a hunting and gathering economy to an agricultural one. Greater use was made of tools for the preparation of vegetable foods. During this period American Indians began to diversify socially,

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economically, and linguistically. Trading relationships across the continent were also established. Early agriculturalists More elaborate societies existed in the third period. Pottery-making, farming, and the burial of the dead in elaborate mounds all feature in this period in the Kentucky-Ohio area (see Moundbuilders). At the same time as the cultures of Ohio were reaching their apogee in the southeast the Pueblo cultures were being established in the forms that still exist today. The first farming cultures, discovered at Bat Cave, New Mexico (3900 BC), grew maize as well as gathered plants. Maize agriculture spread slowly through the southwest. It was not until 250 BC that farming villages of Cochise culture (named after Cochise County, Arizona) are found and it is from these and certain Mexican influences that Mogollon, Hohokam, and Basketmaker-Pueblo (Anasazi) cultures derive. These groups practised irrigation and developed sophisticated socio-political organizations and rituals. Snaketown was the largest Hohokam ceremonial centre, having a Mexican flavour with its temple rounds and ball courts. It was the centre of a large irrigation project based on the Gila River. The Anasazi towns of AD 900 had plazas, and the magnificent 13th-century cities of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon with their large kiva (ceremonial buildings) represent the prehistoric climax of the southwest. In the eastern woodlands and Mississippi Valley, village farming did not begin until 1000 BC, and at Fort Center (Florida) maize was grown in drained fields. The Hopewell culture of the Ohio Valley (300 BCAD 200) was an advanced Mexican-influenced society which built temple mounds, effigy earthworks, and large burial platforms, and which engaged in long-distance trade throughout the continent. The Mississippi Culture (6001500 AD) developed from Hopewell and included large ceremonial-temple towns such as Cahokia, Illinois. This was based on an advanced maize-farming system. European contact Prior to contact with Europeans, most American Indians were primarily farmers and fishermen and lived in permanent villages. The majority lived in the east with a relatively high population density. In 1600 there were an estimated 1 million American Indians in North America north of present-day Mexico. Relations were generally peaceful with the colonists, but the Europeans brought diseases with them (influenza, the common cold, smallpox, tuberculosis, and venereal disease) that decimated American Indian populations which continued to decline until 1900, when just under 250,000 were recorded in the USA. Their populations have

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continued to increase since then. The fur trade In the early 17th century, European colonists traded with many American Indians for beaver pelts and other furs. The most important trade items were blankets, beads, iron and copper, and guns and gunpowder. The guns allowed some groups, especially the Iroquois and Chippewa, to dominate others. As furs became scarce they expanded their ranges forcing other tribes westward and southward. Westward expansion These tribes in turn displaced others and there was a gradual movement, beginning about the mid-18th century, of many tribes, especially those living around the Great Lakes, into the western plains. This was facilitated by the horse which was introduced by the Spanish about 1600. The horse allowed them to exploit the vast herds of buffalo and they adapted to an entirely new way of life based on hunting. The traditional image of American Indians on horseback and living in tepees is thus relatively recent. Dispossession and civilization The first French settlers were primarily interested in trade, while the English were more interested in land, which, for the most part, they either purchased or obtained through treaty. As the colonial settlements expanded into American Indian territory, however, conflicts arose. By the beginning of the American Revolution most American Indian nations east of the Appalachians had given up much of their land. In many ways the Revolution was a watershed since many American Indian nations took sides during the war and felt the repercussions afterwards. The Cherokee, for example, were required to cede much of their territory. The USA initially began purchasing their lands in preference to forcible removal and was concerned primarily with integrating them into the US economic system. Treaties of this early period were largely concerned with 'civilizing' the American Indians by introducing them to European systems of trade, establishing formal tribal governments, and encouraging the adoption of the white man's language and customs. Removal A population explosion among whites in the early 1800s, however, created pressure to move native tribes from the east. The US government thus adopted a policy of exchanging American Indian lands in the east for unsettled lands west of the Mississippi. In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which authorized the removal, forcible if necessary, of American Indians from their territories in the east to land set aside for them in Indian

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Territory (Oklahoma). The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), established 11 March 1824, attempted to ease the transition with an often inadequate supply of government food, blankets, and provisions. Many historians consider this a paternalistic policy. Nations like the Cherokee of Georgia were the hardest hit by the new policy and their forcible removal from 1838 to 1839, in which one quarter of them died, is known as the Trail of Tears. Today 90% of Native North Americans live west of the Mississippi. Settlement The discovery of gold in California in 1848 led to a massive white migration westwards and the killing of much of the game the American Indians survived on, and many bloody skirmishes followed between 1850 and 1880. Throughout this time the US government maintained its policy of settling them on reservations. After the virtual disappearance of the buffalo in the 1880s, almost all American Indians had settled on reservations. Having lost their economic self-sufficiency and political independence, they became dependent upon the US government. Allotment After the US Civil War, whites began to populate the West in ever increasing numbers placing pressure on the government to reduce the size of reservation lands previously guaranteed by treaty. Other reformers, seeking a way to reduce the federal burden and a solution to the 'Indian problem' of dependency, pressured for a policy of absorption into white society. In 1887 Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act which granted heads of American Indian households 160 acres of reservation land for private use to encourage them to adopt farming and ranching techniques. Vast sections of the reservations were left unassigned, however, and these were put up for sale to white settlers. The Allotment Act ultimately resulted in a 50% reduction in the American Indian territory, and the attempt to assimilate them into ordinary US life led to the loss of many cultural traditions and the breakdown of many tribal governments. Reservations were abolished in Indian Territory in 1907 when it became the state of Oklahoma. The allotment policy was a devastating failure; by the 1920s American Indian peoples were the most impoverished sector in the USA. Restoration Because allotment was such a failure the US government reversed its policy and in 1934 passed the Indian Reorganization Act. It sought to restore pride in Indian customs, art, religion, and social organization by ending the allotment system, re-establishing tribal governments, returning unsold allotted lands, increasing American

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Indian landholdings, and encouraging tribal economies. It also provided educational and health services as well as financial and technical aid to tribal groups. Many American Indians, however, still viewed this as an attempt to assimilate them by using tribal culture and institutions as transitional devices. Termination In 1944 the US government, in an attempt to cut costs, once again began looking at ways to end its trustee relationship with many American Indian people. Rationalizing that these tribes had been sufficiently assimilated, and spurred also by corporate interests intent on exploiting the natural resources on many reservations, new programmes aimed at terminating the trustee relationship were instituted. In 1952, for instance, Congress established a voluntary relocation programme which encouraged American Indians to move off reservations and into areas that were more economically viable. Off-reservation educational programmes provided an additional incentive. Other laws simply provided for the termination of federal jurisdiction over the reservation; the Menominee reservation, for example, was terminated on 17 June, 1954 under Public Law 38 399. These and other measures fuelled a mass migration from reservations to towns and cities. Between 1954 and 1962, over 60 tribes and communities terminated their relationship with the federal government. Activism In the 1960s American Indian activists (the American Indian Movement, or AIM), began preaching a message of greater selfdetermination, tribal self-government, and increased Indian involvement in the political process. In 1972 activists occupied the BIA's headquarters, and in 1973 the site of Wounded Knee. These activities, in part, led the US government to pass a wide range of new legislation to help empower them. Increasing prosperity A legacy of the 1970s legislation and the struggle for selfdetermination has seen a growing prosperity among many American Indian nations, particularly those that now operate casinos. In recent years, particularly in the USA, American Indians have been making vigorous attempts to reclaim lost rights and property. In the 1990s North Indian American reservations started to become popular tourist destinations among Europeans (especially Germans), who come to experience the Native North American way of life. There are more than 300 'Indian clubs' in Germany, where people adopt a tribe or a chief and study their history.

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Status The term 'Indian' was first applied to American Indians by Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly believed America was part of the Indies. American Indians are the only racial group mentioned in the US Constitution. Separate laws apply to them and each year a separate budget is prepared and appropriations for their benefit voted on by Congress. Individuals with at least one parent legally entitled to membership in a federally recognized American Indian tribe can qualify for special federal services, or share in assets owned by their tribe. The burden of proof of American Indian ancestry rests with the individual. American Indians were made citizens of the USA in 1924. In Canada, the British North America Act (1867) gave exclusive legislative authority over American Indians to the federal government. A 1990 US federal law requires that museums return Indian artefacts to American Indians. To date, the largest transfer to have occurred is that of around 2,000 bones of American Indians, excavated between 1915 and 1929 in Pecos Valley, New Mexico. The transfer took place in May 1999 between Harvard University and the Jemez Pueblo people. Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.

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