A must read letter, from Native American Activist and research expert Emilio Reyes to Amy Dutschke, Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
He exposes the BIA's inaction and their deliberate violations of their trust responsibility to Native Americans of San Pasqual descent.
When asked WHY he is so involved, his response:
Today, in honor of my ancestors, my cousins at the San Pasqual Reservation, and the friends I have made from this tribe, I have given the privilege to be part of a challenge, a challenge that no one has been able to complete since the year 1909. With the help of attorney , Alexandra McIntosh, and the support of family and friends I will help them fight until we win. So here I am, because I stand for what is right. Because green federal dollars will not control our traditional ways, and because sovereignty can only be use as a nation to protect our people and not to abuse our people.
UPDATE: THERE IS A SCRIPT YOU CAN USE to contact YOUR SENATOR, in the comment section below. PLEASE feel free to modify it.
HOW can YOU help? By sending a link of this blog post to YOUR representatives in CONGRESS.
84 comments:
Every historical document is evidence. Emilio's letter lays it all out. How are the Trask's, Allen Lawson, Dave Toler, Audrey Toler, Cheryl Calac, and teheir family members enrolled???
It's that time to move forward! And in "perfect timing. At harvest.. when leaves ...fall aswell as corrupted men....and the only time the Reaper is allowed to eat cake and ice cream. ..
It's that time to move forward! And in "perfect timing. At harvest.. when leaves ...fall aswell as corrupted men....and the only time the Reaper is allowed to eat cake and ice cream. ..
The B.I.A. needs to be dissolved, a complete waste of money and time.
Look up "free Indian census rolls 1885-1940" it has census records by Thomas M. Games, superintendent but with no blood degree just names of all Southern California tribes in this area. From Palm Springs,Morongo,Torres and Martinez to pauma,Mesa grande and San Pasqual. Frank Trask, Leonora Trask,Florence Trask, Ella Trask are listed together as husband,wife,daughters on Mesa Grande (Santa Ysabel) records for all 3 years I pulled up 1905-1908. Nowhere were they found on the San Pasqual ones which does have a lot of other familiar family names. Are these the same people you speak of enrolled at San Pasqual??
Nice letter.....fucking snakes traskes....just like pechanga.
Every rez same problem. Rincon agreed to do an enrollment audit years ago and now that it's done a lot of the members are saying to leave the enrollment alone because they found 118 people don't have an 1/8th. Most of the Council doesn't like that because that means a lot of lost votes for some and money for others. 1 council member for sure doesn't possess enough Rincon blood to be enrolled yet still holds a position of power over our people. Now that everyone knows their own blood degree after the enrollment auditor sent them to each enrolled member, the council is still going to allow the people who don't possess the 1/8th requirement to vote on the issue, let alone still hold membership even though our governing articles clearly state you must be 1/8th Rincon luiseno to be a member. It takes 3/5 of the Council to allow this to go on without repercussions. The tribe even have past requests from BIA to Rincon to fix enrollment issues but no action
Feel free to send me any information on RINCON, including letters if you have them: to originalpechanga2@yahoo.com
Wow.. Trask's have nothing to say this time.
Original Pechanga has turned this page into supporting disenrollments. Just because the Hunters can't get enrolled he somehow feels that every other Tribal Member in other tribes should get disenrolled. He either has a big chip on his shoulder or he is fall in into the White Man mentality . SAD DAY FOR NATIVES.
Leave Rincon alone if they decided to leave enrollment alone then that's the tribes decision. Problem is the tribes that holed certain standards to certain families to pick and chose who to kick out. Rincon decided to not kick out anyone whether they have the right qualifications to belong or not. Every member in every tribe thinks they are 100% from that tribe and welcome a genealogy until they find out the truth. It seems that the families that know their history become tribal leaders to keep themselves enrolled like in Pala (Lugo's) and San Pasqual (Trasks). Or they don't know their history and just believe what they are told and attack other families then come to find out they don't actually belong. Either keep the rolls as they are or look at every family and keep same disenrollment standards to all. None of this picking and choosing that councils do to get rid of opposition.
Well Rincon isn't being equal they are trying to protect a false membership to keep their false status as tribal leaders. Without the illegal membership votes, the audit would get finished and move forward with equal standards to families. Everyone says to be fair but want to continue living a lie but the only way to be fair to all is to be truthful. All they are doing is picking and choosing who to leave in so they can continue to hold their status in council and enrollment committees
Original Pechanga should stop promoting disenrollments. Rick Cuevas is putting his nose where it don't belong. Come up to Rincon and we'll show you Luiseño. If you attack us be ready. We ain't gonna put up with your shit Cuevas.
Thank you for your anonymous threat.
Original Pechanga Blog does a great job of Exposing disenrollments not promoting.
Not a threat. You want our documents for what? So you can copy and paste and repeat yourself a million times. This Blog is probably the worst type of journalism I've ever read. You promote violence by putting families against each other. You are one sided and have no idea what you are talking about. Are you for or against disenrollments? Only when it fits what you want? The tribes that you keep posting are ruining themselves but you aren't helping. Your an instigator. For self gain. Good job on promoting the Native way. Your love and kindness is jealousy and bitterness. I'll get the family together to talk to you before you make more problems for us. Shit talker
Wow....OP is trying to bring light to a terrible situation and this person is bashing him? It can't be a true native that is writing it, but maybe a scared one that will bendisenrolled. Someone doesn't want the truth to come out. Keep on writing the facts like you do OP. You are doing a great job and people should be thanking you instead of bashing you.
OP didn't bring up Rincon. Somebody from Rincon brought up Rincon.
Rincon was shut down once before that's why that guy is (crying a river).
Just want everyone to question OP's agenda. Just because Rick Cuevas writes it on a blog, doesn't make it true. He's is the one on a bashing rampage. Disenrollments are an epidemic but when OP starts picking sides, you bet your ass theres going to be a fight.... and giving your opinion is not a fact. jack.
Bottom line is why keep someone enrolled when they don't meet the membership requirements that are clearly stated in Rincon's governing Articles of Association?
I believe he is against dis-enrollment period.Not sure what your talking about?
Then your not paying attention . I could list them for you but I'm done with this site. A massive amount of ignorance. I feel dumber every time I read a Cuevas post. He isn't exposing anything. These are internal matters, that the members should deal with, not outsiders. Peace Out. Enjoy your commodities.
That's what I'm talking about,how can anyone be against disenrolling someone who doesn't meet the requirements to be enrolled? There's true eighths that should be members who can't be enrolled because of corrupt membership and yet you'll still refuse to clean it up? The tribe voted and passed an enrollment audit unlike any other tribe who has disenrolled people. For the first time a tribe's membership can be CLEANED and and with that will bring together the true tribal members. But for whatever reason (votes) Rincon's council(the three with majority power) insist on finding any way possible to protect the FALSIFIED members. Like I said , the reason they(the 3 who hold majority power) insist on protecting those falsified members is because those fake members are their votes. Its the truth. Whether anyone realizes it or not is the difference of this tribe actually getting cleaned or forever being an illegitimate tribe. I just hope the Rincon leaders know that if this isn't done the way it should be, it will only affect future generations and will never go away unless we fix it now.
Are the Calacs rincon?
These are internal matters, that the members should deal with, not outsiders.( Why because he posted legal BIA screwed up paperwork that proves the truth)??????
That's why your butt hurt.
The Calacs that were alotted through Rincon are Rincon. Some Calacs married into other tribes. But you can look at who was alotted and that'll tell you a lot as far as who's really from Rincon.
Indian Indian Indian. Who really is the Indian? When the question arises where do we go? To the BIA Hall of Corruption known as the National Archives and Records Administration. So we go directly into the belly of the enemy to find out who we are. The BIA's mission was to terminate, assimilate and acculturate the American Indian. Now in the 21st century we want to trust the United States and believe every morsel of information that comes from the records of the BIA. Aren't we just wonderful. Aren't we just fools. Now we continue the work of the BIA and intent of the United States by disenrolling anyone and everyone based on the records of our enemy. The casinos will be gone some day because we are still located in remote regions and once gaming is legal in California no one will travel to the Reservations when they can walk to a casino in downtown California. The casinos will become our tombstones. The casinos are already our halls of shame.
October 10, 2015 at 9:26 AM
Has made a point I agree with. There are some tribes who have done some good things with their right of entrepreneurship, yet the facts remain that this new found wealth has hurt the people. It is sad that Indians are just as human as everyone and are subject to the same failings as those who we once thought of as the destroyer of our culture. Now the tribes are that very tool, and really we can only blame ourselves for thinking we are so different that we could not be affected by the corruption of human nature. Sure some of you will say I did not deserve what happened to me. I get this, I once said the same thing when it happened to me, but the question must be asked, are we lesser people because we have had this happen to us. Am I so weak and helpless that I can't so anything to change what has happened, and have I done everything to stop what has happened to us/me. The people that did this are wrong and are accountable. We are also accountable as well for what we could have done and what we have not done. Be honest with your self and decide what it is your willing to fight for and know that you have to get up and fight, for no one is going to help you in the fight if you are not willing to shed some sweat blood. Now I do not mean to shed blood literally, for AIM is a good example that hurting others to make a point is fruitless.
We are giving a deadline to the EC of Pala of November 1st 2015, to reinstate the Pala members. Robert Smith,Theresa Nieto,Howard Maxcy,Dion Perez,Theressa Villa and Sheila (Smith) Lopez as Executive Council you have 22 days to fix your mistake and take another look at the Margarita Brittain blood degree. You have the power to end this or continue fighting the rest of your days as leaders of the Pala Band.
Well who else are we to believe? Someone who's lied and infiltrated our tribe or a paper trail of lineage which most native Americans have to prove who they are?
You don't have to give your corrupt leaders a timeline....VOTE THEM OUT!! Why bargain with criminals?
Ive never heard people whine and bitch so much. I am not Indian and this blog would get destroyed by main stream media. No one is so adimant of where they are from. Who the hell cares. Go out and get a job. Lazy asses.Thanks for wasting my time. Signing out.
Wed. the 14th may be the one and only chance to do something.
Motion to postpone or motion to replace the entire EC including the Chairman. If motion carries then its a bases loaded game. The worst that could happen is motion denied and proceed with agenda for meeting.
Just use your heads when nominating someone and make sure that the person nominated will perform for the benefit of the entire Band and can not be swayed be perks and comps. This may well be the chance for a change for the entire Reservation. And for goodness sake don't forget to call for a audit by an outside firm to be chosen by the General Membership, and not recommended by the EC or Amy at Regional.
Be smart and do not be afraid to motion for these options.
Dear Mr. Mathews, I came from an era when my mother could not get a job because she was Indian, she was a Registered Nurse. I got my first regular job at the age of 6. I worked steady until I enlisted in the army at age 17. I fought in two of your lousy stinking wars and yes a combat veteran. Worked steady for many more years. Could have retired 10 years ago. So wise ass why don't you just shut your stupid ignorant trash mouth. Main stream media has been and will always be afraid of this site and more because they are bought off by corrupt tribal leaders. If they reported half of the issues here they would lose their important casino ad moneys. So go suck a duck because you apparently aren't even capable of grasping the importance of tribal disputes. Best that you aren't Indian because you would have been disenrolled.
I thought the altos were gone there still tribal and have indian health why is that is it because there in the ninth circuit.can they have there decision over turned
Fuck the Altos. They are frauds and are never getting enrolled, so shut your piehole. No one cares.
Give in to your hate, it is complete.
There is a simple solution for the Altos. Jamul is the first federally recognized tribe that is comprised of 100% Mexican citizens. The BIA knows this as a fact from their own records. So the BIA should just move the Altos to Jamul. Problem solved. Now if we could just find a European reservation for those Trasks. Oh yeah, its called the United States of America.
For 10 millennia before the Spanish and other European settlers arrived in California, the Kumeyaay Indian Nation lived in the area now divided into San Diego and Imperial Counties and Baja Norte. Although this nation of original inhabitants has been called Southern Diegueño, Diegueño-Kamia, Ipai-Tipai and Mission Indians, the people prefer to be known as Kumeyaay.
Yuman-speaking people of Hokan stock, Kumeyaay territory extended from the Pacific Ocean east to the Colorado River, north to Warner Springs Valley and south to Ensenada. Neighboring nations to the northeast and east were the San Lusieño, Cupeño and Cahuilla. While southern California Indian nations shared many characteristics, there was little uniformity in language, customs, political and social organization or economic resources.
Indian nations throughout California, and North and South America were comparable to the multiple cultures, governments, religions, economic resources and languages of independent nations that abounded on the European, African and Asian continents in the year 1000 AD.
The Kumeyaay planted trees and fields of grain; grew squash, beans and corn; gathered and grew medicinal herbs and plants, and dined on fresh fruits, berries, pine nuts and acorns. Kumeyaay fished, hunted deer and other animals, and were known for basket weaving and pottery. The people had sophisticated practices of agriculture, plant and animal husbandry; maintained wild animal stocks; controlled erosion and overgrowth; built dams; created watersheds and stored groundwater.
A federation of autono-mous, self-governing bands, or clans, the Kumeyaay had clearly defined territories that included individual and collectively owned properties. The Kumeyaay united in defense of their territory and communicated by foot couriers. Throughout this vast area trails were forged by the Kumeyaay through the mountains, deserts and river valleys for trading, gathering for funerals, marriages and competitive games with each other and neighboring nations.
A band's territory extended anywhere from 10 to 30 miles, along a stream and tributaries. It included trails, shared hunting, religious, ceremonial and common gathering areas. However, specific land tenured by families and individuals provided the economic foundation of the Kumeyaay existence. Property was generally passed from father to son.
Each family independently planted and maintained fields of grain, grass and other annuals, shrubs, tree groves, cornfields, quarries and hot and cold springs, clay beds and basket grass clumps. However, sharing the produce for the band's benefit was assumed. Territory belonging to a band often included adjacent holdings stretching from the mountains and river plains, to the coast
The Kumeyaay took advantage of the different climatic zones in the region, surviving fluctuations in the climate by rotating domestic crops and living off varieties of food sources in the different ecological systems.
Sacred lands were shared. Creation stories and religious rituals were tied to specific locations, or holy lands, just as with the Hebrews, Christians and Muslims. One such place is Kuuchamaa, or Tecate Peak. Another is Wee-ishpa, or Signal Mountain. Burial grounds were sacred, and still are to this day. Each band had worship areas restricted to religious and tribal leaders.
Generally peaceful by nature, the Kumeyaay social and governmental customs of tolerance and individual freedom spawned independent people.
The social structure of the bands included the shiimull, or ancestral descent group, governed by a hierarchy of kwaaypaays. The shiimull often had family loyalties and relatives that extended beyond the band through marriage. In 1769, when the Spanish arrived, between 50 and 75 shiimull, or bands existed. Each included 5 to 15 family groups.
The kwaaypaay was usually the male head of a shiimull. He inherited the position from his father, but was not necessarily from the band he led. The kwaaypaays were raised to become leaders. A common practice was for the kwaaypaay of one band to be selected from another band, thus ensuring unity among the clans. Also, since the primary duty was to maintain harmony and arbitrate disputes, a kwaaypaay without relatives in the band to prejudice decisions was more impartial and fair. Even though the leadership was drawn from among the sons of all kwaaypaays, the final choice, and approval of their leader, belonged to the band.
Each kwaaypaay, or captain or chief, as they came to be called, had an assistant called the speaker, and a council of kuseyaay. Composed of male and female priests, scientists, doctors and other specialists, kuseyaays served as advisers in ecology, resource management, healing, and the spiritual and religious practices of the tribe.
The kwaaypaay called upon these counselors to assist in providing information and making decisions for the tribe's welfare. Once a decision was made, it had the force of law.
However, each family was free to follow and participate in the decision, or break off from the band; leave the band's territory and pursue its own course of action without punishment or retribution.
The Kumeyaay lived life through songs. They danced and sang to celebrate, mourn and teach. Culture, traditions, history and social values were transmitted through songs. Songs taught everything the people needed to know to survive. There were songs about the environment such as salt, wildcats and plants. There was no written language. Songs contained the collective wisdom and memories of the Kumeyaay people.
Individuals and clans had songs. Spiritual and creation songs and dances, such as the Bird Song and Eagle Dance, taught moral lessons and connected people with the ancestors and the meaning of life and death.
In 1542, life began to change for the Kumeyaay. No longer a story of a culture and people evolving, living, dying, shaping and being shaped by the environment, it was a time of death caused by hunger and disease, occupation, slavery, rape and genocide.
The last 500 years of the millennium for the Kumeyaay was a time of survival and conquest. The shared history became a story of clashing cultures and the struggle of the Kumeyaay to adapt, yet maintain their cultural identity in a changed world.
First came the Spanish, followed by the Mexican government and the United States. Each believed the land and people who had lived here for millennia existed for their use and abuse.
Unable to provide protection from the influx and military might of the newcomers, removed from food sources and land, unable to speak the language or understand the customs of the immigrants, and without legal protection of civil rights, the Kumeyaay became totally dependent upon a hostile populace, strangers in their own land. Denied customs, culture, social and political traditions, the Kumeyaay became strangers to themselves.
Despite common beliefs that Californian Indians, beleaguered of soul and body, crept away to die, these ancestors survived. Their story of sacrifice and courage and belief that the Kumeyaay would reclaim a place in this land is as positive and encouraging as their suffering was devastating.
Generally peaceful by nature, a Kumeyaay band would include as many as 15 family groups.
1769-1822 The Mission Period
In September 1542, the coastal Kumeyaay encountered the first European, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, when his ship sailed into San Diego Bay.
Then, in 1769, the Spanish sent a colonizing force into upper California.
Spanish army units founded a presidio (army post) in San Diego Bay and Franciscan Juan Crespi arrived with the first overland group of Spanish missionaries and soldiers. He was followed in July by Father Junipero Serra, with a group led by Gaspar de Portola. Father Serra, founder of the Mission San Diego, and others like him were charged with bringing the natives to Catholic Christianity. Thus began the mission years for the Kumeyaay.
The directive of the priests was to educate the natives in "civilized pursuits and to make them working class citizens of the Spanish Empire." Once converted and properly indoctrinated in the customs of the church and the realm, these baptized Indians would be granted a piece of land. The local missions also were expected to supply the army with food, livestock and laborers for mission pueblos and private ranch holdings granted by the Spanish government.
Kumeyaay coastal land was confiscated and the people captured and forced to work for the Spanish. Soldiers scoured the countryside for Indians to be rounded up for conversion and indentured slave labor. After a period of indoctrination and servitude, some were released to return to their homes. The women were often raped and used as property of the militia. Unmarried Indian girls, the sick, some elderly and men trained as specialists in leather and woodworking, carpenters, farmers and blacksmiths were permanently kept at the mission, often against their will.
To avoid capture the Kumeyaay fled east to the mountains to make new homes. Kumeyaay ritual and spiritual practices were outlawed. The Kumeyaay revolted against forced servitude and abduction. In 1776, there were a number of uprisings and skirmishes, one destroying the San Diego Mission, which was rebuilt on another location. The Spanish forces moved inland, taking Kumeyaay lands in Santee, El Cajon, Jamacha and Jamul to gain control of better water resources.
Death stalked the Kumeyaay in many ways. Without natural immunities the Kumeyaay, exposed to European diseases, died by the thousands as smallpox and measles spread through the villages.
1822-1848 Mexican Period
Following the Mexican Revolution and founding of the Republic of Mexico in 1822, the Spanish holdings were secularized. During the Mexican period, the missions became parish churches and mission lands, rancheros. Prior commitments made to Hispanicized Kumeyaay for small plots of land by the Spanish were dismissed. Mexican governors gave the best mission lands to Mexican nationals, and conceded large land grants, absorbing farms of Hispaniized Indians granted by the Spanish, as well as Kumeyaay villages within their boundaries.
Kumeyaay living on former mission properties were turned over to Mexican nationals to serve as peon labor. Missions were placed under majordomos, who used the Indians as servants for their large families. Majordomos allocated passes to the Kumeyaay laborers to leave the rancheros to visit their families, and sent patrols to recapture those who did not return. The Kumeyaay became prisoners on their own land, trading one form of enslavement for another.
When repeated requests to the Mexican government by the Kumeyaay about abuses of their land and water rights were ignored, inland bands led numerous uprisings and revolts. In San Diego, Mexicans seldom left the presidio or pueblos without military guard.
Eventually, the United States moved to acquire the California territories. In December 1846, the U.S. Army led by Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny passed through Yuma, San Felipe, Warners Valley, Santa Ysabel and San Pasqual, destroying Kumeyaay homes for firewood.
The Kumeyaay and other Indians were friendly toward the Americans, hopeful that this new government would keep promises to settle the land disputes and treat the Indians fairly. During the battle of San Pasqual between the Mexicans and U.S. Army, the Kumeyaay aided General Kearny. After the battle, they guided him to San Diego.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred California to the United States and guaranteed existing land titles, all rights and immunities, and religious freedom to Mexican citizens. All these rights also were to be applied to baptized Indians who became Mexican citizens; however they were rarely enforced for the Christian Kumeyaays, and never for the traditional Kumeyaays.
Attack of the Mammoth
A British Columbia Myth
from Kaska First Nation
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
A man and his family were constantly on the move, hunting for beaver. They traveled from lake to lake, stream to stream, never staying any place long enough for it to become a home. The woman sometimes silently wished that they would find a village and settle down somewhere with their little baby, but her husband was restless, and so they kept moving.
One evening, after setting up camp on a large lake, the young mother went out to net some beaver, carrying her baby upon her back. When she had a toboggan full of beaver meat, she started back to camp. As she walked through the darkening evening, she heard the thump-thump-thump of mighty footsteps coming from somewhere behind her. She stopped; her heart pounding. She was being followed by something very large. Her hands trembled as she thought of the meat she was dragging behind her. The creature must have smelled the meat and was stalking the smell.
Afraid to turn around and alert the beast, she bent over as if to pick something off the snowy path and glanced quickly past her legs. Striding boldly through the snowy landscape was a tall, barrel-shaped, long-haired creature with huge tusks and a very long trunk. It was a tix - a mammoth - and it looked hungry. She straightened quickly and hurriedly threw the meat into the snow. Then she ran as fast as she could back to camp, dragging the toboggan behind her. Her little baby cried out fearfully, frightened by all the jostling, but she did not stop to comfort him until she was safe inside their shelter.
She told her husband at once about the terrible mammoth that had stalked her and taken the beaver meat. Her husband shook his head and told her she was dreaming. Everyone knew that the mammoth had all died away. Then he light-heartedly accused her of giving the meat away to a handsome sweetheart. She denied it resentfully, knowing that he really believed that she had carelessly overturned the toboggan and had let the meat sink beneath the icy waters of the lake.
After her husband went to set more beaver nets, she prepared the evening meal. While it was cooking over the fire, she walked all around the camp, making sure that there was an escape route through the willow-brush just in case the hungry mammoth attacked them in the night.
The husband and wife lay down to sleep next to the fire after they finished the evening meal. The husband chuckled when he saw that his wife kept her moccasins on and the baby clutched in her arms. "Expecting the mammoth to attack us?" he asked jovially. She nodded, and he laughed aloud at her. Soon he was asleep, but the woman lay awake for a long time, listening.
The wife was awakened from a light doze around midnight by the harsh sounds of the mammoth approaching. "Husband," she shouted, shaking him. He opened his eyes grumpily and demanded an explanation. She tried to tell him that the hungry mammoth was coming to eat them, but he told her she was having a nightmare and would not listen. The wife begged and pleaded and tried to drag him away with her, but he resisted and finally shouted at her to begone if she was afraid. In despair, she clutched her little child to her chest and ran away from the camp.
As she fled, she heard the harsh roar of the giant creature and the sudden shout of her husband as he came face to face with the creature. Then there was silence, and the woman knew her husband was dead. Weeping, she fled with her child, seeking a village that she had heard was nearby. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, she heard the thump-thump-thump of the creature's massive feet stomping through the snow-fields, following her trail. Occasionally, it made a wailing sound like that of a baby crying.
The woman kept jogging along, comforting her little baby as best she could. As light dawned, she saw a camp full of people who were living on the shores of an island on the lake. She crossed the icy expanse as quickly as possible and warned the people of the fierce mammoth that had killed her husband. The warriors quickly went out onto the ice and made many holes around the edges of their village, weakening the ice so that the mammoth would fall through and drown.
As evening approached, the people saw the mammoth coming toward them across the ice. When it neared their camp on the island, the creature plunged through the weakened ice. Everyone cheered, thinking that the animal had drowned. Then its large hairy head emerged out of the water and it shook its long tusks and bellowed in rage. The mammoth started walking along the bottom of the lake, brushing aside the ice with his large tusks.
The people panicked. They screamed and ran in circles, and some of them stood frozen in place, staring as the mammoth emerged from the ice and walked up onto the banks of the island. The wife of the eaten man fled with her baby, urging as many of her new-found friends as she could reach, to flee with her. But many remained behind, paralyzed with fear.
Then a boy emerged from one of the shelters, curious to know what was causing everyone to scream in fear. He wore the bladder of a moose over his head, covering his hair so that he looked bald. He was a strange lad, and was shunned by the locals. Only his grandmother knew that he was a mighty shaman with magic trousers and magic arrows that could kill any living beast.
When the boy saw the hungry, angry mammoth, he called out to his grandmother to fetch the magic trousers and the magic arrows. Donning his clothing, he shook his head until the bladder burst and his long hair fell down to his waist. Then he took his magic bow and arrows and leapt in front of the frightened people and began peppering the beast with arrows, first from one side and then the other. The mammoth roared and weaved and tried to attack the boy, but the shaman's magic was powerful, and soon the beast lay dead upon the ground.
Then those who fled from the mammoth returned to the camp, led by the poor widow and her baby. The people whose lives had been saved by the bladder-headed boy gave a cheer and gathered in excitement around the boy. In gratitude, the people made the shaman their chief and offered him two beautiful girls to be his wives, though he accepted only one of them. The widow and her baby were welcomed into the tribe, and a few months later she married a brave warrior who became close friends with the shaman-become-chief.
And from that day to this, the people have always had chiefs to lead them, and no mammoths have troubled them again.
Coyote and Wishpoosh
from the Chinook tribe
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
Now Wishpoosh the monster beaver lived in the beautiful Lake Cle-el-lum which was full of fish. Every day, the animal people would come to the lake, wanting to catch some fish, but Wishpoosh the giant beaver drove them away with many threats and great splashing. If they refused to leave, Wishpoosh would kill the animal people by dragging them deep into the lake so that they drowned.
Coyote was very upset at Wishpoosh for the way he treated the animal people. Coyote decided that he would kill the monster beaver and so he went to Lake Cle-el-lum with his spear tied to his wrist and started to fish. As soon as Wishpoosh saw this upstart person invading his territory, the giant beaver attacked. Coyote threw the spear and it pierced the beaver. Immediately, Wishpoosh dove to the bottom of the lake, dragging Coyote with him.
Well, Coyote and Wishpoosh wrestled and tugged and fought each other at the bottom of the lake until the sides gave way and all the water rushed out, pouring out over the mountains and through the canyons until it collected in Kittitas Valley and formed another, larger lake. Coyote and Wishpoosh burst forth into the new lake, shouting and wrestling and fighting each other with renewed vigor until the second lake gave way and the water rushed out, joining in with the waters of several rivers to form a massive lake at Toppenish.
Wishpoosh the monster beaver would not give up the fight. He bit and clawed at Coyote and tried to drown him in the massive lake. Coyote fought back fiercely, and at last the massive lake gave way, the water roared down into the meeting place of the Columbia, the Yakima, and the Snake, where it dammed up into a lake so huge none has ever seen its like before or since.
Coyote and Wishpoosh dragged at each other, pulling and tugging and ripping and biting until the dam gave way and a huge wave of water swept down the Columbia River towards the sea. Coyote and Wishpoosh were tumbled over and over again as they were swept down river in the mighty wave of water. Coyote grabbed bushes and rocks and trees, trying to pull himself out of the massive wave. By these efforts was the Columbia Gorge was formed. But Coyote could not pull himself out of the great wave and so he tumbled after Wishpoosh, all the way to the bitter waters at the mouth of the river.
Wishpoosh was furious. He was determined to beat this upstart Coyote who had driven him from his beautiful lake. The giant beaver swept all the salmon before him and ate them in one gulp to increase his strength. Then he swam out to sea with Coyote in pursuit. The monster beaver threw his great arms around a whale and swallowed it whole.
Coyote was frightened by this demonstration of the monster beaver's strength. But he was the most cunning of all the animals, and he came up with a plan. Turning himself into a tree branch, Coyote drifted among the fish until Wishpoosh swallowed him. Returning to his natural form, Coyote took a knife and cut the sinews inside the giant beaver. Wishpoosh gave a great cry and then perished.
Coyote was tired after his long fight with the monster beaver. He called to his friend Muskrat, who helped drag the body of Wishpoosh to shore. Coyote and Muskrat cut up the giant beaver and threw the pieces up over the land, thus creating the tribes of men. The Nez Perce were created from the head of the giant beaver, to make them great in council. The Cayuses were created from the massive arms of Wishpoosh, in order that they might be strong and powerful with the war club and the bow. From the beaver's ribs, Coyote made the Yakimas and from the belly the Chinooks. To make the Klickitats, Coyote used the beaver's legs, so that they would become famous for their skill in running. With the leftover skin and blood, he made the Snake River Indians who thrived on war and blood.
Thus were the tribes created, and Coyote returned up the mighty Columbia River to rest from his efforts. But in his weariness, Coyote did not notice that the coastal tribes had been created without mouths. The god Ecahni happened along just then and fixed the problem by assembling all of the coastal tribes and cutting mouths for them. Some he made too large and some he made crooked, just as a joke. This is why the mouths of the coastal tribes are not quite perfect.
Coyote and the Columbia
From the Sahaptin/Salishan Tribes
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
One day, Coyote was walking along. The sun was shining brightly, and Coyote felt very hot.
"I would like a cloud," Coyote said.
So a cloud came and made some shade for Coyote. Coyote was not satisfied.
"I would like more clouds," he said. More clouds came along, and the sky began to look very stormy. But Coyote was still hot.
"How about some rain," said Coyote. The clouds began to sprinkle rain on Coyote.
"More rain," Coyote demanded. The rain became a downpour.
"I would like a creek to put my feet in," said Coyote. So a creek sprang up beside him, and Coyote walked in it to cool off his feet.
"It should be deeper," said Coyote.
The creek became a huge, swirling river. Coyote was swept over and over by the water. Finally, nearly drowned, Coyote was thrown up on the bank far away. When he woke up, the buzzards were watching him, trying to decide if he was dead.
"I'm not dead," Coyote told them, and they flew away.
That is how the Columbia River began.
Crow Brings the Daylight
An Inuit Myth
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
Story featured in Land of the Midnight Sun, a concert band piece composed by Vince Gassi!
Long, long ago, when the world was still new, the Inuit lived in darkness in their home in the fastness of the north. They had never heard of daylight, and when it was first explained to them by Crow, who traveled back and forth between the northlands and the south, they did not believe him.
Yet many of the younger folk were fascinated by the story of the light that gilded the lands to the south. They made Crow repeat his tales until they knew them by heart.
"Imagine how far and how long we could hunt," they told one another.
"Yes, and see the polar bear before it attacks," others agreed.
Soon the yearning for daylight was so strong that the Inuit people begged Crow to bring it to them. Crow shook his head. "I am too old," he told them. "The daylight is very far away. I can no longer go so far." But the pleadings of the people made him reconsider, and finally he agreed to make the long journey to the south.
Crow flew for many miles through the endless dark of the north. He grew weary many times, and almost turned back. But at last he saw a rim of light at the very edge of horizon and knew that the daylight was close.
Crow strained his wings and flew with all his might. Suddenly, the daylight world burst upon him with all its glory and brilliance. The endless shades of color and the many shapes and forms surrounding him made Crow stare and stare. He flapped down to a tree and rested himself, exhausted by his long journey. Above him, the sky was an endless blue, the clouds fluffy and white. Crow could not get enough of the wonderful scene.
Eventually Crow lowered his gaze and realized that he was near a village that lay beside a wide river. As he watched, a beautiful girl came to the river near the tree in which he perched. She dipped a large bucket into the icy waters of the river and then turned to make her way back to the village. Crow turned himself into a tiny speck of dust and drifted down towards the girl as she passed beneath his tree. He settled into her fur cloak and watched carefully as she returned to the snow lodge of her father, who was the chief of the village people.
It was warm and cozy inside the lodge. Crow looked around him and spotted a box that glowed around the edges. Daylight, he thought. On the floor, a little boy was playing contentedly. The speck of dust that was Crow drifted away from the girl and floated into the ear of the little boy. Immediately the child sat up and rubbed at his ear, which was irritated by the strange speck. He started to cry, and the chief, who was a doting grandfather, came running into the snow lodge to see what was wrong.
"Why are you crying?" the chief asked, kneeling beside the child.
Inside the little boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to play with a ball of daylight." The little boy rubbed at his ear and then repeated Crow's words.
The chief sent his daughter to the glowing box in the corner. She brought it to her father, who removed a glowing ball, tied it with a string, and gave it to the little boy. He rubbed his ear thoughtfully before taking the ball. It was full of light and shadow, color and form. The child laughed happily, tugging at the string and watching the ball bounce.
Then Crow scratched the inside of his ear again and the little boy gasped and cried.
"Don't cry, little one," said the doting grandfather anxiously. "Tell me what is wrong."
Inside the boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to go outside to play." The boy rubbed at his ear and then repeated Crow's words to his grandfather. Immediately, the chief lifted up the small child and carried him outside, followed by his worried mother.
As soon as they were free of the snow lodge, Crow swooped out of the child's ear and resumed his natural form. He dove toward the little boy's hand and grabbed the string from him. Then he rose up and up into the endless blue sky, the ball of daylight sailing along behind him.
In the far north, the Inuit saw a spark of light coming toward them through the darkness. It grew brighter and brighter, until they could see Crow flapping his wings as he flew toward them. The people gasped and pointed and called in delight.
The Crow dropped the ball, and it shattered upon the ground, releasing the daylight so that it exploded up and out, illuminating every dark place and chasing away every shadow. The sky grew bright and turned blue. The dark mountains took on color and light and form. The snow and ice sparkled so brightly that the Inuit had to shade their eyes.The people laughed and cried and exclaimed over their good fortune. But Crow told them that the daylight would not last forever. He had only obtained one ball of daylight from the people of the south, and it would need to rest for six months every year to regain its strength. During that six month period, the darkness would return.
The people said: "Half a year of daylight is enough. Before you brought the daylight, we lived our whole life in darkness!" Then they thanked Crow over and over again.
To this day, the Inuit live for half a year in darkness and half a year in daylight. And they are always kind to Crow, for it was he who brought them the light.
Guardian of Yosemite
A Native American Myth
(Miowak Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
For many nights and many days, the guardian spirit of Tisayac watched over the beautiful valley of Yosemite. Often, the gentle spirit would drift invisibly among the good folk of the valley, and it was during one of these visits that she noticed a tall, proud man named Tutokanula. He was a strong leader who greatly enhanced the lot of his people, and Tisayac came more often to the valley so that she could watch him.
One day, Tutokanula was hunting near the place where Tisayac had laid down to rest. When she realized the proud leader was close by, the shy spirit peered out at him from among the trees. Seeing the beautiful woman with her golden hair and ethereal appearance, Tutokanula fell in love. Realizing it was the guardian of the valley, he reached out his hands to her, calling her by name. Confused by the rush of feelings inside her, Tisayac flew away, leaving a brokenhearted warrior behind. Tutokanula spent many days searching for Tisayac. Finally he left the valley and his people in despair. Without his wise guidance, the valley fell into ruin and most of the good folk left to find a new home.
When Tisayac returned again to her valley, she was horrified to find it barren and her people gone. When she learned that Tutokanula had forgotten his people, had left them to fend for themselves without the benefit of his great wisdom, and had spent many days and nights searching and longing for her, she cried out in despair. Kneeling upon a mighty dome of rock, Tisayac prayed with all her heart that the Great Spirit would undo this wrong and would restore to this land the virtue which had been lost.
Hearing her prayer, the Great Spirit took pity on the plight of her people. Stooping down from on high, he spread his hands over the valley. The green of new life poured forth over the land; trees blossomed, flowers bloomed, birds sang. Then he struck a mighty blow against the mountains and they broke apart, leaving a pathway for the melting snow to flow through. The water swirled and washed down upon the land, spilling over rocks, pooling into a lake and then wandering afar to spread life to other places. In the valley, the corn grew tall again, and the people came back to their home.
Then Tutokanula himself came to the valley when he heard that Tisayac had come home. Upon his return, he spent many hours carving his likeness into the stone so his people would remember him when he departed from this earth. When the carving was finished, Tutokanula sat down wearily at the foot of the beautiful Bridal Veil Falls the Great Spirit had created. Tisayac drifted into the spray of the falls, watching him. He was ready to depart from his people, from his valley. Would he go with her? She moved forward through the falling water and made herself visible. When Tutokanula saw Tisayac, he sprang to his feet with a cry of joy and she held out her arms to him. The brave warrior leapt into the falls and took his love into his arms at last. For a moment, there were two rainbows arching over the water. Then Tisayac drew him up and up into the clouds and away as the sun sank over Yosemite.
***
Excerpt from The Guardian, retold in Spooky California by S.E. Schlosser.
I watch over this land from high above. I take delight in the song of the birds, the smell of green things growing, the sound of the wind in the trees. It is a good land. Its beauty fills my heart with joy. The people who live in the valley have given me a name -- Tisayac. This pleases me, for it means they sense my presence and feel at home in this valley. I have guarded the people of this land from afar for many a year. They are a good people, strong and kind.
Thus it was with great interest that I saw a great chief arise from among the valley folk. Tutokanula was his name. Handsome was he, brave and kind, and well-loved. His intelligence greatly enhanced the lot of his people.
Many days, I would come down from my musings among the clouds to watch this man, who went farther than any other leader of men to save crops and preserve game so that his people might have an easier winter. His wisdom and his kindness touched my heart. Often I would dream of him when the night wind sang through the trees and night-flowers perfumed the air.
Heron and the Hummingbird
A Native American Myth
(Hitchiti Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
Heron and Hummingbird were very good friends, even though one was tall and gangly and awkward and one was small and sleek and fast. They both loved to eat fish. The Hummingbird preferred small fish like minnows and Heron liked the large ones.
One day, Hummingbird said to his friend: "I am not sure there are enough fish in the world for both of our kind to eat. Why don't we have a race to see which of us should own the fish?"
Heron thought that was a very good idea. They decided that they would race for four days. The finish line was an old dead tree next to a far-away river. Whichever of them sat on top of the tree first on the fourth day of the race would own all the fish in the world.
They started out the next morning. The Hummingbird zipped along, flying around and around the Heron, who was moving steadily forward, flapping his giant wings. Then Hummingbird would be distracted by the pretty flowers along the way. He would flit from one to the other, tasting the nectar. When Hummingbird noticed that Heron was ahead of him, he hurried to catch up with him, zooming ahead as fast as he could, and leaving Heron far behind. Heron just kept flying steadily forward, flapping his giant wings.
Hummingbird was tired from all his flitting. When it got dark, he decided to rest. He found a nice spot to perch and slept all night long. But Heron just kept flying steadily forward all night long, flapping his giant wings.
When Hummingbird woke in the morning, Heron was far ahead. Hummingbird had to fly as fast as he could to catch up. He zoomed past the big, awkward Heron and kept going until Heron had disappeared behind him. Then Hummingbird noticed some pretty flowers nearby. He zip-zipped over to them and tasted their nectar. He was enjoying the pretty scenery and didn't notice Heron flap-flapping passed him with his great wings.
Hummingbird finally remembered that he was racing with Heron, and flew as fast as he could to catch up with the big, awkward bird. Then he zipped along, flying around and around the Heron, who kept moving steadily forward, flapping his giant wings.
For two more days, the Hummingbird and the Heron raced toward the far-distant riverbank with the dead tree that was the finish line. Hummingbird had a marvelous time sipping nectar and flitting among the flowers and resting himself at night. Heron stoically kept up a steady flap-flap-flapping of his giant wings, propelling himself forward through the air all day and all night.
Hummingbird woke from his sleep the morning of the fourth day, refreshed and invigorated. He flew zip-zip toward the riverbank with its dead tree. When it came into view, he saw Heron perched at the top of the tree! Heron had won the race by flying straight and steady through the night while Hummingbird slept.
So from that day forward, the Heron has owned all the fish in the rivers and lakes, and the Hummingbird has sipped from the nectar of the many flowers which he enjoyed so much during the race.
How the Rainbow Was Made
A Creation Tale from the Ojibwe Nation
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
One day when the earth was new, Nanabozho looked out the window of his house beside the wide waterfall and realized that all of the flowers in his meadow were exactly the same off-white color. How boring! He decided to make a change, so he gathered up his paints and his paintbrushes and went out to the meadow.
Nanabozho sat down in the tall grass and arranged his red and orange and yellow and green and blue and violet paint pots next to him. Then he began to paint the flowers in his meadow in many different colors. He painted the violets dark blue and the tiger lilies orange with brown dots. He made the roses red and pink and purple. He painted the pansies in every color combination he could think of. Then he painted every single daffodil bright yellow. Nanabozho hummed happily to himself as he worked in the brilliant daylight provided by Brother Sun.
Overhead, two little bluebirds were playing games with each other. The first little bluebird would chase his friend across the meadow one way. Then they would turn around and the second bluebird would chase him back the other way. Zippity-zip went the first bluebird as he raced across the sky. Zappity-zing went the second bluebird as he chased him in the brilliant sunshine.
Occasionally, Nanabozho would shade his eyes and look up…up into the endless blue sky to watch the two little birds playing. Then he went back to work, painting yellow centers in the white daisies. Above him, the two birds decided to see how fast they could dive down to the green fields below them. The first bluebird sailed down and down, and then pulled himself up sharply just before he touched the ground. As he soared passed Nanabozho, his right wing dipped into the red paint pot. When the second bluebird dove toward the grass, his left wing grazed the orange paint pot.
Nanabozho scolded the two birds, but they kept up their game, diving down toward the grass where he sat painting and then flying back up into the sky. Soon their feet and feathers were covered with paint of all colors. Finally Nanabozho stood up and waved his arms to shoo the birds away.
Reluctantly, the bluebirds flew away from Nanabozho and his paint pots, looking for another game to play. They started chasing each other again, sailing this way and that over top of the giant waterfall that stood next to Nanabozho's house. Zippity-zip, the first bluebird flew through the misty spray of the waterfall. The first bluebird left a long red paint streak against the sky. Zappity-zing, the second bluebird chased his friend through the mist, leaving an orange paint streak. Then the birds turned to go back the other way. This time, the first bluebird left a yellow paint streak and the second left a pretty blue-violet paint streak. As they raced back and forth, the colors grew more vivid. When Brother Sun shone on the colors, they sparkled radiantly through the mist of the waterfall.
Below them, Nanabozho looked up in delight when the brilliant colors spilled over his meadow. A gorgeous arch of red and orange and yellow and green and blue and violet shimmered in the sky above the waterfall. Nanabozho smiled at the funny little bluebirds and said: "You have made a rainbow!"
Nanabozho was so pleased that he left the rainbow permanently floating above his waterfall, its colors shimmering in the sunshine and the misting water. From that day to this, whenever Brother Sun shines his light on the rain or the mist, a beautiful rainbow forms. It is a reflection of the mighty rainbow that still stands over the waterfall at Nanabozho's house.
Settlement of the Americas[edit]
According to the most generally accepted theory[citation needed] of the settlement of the Americas, migrations of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The number and composition of the migrations is still being debated.[1] Falling sea levels associated with an intensive period of Quaternary glaciation created the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to Alaska about 60,000–25,000 years ago.[1][2] The latest this migration could have taken place is 12,000 years ago; the earliest remains undetermined.[3][4]
Three major migrations occurred, as traced by linguistic and genetic data; the early Paleoamericans soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.[5][6] By 8000 BCE the North American climate was very similar to today's.[7] A study published in 2012 gives genetic backing to the 1986 theory put forward by linguist Joseph Greenberg that the Americas must have been populated in three waves, based on language differences.[8][9]
Cultures prior to European contact[edit]
Native American cultures are not normally included in characterizations of advanced stone age cultures as "Neolithic," which is a category that more often includes only the cultures in Eurasia, Africa, and other regions. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology. They divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases;[10] see Archaeology of the Americas.
The Clovis culture, a megafauna hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, New Mexico. The Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, by which it was inserted into a shaft. Dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B.P. (roughly 9100 to 8850 BCE).
Numerous Paleoindian cultures occupied North America, with some arrayed around the Great Plains and Great Lakes of the modern United States of America and Canada, as well as adjacent areas to the West and Southwest. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living on this continent since their genesis, described by a wide range of traditional creation stories. Other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River.[11] Genetic and linguistic data connect the indigenous people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians. Archeological and linguistic data has enabled scholars to discover some of the migrations within the Americas.
A Folsom point for a spear.
The Folsom Tradition was characterized by use of Folsom points as projectile tips, and activities known from kill sites, where slaughter and butchering of bison took place. Folsom tools were left behind between 9000 BCE and 8000 BCE.[12]
Na-Dené-speaking peoples entered North America starting around 8000 BCE, reaching the Pacific Northwest by 5000 BCE,[13] and from there migrating along the Pacific Coast and into the interior. Linguists, anthropologists and archeologists believe their ancestors comprised a separate migration into North America, later than the first Paleo-Indians. They migrated into Alaska and northern Canada, south along the Pacific Coast, into the interior of Canada, and south to the Great Plains and the American Southwest. They were the earliest ancestors of the Athabascan- speaking peoples, including the present-day and historical Navajo and Apache. They constructed large multi-family dwellings in their villages, which were used seasonally. People did not live there year round, but for the summer to hunt and fish, and to gather food supplies for the winter.[14] The Oshara Tradition people lived from 5500 BCE to 600 CE. They were part of the Southwestern Archaic Tradition centered in north-central New Mexico, the San Juan Basin, the Rio Grande Valley, southern Colorado, and southeastern Utah.
Poverty Point is a 1 square mile (2.6 km2) complex of six major earthwork concentric rings, with additional platform mounds at the site. Artifacts show the people traded with other Native Americans located from Georgia to the Great Lakes region. This is one among numerous mound sites of complex indigenous cultures throughout the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. They were one of several succeeding cultures often referred to as mound builders.
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures refers to the time period from roughly 1000 BCE to 1,000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland" was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites dated between the Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures. The Hopewell tradition is the term for the common aspects of the Native American culture that flourished along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern United States from 200 BCE to 500 CE.[17]
Cultural areas of pre-Columbian North America, according to Alfred Kroeber.
The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of related populations, who were connected by a common network of trade routes,[18] known as the Hopewell Exchange System. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell exchange system ran from the Southeastern United States into the southeastern Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Within this area, societies participated in a high degree of exchange; most activity was conducted along the waterways that served as their major transportation routes. The Hopewell exchange system traded materials from all over the United States.
Coles Creek culture is an archaeological culture from the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern present-day United States. The period marked a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population increased dramatically. There is strong evidence of a growing cultural and political complexity, especially by the end of the Coles Creek sequence. Although many of the classic traits of chiefdom societies were not yet manifested, by 1000 CE the formation of simple elite polities had begun. Coles Creek sites are found in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Texas. It is considered ancestral to the Plaquemine culture.
Hohokam is one of the four major prehistoric archaeological traditions of the present-day American Southwest.[19] Living as simple farmers, they raised corn and beans. The early Hohokam founded a series of small villages along the middle Gila River. The communities were located near good arable land, with dry farming common in the earlier years of this period.[19] Wells, usually less than 10 feet (3 m) deep, were dug for domestic water supplies by 300 CE to 500 CE.[19] Early Hohokam homes were constructed of branches bent in a semi-circular fashion and covered with twigs and reeds. The last layer was heavily applied mud and other materials at hand.[19]
The Mississippian culture, which extended throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and built sites throughout the Southeast, created the largest earthworks in North America north of Mexico, most notably at Cahokia, on a tributary of the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. Its ten-story Monks Mound has a larger circumference than the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan or the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The 6 square miles (16 km2) city complex was based on the culture's cosmology; it included more than 100 mounds, positioned to support their sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, and built with knowledge of varying soil types.
It included a Woodhenge, whose sacred cedar poles were placed to mark the summer and winter solstices and fall and spring equinoxes. The society began building at this site about 950 CE, and reached its peak population in 1,250 CE of 20,000–30,000 people, which was not equalled by any city in the present-day United States until after 1800. Cahokia was a major regional chiefdom, with trade and tributary chiefdoms located in a range of areas from bordering the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. In the sixteenth century, the earliest
Sophisticated pre-Columbian sedentary societies evolved in North America. The Mississippian culture developed the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, the name which archeologists have given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies and mythology. The rise of the complex culture was based on the people's adoption of maize agriculture, development of greater population densities, and chiefdom-level complex social organization from 1200 CE to 1650 CE.[20][21]
While Eastern Woodlands tribes developed their own agriculture, the introduction of maize from Mesoamerica allowed the accumulation of crop surpluses to support a higher density of population. This in turn led to the development of specialized skills among some of the peoples. The Ceremonial Complex represents a major component of the religion of the Mississippian peoples, and is one of the primary means by which their religion is understood.[22]
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois League of Nations or "People of the Long House"), then based in present-day upstate and western New York, had a confederacy model from the mid-15th century. Some historians have suggested that it contributed to the political thinking during the development of the later United States government. Their system of affiliation was a kind of federation, different from the strong, centralized European monarchies.[23][24]
Leadership was restricted to a group of 50 sachem chiefs, each representing one clan within a tribe; the Oneida and Mohawk people had nine seats each; the Onondagas held fourteen; the Cayuga had ten seats; and the Seneca had eight. Representation was not based on population numbers, as the Seneca tribe greatly outnumbered the others. When a sachem chief died, his successor was chosen by the senior woman of his tribe in consultation with other female members of the clan; property and hereditary leadership were passed matrilineally. Decisions were not made through voting but through consensus decision making, with each sachem chief holding theoretical veto power. The Onondaga were the "firekeepers", responsible for raising topics to be discussed. They occupied one side of a three-sided fire (the Mohawk and Seneca sat on one side of the fire, the Oneida and Cayuga sat on the third side.)[25]
Elizabeth Tooker, an anthropologist, has said that it was unlikely the US founding fathers were inspired by the confederacy, as it bears little resemblance to the system of governance adopted in the United States. For example, it is based on inherited rather than elected leadership, selected by female members of the tribes, consensus decision-making regardless of population size of the tribes, and a single group capable of bringing matters before the legislative body.[25]
Long-distance trading did not prevent warfare and displacement among the indigenous peoples, and their oral histories tell of numerous migrations to the historic territories where Europeans encountered them. The Iroquois invaded and attacked tribes in the Ohio River area of present-day Kentucky and claimed the hunting grounds. Historians have placed these events as occurring as early as the 13th century, or in the 17th century Beaver Wars.[26]
Through warfare, the Iroquois drove several tribes to migrate west to what became known as their historically traditional lands west of the Mississippi River. Tribes originating in the Ohio Valley who moved west included the Osage, Kaw, Ponca and Omaha people. By the mid-17th century, they had resettled in their historical lands in present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Osage warred with Caddo-speaking Native Americans, displacing them in turn by the mid-18th century and dominating their new historical territories.[26]
European exploration and colonization[edit]
Main articles: Age of Discovery and European colonization of the Americas
Discovery of the Mississippi by William Henry Powell (1823–1879) is a Romantic depiction of de Soto's seeing the Mississippi River for the first time. It hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda.
After 1492 European exploration and colonization of the Americas revolutionized how the Old and New Worlds perceived themselves. One of the first major contacts, in what would be called the American Deep South, occurred when the conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed in La Florida in April 1513. He was later followed by other Spanish explorers, such as Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528 and Hernando de Soto in 1539. The subsequent European colonists in North America often rationalized their expansion of empire with the assumption that they were saving a barbaric, pagan world by spreading Christian civilization.[27]
In the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the policy of Indian Reductions resulted in the forced conversions to Catholicism of the indigenous people in northern Nueva España. They had long-established spiritual and religious traditions and theological beliefs. What developed during the colonial years and since has been a syncretic Catholicism that absorbed and reflected indigenous beliefs; the religion changed in New Spain.
Impact on native populations[edit]
Main article: Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas
From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the population of Native Americans declined in the following ways: epidemic diseases brought from Europe; violence and warfare[28] at the hands of European explorers and colonists, as well as between tribes; displacement from their lands; internal warfare,[29] enslavement; and a high rate of intermarriage.[30][31] Most mainstream scholars believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives because of their lack of immunity to new diseases brought from Europe.[32][33][34] With the rapid declines of some populations and continuing rivalries among their nations, Native Americans sometimes re-organized to form new cultural groups, such as the Seminoles of Florida in the 19th century and the Mission Indians of Alta California. Some scholars characterize the treatment of Native Americans by the USA as genocide or genocidal whilst others dispute this characterization.[28][35][36]
Estimating the number of Native Americans living in what is today the United States of America before the arrival of the European explorers and settlers has been the subject of much debate. While it is difficult to determine exactly how many Natives lived in North America before Columbus,[37] estimates range from a low of 2.1 million (Ubelaker 1976) to 7 million people (Russell Thornton) to a high of 18 million (Dobyns 1983).[36] A low estimate of around 1 million was first posited by the anthropologist James Mooney in the 1890s, by calculating population density of each culture area based on its carrying capacity. In 1965, the American anthropologist Henry Dobyns published studies estimating the original population to have been 10 to 12 million. By 1983, he increased his estimates to 18 million.[35][38][39] Historian David Henige criticized higher estimates such as those of Dobyns', writing that many population figures are the result of arbitrary formulas selectively applied to numbers from unreliable historical sources.[40] By 1800, the Native population of the present-day United States had declined to approximately 600,000, and only 250,000 Native Americans remained in the 1890s.[41]
Chicken pox and measles, endemic but rarely fatal among Europeans (long after being introduced from Asia), often proved deadly to Native Americans. Smallpox epidemics often immediately followed European exploration and sometimes destroyed entire village populations. While precise figures are difficult to determine, some historians estimate that at least 30% (and sometimes 50% to 70%) of some Native populations died after first contact due to Eurasian smallpox.[42][43] One element of the Columbian exchange suggests explorers from the Christopher Columbus expedition contracted syphilis from indigenous peoples and carried it back to Europe, where it spread widely.[44] Other researchers believe that the disease existed in Europe and Asia before Columbus and his men returned from exposure to indigenous peoples of the Americas, but that they brought back a more virulent form.
In the 100 years following the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas, large disease epidemics depopulated large parts of the eastern United States in the 15th century.[45] In 1618–1619, smallpox killed 90% of the Native Americans in the area of the Massachusetts Bay.[46] Historians believe many Mohawk in present-day New York became infected after contact with children of Dutch traders in Albany in 1634. The disease swept through Mohawk villages, reaching the Onondaga at Lake Ontario by 1636, and the lands of the western Iroquois by 1679, as it was carried by Mohawk and other Native Americans who traveled the trading routes.[47] The high rate of fatalities caused breakdowns in Native American societies and disrupted generational exchange of culture.
Between 1754 and 1763, many Native American tribes were involved in the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. Those involved in the fur trade in the northern areas tended to ally with French forces against British colonial militias. Native Americans fought on both sides of the conflict. The greater number of tribes fought with the French in the hopes of checking British expansion. The British had made fewer allies, but it was joined by some tribes that wanted to prove assimilation and loyalty in support of treaties to preserve their territories. They were often disappointed when such treaties were later overturned. The tribes had their own purposes, using their alliances with the European powers to battle traditional Native enemies.
Native California Population, according to Cook 1978. The 2010 U.S. Census reported 723,225 Native Americans in California.[48]
After European explorers reached the West Coast in the 1770s, smallpox rapidly killed at least 30% of Northwest Coast Native Americans. For the next 80 to 100 years, smallpox and other diseases devastated native populations in the region.[49] Puget Sound area populations, once estimated as high as 37,000 people, were reduced to only 9,000 survivors by the time settlers arrived en masse in the mid-19th century.[50] The Spanish missions in California did not significantly affect the population of Native Americans, but the numbers of the latter decreased rapidly after California ceased to be a Spanish colony, especially during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th (see chart on the right).
Smallpox epidemics in 1780–1782 and 1837–1838 brought devastation and drastic depopulation among the Plains Indians.[51][52] By 1832, the federal government established a smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans (The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832). It was the first federal program created to address a health problem of Native Americans.[53][54]
Animal introductions[edit]
With the meeting of two worlds, animals, insects, and plants were carried from one to the other, both deliberately and by chance, in what is called the Columbian Exchange. Sheep, pigs, horses, and cattle were all Old World animals that were introduced to contemporary Native Americans who never knew such animals.[55]
In the 16th century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to Mexico. Some of the horses escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. The early American horse had been game for the earliest humans on the continent. It was hunted to extinction about 7000 BCE, just after the end of the last glacial period.[citation needed] Native Americans benefited by reintroduction of horses. As they adopted use of the animals, they began to change their cultures in substantial ways, especially by extending their nomadic ranges for hunting.
The reintroduction of the horse to North America had a profound impact on Native American culture of the Great Plains. The tribes trained and used horses to ride and to carry packs or pull travois. The people fully incorporated the use of horses into their societies and expanded their territories. They used horses to carry goods for exchange with neighboring tribes, to hunt game, especially bison, and to conduct wars and horse raids.
King Philip's War[edit]
Main article: King Philip's War
King Philip's War, also called Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies from 1675 to 1676. It continued in northern New England (primarily on the Maine frontier) even after King Philip was killed, until a treaty was signed at Casco Bay in April 1678.[citation needed] According to a combined estimate of loss of life in Schultz and Tougias' King Philip's War, The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (based on sources from the Department of Defense, the Bureau of Census, and the work of Colonial historian Francis Jennings), 800 out of 52,000 English colonists of New England (1 out of every 65) and 3,000 out of 20,000 natives (3 out of every 20) lost their lives due to the war, which makes it proportionately one of the bloodiest and costliest in the history of America.[citation needed] More than half of New England's 90 towns were assaulted by Native American warriors. One in ten soldiers on both sides were wounded or killed.[56]
The war is named after the main leader of the Native American side, Metacomet (also known as Metacom or Pometacom) who was known to the English as King Philip. He was the last Massasoit (Great Leader) of the Pokanoket Tribe/Pokanoket Federation and Wampanoag Nation. Upon their loss to the Colonists, many managed to flee to the North to continue their fight against the British (Massachusetts Bay Colony) by joining with the Abanaki Tribes and Wabanaki Federation.[citation needed
Foundations for freedom[edit]
Further information: Great Law of Peace
The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West painted in 1771.
Some Europeans considered Native American societies to be representative of a golden age known to them only in folk history.[57] The political theorist Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that the idea of freedom and democratic ideals was born in the Americas because "it was only in America" that Europeans from 1500 to 1776 knew of societies that were "truly free."[57]
Natural freedom is the only object of the policy of the [Native Americans]; with this freedom do nature and climate rule alone amongst them ... [Native Americans] maintain their freedom and find abundant nourishment... [and are] people who live without laws, without police, without religion.
— Jean Jacques Rousseau[57]
In the 20th century, some writers have credited the Iroquois nations' political confederacy and democratic government as being influences for the development of the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.[58][59] In October 1988, the U.S. Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Constitution upon the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.[60]
But, leading historians of the period note that historic evidence is lacking to support such an interpretation. Gordon Wood wrote, "The English colonists did not need the Indians to tell them about federalism or self-government. The New England Confederation was organized as early as 1643."[61] The historian Jack Rakove, a specialist in early American history, in 2005 noted that the voluminous documentation of the Constitutional proceedings "contain no significant reference to Iroquois."[61] Secondly, he notes: "All the key political concepts that were the stuff of American political discourse before the Revolution and after, had obvious European antecedents and referents: bicameralism, separation of powers, confederations, and the like." [61]
American Revolution[edit]
Yamacraw Creek Native Americans meet with the Trustee of the colony of Georgia in England, July 1734. The painting shows a Native American boy (in a blue coat) and woman (in a red dress) in European clothing.
During the American Revolution, the newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, based both on their trading relationships and hopes that colonial defeat would result in a halt to further colonial expansion onto Native American land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war and others wanted to remain neutral. The first native community to sign a treaty with the new United States Government was the Lenape. For the Iroquois Confederacy, based in New York, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. The only Iroquois tribes to ally with the colonials were the Oneida and Tuscarora.
Frontier warfare during the American Revolution was particularly brutal, and numerous atrocities were committed by settlers and native tribes alike. Noncombatants suffered greatly during the war. Military expeditions on each side destroyed villages and food supplies to reduce the ability of people to fight, as in frequent raids by both sides in the Mohawk Valley and western New York.[62] The largest of these expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, in which American colonial troops destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages to neutralize Iroquois raids in upstate New York. The expedition failed to have the desired effect: Native American activity became even more determined.
American Indians have played a central role in shaping the history of the nation, and they are deeply woven into the social fabric of much of American life.... During the last three decades of the 20th century, scholars of ethnohistory, of the "new Indian history," and of Native American studies forcefully demonstrated that to understand American history and the American experience, one must include American Indians.
— Robbie Ethridge, Creek Country.[63]
Mishikinakwa ("Little Turtle")'s forces defeated an American force of nearly 1000 U.S Army soldiers and other casualties at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.
Bronze medals struck at behest of Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson and carried by Joseph Martin to give to Cherokee allies of colonial forces. Notice peace pipe atop the medal
The British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), through which they ceded vast Native American territories to the United States without informing or consulting with the Native Americans. The Northwest Indian War was led by Native American tribes trying to repulse American settlers. The United States initially treated the Native Americans who had fought as allies with the British as a conquered people who had lost their lands. Although most members of the Iroquois tribes went to Canada with the Loyalists, others tried to stay in New York and western territories to maintain their lands. The state of New York made a separate treaty with Iroquois nations and put up for sale 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2) of land that had previously been their territories. The state established small reservations in western New York for the remnant peoples.
The Indians presented a reverse image of European civilization which helped America establish a national identity that was neither savage nor civilized.
— Charles Sanford, The Quest for Paradise[64]
18th century United States[edit]
The United States was eager to expand, to develop farming and settlements in new areas, and to satisfy land hunger of settlers from New England and new immigrants. The national government initially sought to purchase Native American land by treaties. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy.[65]
George Washington advocated the advancement of Native American society and he "harbored some measure of goodwill towards the Indians."[66]
European nations sent Native Americans (sometimes against their will) to the Old World as objects of curiosity. They often entertained royalty and were sometimes prey to commercial purposes. Christianization of Native Americans was a charted purpose for some European colonies.
Whereas it hath at this time become peculiarly necessary to warn the citizens of the United States against a violation of the treaties.... I do by these presents require, all officers of the United States, as well civil as military, and all other citizens and inhabitants thereof, to govern themselves according to the treaties and act aforesaid, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
— George Washington, Proclamation Regarding Treaties, 1790.[67]
United States policy toward Native Americans had continued to evolve after the American Revolution. George Washington and Henry Knox believed that Native Americans were equals but that their society was inferior. Washington formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process.[68] Washington had a six-point plan for civilization which included:
1.impartial justice toward Native Americans
2.regulated buying of Native American lands
3.promotion of commerce
4.promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Native American society
5.presidential authority to give presents
6.punishing those who violated Native American rights.[69]
Robert Remini, a historian, wrote that "once the Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans."[70] The United States appointed agents, like Benjamin Hawkins, to live among the Native Americans and to teach them how to live like whites.[71]
How different would be the sensation of a philosophic mind to reflect that instead of exterminating a part of the human race by our modes of population that we had persevered through all difficulties and at last had imparted our Knowledge of cultivating and the arts, to the Aboriginals of the Country by which the source of future life and happiness had been preserved and extended. But it has been conceived to be impracticable to civilize the Indians of North America — This opinion is probably more convenient than just.
— Henry Knox to George Washington, 1790s.[66]
Benjamin Hawkins, seen here on his plantation, teaches Creek Native Americans how to use European technology. Painted in 1805.
In the late 18th century, reformers starting with Washington and Knox,[72] supported educating native children and adults, in efforts to "civilize" or otherwise assimilate Native Americans to the larger society (as opposed to relegating them to reservations). The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 promoted this civilization policy by providing funding to societies (mostly religious) who worked on Native American improvement.
I rejoice, brothers, to hear you propose to become cultivators of the earth for the maintenance of your families. Be assured you will support them better and with less labor, by raising stock and bread, and by spinning and weaving clothes, than by hunting. A little land cultivated, and a little labor, will procure more provisions than the most successful hunt; and a woman will clothe more by spinning and weaving, than a man by hunting. Compared with you, we are but as of yesterday in this land. Yet see how much more we have multiplied by industry, and the exercise of that reason which you possess in common with us. Follow then our example, brethren, and we will aid you with great pleasure...
— President Thomas Jefferson, Brothers of the Choctaw Nation, December 17, 1803[73]
19th century[edit]
Resistance[edit]
Tecumseh was the Shawnee leader of Tecumseh's War who attempted to organize an alliance of Native American tribes throughout North America.[74]
As American expansion continued, Native Americans resisted settlers' encroachment in several regions of the new nation (and in unorganized territories), from the Northwest to the Southeast, and then in the West, as settlers encountered the tribes of the Great Plains.
East of the Mississippi River, an intertribal army led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, fought a number of engagements in the Northwest during the period 1811–12, known as Tecumseh's War. In the latter stages, Tecumseh's group allied with the British forces in the War of 1812 and was instrumental in the conquest of Detroit. Conflicts in the Southeast include the Creek War and Seminole Wars, both before and after the Indian Removals of most members of the Five Civilized Tribes beginning in the 1830s under President Andrew Jackson's policies.
Native American nations on the plains in the west continued armed conflicts with the United States throughout the 19th century, through what were called generally "Indian Wars." The Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) was one of the greatest Native American victories. Defeats included the Sioux Uprising of 1862,[75] the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and Wounded Knee in 1890.[76] Indian Wars continued into the early 20th century.
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894),
"The Indian wars under the government of the United States have been more than 40 in number. They have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and children, including those killed in individual combats, and the lives of about 30,000 Indians. The actual number of killed and wounded Indians must be very much higher than the given... Fifty percent additional would be a safe estimate..."[77]
American expansion[edit]
Native Americans flee from the allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny, Columbia, painted in 1872 by John Gast
In July 1845, the New York newspaper editor John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase, "Manifest Destiny," as the "design of Providence" supporting the territorial expansion of the United States.[78] Manifest Destiny had serious consequences for Native Americans, since continental expansion for the United States took place at the cost of their occupied land. Manifest Destiny was a justification for expansion and westward movement, or, in some interpretations, an ideology or doctrine that helped to promote the process of civilization. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only good, but that it was obvious and certain. The term was first used primarily by Jacksonian Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States (the Oregon Territory, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession).
What a prodigious growth this English race, especially the American branch of it, is having! How soon will it subdue and occupy all the wild parts of this continent and of the islands adjacent. No prophecy, however seemingly extravagant, as to future achievements in this way [is] likely to equal the reality.
— Rutherford Birchard Hayes, U.S. President, January 1, 1857, Personal Diary.[79]
The age of Manifest Destiny, which came to be associated with extinguishing American Indian territorial claims and removing them to reservations, gained ground as the United States population explored and settled west of the Mississippi River. Although Indian Removal from the Southeast had been proposed by some as a humanitarian measure to ensure their survival away from Americans, conflicts of the 19th century led some European-Americans to regard the natives as "savages".
Civil War[edit]
For more details on this topic, see Native Americans in the American Civil War.
Ely Parker was a Union Civil War General who wrote the terms of surrender between the United States and the Confederate States of America.[80] Parker was one of two Native Americans to reach the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War.
Many Native Americans served in the military during the Civil War, on both sides.[81] By fighting with the whites, Native Americans hoped to gain favor with the prevailing government by supporting the war effort.[81][82]
Cherokee confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903.
General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca tribe, created the articles of surrender which General Robert E. Lee signed at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Gen. Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's military secretary and was a trained attorney, was once rejected for Union military service because of his race. At Appomattox, Lee is said to have remarked to Parker, "I am glad to see one real American here," to which Parker replied, "We are all Americans."[81] General Stand Watie, a leader of the Cherokee Nation and Confederate Indian cavalry commander, was the last Confederate General to surrender his troops.[83]
Removals and reservations[edit]
Main article: Americanization of Native Americans
Further information: List of Native American reservations in the United States
In the 19th century, the incessant westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, often by force, almost always reluctantly. Native Americans believed this forced relocation illegal, given the Hopewell Treaty of 1785. Under President Andrew Jackson, United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river.
As many as 100,000 Native Americans relocated to the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary and many Native Americans did remain in the East. In practice, great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties.
The most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy took place under the Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokees but not the principal chief. The following year, the Cherokee conceded to removal, but Georgia included their land in a lottery for European-American settlement before that. President Jackson used the military to gather and transport the Cherokee to the west, whose timing and lack of adequate supplies led to the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees on the Trail of Tears. About 17,000 Cherokees, along with approximately 2,000 enslaved blacks held by Cherokees, were taken by force migration to Indian Territory.[84]
Tribes were generally located to reservations where they could more easily be separated from traditional life and pushed into European-American society. Some southern states additionally enacted laws in the 19th century forbidding non-Native American settlement on Native American lands, with the intention to prevent sympathetic white missionaries from aiding the scattered Native American resistance.[85]
Native Americans and U.S. Citizenship[edit]
Portraits of Native Americans from the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Comanche, Iroquois, and Muscogee tribes in American attire. Photos date from 1868 to 1924.
In 1817, the Cherokee became the first Native Americans recognized as U.S. citizens. Under Article 8 of the 1817 Cherokee treaty, "Upwards of 300 Cherokees (Heads of Families) in the honest simplicity of their souls, made an election to become American citizens."[86][87] The next earliest recorded date of Native Americans' becoming U.S. citizens was in 1831, when some Mississippi Choctaw became citizens after the United States Congress ratified the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.[88][89][90][91]
Article 22 sought to put a Choctaw representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.[88] Under article XIV of that treaty, any Choctaw who elected not to move with the Choctaw Nation could become an American citizen when he registered and if he stayed on designated lands for five years after treaty ratification. Through the years, Native Americans became U.S. citizens by:
1. Treaty provision (as with the Cherokee)
2. Registration and land allotment under the Dawes Act of February 8, 1887
3. Issuance of Patent in Fee simple
4. Adopting Habits of Civilized Life
5. Minor Children
6. Citizenship by Birth
7. Becoming Soldiers and Sailors in the U.S. Armed Forces
8. Marriage to a U.S. citizen
9. Special Act of Congress.
In 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney expressed the opinion of the court that since Native Americans were "free and independent people" that they could become U.S. citizens.[92][93] Taney asserted that Native Americans could be naturalized and join the "political community" of the United States.[93]
[Native Americans], without doubt, like the subjects of any other foreign Government, be naturalized by the authority of Congress, and become citizens of a State, and of the United States; and if an individual should leave his nation or tribe, and take up his abode among the white population, he would be entitled to all the rights and privileges which would belong to an emigrant from any other foreign people.
— Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, 1857, What was Taney thinking? American Indian Citizenship in the era of Dred Scott, Frederick E. Hoxie, April 2007.[93]
After the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 states, "that all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States".[94] This was affirmed by the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. The concept of Native Americans as U.S. citizens fell out of favor among politicians at the time. Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan commented, “I am not yet prepared to pass a sweeping act of naturalization by which all the Indian savages, wild or tame, belonging to a tribal relation, are to become my fellow-citizens and go to the polls and vote with me". (Congressional Globe, 1866, 2895)[95] In a Senate floor debate regarding the Fourteenth Amendment, James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin stated, " ... all those wild Indians to be citizens of the United States, the Great Republic of the world, whose citizenship should be a title as proud as that of king, and whose danger is that you may degrade that citizenship (Congressional Globe, 1866, 2892)."[95]
Indian Appropriations Act of 1871[edit]
In 1871 Congress added a rider to the Indian Appropriations Act ending United States recognition of additional Native American tribes or independent nations, and prohibiting additional treaties.
That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to invalidate or impair the obligation of any treaty heretofore lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian nation or tribe.
— Indian Appropriations Act of 1871[96]
Why didn't you just name the book instead if copy and paste?
Pele's Revenge
A Hawaii Legend
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
Ohi'a and Lehua loved each other from the moment they first saw each other at a village dance. Ohi'a was a tall strong man with a handsome face and lithe form. He was something of a trickster and was first in all the sports played by all the young men. Lehua was gentle and sweet and as fragile as a flower. Her beauty was the talk of the island, and her father was quite protective of his only child.
When Lehua saw the handsome, bold Ohi'a speaking with her father beside the bonfire, she blushed crimson, unable to take her eyes from the young man. At the same moment, Ohi'a glanced up from his conversation and his mouth dropped open at the sight of the beautiful maiden. He was not even aware that he had stopped speaking right in the middle of his sentence, so overwhelmed was he by the sight of the fair maiden across the fire from him.
Lehua's father nudged the young man, recalling him to his duties as a guest. Ohi'a stuttered and stammered apologies, trying to continue his conversation while keeping one eye on the fair Lehua. Lehua's father was amused by the young man's obvious infatuation with his daughter. He quite liked this bold trickster, and so he offered to introduce Ohi'a to his daughter. The young man almost fell over in his haste as they walked across the clearing to where Lehua stood with her friends.
From that moment, there was no other woman for Ohi'a but Lehua. He had eyes only for her, and courted her with a passion and zeal that swiftly won her heart. Her father gave his only daughter gladly into the keeping of the strong young man, and the young couple lived quite happily for several months in a new home Ohi'a built for his bride.
Then one day the goddess Pele was walking in the forest near the home of the handsome Ohi'a and spied the young man at work. Pele was smitten by him, and went at once to engage him in conversation. Ohi'a spoke politely to the beautiful woman, but did not respond to her advances, which infuriated Pele. She was determined to have this young man for herself, but before she could renew her efforts, Lehua came to the place her young husband was working to bring him his midday meal.
When he saw his lovely wife, Ohi'a's face lit up with love. He dropped everything at once and went to her side, leaving a fuming Pele to stare in jealous rage at the young couple. Dropping her human disguise, the goddess transformed into a raging column of fire and struck Ohi'a down, transforming him into a twisted ugly tree in revenge for spurning her advances.
Lehua fell to her knees beside the twisted tree that had once been her husband. Tears streaming down her lovely face, she begged Pele to turn him back into a man or else turn her into a tree, as she could not bear to be separated from her beloved. But Pele ignored the girl, taking herself up to the cool heights, her anger satisfied. But the gods saw what Pele had done to the innocent lovers and were angry. As Lehua lay weeping in despair, the gods reached down and transformed the girl into a beautiful red flower, which they placed upon the twisted Ohi'a tree, so that she and her beloved husband would never more be apart.
From that day to this, the Ohi'a tree has blossomed with the beautiful red Lehua flowers. While the flowers remain on the tree, the weather remains sunny and fair. But when a flower is plucked from the tree, then heavy rain falls upon the land like tears, for Lehua still cannot bear to be separated from her beloved husband Ohi'a.
Rabbit Plays Tug-of-War
A Native American Legend
(Creek/Muscogee Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
Now Rabbit had a favorite place on the river where he always went to drink water. It was on a bend in the river, and two Snakes lived there, one on the upper side of the bend and one on the lower. Rabbit soon learned that neither of the Snakes knew that the other Snake lived there.
Ho, ho, ho, thought Rabbit. I am going to have a bit of fun!
Rabbit went to the Snake that lived on the upper bend of the river. "I am a very strong Rabbit," he told the Snake. "I bet I can pull you right out of the water."
"I bet you can't!" said the Snake, who was very strong indeed.
"I will go get a grape vine," said Rabbit. "You will pull one end and I will pull the other. "If I pull you out of the water, I win the contest. If you pull me into the water, then I win."
The Snake on the upper bend agreed. Then Rabbit went to the Snake on the lower bend and made the same deal. He told both Snakes that he would be standing out of sight on top of the river bank and would give a whoop when he was in place and ready to start the contest. Both Snakes were pleased with the arrangement. They were sure they would win against such a feeble little Rabbit.
Rabbit took a long grape vine and strung it across the wide bend in the river. He handed one end to the first Snake and the other end to the second Snake. Then he gave a loud whoop from the middle of the river bank and the two Snakes started tugging and pulling with all their might.
"That Rabbit is really strong," thought the Snake on the upper bank. He would tug and tug and the vine would come a little closer to him and then he would nearly be pulled out of the water.
"My, Rabbit is much stronger than he appears," thought the Snake on the lower bank after he was almost hurled out of the water by an extra strong pull from up the river.
Rabbit sat on the bank above both Snakes and laughed and laughed. The Snakes heard him laughing and realized that they had been fooled. Letting go of the rope, they swam to the middle of the bend and met each other for the first time.
Both Snakes were angry with Rabbit for making them look foolish. They agreed that Rabbit could no longer drink from his favorite place on the river bend where they lived. In spite of his protests, they sent Rabbit away and would not let him come down to the riverbank anymore. So whenever Rabbit grew thirsty, he had to turn himself into a faun in order to get a drink from the river.
After that, Rabbit decided not to play any more jokes on Snakes.
Rainbow Crow
(Lenni Lenape Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
It was so cold. Snow fell constantly, and ice formed over all the waters. The animals had never seen snow before. At first, it was a novelty, something to play in. But the cold increased tenfold, and they began to worry. The little animals were being buried in the snow drifts and the larger animals could hardly walk because the snow was so deep. Soon, all would perish if something were not done.
"We must send a messenger to Kijiamuh Ka'ong, the Creator Who Creates By Thinking What Will Be," said Wise Owl. "We must ask him to think the world warm again so that Spirit Snow will leave us in peace."
The animals were pleased with this plan. They began to debate among themselves, trying to decide who to send up to the Creator. Wise Owl could not see well during the daylight, so he could not go. Coyote was easily distracted and like playing tricks, so he could not be trusted. Turtle was steady and stable, but he crawled too slowly. Finally, Rainbow Crow, the most beautiful of all the birds with shimmering feathers of rainbow hues and an enchanting singing voice, was chosen to go to Kijiamuh Ka'ong.
It was an arduous journey, three days up and up into the heavens, passed the trees and clouds, beyond the sun and the moon, and even above all the stars. He was buffeted by winds and had no place to rest, but he carried bravely on until he reached Heaven. When Rainbow Crow reached the Holy Place, he called out to the Creator, but received no answer. The Creator was too busy thinking up what would be to notice even the most beautiful of birds. So Rainbow Crow began to sing his most beautiful song.
The Creator was drawn from his thoughts by the lovely sound, and came to see which bird was making it. He greeted Rainbow Crow kindly and asked what gift he could give the noble bird in exchange for his song. Rainbow Crow asked the Creator to un-think the snow, so that the animals of Earth would not be buried and freeze to death. But the Creator told Rainbow Crow that the snow and the ice had spirits of their own and could not be destroyed.
"What shall we do then?" asked the Rainbow Crow. "We will all freeze or smother under the snow."
"You will not freeze," the Creator reassured him, "For I will think of Fire, something that will warm all creatures during the cold times."
The Creator stuck a stick into the blazing hot sun. The end blazed with a bright, glowing fire which burned brightly and gave off heat. "This is Fire," he told Rainbow Crow, handing him the cool end of the stick. "You must hurry to Earth as fast as you can fly before the stick burns up."
Rainbow Crow nodded his thanks to the Creator and flew as fast as he could go. It was a three-day trip to Heaven, and he was worried that the Fire would burn out before he reached the Earth. The stick was large and heavy, but the fire kept Rainbow Crow warm as he descended from Heaven down to the bright path of the stars. Then the Fire grew hot as it came closer to Rainbow Crows feathers. As he flew passed the Sun, his tail caught on fire, turning the shimmering beautiful feathers black. By the time he flew passed the Moon, his whole body was black with soot from the hot Fire. When he plunged into the Sky and flew through the clouds, the smoke got into his throat, strangling his beautiful singing voice.
By the time Rainbow Crow landed among the freezing-cold animals of Earth, he was black as tar and could only Caw instead of sing. He delivered the fire to the animals, and they melted the snow and warmed themselves, rescuing the littlest animals from the snow drifts where they lay buried.
It was a time of rejoicing, for Tindeh - Fire - had come to Earth. But Rainbow Crow sat apart, saddened by his dull, ugly feathers and his rasping voice. Then he felt the touch of wind on his face. He looked up and saw the Creator Who Creates By Thinking What Will Be walking toward him.
"Do not be sad, Rainbow Crow," the Creator said. "All animals will honor you for the sacrifice you made for them. And when the people come, they will not hunt you, for I have made your flesh taste of smoke so that it is no good to eat and your black feathers and hoarse voice will prevent man from putting you into a cage to sing for him. You will be free."
Then the Creator pointed to Rainbow Crow's black feathers. Before his eyes, Rainbow Crow saw the dull feathers become shiny and inside each one, he could see all the colors of the rainbow. "This will remind everyone who sees you of the service you have been to your people," he said, "and the sacrifice you made that saved them all."
And so shall it ever be.
Spirit Lodge
(Nariticong Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
The great chief Quaquahela lived in peace with his people on the banks of the River Styx where it entered the lake waters. Their lives were busy and full. The warriors hunted and fished, the women cooked and cared for the old and the young, and all lived in peace with the natural world around them.
Quaquahela determined one day to visit with a tribe far to the south of their village. He set out at dusk, paddling across the lake, and then walking inland towards the lodge of a friend, where he would spend the night before resuming his journey. He had gone only a few yards from the lake shore when he heard a terrible snarling, and a huge bear came bursting forth out of the bushes nearby. Quaquahela was well-armed with his war club and his hunting gear, but the bear was his totem, and so it was forbidden for him to kill the creature. Thus he fled back toward his canoe, intent on escape. But the enraged bear threw itself forward and knocked him to the ground.
Why don't you just post the reference book instead of cut and paste.
really , this is a human rights site .
The point of this post was about the Trask's, the frauds of San Pasqual. Everyone just went off topic, that's why everyone of us are in the same situation, we should learn how to listen. PERIOD.
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