Identification. "Acadia" ("Acadie") was the name given to the first permanent French colony in North America.
The Achumawi are an American Indian group located in northeast California. "Achumawi" means "river people" and referred, aboriginally, to only one subgroup.
Identification. African Americans constitute the largest non-European racial group in the United States of America.
The Ahtna, an Athapaskan-speaking American Indian group, were located in the eighteenth century in the Copper River basin of Alaska and numbered about five hundred. First European contact was with Russians in the eighteenth Century, but it was the discovery of gold in their territory in 1899 that opened the group to intensive and sustained outside contact.
The Alabama (Alibamu), with the Kaskinampo, Koasati (Alabama-Coushatta), Muklasa, Pawokti, and Tawasa, lived in south central Alabama and the northwestern tip of Florida. Their descendants now live principally on the Polk County Reservation in Texas (the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas), in the Alabama-Quassarte tribal town in Oklahoma, and in the Coushatta Community in Louisiana.
Identification. The origin of the name "Aleut" is unCertain.
"Algonkin" is the name used here for a number of related groups who lived in southwestern Quebec and southeastern Ontario, from the Ottawa River to Lake Nipissing to the north of Georgian Bay. These groups included those known today as Abitibi, Kitcisagi (Grand Lake Victoria), Maniwaki, Nipissing, Temiscaming, and Weskarini, as well as other probably extinct bands.
Identification. Old Order Amish Mennonites in North America are a Germanic people with origins in the radical Swiss Anabaptist movement that developed between 1525 and 1536 during the Reformation.
The Arapaho are an Algonkian-speaking tribe who at the time of first contact with the Americans lived around the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte rivers in southwestern Wyoming and eastern Colorado. In the mid-nineteenth Century, the tribe split into two groups.
The Arikara are a group of Caddoan-speaking American Indians who in historic times lived along the Missouri River in northern South Dakota and west-central North Dakota. The Arikara are culturally related to the Pawnee.
The Assiniboin are a Siouan-speaking group who separated from the Nakota (Yanktonnai) in northern Minnesota sometime before 1640 and moved northward to ally themselves with the Cree near Lake Winnipeg. Later in the century they began to move westward, eventually settling in the basins of the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine rivers in Canada, and in Montana and North Dakota north of the Milk and Missouri rivers.
Identification. The Baffinland Inuit constitute the Easternmost group of what is commonly referred to as the Central Eskimo, a designation that also includes the Copper, Iglulik, Netsilik, and Caribou Inuit.
The Bannock are a Northern Paiute-speaking minority population among the Northern Shoshone, both of whom in the past lived in southern Idaho south of the Salmon River and extending eastward into northwestern Wyoming and southwestern Montana. Most now live with the Northern Shoshone on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation near Pocatello, Idaho.
Identification. The European Basque homeland is in the western Pyrenees and straddles the French-Spanish border.
The Bearlake Indians are an Athapaskan-speaking Population made up of the descendants of Dogrib, Hare, Slavey, and other groups who were in contact with Europeans after the establishment of trading posts at or near Great Bear Lake in the northern Canadian Northwest Territories. Their Culture is similar to that of the Dogrib, Hare, and Slavey.
The Beaver are an American Indian group numbering about nine hundred located in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta in Canada. They are closely related to the Sekani, their neighbors to the west.
The Bellabella are a Kwakiutl-speaking group related to the Southern Kwakiutl and the Nootka, neighboring groups to the south. The Bellabella live on the coast of British Columbia in the area from Rivers Inlet to Douglas Channel The name "Bellabella" is an Indian rendering of the English word Milbank, taken back into English.
The Bella Coola are a North American Indian group numbering about six hundred who live on and near a reserve at Bella Coola, British Columbia. The Bella Coola language is classified in the Salishan-language family.
Identification. The Blackfoot of the United States and Canada consisted aboriginally of three geographical-linguistic groups: the Siksika (Northern Blackfoot), the Kainah (Blood), and the Pikuni or Piegan.
Identification. The Black population in Canada today is derived from several migratory streams.
Identification. Blacks in the United States of West Indian ancestry come mainly either from the British West Indies (Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Windward Islands) or from Haiti, in the French West Indies.
"Caddo" is the name used for a number of related and perhaps affiliated groups who lived in the lower Red River Valley and surrounding sections of what are now Louisiana, eastern Texas, and southern Arkansas. The number of Caddo subgroups is unknown and may have ranged from six to more than a dozen, including the Adai, Natchitoches, Kadohadacho, Hasinai, Hainai, and Eyeish.
The Cahuilla are an American Indian group who lived aboriginally and continue to live in south-central California in a region bordered roughly by the San Bernardino Mountains on the north and Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains on the south. Neighboring groups were the Mohave, Tipai-Ipai, Serrano, Gabrielino, Juaneño, and Luiseño.
Identification. The Cajuns are a distinct cultural group of people who have lived mainly in south-central and Southwestern Louisiana since the late eighteenth century.
Caribou Inuit refers to five independent groups (Qairnirmiut, Harvaqtuurmiut, Hauniqtuurmiut, Paallirmiut, and Ahiarmiut) of central Canadian Inuit located on and inland from the west shore of Hudson Bay between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W. The name "Caribou" was applied by Europeans on the Fifth Danish Thule Expedition (1921-1924) and reflects the groups' reliance on the caribou for food and raw materials.
The Carrier are an American Indian group located in north-central British Columbia along the numerous lakes and rivers in the region. The estimated precontact population of roughly eighty-five hundred decreased to a low of about fifteen hundred by 1890 and has since increased to about six thousand.
Identification. The Catawba are an American Indian group who live in North and South Carolina.
The Cayuga were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or Five Nations Confederacy. The Cayuga, living mostly in Ontario, New York, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma in the 1980s, numbered more than three thousand.
The Cayuse (Wailatpa, Wailatpu) lived around the heads of the Wallawalla, Unatilla, and Grand Ronde rivers and extended from the Blue Mountains to Deschutes River in the general area of Pendleton and La Grande in northeastern Oregon. They spoke a language isolate in the Penutian phylum and probably number about three hundred today on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, where they live among the Wallawalla and Umatilla.
ETHNONYMS: Aglurmiut, Akulmiut, Askinarmiut, Bering Sea Eskimos, Canineqmiut, Kiatagmiut, Kuigpagmiut, Kusquqvagmiut, Marayarmiut, Nunivaarmiut, Pastulirmiut, Qaluyaarmiut, Southwest Alaska Eskimos, Tuyuryarmiut, Unaliqmiut, West Alaska Eskimos.
The Chastacosta, including the Coquille, Galice (Taltushtuntude), Tututni (Lower Rogue River Indians), and the Umpqua, lived in southwestern Oregon along the Lower Rogue, Coquille, and Illinois rivers. They spoke Athapaskan languages and numbered less than fifty in 1970.
The Chehalis, including the Upper Chehalis (Kwaiailk), Lower Chehalis, Copalis, Cowlitz, Humptulip, Oyhut, Satsop, and Shoalwater Salish, lived in southeastern Washington along the Chehalis, Satsop, and Cowlitz rivers. They spoke Halkomelem languages of the Coast Salish division and numbered 382 in 1984.
The Chickasaw are a Muskogean-speaking American Indian group whose aboriginal homeland was located in present-day northeastern Mississippi. The Chickasaw, one of the socalled Five Civilized Tribes, numbered about five thousand in 1600 and about seven thousand in 1980.
The Chilcotin (Tsilkotin) are an Athapaskan-speaking group who live in the valley region of the Chilcotin River in south-central British Columbia. Their culture is basically of the Subarctic Athabaskan type, but they have been strongly influenced by the culture of the neighboring groups of the Plateau area of northwestern North America.
The Chinook are an American Indian group who joined the Chehalis Indians and other tribes of Oregon and Washington in the mid-nineteenth century following the decimation of their tribe by smallpox epidemics in 1782-1783, 1830-1833, and 1853. In the 1970s the descendants of the Chinook resided on or near the Chehalis Indian Reservation in Washington.
Identification. The Chipewyan are a Subarctic group whose name is derived from a Cree word meaning "pointed skins," a reference to the cut of the caribou-skin hunting shirt traditionally worn by the men.
The Chiricahua are an Athapaskan-speaking American Indian group whose traditional homeland was located in present-day southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, southwestern Texas, and the adjacent areas of northern Mexico. At the beginning of the nineteenth century they numbered about one thousand.
The Chitimacha (Shetinasha) live in southern and southwestern Louisiana, principally on the Chitimacha Indian Reservation on Grand Lake near Charenton, Louisiana. In the 1980s they spoke a language isolate in the Macro-Algonkian phylum and numbered about six hundred.
Identification. The Choctaw are an American Indian group who lived aboriginally in Mississippi.
The Chumash are a Hokan-speaking American Indian group who in the late eighteenth century was located in Present-day southern coastal California near Santa Barbara and numbered between ten thousand and eighteen thousand. The Chumash were primarily gatherers whose food staple was the acorn.
The Coast Miwok (Olamentke), including the Lake Miwok, lived on the California coast north of San Francisco and inland to Clear Lake. They spoke languages of the Miwok family of the Penutian phylum.
The Cocapa are a Yuman language-speaking group in the lower Colorado River region and its delta in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, and northwestern Sonora and northeastern Baja California Norte in Mexico. The Cocopa continue to maintain their identity as an ethnic group, although many elements of their material culture have disappeared in the delta because of upstream diversions and dam construction.
The Coeur d'Alène (Skitswish, Schitzui) lived around the headwaters of the Spokane River and Coeur d'Aléne Lake in northern Idaho in the 1700s, and numbered about three thousand. They speak an Interior Salish language and number about eight hundred on or near the Coeur d'Alène Indian Reservation in northern Idaho, where they have been largely assimilated into American society.
The Columbia (Middle Columbia Salish, Sinkiuse), including the Chelan, Methow, Sinkakaius (Sinkaquaiius), and Wenatchi (Pisquow, Moses' Columbia), lived in northwestern Washington from the Columbia River region to the Cascades Range and from Wenatchee north to the Canadian border. They speak an Interior Salish language, probably number about two hundred, and live with other groups on Colville Indian Reservation in Washington.
Comox is the language spoken by the Comox, Homalco, Klahoose, and Sliammon American Indians of British Columbia. The Comox were located on the east coast of Vancouver Island; the one hundred or so remaining Comox Currently reside on or near the Comox Indian Reserve in Comox Harbor.
Identification. The people of the Canadian Arctic most often referred to as "Copper Eskimos" had no name for themselves as a whole group, but rather referred only to local groups.
The Cowichan lived aboriginally and continue to live on the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island between Nanoos Bay and Saanich Inlet (the Cowichan proper) and on the mainland on the lower Fraser River. There were numerous subdivisions (more than forty in all), including the Muskwium (Musqueam), Nanaimo (Snanaimux), and Sanetch (Saanich).
Prior to European settlement, the Creek were a confederacy of tribes who lived in about fifty villages mainly in central Georgia and in other locations from the Atlantic coast to central Alabama. Included in the confederacy were the Kawita (Coweta), Kasihta, Abihka, Hilibi, Kusa (Coosa), Wakokai, and Huhliwahli.
The Crow are an American Indian group who today live primarily on the Crow Reservation in Big Horn and Yellowstone counties, Montana. The 1980 U.S.
Identification. By the end of the eighteenth century the name "Delaware" had become associated with three groups of native people who originally occupied the valley of the Delaware River.
Identification. As used here, "East Asians in Canada" refers to Canadians of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Filipino ethnic ancestry.
Identification. The general category of East Asians in the United States includes Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean ancestry.
The East Greenland Inuit are found in the Ammassalik (65°40′ N) and Scoresbysund (70° N) regions on the east coast of Greenland. Two other east Greenland groups, the Northeast and the Southeast Greenland Inuit, are now extinct.
The name "Eskimo" has been applied to the native peoples of the Arctic since the sixteenth century; ironically, it is not an Eskimo word. For close to a century both anthropological and popular sources, including the Oxford English and Webster's New World dictionaries, maintained that the name "Eskimo" derived from a proto-Algonkian root translating as "eaters of the raw flesh." In fact, the name originated in the Montagnais language and had no such meaning.
About 80 percent of Americans are descended from people of European ethnicity. The short summaries that follow present information on the population, distribution, migration History, and cultural persistence of thirty-seven European ethnic groups in the United States.
ALBANIANS. In 1981, 1,265 Canadians claimed Albanian ethnic ancestry.
The Flathead are an American Indian group numbering about four thousand who live with members of the Kalispel and Kutenai American Indian groups on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana.
Identification. The Fox were a hunting and agricultural society whose name for themselves was "Meskwahki-haki," meaning "Red earths" or "People of the red earth." Their identity is often confused with the Sauk.
Identification. French Canadian is a generic term applied to all descendants of French settlers in Canada.
The Gosiute (Goshute) live in the area around the Great Salt Lake and to the west in Utah and Nevada. They speak a Shoshonean language.
Identification. The Haida are an American Indian group whose traditional territory covered the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia and a section of the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska.
Identification. Haitians are Blacks from the island of Haiti, which occupies one-third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea.
The Halchidhoma lived along the Colorado River in Arizona near the mouth of the Gila River and spoke a Yuman Language. They now live with the Maricopa in Arizona on the Gila River Indian Reservation.
The Han (Hankutchin) are an Athapaskan-speaking group who live in the western part of the Yukon Territory in Canada and the east-central part of Alaska in the upper Yukon River drainage area. It has been estimated that there are about thirty-five speakers of the Han language who, along with a few hundred others, are assimilated into White society.
Identification. Hasidim are ultrareligious Jews who live within the framework of their centuries-old beliefs and traditions and who observe Orthodox law so meticulously that they are set apart from most other Orthodox Jews.
A Yuman-speaking American Indian group, the Havasupai, both past and present, have been located in Cataract Canyon in northwestern Arizona. Except in modern times, the Havasupai have never numbered more than about three hundred people.
Identification. The Hopi are an American Indian group in Arizona.
The Hopi-Tewa are a Tewa-speaking American Indian group who live in the pueblo of Hano on First Mesa on the Hopi Indian Reservation in northeastern Arizona. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries the ancestors of the Hopi-Tewa occupied several pueblo communities in the Galisteo Basin, south of present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Huma (Houma, Sabine) lived on the east side of the Mississippi River near the present Louisiana-Mississippi border. They are now settled in several communities around Houma, Louisiana, in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.
The Hupa are an American Indian group who lived at the time of contact and continue to live on the lower course of the Trinity River in northwestern California. Culturally, they were closely related to the neighboring Yurok and Karok and the Chilula, Whilkut, and South Fork Hupa, the latter three no longer existing as distinct cultural entities.
The Huron were a confederacy of Northern Iroquoian-speaking American Indians who in the early seventeenth Century were located southeast of Georgian Bay in present-day Ontario, Canada. At that time they numbered about thirty thousand, but following smallpox epidemics in the 1630s were reduced to about ten thousand by 1639.
Identification. The Hutterites in Canada and the United States are a Germanic people with origins in the Swiss Anabaptist movement that developed between 1525 and 1536 during the Reformation.
The term "Iglulik" refers to the Iglulingmiut, Aivilingmiut, and Tununirmiut, Inuit-Inupiaq-speaking peoples located north of Hudson Bay in the Canadian Northwest Territories. Formerly, the Iglulik ranged over a wide territory that included parts of northern Baffin Island, Melville Peninsula, and northern Southampton Island.
The Illinois, including the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa, with the related Mascouten, lived principally along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. The remnants of the Illinois, together with the Wea and Piankashaw, now live on or near the former Peoria Indian Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, and are largely assimilated with the European-American Population.
The Iowa (Pahodja) lived throughout much of the present state of Iowa and in adjoining parts of Minnesota and Missouri and were culturally related to the neighboring Oto and Missouri. They now live principally on the Iowa Indian Reservation (which straddles the Kansas-Nebraska state boundary along the Missouri River) and in a federal trust area in central Oklahoma.
Identification. Irish Travelers are a small, itinerant ethnic group in the United States.
Identification. The League of the Iroquois was originally a confederacy of five North American Indian tribes: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.
Identification. The Jews of North America are a relatively assimilated ethnic group in the United States and Canada.
Identification. The Jicarilla are an American Indian group whose names for themselves, "Haisndayin" and "Dinde," have been translated as "people who came from below" and "people." The name "Jicarilla" was used first by the Spanish in 1700 in reference to a hill or peak associated with the location of the tribe at that time.
The Kalapuya are an American Indian group who in the late eighteenth century numbered about three thousand and occupied the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. The Kalapuya language belonged to the Penutian language phylum.
The Kalispel (Kulleespelm, Pend d'Oreilles), including the Semteuse (Sematuse), lived around Pend d'Oreille River and Lake and around Priest Lake in northern Idaho. They now live on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington.
The Kansa (Kaw, Hutanga) lived in the general area of the Kansas River in northeastern Kansas and in the adjoining part of Missouri. They now live in a federal trust area in north-central Oklahoma, where they are largely assimilated into the White community.
Identification, The Karok are an American Indian group located in northern California. The name "Karok" is from karuk, "upriver," by contrast with the name "Yurok" for a neighboring tribe, from yuruk, "downriver." The Karok's name for themselves is simply "'Araar," (human being).
The Kaska, a group of Athapaskan-speaking Indians closely related to the Tahltan, live in northern British Columbia and southeastern Yukon Territory in Canada. Formerly spread out thinly over a wide area, most now live on several reserves in the region.
The Kawaiisu live in the Tehachapi and Piute mountains to the northeast of Los Angeles, California. They speak a Shoshonean language and probably number less than fifty.
Identification. The name "Keres" refers to seven present-day Keresan-speaking Pueblo Indian tribes of New Mexico.
Identification. The name "Kickapoo" no longer has any evident meaning to the Kickapoo people other than that is how they refer to themselves.
Identification. "Kae-gua" (Kiowa plural) is an inflected form of an unanalyzable base; most historic appellations are variants of this form.
The Kiowa Apache are a small Athapaskan group who at the time of sustained contact with Europeans in the early nineteenth century lived in the northwestern plains. Later they relocated to the general area of the Oklahoma Panhandle and adjoining sections of Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico.
As described here, "Klallam" refers to an American Indian group that includes the Klallam proper, the Lummi, Nootsack (Nooksack), Samish, Samiamoo (Semiahmoo), Songish (Lkungen), and the Sooke. They live in the general area of the shores of northern Puget Sound, more specifically on the northeastern part of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, and on the adjacent coast and islands of northwestern Washington.
Identification. The Klamath were an American Indian group who lived in southern Oregon and northern California.
The Klikitat (Klickitat, Qwulhhwaipum), including the Mical and the Taidnapam (Taitnapam, Upper Cowlitz), lived in southwestern Washington on the north side of the Columbia River between The Dalles and Kelso, Washington. Most of them now live on the Yakima Indian Reservation, and are largely absorbed into the Yakima.
The Koyukon (Coyukon), including the Kolchan-Teneyna, both Athapaskan-speaking groups, live in the Yukon River basin south of the mouth of the Tanana River in central Alaska. There are about five hundred Koyukon speakers living in communities in their traditional area.
Identification. The Kumeyaay are an American Indian group located in southern California and often called the "Diegueño" or "Tipai-Ipai." The Spanish recorded dialect variants of "Kumayaay," the people's name for themselves.
The Kutchin are a group of Athapaskan-speaking Indians living in northeastern Alaska and extending eastward across the Mackenzie River in Canada in the northern Yukon Territory and northwestern Northwest Territories. Contact with Europeans began with Alexander Mackenzie's exploring party in 1789.
The Kutenai are an American Indian group living on the Kootenai Indian Reservation in Idaho, the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, and various reserves in British Columbia. In the nineteenth century the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company established trading posts in the Kutenai territory.
Identification. "Kwakiutl" was initially and properly applied only to one local group, the Walas Kwakiutl of Queen Charlotte Strait, British Columbia, but was subsequently used by fur traders and others to designate the four groups (including the Walas Kwakiutl) that assembled at the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Rupert in the 1850s.
"Labrador Inuit" refers to the native Inuit people of Labrador, a section of Canada that is now within the provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland. Scholars have recently suggested that the Inuit of Labrador are more accurately classified as two groups: the Labrador Inuit, on the coast of the Labrador Sea in Newfoundland, and the Inuit of Quebec, on the coasts of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait and in the interior of Labrador.
The Lake (Senijextee, Gens des Lacs) lived on both sides of the Columbia River from Kettle Falls in northeastern Washington into British Columbia to the Arrow Lakes, on the Kettle River, and on the lower Kootenay River. Their culture was of the general Plateau type and they spoke an Interior Salish language.
The Lillooet were one of the four principal tribes in the interior plateau of British Columbia. They are sometimes referred to as the Lower Lillooet, including the Douglas and Pembroke Meadows bands, and the Upper Lillooet, including all other bands.
The Luiseño and Juaneño, who culturally and linguistically are one group, are an American Indian group located in southern California. The Luiseño were associated with Mission San Luis Rey and the Juaneño with Mission San Juan Capistrano, from which the two groups take their respective names.
The Lumbee are English-speaking descendants of the remnants of various Native American groups who now live principally along the Lumbee River in Robeson County, North Carolina, and in adjacent counties in North and South Carolina. The Lumbee number about forty thousand, making them the fifth largest American Indian group in the United States and the largest in the East.
The Mahican (River Indians, Canoe Indians), together with the Wappinger, lived along the Hudson River in eastern New York from Lake Champlain to Manhattan Island and eastward to the Housatonic Valley in Massachusetts and the Connecticut River in Connecticut. Descendants of these groups now live on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin and in the Brotherton Indian Community in Winnebago and Calumet counties, Wisconsin.
The Maidu (Pujunan), including the Nisenan (Southern Maidu, Nishinam) and Konkau (Concow, Konkow), live in the drainage area of the Feather and American rivers in north-central California among other Indians and Whites. They spoke languages of the Maidu (Pujunan) family of the Penutian phylum.
Identification. The Mandan are an American Indian group located in North Dakota, their aboriginal home.
The Maricopa are an American Indian group whose two hundred or so members live with members of the Pima tribe on and near the Gila River Indian Reservation and the Salt River Indian Reservation in Arizona. In the late 1700s the Maricopa numbered about three thousand and were located along the middle Gila River in south-central Arizona.
The Massachuset, with the Nauset (Cape Indians), Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Natick (Praying Indians), lived in eastern Massachusetts south to the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay. Descendants of these groups now live in the Nipmuc Community near Worcester, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (Gay Head), and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Mashpee).
Identification.
Identification. Scholars use metis, originally a French term meaning "mixed," to designate individuals and communities who identify their ancestors with historical fur trade communities.
The Metoac (Long Island Indians), including the Montauk, Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhasset, Rockaway, and Patchogue, lived in the eastern and central parts of Long Island, New York. Their descendants now live in small communities in the area or have been absorbed into other groups who removed to the West in the late 1700s.
Identification. The Miami are an Algonkian people, closely related to the Illinois.
The Missouri (Niutachi) lived in north central Missouri along the Missouri River, including one probable village in Saline County. Their descendants now have been assimilated into and live with the Oto in a federal trust area in north Central Oklahoma.
The Miwok are a Penutian-speaking group of American Indians who formerly occupied the coastal region of present-day California between San Francisco and Monterey. In 1800 the Miwok numbered about twenty-two thousand, but their numbers were reduced to five thousand by the mid-nineteenth century as a result of disease and hardship encountered at the hands of the Spanish.
Identification. The Mohave were a farming people whose name for themselves, "Hamakhav," has been translated to mean "people who live along the water." In the 1970s, two thousand Mohave lived on the Colorado Indian Reservation and the Fort Mohave Reservation, both located along the Colorado River at the Arizona-California border.
The Mohawk were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or Five Nations Confederacy. The Mohawk live mostly in Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York and Oklahoma in the United States and numbered about ten thousand on six reservations in the 1980s.
The Mohegan, with the Pequot, Narragansett, and Niantic (Nehantic), lived in western Rhode Island and in Connecticut east of the Connecticut River. They now live on some small reservations in the area and in nearby communities.
The Molokans are a Russian fundamental Christian sect. Numbering perhaps as many as a million prior to the Russian Revolution, about thirty-five hundred Molokans immigrated to the United States between 1901 and 1911 to seek religious freedom and economic opportunity and to escape military service in the Russian Empire.
The Mono, including the Eastern Mono (Owens Valley Paiute) and the Western Mono (Monache) lived in eastern California near the Nevada border, in Owens Valley, and the country to the west, near Bishop, California. They speak a Shoshonean language.
Identification. In its broadest sense the name "Montagnais-Naskapi" refers to all of the nomadic hunting and fishing Algonkian peoples inhabiting the Labrador Peninsula of Newfoundland and Quebec since at least early historic times.
Identification. The Mormons are a religious-based cultural group founded in western New York State in 1830.
The Mountain (Tsethaottine, Chitra-Gottineke), an Athapaskan-speaking group, live in the Mackenzie Mountains in the basin of the Keele (Gravel) River, the region of Willow Lake, and the country between the Mackenzie River and Lakes La Martre, Grandin, and Tache, in the western part of the Mackenzie District in the Northwest Territories of Canada. There were about one hundred Mountain Indians in 1971.
The Nabesna (Nebesnatana, Upper Tanana), an Athapaskan-speaking group, live in the basins of the Nabesna and Chitana rivers in southeastern Alaska.
The Nanticoke (Nentego), with the Conoy (Piscataway), lived on the eastern and western shores of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and in southern Delaware. They spoke Algonkian languages.
Identification. The Navajo are a large American Indian group currently located in Arizona and New Mexico.
The Netsilik Inuit are a group of several hundred Inuit who live in the Canadian Arctic north of Hudson Bay on the Boothia Peninsula, King William Island, and the Adelaide Peninsula. In the nineteenth century the Netsilik occupied the same Canadian Arctic area and numbered about five hundred.
Identification. The Nootka are an American Indian group located mainly on Vancouver Island.
Identification. The North Alaskan Eskimos are located along the coast of northern Alaska.
Most of the Northern Metis live in the lower Mackenzie River region in the Mackenzie District of the Northwest Territories of Canada, from Fort Simpson northward. Others live in the northern Yukon Territory and in eastern Alaska.
Identification. The Northern Shoshone (Nimi, Wihinaitti) and Bannock (Banakwut, Nimi, Pan'akwati, Pannaitti) lived in an area roughly within the present boundaries of the state of Idaho, south of the Salmon River, but at times extending slightly into northern Utah.
The Okanagon (Isonkuaíli), including the Northern Okanagon and the Sinkaietk (Southern Okanagon, Lower Okanagon), live along the Okanagan River from its confluence with the Columbia River in north-central Washington to the Okanagan Lake region of south-central British Columbia. They speak an Interior Salish language and today number about twenty-one hundred.
Identification. Old Believers are a religious group of People who pattern their worship and way of life on the Old Rite of the Russian Orthodox church.
The Omaha are a Plains-Prairie Indian group who were located aboriginally in the upper Missouri Valley, between the Platte and Big Sioux rivers, in the present-day states of Nebraska and Iowa. Along with the Kansa, Osage, Ponca, and Quapaw, they spoke dialects of the Dhegiha language of the Siouan language family.
The Oneida were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or the Five Nations Confederacy. The Oneida live mostly in Wisconsin and New York in the United States and Ontario in Canada and numbered approximately five thousand in the 1980s.
The Onondaga were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or the Five Nations Confederacy. The Onondaga live mostly on Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, and the Onondaga Indian Reservation in New York State.
The Oto (Chewaere, Hoctatas, Octatas) lived in eastern Nebraska on the lower course of the Platte River and along the Missouri River. They now live in a federal trust area in northcentral Oklahoma together with the Missouri.
The Ottawa, who speak a southeastern dialect of Ojibwa, an Algonkian language, at the time of first European contact about 1615 were located on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron and on adjacent areas of the Ontario mainland. In about 1650 some of the group moved westward, away from the Iroquois, and many eventually settled in the coastal areas of the lower peninsula of Michigan and neighboring areas of Ontario, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with Michigan being the central area for the next three hundred years.
Identification. The Ozarks is a geographical-cultural region in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in the United States.
The Passamaquoddy are an American Indian group who aboriginally and today number about one thousand and live in northern Maine.
Identification. The Pawnee are an American Indian group currently living in Oklahoma.
The Pennacook (Western Abenaki) lived in the valleys of the Merrimac River in New Hampshire and the Connecticut River in Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts, and in neighboring areas. They were a confederacy of Algonkian-speaking groups; most, such as the Wamesit, Agawam, Nashua, and Winnepesaukee, are now extinct.
The Penobscot are an American Indian group who aboriginally and today number about one thousand and live in northern Maine.
Peripatetic peoples consist of small, ethnically recruited, kinship-based bands who make their living by providing goods and services to the larger population. These groups are often called "Gypsies." Instead of relying directly on natural resources, peripatetics exploit a social resource base that, although ubiquitous and relatively predictable overall, is characterized by intermittent demand and patchy geographical distribution.
Identification. Polynesia is the culture area of the Pacific Ocean that lies roughly between 170° and 110° E and 40° to 20° S.
The Ponca are a Plains-Prairie Indian group who were located aboriginally in present-day southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska. Their name for themselves is "Ponka," the derivation of which is unknown.
In early historic times, the Potawatomi, an Algonkian-speaking tribe closely related to the Ottawa and the Ojibwa, lived in the lower peninsula of Michigan, eastern Wisconsin, northeastern Illinois, and northwestern Indiana. Between 1836 and 1841 a large segment of the tribe moved west of the Mississippi to Iowa, Kansas, or ultimately Oklahoma.
The Powhatan are an American Indian group whose members live on the Mattoponi and Pamunkey state reservations in Virginia and in nearby communities. At the Beginning of the sixteenth century the Powhatan were a confederacy of thirty tribes numbering nine thousand people in two hundred villages located on the southeastern and southwestern sides of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and northEastern Virginia.
"Pueblo Indians" is the generic label for American Indian groups of the Southwest who are descended from the Anasazi peoples who inhabited the American Southwest continuously from the eighth century A.D. Prior to Spanish arrival in and settlement of the Southwest beginning with Francisco Vásquez Coronado's expedition of 1540-1542 there were ninety or more Pueblo groups in northern Arizona and New Mexico.
The Quapaw (Kwapa, Akansa, Arkansas) lived at or near the mouth of the Arkansas River where it meets the Mississippi River in southeastern Arkansas. They now live on a federal trust area in northeastern Oklahoma.
Identification. The Quechan are an American Indian group located in western Arizona and eastern California.
The Quileute (Quillayute), including the Hoh, live on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington to the south of Cape Flattery. Today they live mainly on the Quileute and Hoh Indian reservations in Washington.
The Quinault (Quinaelt, Quinaielt), including the Queets (Quaitso), live on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington to the south of the Quileute and Hoh. They spoke Coast Salish languages and numbered about sixteen hundred in 1984.
Identification. The Rom speaking a Vlach (Vlax) Gypsy dialect have representatives over most of the world including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and much of Central and South America.
The Sanpoil (Nesilextcin, N'Puchle), including the Nespelem and the Colville (Skoylpeli, Kettle Falls Indians), lived in northwestern Washington along the Columbia River from Kettle Falls to the vicinity of Grand Coulee and north of the Columbia in the Sanpoil and Nespelem River basins. They now live on the Colville Indian Reservation with the Colville and other Plateau groups in Washington.
The Santee are an American Indian group consisting of the Mdewakanton, Sisseton, Wahpekute, and Wahpeton, four of the seven divisions of the Dakota. The other three divisions are the Teton, Yankton, and Yanktonai.
The Sarsi are an Athapaskan-speaking American Indian group with close linguistic relationships to the Sekani and Beaver to the west and northwest. They now number about five hundred and live on the Sarcee Reserve just southwest of Calgary, Alberta.
The Sauk (Sac) lived around the upper part of Green Bay and the lower Fox River in northeastern Wisconsin, but moved over a large part of eastern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois during the historic period. Most of the Sauk now live with the Fox on the Sac and Fox Indian Reservation in Tama, Iowa; the Sac and Fox Tribe of Missouri (living in Kansas and Nebraska) ; and the former Sac and Fox Indian Reservation in east-central Oklahoma.
Identification. The name "Sea Islanders" refers to the African American inhabitants of the coastal islands of the southeastern United States.
The Sekani (Sikanee, Thecannies) are an American Indian group who numbered about six hundred in 1978 and are located in the basin of the Peace River and its tributaries in British Columbia. Sekani is an Athapaskan language closely related to Beaver and Sarsi.
The Oklahoma Seminole are the descendants of that segment of the Seminole tribe that was removed from Florida to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) during and after the Second Seminole War (1836-1842). They are the larger part of the contemporary Seminole people, with a 1977 estimate by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of a population of over 9,000 as against about 2,000 in Florida (with about 1,303 on the Florida reservations in 1980).
The Seneca were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or the Five Nations Confederacy. The Seneca live mostly on Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, and the Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Tonawanda reservations in New York State in the United States.
The Serrano, including the Alliklik, Kitanemuk, and Vanyume, lived in a large area to the east and north of Los Angeles, California, in the San Bernardino Range, Tehachapi Mountains, and environs. They spoke Serran languages of the Uto-Aztecan stock.
The Shakers (the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) are a religious sect that began as an off-shoot of Protestantism in England in the mid-1700s. Escaping persecution, the Shaker's founder, Mother Ann Lee, and eight followers immigrated to the United States in 1774 and settled in Watervliet, New York, north of Albany.
The Shasta live in the middle drainage of the Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon. They speak a language of the Shastan family of the Hokan-Siouan phylum and probably number less than fifty.
The Shawnee are an Algonkian-speaking people whose component divisions have been reported as living in many areas of the eastern United States and who apparently were never united into a single society. At the time of contact in the seventeenth century they were living along the Savannah River on the Georgia-South Carolina border, along the Ohio River, in Illinois, and in Maryland.
The Shuswap now live on a number of reserves attached to the Kamloops-Okanagan and Williams Lake agencies in south-central British Columbia in the general area from Kamloops to Revelstoke in parts of the drainages of the Fraser, Thompson, and upper Columbia rivers. They speak an Interior Salish language related to Lillooet, Thompson, and Okanagon and number about four thousand today.
Identification. The Slavey are an American Indian group of northern Canada whose name or cultural designation is of foreign origin.
Traditionally, the Snoqualmie, speakers of a Coast Salishan language, were called "Sduk-al-bixw," meaning "strong people of status." Today there are about fifteen hundred Snoqualmie many of whom reside in their aboriginal territory within the Snoqualmie River drainage system between Monroe and North Bend, in northwestern Washington. Ab-originally, they inhabitated some fifty-eight longhouses in about sixteen villages with a total population of from three thousand to four thousand persons.
ETHNONYMS: South Asians: East Indians, Indians, Pakistanis, Sikhs.
ETHNONYMS: South Asians: Asian Indians, Bangladeshis, Bhutanese, East Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans; specific cultural groups—Gujaratis, Sikhs, Tamils.
Identification. The name "Paiute" is of uncertain origin.
The Spokane lived in northeast Washington State in the general vicinity of the Spokane River. They were divided into a number of subtribes, the three major divisions being the Upper, Middle (Southern), and Lower Spokane subtribes.
The Tahltan (Western Nahane), an Athapaskan-speaking group, live in the upper basin of the Stikine River and in neighboring areas of northern British Columbia. They numbered 793 in 1978.
Identification. The Tanaina are an Athapaskan-speaking American Indian group located in Alaska.
The Tenino (Melilema, Warms Springs Sahaptin), including the John Day (Tukspuch), Tyigh (Tygh, Attayes, Iyich), and Waiam (Wayam, Wayampam, Deschutes Indians), lived in north-central Oregon and south-central Washington along the Columbia River from the Deschutes River in the west to the Umatilla River in the east. They moved to the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington and the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.
Identification. The Teton are an American Indian group now living predominantly on reservations in South Dakota and in Saskatchewan.
Identification. The name "Tewa" refers to linguistically related American Indian peoples who live in seven distinct communities referred to as "pueblos," the name applied to them by the Spanish colonists in the late 1500s.
The Thompson (Nlaka'pamux, Ntlakyapamuk) are an American Indian group who live on the Fraser and Thompson rivers in south-central British Columbia. They speak an Interior Salish language closely related to Shuswap and numbered 2,647 in 1967, an increase from the 1902 estimate of 1,825.
The Tillamook (Calamox, Gillamooks), including the Nehalem, Nestucca, and Siletz, lived along the northern Oregon coast from the Nehalem River to the Salmon River. They spoke a Coast Salish language and numbered 139 in 1970.
Identification. The Tlingit are an American Indian group located in southern Alaska.
The Tolowa are an American Indian group numbering about two hundred whose ancestors in the early nineteenth century numbered about twenty-four hundred and were located in the Pacific coast region from the Oregon boundary of California south to Wilson Creek. In 1850 the California gold rush reached the Tolowa area, and in the latter part of the century the Tolowa population was decimated by measles and cholera.
The Tonkawa (Tátskan wátitch) group, which included the Cava, Emet, Ervipiame, Mayeye, Sana, Tohaha, Toho, Tusolivi, Ujuiap, Yojuane, and Tonkawa proper, lived until the mid-nineteenth century in east-central Texas in an area between Cibolo Creek on the southwest and Trinity River on the northeast. They spoke a language that may have been related to Karankawa, Comecrudo, and Cotonarne within the Coahuiltecan stock, but is usually classified as a language isolate in the Macro-Algonkian phylum.
The Tsimshian are a Northwest Coast group who lived and continue to live along the Nass and Skeena rivers and nearby coastal regions of British Columbia. In the early 1800s, the Tsimshian numbered as many as 10,000.
The Tubatulabal inhabited the drainage area of the upper Kern River in California's southern Sierra Nevada foothills region. They were loosely organized into three politically discrete bands (Pahkanapil, Palegawan, and Bankalachi [Toloim]) having a high degree of internal unity.
The Tunica, plus the Koroa, Tiou (Tioux), and Yazoo, lived in west-central Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana. Their descendants live in a community near Marksville, Louisiana.
The Tuscarora are an American Indian group living on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in New York State and the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. In the 1980s the Tuscarora in New York and Ontario numbered approximately fifteen hundred.
The Tutchone (Tutchonekutchin), an Athapaskan-speaking group, live in the general drainage area of the upper Yukon River in Yukon Territory in Canada and were culturally similar to the Kutchin, their neighbors to the north. They numbered around fifteen hundred in 1974.
The Twana (Skokomish, Toanhooches) lived on the Southeastern side of the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington, on both sides of the Hood Canal. They now live on or near the Skokomish Indian Reservation in Washington.
Identification. Ukrainian-Canadians are one of the larger and more prominent ethnic groups in Canada.
The Umatilla lived in the Umatilla River and adjacent parts of the Columbia River drainages in northeastern Oregon. They now live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in the same area with the Wallawalla Cayuse.
Identification. The Ute are an American Indian group located in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.
The Wailaki, including the Kato (Cahto, Tlokeang), Lassik, Mattole (Van Duzen Indians), Nongatl, and Sinkyone, lived along the coast and inland in northwestern California, along the Bear, Mattole, and Eel rivers. They spoke Athapaskan languages and probably number about one hundred today.
Identification. The Walapai are an American Indian group located in Arizona.
The Wallawalla (Walula), including the Palouse (Palus) and Wauyukma, lived along the Wallawalla, Palouse, and Snake rivers in southeastern Washington. The Wallawalla now live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon with the Umatilla and the Cayuse.
The Wappo (Ashochimi) lived along the headwaters of the Napa River and Pope and Putah creeks to the south of Clear Lake in northern California. They spoke a language of the Yukian family and probably number less than fifty today.
Identification. The spelling "Washo" became standard in the ethnographic and linguistic literature of the twentieth century, but "Washoe" is the official spelling used by the People and has been firmly established as local usage in Nevada.
Identification. The Western Shoshone, including the Gosiute of northwestern Utah, are a group of closely related peoples who live in the arid regions of the western Great Basin.
Identification. The origin of the name "Kalaallit" is not certain, but it has been interpreted as derived from Old Norse skraelling.
The Wichita are a Southern Plains American Indian group located aboriginally in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma in an area encompassing the Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian rivers. "Wichita" is evidently derived from the Choctaw word Wia chitch, meaning "big arbor" in reference to the Wichita's large grass lodges, which resembled haystacks.
Identification. Located on Green Bay at the time of Contact, the Winnebago later expanded across southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois.
The Wintun are an American Indian group numbering about one thousand who live on several rancherías and Reservations in California. The Wintun language belongs to the Penutian language family.
The Wishram (Echeloots, Haxluit, Tlakluit), who with the Wasco (Galasqo) constitute the Upper Chinook, lived around The Dalles on the Columbia River in north-central Oregon and south-central Washington. Today, the Wishram live in their traditional territory and on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
The Yakima (Pakiut'lema) lived on the lower course of the Yakima River in south-central Washington and now live with the Klickitat as the Confederated Tribes of the Yakima Indian Reservation of Washington. They speak a Sahaptin Language of the Penutian phylum and numbered over six thousand in the mid-1980s.
The Yankton are one of the seven main divisions of the Siouan-speaking Dakota (Sioux) Indians. Prior to the early seventeenth century the Yankton were located in present-day southern Minnesota, where they practiced a hunting, farming, and gathering way of life.
The Yavapai are a Yuman-speaking American Indian group who in the late seventeenth century numbered about 1,200 and ranged over an extensive territory in present-day central and west-central Arizona. Though in contact with the Spanish as early as the late sixteenth century, Yavapai relations with Whites were limited until gold was discovered in Yavapai territory in the 1860s.
Identification. The groups classified under the name "Yokuts" include some forty to fifty subtribes which are usually distinguished by three main cultural and geographical divisions, the Northern Valley Yokuts, the Southern Valley Yokuts, and the Foothills Yokuts.
The Yuchi (Hughchee, Uchi), with the Westo, lived at rious times in several places in the southeastern United States, from eastern Tennessee to Florida, with three main bands, one on the Tennessee River, one in northwestern Florida, and one in the middle drainage of the Savannah River in Georgia. Some of their descendants live in the northwestern part of the former Creek Indian Reservation in eastern Oklahoma, although the Yuchi are extinct as a distinct culture unit.
Identification. "Asiatic Eskimos" refers to those living on St.
The Yuki, including the Coast Yuki (Ukhotnom) and the Huchnom (Redwoods), live on the northwest coast of California between the Wailaki and the Pomo, and in the upper drainage of the Eel River. They spoke languages of the Yukian family.