A kachina doll from the hopi of the southwest. Kachinas are spirits that embody human qualities or natural phenomena, and they are the subject of many of this culture’s myths.
The Native American Revival
After the massacre at Wounded Knee, Native American communities were in a parlous state. Confined to reservations and divorced from their traditional ways of life, their existence was blight -ed by poverty and sickness. Their hardship was ignored by white Am ericans who, once the Indian “threat” had reced ed, trivialized their culture, treating it as merely an exotic footnote to frontier history. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s sham “Wild West” pageants, which began even as real Plains culture was being destroyed in the 1880s, re mained popular until well into the twentieth century.
Official policy tacitly assumed that Native peoples would become extinct, and so no strategy was devised regarding their future. However, from the 1930s onwards (notably the Indian Reorganization Act), attempts were made to reverse hostile land reform and restore tribal integrity. Native American populations began slowly to increase after decades of decline, and many communities elected to adopt written constitutions. The resilience of Native North Americans owes much to their spiritual heritage and especially the bond between people and nature that forms the bedrock of Indian culture.
A Tapestry of Peoples
North America is a vast and varied continent containing extremes of climate and topography. Its environments range from the frozen wastes of the Arctic to the tropical swamps of the Southeast. Native tribes are normally grouped according to the regions they inhabit.
The Northeast
The woodlands, lakes and rivers of the Northeast, where the first British, French and Dutch traders and settlers were active, were inhabited by Algon -quian and Iroquoian-speaking peoples. They fished the rivers and lakes from birch-bark canoes and hunted and gathered food in the forest. The Iroquoian people also cultivated parts of their territory as fields for corn (maize), beans and squash.
The Algonquian-speakers lived in wigwams— domed homes made of tree bark—or less permanent tipis made of animal hides. Algonquian society was highly egalitarian, with no hierarchical structure. The economy was based on a mix of hunting and the gathering of wild plant species.
The area around the eastern Great Lakes was inhabited by the Iroquoian-speakers, who lived in stockaded villages of longhouses, built of wood and sited around communal gardens. Senior men acted as the chiefs of these communities, while older women were responsible for tending the gardens and the tribe’s cornfields. Despite being initially fewer in number than the Algon quian peoples surrounding them, the Iroquoians came to dominate the Northeast by the end of the seventeenth century.
map of the Native American cultural regions, showing the locations of the main peoples.
Fishing provided an important supply of food to people of the Northeast, the Plateau and the Northwest. This early 20th-century photograph shows spokane indians fishing from a canoe on the Pend oreille river in washington state.
The Southeast
The tribes living in southeastern America, the area ranging from the Appalachian Mountains to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and west of the Mississippi to Texas, enjoyed a mainly lush and fertile country. The peoples of this region inhabited villages; typical dwellings, such as those of the Creek, comprised rectangular, mud-plastered summer houses and conical winter houses set partly in the ground to aid insulation. The culture of the southeastern peoples bears traces of the prehistoric Mississippian civilization. The Chickasaw, Chero kee, Creek, Choctaw and Seminoles were described as “The Five Civilized Tribes” by Europeans, because of their affluence and adaptability, and Cherokee was the first Native American language for which a written form was devised, in the 1820s. However, accommodation with whites did not prevent their being forcibly displaced westwards in 1830 (see page 9), a journey known to the Cherokee as “the Trail of Tears.” Their myths and legends continue to affirm their bonds with their ancient southeastern homelands.
The Plains
Between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains are the grasslands known as the Plains, or prairies (now largely given over to the cultivation of cereals). Over the last millennium, the Plains have been the home of many tribes, some of whom were more or less permanently nomadic buffalo hunters, while others alternated between hunting on the Plains and living in more settled villages in adjacent forested areas.
The introduction of the horse had a huge impact on Plains life. Some people who had adopted a settled -crop-growing existence, living in earth and grass houses, abandoned them for the tipi, whose poles and buffalo-hide covers were easily transported on horses. Some of the tribes most strongly associated with buffalo hunting in the nineteenth century moved to the Plains only at a relatively late stage. The Cheyenne, for example, whose ancestral homelands were near the Great Lakes, had moved to the Plains in the early nine teenth century and became year-round buffalo hunters. Although the Plains became the scene of fierce rivalry between competing tribes, its peoples shared a sign language and a profound belief in a supreme creator, the “Great Spirit.”
TIMELINE
Native American history
Before c. 15,000 BCE, the Americas began to be peopled by Asian nomadic hunters who crossed the land bridge that stretched across the bering strait. Humans had established themselves throughout the Americas by 8000 BCE; the first signs of a settled society are the so-called woodland cultures of the east, in c.1400 BCE.
c. 50,000–10,000 BCE
15,000 BCE Earliest evidence of human life in North America.
13,000–11,000 BCE Glacial resurgence leads to extensive migration southwards.
10,000 BCE Climatic warming; development of archaic human cultures of generalized huntergatherers.
10,000–7000 BCE
10,000–8000 BCE Last Ice Age (Pleistocene) ends.
c.9000 BCE Mammoths and other large Ice Age game animals begin to become extinct. Desert culture established in Great Basin.
c.7000 BCE Cultivation of many species of wild plant begins (e.g. squash, pumpkins, gourds, beans and peppers).
These Sandia spear points are from a Southwest desert culture dated around 10,000BCE.
7000–1500 BCE
A pueblo of the Anasazi culture of the Southwest
Formative Period of Native North American culture.
5000–3500 BCE Cultivated strain of maize introduced.
2500–1500 BCE Animals domesticated in villages; pottery and weaving.
1500 BCE – 1000 CE
1400 BCE Growth of Eastern mound cultures (Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian).
c.300 BCE Rise of Mogollon culture in the Southwest.
c.100 BCE Hohokam and Anasazi cultures develop in the Southwest.
c. 750 CE Pueblo period; adobe villages first built.
The Southwest
Two main groups of peoples occupy the plains and canyons of the Southwest. The first, the Hopi, Zuni and Pima, have a rich religious and cultural heritage that harks back to the civilization of the prehistoric Anasazi and Hohokam peoples. They are collectively known as Pueblo peoples, from their villages (Spanish: pueblos), which consist of a network of mud-brick (adobe) houses, with underground chambers used for religious ceremonies. The Pueblo peoples were both farmers and hunter-gatherers, and were—and still are— remarkable craftsmen.
Around 300 CE this group was joined by another, consisting of two nomadic, Athabascan-speaking peoples, the Navajo and the Apache. Both adopted many aspects of Pueblo culture. For example, the Jicarilla Apache of northern New Mexico learned agriculture from the Pueblos.
California
The boundaries of Native California correspond to those of the modern US state. The sea sustained, among others, the Chumash and Pomo, who traded extensively with Yuma hunter-gatherers inland. From the mid- eighteenth century onwards, the Cali fornian peoples’ seasonal routines were disrupted by the activities of Spanish Christ ian missions o
n the coast. Gradually, the tribes were divested of their language and religious traditions. Then the gold rush of 1848–49 brought widespread disease and dispossession to the region.
1000–1600 CE
1050–1150 CE Height of Mississippian culture.
c.1275 Many Pueblo settlements abandoned.
1497 Eastern seaboard of North America explored by Europeans. 1513 Spanish expeditions encroach on the Southeast from Mexico.
17th Century
Use of the horse begins among Native Americans; increasing contact with Europeans brings devastating diseases.
1607 English colonists establish Jamestown, their first permanent settlement.
1622 Jamestown attacked by Powhatan Confederacy.
1695 Pima uprising against the Spanish in the Southwest.
1697 First of many colonial wars between European powers; the French and their Algonquian allies fight the British.
This copper warrior’s profile, made c.1200, was found in Oklahoma.
18th Century
Wholesale displacement, genocide and enslavement of Indians by whites.
1763–64 Pontiac’s Rebellion against British in Great Lakes area. First major Indian insurrection.
1776 US Independence followed by further acts of dispossession.
1776–87 First Indian reservations in Northeast. Forced removals continue despite treaties enshrining Indian land rights.
1799 Seneca chief Handsome Lake founds the Longhouse religion, first Indian revivalist movement.
19th Century
1830 Indian Removal Act forces Natives to relocate west to “Indian Territory”.
1865–85 Plains buffalo herds slaughtered.
1876 Sioux/Cheyenne alliance defeats US Cavalry under Custer.
1890 Indian Wars end with massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee.
20th Century
Pueblo Indians pose with the US flag in the 1920s.
1918 Native American Church founded.
1934 US Government provides for tribal selfgovernment.
1968 American Indian Movement (AIM) founded.
The Great Basin
The Great Basin, the ancient dry lake beds between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, was home to the Ute, Paiute and Shoshoni. Prior to white encroachment, these peoples lived by hunting and fishing; later, as they were forced to subsist on roots and seeds, they became known as “Digger Indians.” They also trapped reptiles and small mammals. Lean-to structures or (especially in prehistoric times) semisubterranean homes were their commonest form of dwelling. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 triggered a white invasion of the region, which was annexed by the US government in 1864. Following this, the original inhabitants were decimated by disease and then confined within reservations.
The Northwest Coast
From northern California to southeast Alaska, the North American coast is home to numerous cultures. This is a prosperous region: the sea and rivers teem with fish and sea mammals, while the thick forests yield an abundance of game and berries. Northwest Coast societies are renowned for their rich artistic tradition and complex social structures. Some peoples, such as the Haida, were even slave-owning, capturing slaves on maritime raids.
Most peoples of the region were divided into clans, each of which had its particular crest, such as the Killer Whale, Wolf, Raven and Frog. These were carved or painted on the cedarwood houses and “totem poles” that strongly characterize the region. Another distinctive feature of Northwest Coast life was the potlatch, a public ceremony in which clans asserted their property rights and prestige by giving away or destroying possessions.
A haida woman from the Northwest Coast painting a woven reed hat, photographed in about 1900.
The Plateau
Inland from the Northwest Coast is the Plateau region, which is crossed by a number of major rivers. These supply the villages of various peoples, including the Nez Percé (French: “pierced nose”), Cayuse and Lillooet, with many species of fish. The Plateau people are noted for their skills as both hunters and gatherers. After the Nez Percé and the Shoshoni acquired horses in the late seventeenth century, they became seasonal buffalo hunters on the western Plains.
The Subarctic
North of the Plains and the Great Lakes lie the cold rivers and dense forests of the Subarctic. Its Native American inhabitants comprised Athabas canspeakers, such as the Dogrib, Chipewyan, Slave, Ko yukon and Kutchin, and Algonquian speakers, such as the Cree and Ojibway. These nomads lived in small groups that varied their way of life according to the season. In winter they hunted large game, but they turned to fishing in spring. The southern forests yielded berries and wildfowl, as well as porcupines, whose quills were used to ornament clothing. In the 1700s, Subarctic peoples changed from hunting and gathering to a more diverse economy based on trading fur pelts with whites.
Native American Languages
The Siberian nomads who first peopled the Americas are thought to have brought with them several ancient languages, all evidence of which has been lost. These developed into a huge range of tongues – perhaps as many as 2,200. Although many of these became extinct under white domination, it is estimated that Native American peoples north of Mexico still speak about 300 languages, within which there are some 2,000 distinct dialects.
Owing to extensive migration within the North American continent, languages belonging to the same family often have a wide geographical distribution. Eskimo-Aleut tongues, for instance, are spoken throughout the length and breadth of the Arctic. More surprisingly, the Apache and the Navajo of the Southwest speak languages of the Athabascan family, whose other speakers (e.g. the Dogrib of Northwest Territory) live far away in the western Subarctic.
Indian precontact writing was in the form of pictographs— literal representations of objects and events. The only true Indian phonetic script is that devised by the Cherokee Sequoyah in the early nineteenth century.
This modern sioux painting (1951) by the Dakota artist oscar howe shows a tribal elder teaching. until recently, most Native American languages were unwritten, so wisdom and instruction were traditionally passed on by word of mouth.
Many indigenous people still speak a Native language. There are at least 100,000 speakers of Navajo, while the Gros Ventre of Montana have revived their once-extinct language.
The Arctic
The Arctic, a vast frozen territory, encompasses Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland. People began to hunt and fish along its coasts around 5,000 years ago. These first inhabitants, known to anthropologists as the Dorset people, were displaced or absorbed by the Inuit, or Eskimo, who arrived from Asia in around 1000–1200 CE. Inuit simply means “people”, while Eskimo derives from an old Algonquian word for “meat eaters”. The Inuit either lead a semi-nomadic existence, moving between the coast and inland areas, or live a more settled life in coastal villages, reliant on whale and walrus hunting. While the Canadian Inuit have traditionally built temporary snow houses (igloos) on the frozen sea, Alaskan Inuit winter in semi-underground earth houses. Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, has two dialect groups, and there is a wide range of mutual intelligibility across the Arctic.
SACRED PLACES
Native Americans hold all features of the natural environment in reverence. Yet some places are thought to possess more sacred power than others. Imposing mountains and cliffs and sites near water are regarded as particularly pregnant with spiritual force. Yet this power can even inhabit individual trees and rocks. Some places are hallowed in myth either for their supernatural origin or as the location of important events. Whatever their particular significance, all sacred places help affirm peoples’ sense of identity. They are thus favored sites for ceremonies of thanks and propitiation or for vision quests, initiation rites and burials. All Native Americans treat their locality with great respect, lest the spirit forces living there take umbrage and do them harm.
Between 850 and 1150 CE, Cahokia in missouri was a major spiritual site, with over 100
pyramids, temples and burial mounds.
Dramatic peaks such as big foot Pass in the badlands of south Dakota and striking mountain formations or buttes, such as Church rock in utah
could hold sacred and mythological meanings or be used by shamans for their vision quests. The Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
was a sacred site, in turn, for the Anasazi, hopi and Navajo.
According to the myths of the Northwest Coast peoples, the mountain of stek-yaden in british Columbia (above) was a place of retribution and death.
Spirit-animal petroglyphs (right) are found at Crooked river in oregon. often located on dramatic rock formations, petroglyph sites were used for ceremonial purposes.
EARTHDIVERS AND CREATORS
Prairie Falcon and Crow were sitting on a log that rose from the waters covering the world. It was the beginning of time. There was no land; no people as we know them. But playing on the primal waters were other birds: Duck, Coot and Grebe. And though Falcon and Crow were powerful fliers, that was not the skill that was required for the task ahead, which was to finish creating the world. Somewhere in the depths, Falcon and Crow prophetically surmised, was earth. Only a great diver willing to risk the enormous journey could succeed in fetching it up.
Duck dived, entered a mystical dream and died. Coot followed, but he also failed. Finally Grebe descended. He reached the bottom, grabbed some sand in each hand and floated, lifeless now, back to the surface. All three birds were revived by the magical powers of Falcon. When Grebe returned to life, no one believed that he’d touched the bottom. “Look under my nails,” answered Grebe to their mocking laughter. Sure enough, the sand was there. So the birds took the sand and threw it in every direction across the water. And that, according to an old story of the Californian Mono people, is how birds made the world.
Native American Myths and Beliefs Page 2