901 E. Central, Anadarko, OK 73005, US
Tribal Information
Apache
Arapaho
Arapaho
In the early 18th century, the Plains Apache were living in the area of the upper Missouri River. They were a band within the Kiowa nation but differentiated by language and ethnicity. The Plains Apache entered this alliance for mutual protection against hostile tribes. Because of this arrangement, this group of Apache was sometimes known as the Kiowa Apache.
Many of the Plains Apache did not learn the Kiowa language, preferring to communicate with their allies using the Plains Indian Sign Language, (it is thought this system was devised by the Kiowa).
Even before contact with Europeans, their numbers were never large, and in 1780 their population was estimated at 400.
The Plains Apache (Kiowa Apache) and Kiowa migrated into the southern plains sometime in the early 19th century. By the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 both groups had settled in Western Oklahoma and Kansas. They were forced to move south of the Washita River to the Red River and Western Oklahoma with the Comanche and the Kiowa. The reservation period lasted from 1868 to 1906. The transition from the free life to restricted life on the reservation was difficult for many families. The 1890 Census of the Ft. Sill reservation to house 1,598 Comanche, 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Kiowa Apache.
Some groups of Plains Apache refused to settle on reservations and were involved in Kiowa and Comanche uprisings, most notably the First Battle of Adobe Walls which was one of the largest engagements fought on the Great Plains. It would be the last battle in which the natives repelled the US Army in the southern plains and marked the beginning of a decade long downfall for the southern plains tribes.
Their confinement to reservation lands in western Oklahoma from 1867 until the time of allotment in 1901. After the demise of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation many Apaches remained in the former reservation area, concentrating in locations around Cache Creek and the Washita River. Income came mainly from leasing their land and raising livestock.
The historic Apache presence in Oklahoma has continued into the twenty-first century. The Apache Tribe of Oklahoma is federally recognized and has had a formal governmental structure, embodied in a business committee, since 1966. The tribal complex is located in Anadarko. For more information about the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, click here.
Arapaho
Arapaho
Arapaho
The Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming is one of four groups of Arapaho who originally occupied the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. They speak a variation of the Algonquin language, and are that people’s most southwest extension. Culturally, they are Plains Indians, but socially and historically distinct. After signing the Treaty of 1851, the Arapaho and Cheyenne then shared land encompassing one-sixth of Wyoming, one-quarter of Colorado and parts of western Kansas and Nebraska. Later, when the Treaty of 1868 left the Northern Arapaho without a land base, they were placed with the Shoshone in west central Wyoming, on the Wind River Reservation. The Northern Arapaho are a federally recognized tribe.
For more information on the tribe, click here.
Caddo
Arapaho
Cherokee
The Nadarko tribe, combined with the Caddos, and Iones,were frequently designated the Caddo. For more information on the Caddo Nation, click here.
Cherokee
Cheyenne/Arapaho
Cherokee
Cherokee is the approved anglicized form of the name rendered T’salagi in the Cherokee language, a name found spelled nearly 50 different ways in historical records. One authority has suggested the term was probably applied to the Cherokee from the language of a Muskogean tribe to signify “people of a different speech.”
main provisions of the Dec. 29, 1835 New Echota Treaty were the U.S. would pay the Cherokee people $5 million to be disbursed on per capita basis, with an additional $500,000 given for educational funding. The Cherokees would be given an equal amount of land in Indian Territory to what they were giving up east of the Mississippi River, and given full compensation for all the property left in exchange for all the Cherokee land east of the Mississippi.
Removal west was to begin May 26, 1838. About 2,000 followers under John Ridge and Major Ridge and two nephews, Elias Boudinot and Stand Waite, departed before that date, joining the Western Cherokee in Indian Territory. The rest of the people under Chief John Ross remained and were taken to stockades in North Carolina, until they left for Indian Territory and arrived in June 1839. To discover more about the Cherokee, click this link.
Cheyenne
Cheyenne/Arapaho
Cheyenne/Arapaho
The Cheyenne tribe were a powerful, resourceful tribe of the Great Plains who fiercely resisted the white encroachment of the Native Indian lands. The names of the most famous chiefs of the Cheyenne tribe included Dull Knife, Chief Roman Nose, Little Rock, Morning Star and Black Kettle.
The Cheyenne tribe originally lived as farmers in earthlodges in the Sheyenne River valley. The were forced west to the Great Plains by the French and their Chippewa allies. The Cheyenne tribe changed their lifestyle to become nomadic buffalo hunters who lived in tepees. In 1832, the Cheyenne tribe separated into two groups, the Northern Cheyenne, who lived along the Platte River; and the Southern Cheyenne, who lived along the Arkansas River in Colorado and Kansas.
Their name comes from the Sioux word 'Shai-ena' meaning "Strange Speech People" for when they entered the Sioux lands nobody was able to understand their language. The Cheyenne tribe were divided into warrior clans called the Fox Men, the Flint Men, Medicine Lance Men, the Buffalo Bull Men, the Bowstring Men and the famous Dog Men who became known as the Dog Soldiers.
For more information about, please click here.
Cheyenne/Arapaho
Cheyenne/Arapaho
Cheyenne/Arapaho
The Arapaho is one of the western-most tribes of the Algonquian linguistic family. The tribal group in Oklahoma is the Southern Arapaho, the largest group of the tribe proper. Members of this group are called Nawathi’neha, “southerners,” by the Northern Arapaho who lived on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming and are considered the parent stem of the tribe. The lines of kinship have been preserved between the Northern and Southern groups. They have interchanged visits, and occasional intermarriages.
In early migrations westward and then eastward, the Arapaho were generally in company with the Cheyenne, with whom they seem to have been allied far back. About 1835, both tribes divided, the greater portion of each moving south to the Arkansas River region in eastern Colorado. Henceforth, both the Arapaho and the Cheyenne were divided into the Northern and Southern groups. This division was a matter of choice, and not one of social or factional significance.
A treaty with the Arapaho and Cheyenne during the Medicine Lodge Council provided the two tribes with a reservation bounded on the north and east by the Kansas state line and the Arkansas River, on the west and south by the Cimarron River.
By presidential proclamation in August 1869, the Arapaho and Cheyenne were jointly assigned a new reservation along the North Canadian and upper Washita rivers in Oklahoma. For more information, click Cheyenne/Arapaho
Chickasaw
Chickasaw
Chickasaw
Both legend and tradition point to the separation of the Chickasaw from the Choctaw some time before their discovery by De Soto in 1540. The name Chikasha or Chickasaw has been said to signify “rebellion.”
The Chickasaw are of the Muskogean linguistic family and are one of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma. Their native written language is the same as that of the Choctaw; their speech is also identical except for some dialectal expressions. The two tribes are closely related and have been associated in their history, although with the coming of the European traders and colonists to the native habitation east of the Mississippi River during the 18th century, they were sometimes at war with each other.
The country life of the Chickasaw in historic times was in northeastern Mississippi. Their original land claims extended east into what is now Alabama and north through western Tennessee and western Kentucky to the Ohio River.
For more information about the Chickasaw Nation, click the link.
Choctaw
Chickasaw
Chickasaw
Choctaw is the approved, anglicized form of the tribal name Chahta. It seems to have been first applied to the tribe about the beginning of the 18th century and is found spelled in a number of different ways in historical records.
The origin is undoubtedly from the Creek word cate (pronounced cha’te), meaning “red,” a significant term among the native Muskogean tribes which once lived in the southeastern United States. The red towns were the “war towns,” and the white towns, the “peace towns,” a distinction which began appearing soon after the European colonists settled in this region. Old tribal names among the Choctaw and old place names are often highly abbreviated phrases of the original terms. It has been suggested the name Choctaw is from the Spanish word chato, meaning “flat,” descriptive of the ancient tribal custom of flattening the forehead of male infants.
In Oklahoma, the Choctaw are one of the Five Civilized Tribes. They have been associated in history with the Chickasaw, a closely-related tribe. Visit the Choctaw Nation website to learn more.
Comanche
Chickasaw
Comanche
The origin of the name Comanche has not been positively established, though it has been said it is a contraction of the Spanish term comino ancho, which means, literally, “the broad trail,” and refers to the wide range traveled by the warriors of this tribe on their trading and war expeditions. Some early writers referred to the tribe as Padouca, from Padoka, the name by which they were known among the Osage.
The Comanche are from the Shoshonian linguistic family, which also includes the Shoshoni, Bannock, Ute and Paiute, which developed in the Shoshoni and Snake rivers regions of Wyoming and Idaho. This linguistic stock is said to have been of Nahuatl origin in Mexico and therefore is remotely related to the Aztec.
The Comanches are the only division of the Shoshonian family who left their Rocky Mountain haunts and established themselves on the Plains as one of the great tribes of this region. Later, they became divided into as many as 12 different bands, of which the most prominent in the history of Oklahoma are the Penateka and the Quahadi.
The Comanches are the most skillful horsemen of all the American Indians and ranked as the most powerful nomadic tribe on the plains of the Southwest. Their language became, as it were, the court language of this region. To find out more, click here.
Creek
Ft. Sill Apache
Comanche
These Muskogean people were from the Gulf region of the United States and included the Creek Confederacy, which occupied most of present Georgia and Alabama.
The Creeks farmed the land and lived in about 50 small settlements called Creek Towns, some of which had more than 1,000 persons. The Creek Confederacy grew in power during colonial times. The Creeks were moved out of Georgia in 1828. Few received any payment for their land, and most had to leave their belongings behind.
They started removal to Indian Territory in 1835. It is estimated about 45 percent of the tribal members who started the trip died along the way.
Today, the Creeks live in central-southeastern Oklahoma. They are part of the commonly-called Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma. Their tribal headquarters are located at Okmulgee, OK. For more information, click here.
Delaware
Ft. Sill Apache
Ft. Sill Apache
The Delaware call themselves Lenape, meaning “our man,” or Leni-lenape, signifying “men of our nation.” The English name Delaware was given the tribe from the river name for Lord De La Warr, the valley of which was the tribal center in earliest colonial times, extending from what is now southeastern New York into eastern Pennsylvania and through New Jersey and Delaware.
At the beginning of the historic period, the Delaware or Lenape proper constituted a powerful and formidable confederacy of the Algonquian linguistic family, referred to the French as Loupe, meaning “wolves.” Among the Algonquian tribes of the west, the Lenape and many small kindred tribes on the Atlantic coast as far north as New England were known as Wapanachki, meaning “easterners,” or “eastern land people.”
A band of Delaware who associated early in the 19th century with the Caddo and the Wichita on the Brazos Reservation in Texas came to the Washita River in Indian Territory in 1859, where they remained under the jurisdiction of the Wichita Agency, now the Wichita-Caddo Agency of the Anadarko Area Office at Anadarko, OK. Descendants of this Delaware band live in Caddo County, principally in or near Anadarko and Carnegie, OK. Learn more about the Delaware Nation.
Ft. Sill Apache
Ft. Sill Apache
Ft. Sill Apache
The Apache are the southern branch of the Athapascan linguistic family. The formerly included sub-tribes living in the Arizona-New Mexico region and eastward on the plains of Texas to the western boundary of Oklahoma.
The Ft. Sill Apache belong to the comparatively large sub-tribe called the Chiricahua, the name taken from the Apache term for “great mountain.”
All the bands were mostly nomadic with pressure from Spanish settlements in the Southwest and the Comanche coming out from the Northwest in historic times.
The Chiricahua in Oklahoma belonged to the eastern division of the Apache, who once roamed southward from the present Colorado-New Mexico boundary to the Rio Grande River.
A group of tribal chiefs visiting the San Antonio, Texas settlement made a peace treaty on Aug. 19, 1749. The meeting had been brought about by Catholic friars.
The establishments of reservations in the West after the Civil War was a major problem. In 1873, Chiricahua Chief Cochise and his band were finally established in southeastern Arizona. In 1875 they were moved against their will to the San Carlos Reservation in western Arizona. They rebelled and in 1886 Geronimo and his band of 340 were taken to Fort Marion, FL, as prisoners. They were brought back in 1894 to Fort Sill, I.T. as prisoners of War. Today, descendants of this group are known as Ft. Sill Apache.
To discover more, click here "Ft. Sill Apache Tribe"
Hopi
Kiowa
Hopi
The Hopi Tribe is situated in northeastern Arizona, on the edge of the Painted Desert. They speak a Shoshonian language of the widely-distributed Ute-Zatecan stock.
The precise origin of the Hopi is unknown, nor is it know why they live in so many independent communities. Their own origin myths merely state that their ancestors climbed upward through four underground chambers called kivas and lived many places before reaching their present locations.
The Hopi are a matriarchal society. Oraibi’s populace, for example, used to be divided into 30 or 31 matrilineal clans which were grouped into nine larger social units, or phratries, some of which are now extinct. Formerly, too, the Hopi were strictly matrilocal, which meant that a bride remained in her mother’s house. This custom no longer prevails.
The Hopi tribal headquarters is located in Arizona, click here to visit their website.
Kaw
Kiowa
Hopi
The Osage called the Kansa people Koce, probably an abbreviation of kocagi, “fleet’ or “swift.” Among the numerous variations of the name Kansa found in historical records is Kansas, which became the name of the Kansas or Kaw River near which the tribe formerly lived.
In Oklahoma history, the Kansa are generally referred to as the Kaw, doubtless an abbreviation of ak’a, from the Siouan dialects, “south winds,” the abbreviation having been written Kau and Kaw by early French traders.
To learn more, click here for the Kaw Nation site.
Kiowa
Kiowa
Mohawk
The name Kiowa, by which the people of this tribe as commonly known, is from their own name, Gaigwu, signifying “principal people.” Many years ago some of their elders said this was not originally their tribal name, it was of foreign origin and not translatable in their own language. It was also the name of the one of the six divisions which made up the tribal camp circle when they came eastward to the Plains from their original home in the Rocky Mountains. The Kiowa tribe is the only one classed in the Kiowan linguistic family.
The Kiowa is one of the great tribes of the Plains, reputed to be the bravest and most courageous, yet the most war-like and defiant.
The Kiowa are notable among the Indian tribes north of Mexico for their pictograph records in the form of calendar histories. In these unique calendars, a specific event of tribal importance is recorded for each summer and each winter from 1832-33 through 1882 by paintings made on skins.
To learn more, click here.
Mohawk
Mohawk
Mohawk
The name “Mohawk” is from the Narragansett term Mohowauuck, which signifies “maneaters.” The Mohawk were a leading tribe, one of the “Three Elder Brothers,” in the organization of the Six Nations, or Iroquois Confederacy, in what is now New York state. They were located farther east of the Iroquoian linguistic family at the time of their discovery about 1600, living along the Hudson River westward up to the valley of the Mohawk River and north to the St. Lawrence River. The introduction of firearms by the Dutch when they settled in the Hudson River Valley increased the power and strength of the Mohawk, who thereafter became notorious among both their Indian and white neighbors for their insolence and warlike character.
Descendants of the Mohawk are located and counted among the Seneca in Ottawa County, OK. The largest group of the Mohawk live in Ontario, Canada.
The headquarters for the Mohawk Nation is in NY. Click here for more information.
Nadaco
Mohawk
Nadaco
The Anadarko (Nadaco) were an American Indian tribe indigenous to Texas and whose descendants are now members of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Their name, Nada-kuh means "bumblebee place". Recognized as Kadohadacho or "the Caddo Proper" since the nineteenth century, an estimated 449 Anadarkos resided in Oklahoma, mostly in Caddo County, circa 1950. The Caddo County seat of Anadarko was named for the tribe.
Spaniards first reported the "Nondacao" in East Texas in 1542. By 1700 the tribe had joined the Hasinai, one of three Caddo "confederations" (the Kadohadacho and the Natchitoches were the others). While most Hasinai dwelled near the upper Neches and Angelina rivers, the Anadarko lived farther north along the Sabine River. All Caddo shared the same language and culture.
The Anadarko were located at the forks of the Trinity River when Texas independence was declared in 1836. Their unfriendly relations with the Republic of Texas culminated when Texas troops drove the Anadarko into Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) in winter 1838–39. The tribe returned to Texas in 1843 and settled on the Brazos River. After Texas statehood, in 1846 the United States negotiated a treaty with the tribes of that region. The Anadarko were represented by Iesh (José María), who had emerged as the principal Caddo leader. Hostilities continued, however, and white settlers soon overran the Anadarko.
The Anadarko were placed on the Brazos Reservation near Fort Belknap, Texas, in 1854. They, along with the Waco, Tonkawa, and other tribes, were removed to the Indian Territory in 1859 and put under the jurisdiction of the Wichita Agency in the Leased District. Following the death of the pro-Confederate Iesh in 1862, most Anadarko fled to Kansas during the Civil War. They returned to the Wichita Agency in 1867 and were thereafter known as Caddo. The Wichita-Caddo reservation was established in 1872 and was allotted to 965 individuals, including 536 Caddos, in 1901. The Anadarko, Kadohadacho, and Hasinai formed the Caddo Indian Tribe of Oklahoma in 1938.
Navajo
Mohawk
Nadaco
The Navajo is one of the largest Indian tribes in the United States. The Navajo reservation and government-allotted lands in the states of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah comprise an area roughly the size of New England without Main. The region, however, is mainly arid and will not support enough agriculture and livestock to provide livelihood for the tribe. Thousands earn their living as transient workers away from the Navajo country, and appreciable numbers have settled more or less permanently on irrigated lands along the lower Colorado River and in places such as Los Angeles, Calif., and Kansas City, Mo.
There are about 60 clans. A Navajo belongs to the clan of his mother, but also considers himself related to the clansmen of his father.
The Navajo Nation is located in Arizona, to learn more visit their website.
Nez Perce
Nez Perce
Nez Perce
The Nez Perce (the French name for the Sahaptini tribe, meaning “pierced nose,” but few tribal members pierced their noses) of the Sahaptian linguistic family, were brought as prisoners of war with their famous leader Chief Joseph from their reservation in Oregon and Idaho, and settled on a reservation on the Chikaskia River in Indian Territory in 1879. They now reside in Idaho.
They were described as a most intelligent, religious and industrious people. Because of their high death rate and unhappy condition in this southern climate, plus their constant plea to return to the Northwest, the tribe was allowed to go to the Colville Reservation in Washington by an Act of Congress in 1885. They were later settled in north central Idaho near Lewiston.
Although the Nez Perce are no longer counted among the Oklahoma Indian tribes, it is said that some descendants — by intermarriage with neighboring Indian families during the tribal sojourn in Indian Territory — are in the state. The Nez Perce reservation, a tract now included in Kay County, OK, was assigned to the Tonkawa Tribe.
The current tribal headquarters for the Nez Perce is located in Idaho. Here is a link to their website.
Osage
Nez Perce
Nez Perce
The Osage Tribe is one of the five tribes in the Dhegiah group of the Siouan linguistic family.
Among the old-time hunting tribes of the Great Plains, the Osage held high rank. Although they raised small crops of corn and squash near their permanent villages located within what is now western Missouri, they depended largely upon the buffalo for food and clothing.
When the buffalo disappeared from the Mississippi Valley after the coming of white traders, these Indians were forced to go west on hunting expeditions. They came into conflict with the tribes of the Plains, by whom they were greatly feared on account of their readiness for a fight, their prowess in battle, and their courage.
The Osage generally set forth from their villages on foot but returned well-supplied with horses taken from their enemies as spoils of war. During the summer months, whole villages — men, women and children — would resort to the Plains of western Kansas and northern Oklahoma to hunt buffalo. The official headquarters of the Osage is located in Pawhuska, OK. Click here to discover more.
Ottawa
Nez Perce
Powhatan
The name Ottawa is from the Algonquian term adawe, “to trade,” or “to buy and sell.” It was first applied by the French to all the Indian tribes living on the shores of Lane Huron in upper Michigan and west along Lake Superior but was later given to that portion of the Algonquian linguistic family who had their villages in the southern part of what is now Michigan, in the vicinity of the Grand River, and in Ohio and Indiana.
They were great hunters, and agriculturists as far as the climate in the north would permit. Both in traditional times and historic periods they were noted as intertribal traders and barterers, dealing in furs and skins, cornmeal, sunflower seed oil, rugs and mats, and medicinal herbs and roots. They were especially skillful in fine handwork in the invention of small toys and trinkets.
The name of Ottawa County, OK, perpetuates the name of this tribe whose descendants now are located within the boundaries of that county.
You can learn more by clicking here.
Powhatan
Sac and Fox
Powhatan
This group of Algonquian Indian tribes in the tidewater portion of Virginia and southern Maryland had been welded into a confederacy, by the conquests of Chief Powhatan, shortly before the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. After Powhatan’s death, the Indians massacred 347 British settlers in 1622. Fourteen years of relentless warfare followed until the Indian submitted, only to rise again in 1644 and slay 500 whites. The war which followed broke them and though 2,100 of the original 8,000 members remain in 1669, they dwindled to about 700, mixed with whites and blacks and were known as Chickahominy, Pamunkey and other tribal names.
Many of the Powhatan tribes no longer existed by 1722. The Rappahannocks lost their reservation shortly after 1700; the Chickahominies lost their reservation in 1718; and the Nansemonds sold their reservation in 1792. The only tribes to keep their reservations, even though their land was constantly shrinking in size, were the Pamunkey, Mattaponis, and; for a short time; an Eastern Shore group called Gingaskins. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations are two of the oldest in the nation. They are symbols of a people who refused to give up.
To find out more about the Powhatan Nation, click here.
Sac and Fox
Sac and Fox
Sac and Fox
Originally closely related, independent tribes of the Algonquian linguistic family, the Sauk and the Fox have long been affiliated and allied. Since their settlement in Indian Territory, they have been officially classed as one tribal group, the historical records made in Oklahoma referring to them as the “Sac and Fox.”
The name Sauk is from their own name, Osa’kiwug, “people of the outlet,” which has also been interpreted “people of the yellow earth,” to distinguish them from the Fox people, whose real name is Meshkwa kibug, “red earth people.” The name Fox was applied by the early French to the latter tribe from one of their clan names, Wagosh, “Red Fox.”
In 1804, the Sauk and Fox of Missouri signed a treaty at St. Louis, providing for the cession of tribal lands on both sides of the Mississippi, a step which led to the relinquishment to the United States all of the Sauk and Fox lands in Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri. When the terms of this treaty became known, the rest of the Sauk and Fox were incensed with the Missouri band and the friction engendered, finally culminating in the Black Hawk War of 1831-32. In the spring of 1831, the Sac and Fox women began kicking over fences settlers had erected across Indian trails.
While the Sac and Fox were one of the last Indian groups in Oklahoma to assimilate, accepting education and the Christian religion, they produced some scholarly and eminent citizens in the state and nation.
The Sac and Fox Nation headquarters is in Stroud, OK. You can learn more here.
Seminole
Sac and Fox
Sac and Fox
The Seminole are classified among the Muskogean peoples, a group of remnant tribes having joined in forming this division in Florida during the border wars between the Spanish and the English colonists on the Florida-Caroline border in the 18th century.
The name Seminole, first generally applied to the tribe about 1778, is from the Creek word seminole, “runaway,” signifying emigrants, or those who left the main body and settled in another part of the country.
The Seminole are one of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, the Seminole are mostly located in Seminole County, which comprises their former tribal lands from 1866 to statehood in 1907. A small part of the tribe which remained in the swamps of Florida after the great Seminole War came west. Their descendants still dwell in the Brighton and Big Cypress Swamp reservations in southern Florida.
The tribal complex for the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is located in Wewoka, OK.
You can discover more by clicking the link.
Shawnee
Sioux - Lakota
Shoshoni
The Shawnee are of the most important tribes of the Algonquian linguistic family.
In the old tribal days, they were noted for their courage and prowess. They were faithful and trustworthy as hunters, scouts and guards, and as herders for cattle and horses in the trade with Santa Fe along the famous trail which lay through their reservation when they settled in Kansas.
During their migration and the many changes in their fortunes, the Shawnee clung to their old tribal customs and ceremonies. They have many beautiful legends, and their native language is expressive and eloquent.
There are three main groups of Shawnee in Oklahoma: the Eastern Shawnee in Ottawa County; a large group living among the Cherokee in Craig, Rogers and other northern counties which were formerly a part of the Cherokee Nation, and the Absentee Shawnee, located near the city of Shawnee in Potawatomi County and east of Norman in Cleveland County.
Click here for more information.
Shoshoni
Sioux - Lakota
Shoshoni
The Shoshoni are a North American Indian group which in historic times occupied the territory from southeastern Canada across central and eastern Nevada and northwestern Utah into southern Idaho and western Wyoming. The Comanche are a comparatively recent offshoot of the Wyoming Shoshoni. The Shoshoni, together with Southern Paiute-Ute and Northern Paiute, comprised the three divisions of the Basic Plateau branch of the Shoshonian language.
The Shoshoni of historic times may be roughly divided into four groups: Western (unmounted) Shoshoni, centered in Nevada, lacking horses and early designated “diggers” along with other far-western Indians; Northern (mounted or horse) Shoshoni of northern Utah and Idaho; Wind River Shoshoni in western Wyoming, and Comanche in west Texas.
The Eastern Shoshone Tribal complex is located in Wyoming. Click here for more information.
Sioux - Lakota
Sioux - Lakota
Sioux - Lakota
Sioux Indians traditionally lived throughout the northern plains of North America. They were famous for their fighting ability, political skills and bravery. The Sioux had many bands or divisions in their tribe.
The Lakota, natively known as the Lakȟóta (pronounced [laˈkˣota]), also known as Teton, (from Thítȟuŋwaŋ) and Teton Sioux. They speak the Lakota language, the westernmost of the three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. Their hunting ground for the buffalo was in the west Dakotas and Nebraska. According to some historical sources the Lakota were at one point in their history part of a confederation of seven related Sioux tribes, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ or Seven Council Fires, and as such are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains of North America.
The seven bands or "sub-tribes" of the Lakota are:
· Sičháŋǧu (Brulé, Burned Thighs)
· Oglála ("They Scatter Their Own")
· Itázipčho (Sans Arc, Without Bows)
· Húŋkpapȟa (Hunkpapa, "End Village",Camps at the End of the Camp Circle)
· Mnikȟówožu (Miniconjou, "Plant Near Water", Planters by the Water)
· Sihásapa ("Black Feet")
· Oóhenuŋpa (Two Kettles)
During the middle and late 1800s, white settlers and gold seekers overran Sioux hunting grounds and killed many buffalo. In 1868 some of the Lakota agreed to live on a reservation, but they had no experience in farming and reservation life was poor. Other Lakota tribal members remained outside the reservation. Leaders of this group included Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
General George Armstrong Custer was sent to bring them into the reservation. The Indians killed Custer and every man in his immediate command. Later that group of Lakota were forced to enter the reservation.
Today, one-half of the Sioux live on reservation areas in the northern plains while the other half live in urban areas. Many of the tribes continue to officially call themselves Sioux. In the 19th and 20th centuries, this was the name which the US government applied to all Dakota/Lakota people. However, some tribes have formally or informally adopted traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is also known as the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte (Brulé Nation), and the Oglala often use the name Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte, rather than the English "Oglala Sioux Tribe" or OST. The Lakota have names for their own subdivisions. The Lakota also are the western of the three Sioux groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota.
For more information click here.
Wampanoag
Wampanoag
Sioux - Lakota
Plymouth Colony was the second permanent English settlement in America, established in 1620 on the rocky western shore of Cape Cod Bay in southeastern Massachusetts.
The first year for the pilgrims was difficult with poor and inadequate food, strenuous work and changeable weather making them susceptible to sickness. The colony lost about half its members the first winter. Help came one spring morning when an Indian walked into the little village and introduced himself to the startled people as Samoset. He returned with Squanto and introduced the pilgrims to Massasoit, the Sachem (chief) of the Wampanoag tribe, which controlled all southeastern Massachusetts. Gifts were exchanged and a treaty of peace arranged.
Squanto, under Massasoit’s direction, helped the pilgrims with their fishing and planting of corn, pumpkins and beans. He helped them hunt for duck, goose and deer. Sometime in the autumn of 161, the pilgrims invited their Indian friends to join them in a three-day festival that we now call the first New England Thanksgiving.
Other historical tribal leaders include Massasoit’s oldest son, Wamsutta, who was known by the English as King Alexander. He died under mysterious circumstances after visit with English colonial administrators in Plymouth. Massasoit’s second son, Metacom (King Philip) initiated the war against the English known as King Philip’s War in retaliation for the death of his brother. Sachem Weetamoo of the Pocasset was a woman who supported Metacom and drowned crossing the Taunton River while fleeing the English. Sachem Awashonks of the Sakonnet, was a woman who at first fought the English but then changed sides, and Annawan was a war leader.
For more historical insight to the Wampanoag tribe, click here.
Wichita
Wampanoag
Winnebago
It is believed that the history of the Wichitas may be traced back at least 800 years to the Washita River culture of central and western Oklahoma. The people living along fertile valleys, lived in small villages of mud plastered houses.
When first encountered by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541, the ancestors of the Wichitas were following a way of life that continued well into the eighteenth century. The women of the group gardened while the men hunted buffalo. However, their lives were profoundly affected with the Spanish settlement of New Mexico, as well as the arrival of the French in the Mississippi Valley.
While the acquisition of tools and goods from their new neighbors did improve the daily life and trading capacity of the tribe, the new settlers also brought highly contagious diseases, against which the Wichita people had no immunity. At the same time, hostilities increased as eastern tribes were removed to Indian Territory. During this period the Wichitas lost many people. In 1820, the once populous Wichitas, Wacos, Tawakonis, Taovayas, and Kichais were estimated at no more than 1400 persons.
he first American-Wichita treaty at was signed at Camp Holmes in 1835. This agreement recognized their right to their traditional homeland, as well as the first official usage of the name "Wichita" for the Wichita, Waco, and Tawakoni people.
After the Texas Republic was established in 1836, the Wichitas were forced to defend their lands once more against the intrusions of settlers. In 1855, after Texas joined the Union, a reservation for the Wichitas established on the Brazos River. However, continued hostilities led to the Wichita removal from Texas to lands on the Washita River. There they joined their northern relatives in what is now west-central Oklahoma.
Today their descendants are known as the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. The tribal complex is located in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
For more information about the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, click here.
Winnebago
Wampanoag
Winnebago
The Winnebago tribes are the Siouan-speaking tribe of North American Indians. They lived in what is now eastern Wisconsin when first encountered by Jean Nicholet in 1634.
Archeologically they show relationships with the cultures of the lower Mississippi Valley, but in historic times they more closely resembled their Algonquian neighbors such as the Menomini and Fox Indians rather than their prehistoric antecedents or their closest linguistic affiliates, the Iowa, Otoe and Missouri. In response to the fur trade, the Winnebago began a westerly expansion during the mid-17th century. By the early 19th century, they claimed most of southwestern Wisconsin and the northwestern corner of Illinois.
For more information about the tribe, click here.