American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (46 page)

The Blackfoot people were really three closely allied Algonquian tribes—the Siksikas, or Blackfoot proper; the Bloods; and the Piegans. Siksikas means Black-footed People, and they may at one time have worn black moccasins. The Bloods probably got their name from the vermilion color of their face paint.
Piegan
means “People with Poor or Badly Dressed Robes.”

These tribes drifted down from Canada into what is now Montana, driving the Kootenay and Shoshone before them. They were much feared by early white trappers and fur traders, because they killed all white men who entered their hunting grounds in search of beaver. Though they inhabited the northern edge of the buffalo range, the Blackfoot tribes lived in tipis and hunted bison like other Plains Indians.

The Piegans’ main ceremonials were the Sun Dance and the All Comrades Festival held by the warrior societies.

About seven thousand Blackfoot, twenty-one hundred Piegans, and two thousand Bloods now live on the Blackfoot reservation at Browning, Montana, at the southern edge of Glacier National Park, and some have joined the Piegan Agency in Alberta, Canada.

The name
Cherokee
probably comes from
chiluk-ki,
the Choctaw word meaning “Cave People.” The Cherokee are one of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, a term that first occurs in 1876 in reports of the Indian Office; these tribes had their own constitutional governments, modeled on that of the United States, the expenses of which were paid out of their own communal funds. They also farmed after the manner of their white neighbors.

Wealth and fertile land were the Cherokees’ undoing. Under the “Indian removal” policy of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, troops commanded by General Winfield Scott drove the Indians out of their ancestral lands so that white settlers could occupy them. Herded into the so-called Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, one-third of those removed perished on the march, remembered by them as the infamous Trail of Tears.

Most Cherokee now live in Oklahoma, though a small number managed to stay behind. Their population has increased to about seven thousand people, living on about 56,600 acres on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina.

The name
Cheyenne
derives from the French
chien,
“dog,” because of their ritual dog eating. The Cheyenne call themselves Tis-Tsis-Tas, the People. They are an Algonquian Plains tribe that came to the prairies from the Great Lakes region some two to three hundred years ago. They lived in tipis and were buffalo hunters, great horsemen, and brave warriors. They were closely allied with the Western Sioux tribes and fought with them at the Little Bighorn against Custer. Forced after the last battles into a malaria-infested part of the Indian Territory, one group under Dull Knife and Little Wolf made a heroic march back to their old hunting grounds, eventually settling on the Lame Deer Reservation in Montana. Another part of the tribe, the southern Cheyenne, remained in Oklahoma.

The Comanche, “Lords of the Southern Plains,” were famous for their horsemanship. Early visitors described them as the “finest light cavalry in the world.” An offshoot of the Shoshone, the Comanche were a nomadic buffalo-hunting tribe, forever on the move. One of their most famous chiefs was Quanah Parker, the founder of the Native American Church, which uses peyote as its holy sacrament. Today they are part of the Kiowa agency in Oklahoma.

The Cree (abbreviated from Kristeneaux) are a large tribe of Algonquian Indians living mainly on the Canadian Plains. Linguistically and culturally closely related to the Chippewa (Ojibway), they are settled nowadays on various Canadian reserves, mostly in Manitoba. A few of them still remain on the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck Reservations in Montana, intermingled with Assiniboine and Gros Ventre. Among some of the Canadian Cree, trapping is still a way of life.

One of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, the Creek formed a powerful confederacy within the larger Muskogean family. Once occupying the greater part of Alabama and Georgia, they were fierce fighters, defending their territory from encroachment by whites. They were defeated in the great Creek War of 1813—1814, by General Andrew Jackson. Most of them were forcibly removed to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

The Crow, or Absaroke (“Bird People”), are a Siouan tribe, formerly a part of the Hidatsa. Originally living along the Missouri River, they moved to the eastern shelf of the Rocky Mountains. A typical buffalo-hunting Plains tribe, they were continually at war with the Lakota (Western Sioux) and the Cheyenne. During the Indian Wars of the 1870s, they sided with the whites, serving as scouts for the U.S. Army.

Such tribes as the Ojibway, Menomini, Winnebago, and Potawatomi are sometimes refered to as Great Lakes People.

The Gros Ventre (from the French for “Big Bellies”) are a Plains tribe, originally from the vicinity of the Missouri River. The name
Gros Ventre
was bestowed on two different tribes—the Atsina, an offshoot of the Arapaho, and the Hidatsa, or Minitaree. Being culturally typical Plains Indians, they lived in earth lodges rather than in tipis like the Sioux or Cheyenne. Today most Gros Ventre live on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, which they share with the Assiniboine.

The Haida (
Xa‘ida
—“the People”) live on Queen Charlotte Island off the coast of British Columbia. The first European to visit them was Juan Pérez, who arrived in 1774 in the Spanish corvette
Santiago
, followed in 1786 by the famous French explorer La Pérouse. Contact with Europeans, as in most cases for Indians, was catastrophic for the Haida, bringing them impoverishment, smallpox epidemics, and venereal diseases.

The Haida were great hunters of whales and sea otters. Canoes were to them, as one visitor remarked, what horses were to the Plains Indians. Their sometimes very large vessels were hollowed out of single huge cedar trunks. The Haida are best known as totem-pole carvers and as the builders of large, decorated wooden houses. Their gifted artists are still turning out splendid masks and other carved objects.

The Hoh are a small offshoot of the Qtileute tribe, a fishing people from the Pacific Coast living in Washington.

The Hopi (from
Hopitu
—the “Peaceful Ones”) are the westernmost Pueblo Indians, living in six villages within their reservation in Arizona. Members of the Spanish Coronado expedition reached the Hopi Pueblos in 1540. One of their villages, Oraibi, is thought to be the oldest permanently occupied site in the United States, possibly founded as long as one thousand years ago. Peaceful, settled farmers, the Hopi were known as Moquis or Mokis during the nineteenth century. The Hopi are known for their beautiful traditional ceramics and jewelry. They belong to the Shoshonean language family and are the only Pueblos who perform the famous Snake Dance. The well-known Hopi Kachina dolls are made to familiarize children with the supernatural spirits called Kachinas, represented by masked dancers during solemn tribal ceremonies. The Hopi reservation is an enclave within the larger Navajo reservation.

The Kalispel, or Pend d‘Oreille (“Ear-Drop”), Indians are a Salishan tribe, originally living near the lake of the same name in Montana. They were Plateau Indians, hunters and fishermen, roaming over parts of Idaho, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington. They now occupy the Kalispel Reservation in Washington.

The Karok (from
karuk
—“upstream”) called themselves Arra-Arra, meaning “Men” or “Humans.” A tribe of salmon fishers, they lived along the Klamath River between the more numerous Yurok below and the Shasta above them. Due to the absence of redwood in their own area, they made no canoes but bought them from the Yurok. Their culture closely resembled that of their Hupa and Yurok neighbors.

Together with the Modoc, the Klamath are part of the Lutuamian language family. Calling themselves the People of the Lakes, they lived in north-central Oregon, at peace with the whites. They did not join their brother tribe in the great Modoc War of 1872—1873. They had a reputation for being excellent bowmen, able to send their arrows through, and beyond, the body of a horse or buffalo.

The Kutenai, or Kootenai, are a small Plateau tribe, settled on their own reservation in Idaho. A nomadic hunting and fishing tribe, they acquired horses in the early 1700s and became breeders of the famous Appaloosas. The Kutenai were also fine basket makers.

The Menomini, or Menominee, the “Wild Rice People,” are a tribe of Wisconsin Indians belonging to the Algonquian language family. They are a forest and lakes tribe that lived by hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild rice. They used birch-bark canoes for their journeys. They also used birch bark for their handicrafts. Their wigwams of saplings and birch bark were easily moved and put up.

The Métis, who are part French and part Indian, live in Canada. Their name comes from the French
métis,
“mixed.” The Ojibway called them
wissakodewinini,
“burned trees” or “half-burned wood man,” alluding to their part-light, part-dark complexions. Some Métis have adopted Indian customs and speak a patois made up of Indian, French, and English words. Some consider themselves white Canadians; others proudly call themselves Métis and stress their Indian ancestry. Their tales show marked European influences.

Micmac comes from
migmak,
or
nigmak,
meaning “allies.” The Micmac are a large Algonquian tribe of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. They were first visited by Cabot in 1497; in fact, the three Indians he took back to England were probably Micmacs. The Micmacs were expert canoeists and fishermen. Fierce and warlike, they sided with the French during the French and Indian Wars.

The Miwok, whose name means “Man,” were a central California tribe of Penutian stock, living between what is now the modern city of Fresno and the Sierras. They ate nuts, acorns, even grasshoppers; fished; and hunted deer and rabbit. They lived in conical houses made of poles, and their women used communal, many-holed grinding stones to make meal from seeds, nuts, and acorns. Their mystery ceremony was the
kuksu
dance, in which the participants wore feathered headdresses. The Miwok had a rich mythology and, before the gold rush, were a large tribe occupying a hundred villages. They are now practically extinct.

The Navajo are an Athapascan tribe that drifted down from northwestern Canada into the Southwest around 1300. They call themselves Dineh, the People, as do their linguistic cousins in Canada and Alaska, from whom they are separated by some fifteen hundred miles. Fierce, skin-clad, nomadic raiders, they terrorized the sedentary corn-planting tribes of the Southwest. The Pueblos called them
apachu,
meaning “enemy-strangers.” This led to the mixed Tewa and Spanish “Apaches de Nabahu,” which ultimately became “Navajo.”

The Navajos adopted many cultural practices from their Pueblo neighbors, such as masked dances
(yebichai),
basketry, and pottery. They became fine silversmiths, learning the craft from the Spaniards, just as they learned weaving from the Pueblos. During the mid-nineteenth century they began making jewelry and weaving rugs; their simple chiefs’ blankets have evolved into the well-known Navajo rugs of today.

With a population of over one hundred thirty thousand, the Navajo are the largest tribe in the United States. Their reservation extends over two hundred miles of New Mexico and Arizona, from the Gallup area all the way to the Grand Canyon, and contains such natural wonders as Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, as well as large coal and oil deposits. The Navajo are a comparatively wealthy nation; they farm and raise large herds of sheep, as well as some cattle. The women still wear their traditional costume—velveteen blouses, colorful ankle-length skirts, and silver and turquoise necklaces. Their traditional home is the hogan, a low, dome-shaped structure of mud-covered logs with a smoke hole at the top.

The Nez Percé (French for “pierced nose”) got this name from their custom of wearing a piece of dentalium shell through their septum. They belonged to the seminomadic Plateau culture, roaming over the dry, high country of Idaho, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington. They were known for their trading acumen, their bravery and generosity, their skill in breeding the famous Appaloosa horses, and the fine basketry of their women. They were consistently friendly to the whites. A large tribe of the Shahaptian language family, they lived in large communal houses containing several families. Unjustly driven from their beloved Wallowa Valley, they fought fiercely and skillfully during the Nez Percé War of 1877 under their great leader ChiefJoseph, who won the admiration even of his enemies by his courage and humanity in conducting this war. Today some fifteen hundred members of the tribe live on the 88,000-acre Nez Percé Reservation with headquarters at Lapwai, Idaho.

The Omaha are a Siouan tribe, now living on their own reservation in Nebraska. Culturally they are about midway between the corn-planting Mandans and the buffalo-hunting Sioux. Their name means “Those Going Against the Wind.” They lived in earth lodges similar to those of the Mandans. In the first half of the nineteenth century, their numbers were greatly reduced by smallpox, introduced by white traders and trappers.

The Osage, or Wazhazhe, are Plains Indians of the Siouan language group. Their original villages were situated in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. According to their legends, they originated in the sky and descended through four layers of sky until they alighted on seven rocks of different colors near a red oak tree. Later the people received four kinds of corn and four kinds of pumpkin seeds, which fell from the left hind legs of four buffalo.