Algonquian Area and Principal Tribes and Language

Algonquin Tribes and Area List

The area formerly occupied by the Algonquian family was more extensive than that of any other linguistic stock in North America, their territory reaching from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and from Churchill River of Hudson Bay as far south at least as Pamlico Sound of North Carolina. In the eastern part of this territory was an area occupied by Iroquoian tribes, surrounded on almost all sides by their Algonquian neighbors. On the south the Algonquian tribes were bordered by those of Iroquoian and Siouan (Catawba) stock, on the southwest and west by the Muskhogean and Siouan tribes, and on the northwest by the Kitunahan and the great Athapascan families, while along the coast of Labrador and the eastern shore of Hudson Bay they came in contact with the Eskimo, who were gradually retreating before them to the north. In Newfoundland they encountered the Beothukan family, consisting of but a single tribe. A portion of the Shawnee at some early period had separated from the main body of the tribe in central Tennessee and pushed their way down to the Savannah River in South Carolina, where, known as Savannahs, they carried on destructive wars with the surrounding tribes until about the beginning of the eighteenth century they were finally driven out and joined the Delaware in the north. Soon afterwards the rest of the tribe was expelled by the Cherokee and Chicasa, who thenceforward claimed all the country stretching north to the Ohio River.

48The Cheyenne and Arapaho, two allied tribes of this stock, had become separated from their kindred on the north and had forced their way through hostile tribes across the Missouri to the Black Hills country of South Dakota, and more recently into Wyoming and Colorado, thus forming the advance guard of the Algonquian stock in that direction, having the Siouan tribes behind them and those of the Shoshonean family in front.

PRINCIPAL ALGONQUINIAN TRIBES.

Abnaki. Algonquin. Arapaho. Cheyenne. Conoy. Cree. Delaware. Fox. Illinois. Kickapoo. Mahican. Massachuset.

Menominee. Miami. Micmac. Mohegan. Montagnais. Montauk. Munsee. Nanticoke. Narraganset. Nauset. Nipmuc. Ojibwa.

Ottawa. Pamlico. Pennacook. Pequot. Piankishaw. Pottawotomi. Powhatan. Sac. Shawnee. Siksika. Wampanoag. Wappinger.

Population.—The present number of the Algonquian stock is about 95,600, of whom about 60,000 are in Canada and the remainder in the United States. Below is given the population of the tribes officially recognized, compiled chiefly from the United States Indian Commissioner’s report for 1889 and the Canadian Indian report for 1888. It is impossible to give exact figures, owing to the fact that in many instances two or more tribes are enumerated together, while many individuals are living with other tribes or amongst the whites:

Abnaki:
“Oldtown Indians,” Maine	410
Passamaquoddy Indians, Maine	215?
Abenakis of St. Francis and Bécancour, Quebec	369
“Amalecites” of Témiscouata and Viger, Quebec	198
“Amalecites” of Madawaska, etc., New Brunswick	683
		1,874?
Algonquin:
Of Renfrew, Golden Lake and Carleton, Ontario	797
With Iroquois (total 131) at Gibson, Ontario	31?
With Iroquois at Lake of Two Mountains, Quebec	30
Quebec Province	3,909
		4,767?
Arapaho:
Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory	1,272
Shoshone Agency, Wyoming (Northern Arapaho)	885
Carlisle school, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence school, Kansas	55
		2,212
49Cheyenne:
Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota (Northern Cheyenne)	517
Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory	2,091
Carlisle school, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence school, Kansas	153
Tongue River Agency, Montana (Northern Cheyenne)	865
		3,626
Cree:
With Salteau in Manitoba, etc., British America (treaties Nos. 1, 2, and 5: total, 6,066)	3,066?
Plain and Wood Cree, treaty No. 6, Manitoba, etc.	5,790
Cree (with Salteau, etc.), treaty No. 4, Manitoba, etc.	8,530
		17,386?
Delaware, etc.:
Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita Agency, Indian Territory	95
Incorporated with Cherokee, Indian Territory	1,000?
Delaware with the Seneca in New York	3
Hampton and Lawrence schools	3
Muncie in New York, principally with Onondaga and Seneca	36
Munsee with Stockbridge (total 133), Green Bay Agency, Wis.	23?
Munsee with Chippewa at Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas (total 75)	37?
Munsee with Chippewa on the Thames, Ontario	131
“Moravians” of the Thames, Ontario	288
Delaware with Six Nations on Grand River, Ontario	134
		1,750?
Kickapoo:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	325
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	237
In Mexico	200?
		762?
Menominee:
Green Bay Agency, Wisconsin	1,311
Carlisle school	1
		1,312
Miami:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	67
Indiana, no agency	300?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	7
		374?
Micmac:
Restigouche, Maria, and Gaspé, Quebec	732
In Nova Scotia	2,145
New Brunswick	912
Prince Edward Island	319
		4,108
Misisauga:
Alnwick, New Credit, etc., Ontario		774
Monsoni, Maskegon, etc.:
Eastern Rupert’s Land, British America		4,016
Montagnais:
Betsiamits, Lake St. John, Grand Romaine, etc., Quebec	1,607
Seven Islands, Quebec	312
		1,919
Nascapee:
Lower St. Lawrence, Quebec		2,860
50Ojibwa:
White Earth Agency, Minnesota	6,263
La Pointe Agency, Wisconsin	4,778
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (about one-third of 5,563 Ottawa and Chippewa)	1,854?
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (Chippewa alone)	1,351
Devil’s Lake Agency, North Dakota (Turtle Mountain Chippewa)	1,340
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas (one-half of 75 Chippewa and Muncie)	38?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	15
“Ojibbewas” of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, Ontario	5,201
“Chippewas” of Sarnia, etc., Ontario	1,956
“Chippewas” with Munsees on Thames, Ontario	454
“Chippewas” with Pottawatomies on Walpole Island, Ontario	658
“Ojibbewas” with Ottawas (total 1,856) on Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands, Ontario	928?
“Salteaux” of treaty Nos. 3 and 4, etc., Manitoba, etc.	4,092
“Chippewas” with Crees in Manitoba, etc., treaties Nos. 1, 2, and 5 (total Chippewa and Cree, 6,066)	3,000?
		31,928?
Ottawa:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	137
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (5,563 Ottawa and Chippewa)	3,709?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	20
With “Ojibbewas” on Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands, Ontario	928
		4,794?
Peoria, etc.:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	160
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	5
		165
Pottawatomie:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	480
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	462
Mackinac Agency, Michigan	77
Prairie band, Wisconsin	280
Carlisle, Lawrence and Hampton schools	117
With Chippewa on Walpole Island, Ontario	166
		1,582
Sac and Fox:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	515
Sac and Fox Agency, Iowa	381
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	77
Lawrence, Hampton, and Carlisle schools	8
		981
Shawnee:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	79
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	640
Incorporated with Cherokee, Indian Territory	800?
Lawrence, Carlisle, and Hampton schools	40
		1,559?
Siksika:
Blackfoot Agency, Montana. (Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan)	1,811
Blackfoot reserves in Alberta, British America (with Sarcee and Assiniboine)	4,932
		6,743
51Stockbridge (Mahican):
Green Bay Agency, Wisconsin	110
In New York (with Tuscarora and Seneca)	7
Carlisle school	4
		121

Chumash Indians on Santa Rosa Island, California

Chumash Indians on Santa Rosa Island, California

Derivation: From Chumash, the name of the Santa Rosa Islanders.

The several dialects of this family have long been known under the group or family name, “Santa Barbara,” which seems first to have been used in a comprehensive sense by Latham in 1856, who included under it three languages, viz: Santa Barbara, Santa Inez, and San Luis Obispo. The term has no special pertinence as a family designation, except from the fact that the Santa Barbara Mission, around which one of the dialects of the family was spoken, is perhaps more widely known than any of the others. Nevertheless, as it is the family name first applied to the group and has, moreover, passed into current use its claim to recognition would not be questioned were it not a compound name. Under the rule adopted the latter fact necessitates its rejection. As a suitable substitute the term Chumashan is here adopted. Chumash is the name of the Santa Rosa Islanders, who spoke a dialect of this stock, and is a term widely known among the Indians of this family.

The Indians of this family lived in villages, the villages as a whole apparently having no political connection, and hence there appears to have been no appellation in use among them to designate themselves as a whole people.

Dialects of this language were spoken at the Missions of San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Iñez, Purísima, and San Luis Obispo. Kindred dialects were spoken also upon the Islands of Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, and also, probably, upon such other of the Santa Barbara Islands as formerly were permanently inhabited.

These dialects collectively form a remarkably homogeneous family, all of them, with the exception of the San Luis Obispo, being closely related and containing very many words in common. Vocabularies representing six dialects of the language are in possession of the Bureau of Ethnology.

68The inland limits of this family can not be exactly defined, although a list of more than one hundred villages with their sites, obtained by Mr. Henshaw in 1884, shows that the tribes were essentially maritime and were closely confined to the coast.

Population.—In 1884 Mr. Henshaw visited the several counties formerly inhabited by the populous tribes of this family and discovered that about forty men, women, and children survived. The adults still speak their old language when conversing with each other, though on other occasions they use Spanish. The largest settlement is at San Buenaventura, where perhaps 20 individuals live near the outskirts of the town.

About the California Indian Tribes

About the California Indian Tribes

Pomo Indian Girl from Californi

      According to Powers, this family was represented, so far as known, by two tribes in California, one the Chi-mál-a-kwe, living on New River, a branch of the Trinity, the other the Chimariko, residing upon the Trinity itself from Burnt Ranch up to the mouth of North Fork, California. The two tribes are said to have been as numerous formerly as the Hupa, by whom they were overcome and nearly exterminated. Upon the arrival of the Americans only twenty-five of the Chimalakwe were left. In 1875 Powers collected a Chimariko vocabulary of about two hundred words from a woman, supposed to be one of the last three women of that tribe. In 1889 Mr. Curtin, while in Hoopa Valley, found a Chimariko man seventy or more years old, who is believed to be one of the two living survivors of the tribe. Mr. Curtin obtained a good vocabulary and much valuable information relative to the former habitat and history of the tribe. Although a study of these vocabularies reveals a number of words having correspondences with the Kulanapan (Pomo) equivalents, yet the greater number show no affinities with the dialects of the latter family, or indeed with any other. The family is therefore classed as distinct.

PRINCIPAL TRIBES.

Chimariko. Chimalakwe.

About the Caddo Indian Tribes including the Pawnee

About the Caddo Indian Tribes including the Pawnee

Derivation: From the Caddo term ka´-ede, signifying “chief” (Gatschet).

The Pawnee and Caddo, now known to be of the same linguistic family, were supposed by Gallatin and by many later writers to be distinct, and accordingly both names appear in the Archæologia Americana as family designations. Both names are unobjectionable, but as the term Caddo has priority by a few pages preference is given to it.

Gallatin states “that the Caddoes formerly lived 300 miles up Red River but have now moved to a branch of Red River.” He refers to the Nandakoes, the Inies or Tachies, and the Nabedaches as speaking dialects of the Caddo language.

Under Pawnee two tribes were included by Gallatin: The Pawnees proper and the Ricaras. The Pawnee tribes occupied the country on the Platte River adjoining the Loup Fork. The Ricara towns were on the upper Missouri in latitude 46° 30'. 60The boundaries of the Caddoan family, as at present understood, can best be given under three primary groups, Northern, Middle, and Southern.

Northern group.—This comprises the Arikara or Ree, now confined to a small village (on Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota,) which they share with the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes of the Siouan family. The Arikara are the remains of ten different tribes of “Paneas,” who had been driven from their country lower down the Missouri River (near the Ponka habitat in northern Nebraska) by the Dakota. In 1804 they were in three villages, nearer their present location.

According to Omaha tradition, the Arikara were their allies when these two tribes and several others were east of the Mississippi River. Fort Berthold Reservation, their present abode, is in the northwest corner of North Dakota.

Middle group.—This includes the four tribes or villages of Pawnee, the Grand, Republican, Tapage, and Skidi. Dunbar says: “The original hunting ground of the Pawnee extended from the Niobrara,” in Nebraska, “south to the Arkansas, but no definite boundaries can be fixed.” In modern times their villages have been on the Platte River west of Columbus, Nebraska. The Omaha and Oto were sometimes southeast of them near the mouth of the Platte, and the Comanche were northwest of them on the upper part of one of the branches of the Loup Fork. The Pawnee were removed to Indian Territory in 1876. The Grand Pawnee and Tapage did not wander far from their habitat on the Platte. The Republican Pawnee separated from the Grand about the year 1796, and made a village on a “large northwardly branch of the Kansas River, to which they have given their name; afterwards they subdivided, and lived in different parts of the country on the waters of Kansas River. In 1805 they rejoined the Grand Pawnee.” The Skidi (Panimaha, or Pawnee Loup), according to Omaha tradition, formerly dwelt east of the Mississippi River, where they were the allies of the Arikara, Omaha, Ponka, etc. After their passage of the Missouri they were conquered by the Grand Pawnee, Tapage, and Republican tribes, with whom they have remained to this day. De L’Isle gives twelve Panimaha villages on the Missouri River north of the Pani villages on the Kansas River.

Southern group.—This includes the Caddo, Wichita, Kichai, and other tribes or villages which were formerly in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian Territory.

61

The Caddo and Kichai have undoubtedly been removed from their priscan habitats, but the Wichita, judging from the survival of local names (Washita River, Indian Territory, Wichita Falls, Texas) and the statement of La Harpe,are now in or near one of their early abodes. Dr. Sibley locates the Caddo habitat 35 miles west of the main branch of Red River, being 120 miles by land from Natchitoches, and they formerly lived 375 miles higher up. Cornell’s Atlas (1870) places Caddo Lake in the northwest corner of Louisiana, in Caddo County. It also gives both Washita and Witchita as the name of a tributary of Red River of Louisiana. This duplication of names seems to show that the Wichita migrated from northwestern Louisiana and southwestern Arkansas to the Indian Territory. After comparing the statements of Dr. Sibley (as above) respecting the habitats of the Anadarko, loni, Nabadache, and Eyish with those of Schermerhorn respecting the Kädo hadatco, of Le Page Du Pratz (1758) concerning the Natchitoches, of Tonti and La Harpe about the Yatasi, of La Harpe (as above) about the Wichita, and of Sibley concerning the Kichai, we are led to fix upon the following as the approximate boundaries of the habitat of the southern group of the Caddoan family: Beginning on the northwest with that part of Indian Territory now occupied by the Wichita, Chickasaw, and Kiowa and Comanche Reservations, and running along the southern border of the Choctaw Reservation to the Arkansas line; thence due east to the headwaters of Washita or Witchita River, Polk County, Arkansas; thence through Arkansas and Louisiana along the western bank of that river to its mouth; thence southwest through Louisiana striking the Sabine River near Salem and Belgrade; thence southwest through Texas to Tawakonay Creek, and along that stream to the Brazos River; thence following that stream to Palo Pinto, Texas; thence northwest to the mouth of the North Fork of Red River; and thence to the beginning.

PRINCIPAL TRIBES.

A. Pawnee.

Grand Pawnee. Tappas. Republican Pawnee. Skidi.

B. Arikara.

C. Wichita.

(Ki-¢i´-tcac, Omaha pronunciation of the name of a Pawnee tribe, Ki-dhi´-chash or Ki-ri´-chash).

62D. Kichai.

E. Caddo (Kä´-do).

Population.—The present number of the Caddoan stock is 2,259, of whom 447 are on the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota, and the rest in the Indian Territory, some on the Ponca, Pawnee, and Otoe Reservation, the others on the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita Reservation. Below is given the population of the tribes officially recognized, compiled chiefly from the Indian Report for 1889:

Arikara		448
Pawnee		824
Wichita	176
Towakarehu	145
Waco	64
		385
Kichai		63
Caddo		539
Total		2,259