Table Of ContentAmerican Indian Tribes
The Editors of Salem Press
Salem Press
American Indian Tribes
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MAGILL’S C H O I C E
American Indian
Tribes
Volume 1
Culture Areas
Tribes and Traditions
Abenaki—Missouri
edited by
The Editors of Salem Press
project editor
R. Kent Rasmussen
Salem Press, Inc.
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
Copyright © 1995, 2000, by Salem Press, Inc.
All rights in this book are reserved. No part of this work may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, record-
ing, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quota-
tions embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address
the publisher, Salem Press, Inc., P.O. Box 50062, Pasadena, California
91115.
Essays originally appeared in Ready Reference, American Indians, 1995;
new material has been added.
∞ The paper used in these volumes conforms to the American Na-
tional Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
American indian tribes / edited by the editors of Salem Press ; project
editor, R. Kent Rasmussen.
p. cm. — (Magill’s choice)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89356-063-4 (set : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-89356-064-2 (v. 1 : alk.
paper) — ISBN 0-89356-065-0 (v. 2 : alk. paper)
1. Indians of North America. I. Rasmussen, R. Kent. II. Series.
E77.A53 2000
970′.00497—dc21
00-044659
First Printing
printed in the united states of america
Publisher’s Note
American Indian tribes have captured the imagination of Europeans,
their American descendants, and other immigrant peoples since contact
between the Old and New Worlds began in the late fifteenth century.
Nevertheless, few peoples have been the subject of as many cultural mis-
conceptions and stereotypes as American Indians. The first Europeans to
arrive in North America mistakenly believed they had reached Asia—which
they called the “Indies”—and immediately mislabeled the people they
encountered as “Indians.” Although the inaccuracy of that name was real-
ized after it was discovered that the Americas were not connected to Asia,
ethnocentrism continued to blind Europeans to the reality that the people
they were meeting in the New World belonged to thousands of distinct
cultures (which Europeans dubbed “tribes”) speaking hundreds of different
languages. Far from being relatively undifferentiated bands of primitive
“savages,” the Native peoples of the New World actually made up one of
the most diverse and rich culture regions of the world.
Meanwhile, the first three centuries of contact between the Old and New
Worlds were devastating to the latter. American Indians were cut down by
Old World diseases, massacred by ruthless European armies with superior
weapons, driven from their homelands by land-hungry whites, manipu-
lated and betrayed by national governments, and characterized as blood-
thirsty savages. At the other extreme, many Indian societies were also
romanticized as “noble savages”—an equally unrealistic stereotype.
When the social movements of the 1960’s gave birth to modern Indian
activism and Indian studies programs, long-overdue redefinitions of Indian
history and culture began to occur. Indian voices were heard as never
before, both in the political arena and in the university. Scholars in Indian
studies programs fought against the Eurocentric views that had long per-
meated such academic disciplines as anthropology and history. Members of
different Indian societies—which are typically officially known as tribes—
increasingly worked together to address such issues as Indian sovereignty
and historic land claims. Indians used the media to educate the non-Indian
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American Indian Tribes
public about the realities of Native American life in the twentieth century.
Today, therefore, any work that attempts to survey American Indian culture
and history must encompass ancient cultural traditions, historical Indian-
white relations, and contemporary concerns. American Indian Tribes is part
of the effort to educate non-Indians about Indian peoples. By focusing on
culture regions and individual tribes and cultural traditions, these volumes
serve to point up the startling diversity of Indian cultures. It might be
mentioned here that while these articles emphasize indigenous traditions
and early history, modern Indian societies have been anything but static.
Articles in American Indian Tribes are taken from Salem Press’s award-
winning three-volume set, Ready Reference: American Indians (1995). The goal
of that earlier set’s Editors was to assemble articles on a wide range of
topics—including personages, tribes, organizations, historical events, cul-
tural features and traditions, and contemporary issues—and to present
them in an alphabetical format for ease of access. American Indian Tribes itself
is modeled on one of the most popular Magill’s Choice titles, American
Indian Biographies (1999). That one-volume book collected all the biographi-
cal essays from Ready Reference: American Indians and added material from
other Salem reference publications, as well as some completely new mate-
rial. American Indian Tribes collects all the Ready Reference: American Indians
articles on culture areas, tribes, and cultural traditions, as well as the
appendixes. Both the appendixes and individual article bibliographies are
updated here.
Articles in this set are grouped under two broad headings: Culture Areas
and Tribes and Traditions. The first section opens with a general introduc-
tion to the subject of culture areas, followed by ten alphabetically arranged
essays on North American culture areas: Arctic, California, Great Basin,
Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plains, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest, and
Subarctic. Individual articles follow the ready-reference formatting of the
original reference set. For example, articles on culture areas open with lists
of the area’s main language groups and tribes.
The second section contains 307 alphabetically arranged articles on indi-
vidual tribes and prehistoric culture traditions.
In this reference set, as in its predecessor volumes, American Indians are
considered to be the original inhabitants of the areas now included within
the United States and Canada. Although care was taken to include articles
on as many tribal groups as possible, some very small North American
tribes do not have their own articles. On the other hand, major Mesoameri-
can and Caribbean groups such as the Aztecs, Caribs, and Mayas, are
included.
Individual articles, which range in length from 200 to 3,000 words each,
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Publisher’s Note
also begin with clearly marked lines of ready-reference information. For
example, articles on tribes identify the culture areas and language groups
to which they belong, along with their primary geographical regions.
Articles on prehistoric traditions—such as Clovis, Folsom, and Missis-
sippian—are included in this set because these traditions are typically the
historical bridges that link together the tribes within larger culture areas.
Moreover, the names of some traditions—such as Anasazi, Hohokam, and
Oneonta—are occasionally confused with tribal names, and covering them
together should help to clear up confusion. Indeed, information given at the
tops of articles on traditions identifies where the traditions developed and
which other traditions and tribes each tradition affected.
All articles with 1,000 or more words contain bibliographies; bibliog-
raphies of articles 2,000 or more words include annotations. All bibliog-
raphies have been updated for American Indian Tribes. Appendixes provide
information on subjects such as festivals and pow-wows; reservations;
museums, archives, and libraries; and organizations. The back matter also
includes a time line, mediagraphy, and bibliography.
A few comments must be made on certain editorial decisions. Terms
ranging from “American Indian” to “Native American” to “tribe” are ac-
cepted by some and disapproved of by others. The Editors of Salem Press
have incorporated the phrase “American Indians” into the titles of Ready
Reference: American Indians and the two Magill’s Choice sets because it is the
most widely accepted collective name for the first inhabitants of North
America and their descendants. At the same time, however, the Editors have
allowed authors to use either “American Indian” or “Native American” in
their articles as they see fit. Similarly, while the Editors used the term
“Inuit” for the title article on that Arctic people, the term “Eskimo” also
appears in the set, as it has a long tradition of scientific usage and encom-
passes a variety of Arctic peoples to whom “Inuit” does not adequately
apply.
Contributors were also allowed to use singular or plural designations for
tribal names, but the tribal names themselves been standardized through-
out the set. The Editors have tried to use names and spellings that are both
accepted by members of the tribes themselves and widely recognized.
Readers who cannot find tribal names in their expected alphabetical posi-
tions should consult the index for assistance. There, for example, they will
find that the “Chippewa” people are listed under “Ojibwa.”
All articles in this set are written and signed by scholars, most of whom
are academicians in fields relating to American Indian studies. A list of the
their names, along with their affiliations, follows this note. Once again, we
gratefully acknowledge their participation and thank them for making their
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American Indian Tribes
expert knowledge accessible to general readers. We would also like, once
again, to thank the consulting editor of the original Ready Reference: Ameri-
can Indians, Harvey Markowitz, formerly of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for
the History of the American Indian at Chicago’s Newberry Library.
viii
Contributor List
James A. Baer John Hoopes
Northern Virginia Community University of Kansas
College Philip E. Lampe
Carole A. Barrett Incarnate Word College
University of Mary William C. Lowe
Byron D. Cannon Mount St. Clare College
University of Utah Paul Madden
Richard G. Condon Hardin-Simmons University
University of Arkansas Kimberly Manning
LouAnn Faris Culley California State University at Santa
Kansas State University Barbara
Michael G. Davis Patricia Masserman
Northeast Missouri State University Independent Scholar
S. Matthew Despain Howard Meredith
University of Oklahoma University of Science and Arts of
Linda B. Eaton Oklahoma
State University Laurence Miller
Robert E. Fleming Western Washington State University
Brigham Young University Sean O’Neill
Raymond Frey Grand Valley State University
Centenary College Harald E. L. Prins
C. George Fry Kansas State University
Lutheran College of Health John Alan Ross
Professions Eastern Washington University
Marc Goldstein Glenn J. Schiffman
University of Rochester Independent Scholar
Gretchen L. Green Burl Self
University of Missouri at Kansas City Southwest Missouri State University
Carl W. Hoagstrom Michael W. Simpson
Ohio Northern University Eastern Washington University
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