Great Lakes Indians. A Pictorial Guide

274 Pages·1999·10.65 MB·English

by  William J. Kubiak

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© 1970, 1999 by William J. Kubiak Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
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Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy,
recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief
quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4129-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress,
Washington, DC.
The following persons and organizations are in possession of some of the paintings used as
illustrations in this book. The author gratefully acknowledges the permission to use them in
this way.
Photographs of the paintings were taken by Robert L. Kubiak
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To no one person or group
can this book be more appropriately dedicated
than to all the Indians of the Great Lakes Area.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Part 1 The Indians
1. Who Are the Indians?
2. Indian Languages
3. Indian Dwellings
Part 2 Algonquian Stock
4. Algonkin
5. Amikwa
6. Chippewa
7. Fox
8. Illinois
9. Kickapoo
10. Marameg
11. Mascouten
12. Menominee
13. Miami
14. Missisauga
15. Nipissing
16. Ottawa
17. Potawatomi
18. Sauk
Part 3 Iroquoian Stock
19. Erie
20. Huron
21. Iroquois
22. Neutrals
23. Tionontati
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24. Wenrohronon
Part 4 Siouan Stock
25. Assegun
26. Dakota
27. Tutelo
28. Winnebago

Bibliography
General Index
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Preface
My first serious interest in Indians came when I met Harold Yeiter, an
old friend and art associate of fifteen years. He was and still is a
wonderful painter of Western Indians. Our conversations about Indians
and art stimulated me enough to light the spark, and, ever since, I have
been completely fascinated by the subject. I have noticed that the more
one reads and learns about the Indians, the less one feels he knows about
them. It is difficult to find source material, because there just isn’t that
much to be found. The popular history of the Western Indians took place
mainly in the nineteenth century, whereas that of the Indians in the
Great Lakes area was just coming to a close at that time. The facts on
Western Indians are still fairly fresh—even photographs are obtainable—
but this is not true of Indians of the Great Lakes area in earlier times.
Writing and illustrating this book were somewhat like trying to put a
jigsaw puzzle together with some of the pieces missing. To get a full
picture of the Indians in the Upper Midwest, one must go through scores
of books, snatching a little information here and a little there, never
feeling certain of what one is reading. Trying to remember the names of
Indians, where they lived, and where they came from was and still is a
difficult task. It seemed almost impossible to get a clear mental picture
of how they looked, because seldom, if ever, did the books or articles
carry good illustrations of them.
Most persons think Indians of the past were just Indians—they all
wore war bonnets, rode horses, attacked wagon trains, and lived in tipis.
This extensive illusion stems largely from movies and television.
History books in our schools today rarely devote more than one short
chapter to the subject, and this usually is poorly written and illustrated.
The popular opinion of the Indian has been based upon prejudice and
ignorance, for students too often receive just enough information to let
them know there were some red savages who inhabited North America
at one time. It is to be regretted that we don’t have the Indian’s side of
the story to compare with that of his white counterpart.
Far from being satisfied, I wanted to know what a Miami looked like,
how a Potawatomi dressed, how a Huron fixed his hair, and so forth.
What I wanted did not exist, so I decided to write and illustrate this
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book on the subject. Many of the illustrations have been drawn or
painted in the past several years; a number of them have been published
in The Grand Rapids Press. The illustrations are composites of my own
interpretations gained from the bits of information and notes I have
collected over these years. Just as archaeologists piece together facts to
authenticate their theories, I have sought to piece together what
information I could gather to create my Indian illustrations.
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