Native American Cultures & Conflicts

By Mrs. Maimone

The Paiutes are from which region of the country and why is it called that??

The Paiutes live in the Great Basin region.

The Great Basin is a geographical classification of indigenous peoples of the United States who lived in a cultural region between and including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The cultures who spent most of their time in the mountains are sometimes called the Mountain Tribes. This region consists of semi-arid high desert valleys with very little precipitation, and high mountain ranges. This culture is characterized by the need for mobility to take advantage of seasonally available food supplies and water sources.Read more: Great Basin Tribes http://www.aaanativearts.com/north-american-tribes-by-region/great-basin-tribes.html#ixzz30lciK3Fm

The Great Basin got its name because it is an area between two mountain ranges and the rivers there do not flow to the ocean. There were few people living in the area. The names of tribes in this area were Shoshone, Paiute and Mono.

http://access.sd25.org/curriculum/NativeAmericans/greatbasin.html

Native American Cultural Regions

Were the Paiutes hunter-gatherers or farmers?

• Prior to substantial contact with non-Native peoples, the Paiutes led a highly mobile nomadic lifestyle. They ranged from the forested highlands of the Rocky Mountains westward to the Sierra Nevada Range, including the desert lowlands in between. The lifestyles of the various bands across this expansive region were largely determined by the particular foods available in the area where they predominantly lived. Most subsisted by hunting small game and gathering roots, seeds, and berries. Pine nuts were the staple food of the Paiutes.

• They gathered together in the fall to harvest the pine nuts and then to socialize.Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Le-Pa/Paiutes.html#ixzz30lfev3uY

The Great Basinhttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html#puCahuilla Indians Chemehuevi Indians Comanche Indians Cupeño Indians Diegueño Indians Mono Indians Northern Paiute Indians Shoshonean Indians Washo Indians

THE THEFT OF PINE NUTS

• THE THEFT OF PINE NUTS 6• (Winnemucca, Nevada. Northern Paiute)• The north wind was blowing and Coyote could smell pine nuts. Coyote said, "It smells good. I will find the pine nut

eaters." He traveled to where people were eating pine nuts. They were making mush of them. The people said, "Don't make the mush too thick. Put plenty of water in it. There is a stranger here. We don't know what he wants. Don't put coarse nuts in the mush. He may steal them."

• Coyote came back and told his own people about it. He said, "Those people have fine food. I ate some soup. They made me some thin mush without any whole pine nuts in it, so I could not steal them. Hurry, pack up and we will go after them."

• Coyote and his people started out to steal the pine nuts. Everybody--Chipmunk, Magpie, Chickenhawk, Mouse, Hawk, Skunk--everybody went. They were all people. [When they arrived] they gambled with the people in the north. Coyote said, "Mouse, you look for the pine nuts, while we play the hand game. They are hidden." Coyote told him to find the whole ones. Mouse was small and could get into small places. While they were playing the hand game, Mouse found the nuts under a house and started to run home with them. All Coyote's people ran to help him.

• The northern people followed. They killed Coyote first. Then they killed the others. They cut each person open to find the pine nuts. [But before each person was overtaken] he had relayed the nuts to another. Finally, Rotten-legs (Hawk) was the only person left. He had the pine nuts in his leg. They cut Rotten-legs open, but did not find anything. His leg stunk so bad that they threw it away toward the south.

• The people saw smoke in the hills. 7 The pine nuts [which had been scattered when the leg was thrown] grew fast. There used to be pine nuts in the north, but now they are all gone. They grow around Winnemucca now.

• http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/wsm/wsm08.htm

Plateau IndiansCayuse Indians Chinookan Indians Kalispel Indians Klikitat Indians Kutenai Indians Nespelim Indians Nez Perce Indians Salish Indians Salishan Indians Spokane Indians Tlakluit Indians Umatilla Indians Walla Walla Indians Yakama Indians http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html#pu

Where did the Plateau Indians live & why were their lives easier than the

lives of the Great Basin Indians?• The Plateau has more precipitation than the Great Basin

area. So, plants and animals are more abundant there. Still, the Plateau people were hunter-gatherers.

• “Salmon was one of the most important foods to the Plateau Indians. They relied heavily on stored and dried food during the cold winter months.” http://native-american-indian-facts.com/Plateau-American-Indian-Facts/Plateau-American-Indian-Facts.shtml

• The Plateau people gathered together in the spring to fish for salmon and then to socialize.

Chief Joseph of the Nez PerceThe Nez Perce were one of the plateau tribes. Chief Joseph became famous for his speech “I Will Fight No More Forever.”

What animal was a trickster in many Native American stories?

The Coyotehttp://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/How_Coyote_Brought_Fire_To_The_People-Karok.html

The Plains http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html#pu

http://americanhistory.si.edu/buffalo/map.html

What animal was king for the Plains Indians?

The bison was king. The Plains Indians used it for many things.

http://

animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/bison/

What animal changed the way the Plains people lived and hunted?

The horse changed their way of life.

Great Plains• Tribes: Arapaho Indians

Arikara Indians Assiniboine Indians Atsina Indians Brule Indians Cheyenne Indians Chipewyan Indians Cree Indians Crow Indians Dakota Indians Hidatsa Indians Kainah Indians Mandan Indians Oglala Indians Osage Indians Oto Indians Piegan Indians Ponca Indians Quapaw Indians Sarsi Indians Siksika Indians Teton Indians Wichita Indians Yanktonai Indians

• The Plains are a grassland prairie. http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/prairie.htm

The Pacific Northwesthttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html#pu

The Pacific Northwest Indianshttp://www.scoop.it/t/totemism

The climate of the Pacific Northwest is mild, but high in precipitation. This helps provide the people with abundant wildlife and plants- i.e. food!

http://cses.washington.edu/cig/pnwc/pnwc.shtml

The Pacific Northwest

• American Indians - Northwest Bands• Totem pole • The indigenous peoples of North America are

thought to have arrived here more than 16,000 years ago, having descended from people who lived in Siberia. Since that time, they have diversified into hundreds of distinct nations and bands. We're taking a look at what sets those groups apart.

• Northwest Indians - Who Are They?• Northwest Indians live along the Pacific Ocean,

from southern Alaska, through coastal British Columbia, and into Washington State. This group is well known for its hand-crafted totem poles. A totem pole in front of a home shows the generations and social rank of that family. Some Northwest bands are the Chinook, Tillamook, Coast Salish and the Tlingit.

• The Pacific Northwest tribes used the totem pole to pass on their legends and family history.

Northwest Indians - CeremoniesOne of the most common customs was the potlatch. The ceremony was different from tribe to tribe but almost always involved dancing and gift-giving. Dancers often wore animal masks and decorated themselves from head to toe with paint and feathers. Hosts showered their guests with gifts to show how wealthy they were. They would even destroy some of their most valuable possessions - the more they could afford to destroy, the greater their wealth and importance.

Read more: American Indian | Native | First Nations | Pacific Northwest | Chinook | Tillamook | Coast Salish | Tlingit http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1387-american-indians-northwest-bands#ixzz30luVDxqn

Sometimes, the Indians attended schools like the Carlisle Indian

School, where they were taught to dress, behave, and think like

settlers.

TROUBLES!

• The Trail of Tears:• Trail of Tears• In 1838, the United States government

forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, and sent them to Indian Territory (today known as Oklahoma). The impact to the Cherokee was devastating. Hundreds of Cherokee died during their trip west, and thousands more perished from the consequences of relocation. This tragic chapter in American and Cherokee history became known as the Trail of Tears, and culminated the implementation of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which mandated the removal of all American Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River to lands in the West.

• http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/trail-of-tears.htm

The U.S. Government signed treaties, peace or land agreements, with Indians. Sometimes the treaties were signed by Indians who did not speak for their tribes. Since the Native Americans did not have one person or central government to speak for all of them, the U.S. Government had trouble getting treaties signed.

Sometimes the Native Americans refused to leave their land. They would often be forced to move onto a reservation, a piece of land that was set aside, or reserved, for them.

Sometimes, the Indians would refuse to leave their land.

Many armed conflicts broke out throughout the country among Indians and settlers or U.S. Government officials.

Video of the Battle of Little Bighorn

• http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/battle-of-the-little-bighorn

The Sand Creek Massacre

• The Battle of Little Bighorn:

• Little Bighorn, A Place of Reflection

• This area memorializes the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne in one of the Indians last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota, and Cheyenne warriors.

• http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm

At dawn on November 29, 1864, approximately 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 700 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. Using small arms and howitzer fire, the troops drove the people out of their camp. While many managed to escape the initial onslaught, others, particularly noncombatant women, children, and the elderly fled into and up the bottom of the dry stream bed. The soldiers followed, shooting at them as they struggled through the sandy earth. At a point several hundred yards above the village, the women and children frantically excavated pits and trenches along either side of the streambed to protect themselves. Some adult men attempted to hold back the Army with whatever weapons they had managed to retrieve from the camp, and at several places along Sand Creek the soldiers shot the people from opposite banks and brought forward the howitzers to blast them from their improvised defenses. Over the course of eight hours the troops killed around 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly. During the afternoon and following day, the soldiers wandered over the field committing atrocities on the dead before departing the scene on December 1 to resume campaigning.

http://www.nps.gov/sand/historyculture/index.htm

Battle of the Little Bighorn: Custer’s Last Stand At mid-day on June 25, Custer’s 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the

Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer’s desperate attempts to

regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed. Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and all of his

soldiers were dead.The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer’s Last Stand, marked the most decisive

Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The demise of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image

of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would

be confined to reservations.

Did You Know?More than half of the 7th Cavalry survived the Battle of the

Little Bighorn. About 350 soldiers under the command of Major Reno and Captain Benteen survived five miles south of

where Custer and five companies were annihilated.

What battle ended the Indian Wars?• Wounded Knee• Wounded Knee, creek, rising in SW S.Dak. and flowing NW to the White River; site of the last major

battle of the Indian wars. After the death of Sitting Bull, a band of Sioux, led by Big Foot, fled into the badlands, where they were captured by the 7th Cavalry on Dec. 28, 1890, and brought to the creek. On Dec. 29, the Sioux were ordered disarmed; but when a medicine man threw dust into the air, a warrior pulled a gun and wounded an officer. The U.S. troops opened fire, and within minutes almost 200 men, women, and children were shot. The soldiers later claimed that it was difficult to distinguish the Sioux women from the men. See also Ghost Dance. The site, which is on the Pine Ridge reservation, is now a national historic landmark.

• The village of Wounded Knee, which borders the creek, was seized and occupied (Feb.–May, 1973) by American Indian Movement and Oglala Sioux activists protesting the treatment of Native Americans and the governance of the tribe. An armed standoff resulted between the occupiers and federal authorities, and several persons died from gunshots during the 71-day occupation. After the Native Americans surrendered, the leaders of the occupation were tried, but the case was dismissed on grounds of misconduct by the prosecution.

• See H. Cox, Wounded Knee (2010).•

Read more: Wounded Knee | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/us/wounded-knee.html#ixzz30m4vdO4g

Where did most of the battles occur?

• West of the Mississippi River