American Indians had been living in North Carolina for at least 9,500 years before European explorers first encountered them in the 1520's. For the past several decades an increasing number of Americans have been identifying as American Indians. For centuries before European contact, these native people lived in harmony with the natural environment, taking no more from the land than they needed to survive. Of all the states in the Union, North Carolina has witnessed the largest increase in Native American population during the past 100 years, based upon official government census documents.
The Indian population in North Carolina consists of one federally recognized Indian tribe (Cherokee), seven state-recognized tribes, and three state-recognized urban organizations. Through the years, Indian cultures changed rapidly, and some were all but wiped out.
Coharie
The Coharie people are descendents of the Neusiok Indians. Since the 1730s the tribe has lived along the Little Coharie River in Sampson and Harnett Counties. In the 1800s the Coharie established schools with their own teachers and funds. In 1943 Coharie tribe started a high school. The tribe's center of activity is the church. While the Coharie population has been increasing steadily, and sometimes rapidly, over the years, so has their participation in both local and statewide endeavors. Modern Coharie have adapted well to a culture that is centered on written documents, yet they continue to preserve their customs and traditions through the oral method of recall.
Eastern Band of Cherokee
In 1838, the United States government made the Cherokee people leave their homelands. The forced march of the Cherokee to Okalahoma became known as the Trail ...
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...andard of living that ranks among the highest of all Indians in the United States.
Meherrin
Written history of the Meherrin, which means " people of the muddy water" dates back to 1650. Tribal enemies and conflicts with colonists forced them from Virginia into Hertford County. Today, the tribe also lives in Bertie and Gates Counties. Meherrin tribal members have renewed interest in their traditional arts, crafts, and culture. The Meherrin tribe has less than 1000 members in its tribe.
Waccamaw-Siouan
The first written record of the Waccamaw Siouan people appeared in 1712. The tribe, then known as the Woccon, lived near Charleston, SC. After fighting a war with South Carolina, the Waccamaw Siouan retreated to the swampland of North Carolina. Today the tribe lives near Lake Waccamaw in Columbus and Bladen Counties. The tribe has about 2000 members.
It is believed that the Mississippian Indians are some of the earliest residents of Clay County. Other tribes including the Cherokee, Iroquois, Chickasaw, and Shawnee have also resided in the County. The earliest white man in the area was Frenchman, Martin Chartier. He came as part of Shawnee hunting party around 1691 and, it is believed, he remained the...
The Muckleshoot are a Native American tribe are a part of the Coast Salish people. their territory can be found located in Washington. They are recognized as the Muckleshoot Tribe, they are composed of generations of different tribal groups who inherited Puget Sound areas and occupied river drainages from the rivers confluence in Auburn to their reservations in the Cascades.
“Tracing a single Native American family from the 1780’s through the 1920’s posed a number of challenges,” for Claudio Saunt, author of Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family. (pg. 217) A family tree is comprised of genealogical data that has many branches that take form by twisting, turning, and attempting to accurately represent descendants from the oldest to the youngest. “The Grayson family of the Creek Nation traces its origins to the late 1700’s, when Robert Grierson, a Scotsman, and Sinnugee, a Creek woman, settled down together in what is now north-central Alabama. Today, their descendants number in the thousands and have scores of surnames.” (pg. 3)
Have you ever heard of the Powhatan tribe? If not, let me share a little fact about them. Powhatan means “waterfall” in the Virginia Algonquian language. The Powhatans didn't live in tepees. They lived in small roundhouses called wigwams, or in larger Iroquois-style longhouses.
The Creek Indians, one of the Five Civilized Tribes, “was composed of many tribes, each with a different name.” The Creeks formed a loose confederacy with other tribes before European contact, “but it was strengthened significantly in the 1700s and 1800s.” The confederacy “included the Alabama, Shawnee, Natchez, Tuskegee, as well as many others.” There were two sections of Creeks, the Upper and Lower Creeks. The Lower Creeks occupied land in east Georgia, living near rivers and the coast. “The Upper Creeks lived along rivers in Alabama.” Like many other Native Americans, ...
When we think of the first people in America, whom do we think of? Of course, Christopher Columbus comes to mind. Yet, the first people to step on land were the native people. The native people were the first people to set foot on this soil, long before any white person. Regrettably, they were brutally attack, and removed from their homes. This how the Trails of Tears began. This paper will discuss the effects of The Trail of Tears had on the Indians.
The Iroquois Confederacy, an association of six linguistically related tribes in the northeastern woodlands, was a sophisticated society of some 5,500 people when the first white explorers encountered it at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The 1990 Census counted 49,038 Iroquois living in the United States, making them the country's eighth most populous Native American group. Although Iroquoian tribes own seven reservations in New York state and one in Wisconsin, the majority of the people live off the reservations. An additional 5,000 Iroquois reside in Canada, where there are two Iroquoian reservations. The people are not averse to adopting new technology when it is beneficial, but they want to maintain their own traditional identity.
One of the first exhibits visited was The Story of North Carolina: An Indian House that covered the history of the American Indians. It was learned that almost 400 years ago the English settled on Roanoke Island and found many Native American living on the coast. These Native Americans spoke three language groups, the Siouan, Iroquoian, and Algonquian. The Indians did not have a writing system, so many of their stories were told on oral traditions. The museum displayed the home of typical American Indian Piedmont Siouan tepee. We got to go inside this home, and watch a short video about the history of the Indians founded in North Carolina. There were artifacts on the farming tools use by the ...
At first, this tribe moved from the Great Lakes region to the North Dakota area. This happened in the 1600-1700s. Also at this time, the Cheyenne were a sedentary tribe who relied on agriculture and pottery. Though, in the 1800s, they decided to abandon this lifestyle and become nomadic and move to South Dakota (Black Hills), Wyoming, and Colorado areas. No matter where the Cheyenne lived, they always kept their natural language, which was part of the Algonquin language family (Lewis). The Cheyenne tribe, like other tribes, had their own lifestyle, beliefs, and customs and also had conflicts with the whites. Even today, the Cheyenne Indians exist and are living well.
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
Being one of the few tribes on the Great Plains they had more than enough food and water, meaning that the Pawnee population would exceed 35,000 people. Eventually the Pawnee split up into 4 separate groups. The 4 groups were the Pitahauerat, meaning people downstream, the Chaui, meaning people in the middle, the Skidi, meaning wolf, the Kitkehahaki, meaning little muddy bottom village. The Chaui lived by the Arkansas River in Kansas and the Platte in Nebraska. The Pitahauerat lived in the same place as the Chaui. The Skidi spread out across the northern prairie of Nebraska with their settlements on the northern part of the Loup River. The Kitkehahaki settled in Nebraska at the Loup River. These 4 groups eventually had to come together because the copious amounts of the food and water attracted more tribes.
Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina (n.d.). Who Are The Lumbee? Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.lumbeetribe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=115
The American Indians Between 1609 To 1865. Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who spoke hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large, terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper.