North America’s indigenous people are extremely diverse, with unique customs and beliefs, molded in part by the landscapes where they live – from the Inuit in the tundra of Alaska, to the many tribes of the arid Southwest. Although the population is a fraction of its pre-Columbian size (about 2% of the US population), there are more than six million Native Americans from 573 tribes, speaking some 175 languages and residing in every region of the United States.
Today, the Cherokee, Navajo, Chippewa and Sioux are the largest tribal groupings in the lower 48 (ie excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Other well-known tribes include the Choctaw (descendants of a great mound-building society originally based in the Mississippi Valley), the Iroquois (who invented the game of lacrosse) the Apache (a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe that fiercely resisted forced relocation) and the Hopi (a Pueblo people with Southwest roots dating back 2000 years).
Culturally speaking, America’s modern tribal nations grapple with questions about how to prosper in contemporary America while protecting their traditions from erosion and their lands from further exploitation.
The Cherokee (www.cherokee.org) were a dominant presence on the continent prior to European contact. They lived in fertile river valleys, in small villages set with sturdy wooden-frame houses surrounded by cornfields. There was also a central square and a council house for religious ceremonies and meetings that could hold all of the villagers. Cherokee society was originally matrilineal, with bloodlines traced through the mother. Like some other native tribes, the Cherokee recognize seven cardinal directions: north, south, east and west along with up, down and center (or within).
Through warfare and alliances, the Cherokee soon amassed a territory that covered a huge swath of the present-day South, including Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia and Kentucky. By 1821, the Cherokee had established a writing system consisting of 86 characters, and literacy spread quickly. The syllabary was created by Sequoyah, who believed that by claiming the written word for themselves, the Cherokee could be on a more equal footing with white men. The first person he taught to read was his six-year-old daughter, Ayoka.
However, after the Indian Removal Act passed in 1830, the Cherokee were forcibly relocated east of the Mississippi alongside other southeastern tribes in a forced march known as the Trail of Tears. Ever since, the majority of the Cherokee population (some 200,000 plus) reside in Oklahoma. Tahlequah, OK, has been the Cherokee capital since 1839; the Annual Cherokee National Holiday has been celebrated there since 1953 with a weekend of festivities.
Today the Trail of Tears routes make up a National Historic Trail (www.nps.gov/trte) that goes through nine states. Significant stops include the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, and New Echota Historic Site near Calhoun, Georgia.
The Navajo Reservation (www.discovernavajo.com) is by far the largest and most populous in the US. Also called the Navajo Nation and Navajoland, it covers 17.5 million acres (over 27,000 sq miles) in Arizona and parts of New Mexico and Utah, and more than 300,000 people call Navajo Nation home.
The Navajo (Diné) were nomads and warriors who both traded with and raided the neighboring Pueblos and Apaches. They borrowed generously from other traditions: they acquired sheep and horses from the Spanish, learned pottery and weaving from the Pueblos, and picked up silversmithing from Mexico.
By the 1860s, settlers and the US military were encroaching onto Navajo territory. Violent clashes were common as Navajo defended the land they had held for centuries. Beginning in 1863, the US military decided to solve their ‘Navajo problem’ by rounding up more than 10,000 Navajos and marching them at gunpoint toward a desolate corner of New Mexico and a camp called Bosque Redondo, some 400 miles away. Hundreds died on the ‘Long Walk,’ and more died of disease and poor treatment during the four years they were held at the camp before being released and allowed to return to their lands.
In the 1940s, the Navajo became vital to the US’s World War II efforts, thanks to the ‘Navajo code-talkers.’ A group of 29 men created a code based on the Navajo language to communicate with US Marines in the Pacific. Thanks to the complexity of the Navajo language, their efforts foiled Japanese code-breakers for the duration of the war and was pivotal to the success of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Today, the Navajo are renowned for their woven rugs, pottery and inlaid silver jewelry, as well as for their intricate sandpainting, which is used in healing ceremonies. Many Navajo rely on the tourist economy, and there’s a robust collection of museums, monuments and cultural experiences – including traditional village visits – in Arizona and Utah.
The Chippewa are based in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan – in fact, the state name ‘Michigan’ comes from the Ojibwe language. Although Chippewa, or Ojibwe, is the commonly used term for this tribe, they are part of the Anishinaabe group of indigenous peoples and often refer to themselves as Anishinaabe.
According to legend, the Chippewa once lived on the Atlantic coast and gradually migrated west over 500 years. They established communities, surviving by fishing, hunting, and farming corn and squash. They also harvested (by canoe) wild rice, which remains an essential Chippewa tradition. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow pulled from Chippewa culture for his 1855 poem ‘The Song of Hiawatha.’
The modern ‘dreamcatcher,’ popularized by the New Age movement, was inspired by the Chippewa ‘spider-web charm.’ Sinew was wrapped around a willow frame to create a protective charm related to the guardian spirit Spider Woman (Asibikaashi). Chippewa would hang the spider-web charms over a cradle to allow her protection to reach them.
Today about 175,000 Chippewa live in North America, mainly on reservations.
It would take an encyclopedia to cover the myriad artistic traditions of America’s tribal peoples, from pre-Columbian rock art to the contemporary multimedia scene.
What ties such diverse traditions together is that Native American art and crafts are not just functional for everyday life, but can also serve ceremonial purposes and have social and religious significance. The patterns and symbols are woven with meanings that provide a window into the heart of Native American peoples. This is as true of Zuni fetish carvings as it is of patterned Navajo rugs, Southwestern pueblo pottery, Sioux beadwork, Inuit sculptures and Cherokee and Hawaiian wood carvings, to name just a few examples.
In addition to preserving their culture, contemporary Native American artists have used sculpture, painting, textiles, film, literature and performance art to reflect and critique modernity since the mid-20th century, especially after the civil rights activism of the 1960s and cultural renaissance of the ‘70s. Native North American Art by Berlo and Phillips offers an introduction to North America’s varied indigenous art.
Many tribes run craft outlets and galleries, usually in the main towns of reservations. The Indian Arts & Crafts Board (www.doi.gov/iacb) lists Native American–owned galleries and shops state-by-state (click on ‘Source Directory’).
The Sioux (www.lakotadakotanakotanation.org) is not one tribe, but a consortium of three major tribes – Eastern Dakota, Western Dakota and Lakota – speaking different dialects but sharing a common culture. Each tribe also has various sub-branches.
Prior to European arrival they lived in the southeast, but were first encountered by Europeans in modern-day Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. The Sioux slowly expanded west to what is now the Dakotas, Nebraska and Montana by 1800.
The Sioux were fierce defenders of their lands, and fought many battles to preserve them, including the Black Hills war and the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre, though the slaughter of the buffalo (on which they had survived) did as much to remove them from their lands as anything else. That spirit of protest endures today: The Sioux were among the founders of the American Indian Movement in 1968, launched a fight against the South Dakota foster system to prevent the state from seizing Native American children, and led the movement to block the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016.
Today, the approximately 130,000 Sioux live in Minnesota, Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota – the latter contains the 2-million-acre Pine Ridge Reservation, the nation’s second largest.
900
Ancestral Pueblo peoples living near Chaco Canyon develop massive adobe ‘great houses.’
1100
North America’s largest city outside Mesoamerica, Cahokia, boasts a population larger than medieval London.
1680
The Pueblo successfully rise up against the Spanish in the Pueblo Revolt. They maintain their independence until 1692.
1831–1836
Southeastern tribes are forcibly relocated west of the Mississippi by the US government. Thousands die along what is known as the Trail of Tears.
1876
Lakota chief Sitting Bull defeats Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn, one of the last military victories by Native Americans.
1934
The Indian Reorganization Act transfers land and mineral rights back to tribes and encourages preservation of their cultures.
1968
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded to support Native American rights.
2011
FNX, the first Native American television network, launches.
2019
Joy Harjo, of the Muscogee Creek Nation, becomes the first Native American US poet laureate.