August 29, 2005

• I like how so many tribes survive in that vast ocean north of the 49th parallel. In the water south of the border too. My main question would be what time period this is suposed to represent. It doesn't seem to quite fit where tribes live now (There are Ojibway north of Lake Huron, for example). Also, there were huge changes not only for the eastern seaboard, but also for the whole of the plains - the introduction of feral horses changed everything there, and made the big plains tribes powerful. I would guess this is a map of where (and how big) tribes were when they had their first big interactions with settlers, so it's all different times.
• Split hairs, why doncha?
• I was reading something about the Creek the other day, and came across a link to an incredibly touching story of how, just 16 years after the terrible sufferings of the Trail of Tears, native congregations in Indian territory raised over USD 700 to send to help relieve the famine in Ireland. A group of Irish people re-traced the route of the trail in the 1990s as a commemoration of this wondeful act of generosity and used it to raise money for the then famine in Sudan. Sometimes these flashes of the human spirit give you hope.
• Here's the story. I see I mangled some of the details (wrong nation!) as per my dodgy memory.
• Sorry, Chyren - I've just been reading a lot about North America in the years following 1492 lately. Complex story. I'm fascinated by the ways in which native societies changed in response to new elements (like horses) that were introduced before most Europeans actually made it that far inland.
• I was only kidding. I know fuck all about 'em.
• Around 1980 there was a best-selling American novel, Hanta Yo, by Ruth Beebe Hill, which dealt with the changes experienced in a group of the Lakota people as they wandered west and who, in the novel, had a history and even retaining some know;edge of the great pte (the huge prehistoric bison which dwarfs the modern one). Still an interesting and enjoyable read to this day, and gives insight into a vanished way of life and a different way of perceiving. It was unfortunatly easy for European newcomers and their descendents to ignore the presence of the Indians/Native Americans once fighting ended -- despite the astonishing structures of the mound builders, and the many other signs these aborignal peoples were neither savages nor children. But I conclude such ignorance may have made it easier for the newcomers to kill the native peoples off, to remove them from tradtionally inhabited land, and break treaty after treaty with them in what must be one of the longest-sustained and wide-scale thefts in human history. Be interesting if someone could give us the lowdown on the aboriginal folk of the Australian continent, sometime. North Americans know almost nothing about Australia and New Zealand, alas.
• The biggest encampment of the Plains indians west of the Mississippi was called Kaw Point, where the Kaw(kansas) river met the Missouri river just east of KC. That area is now an industrial area on the south(the Kansas side) and Parkville(the north side). That area lied undevloped and was probably a treasure trove of atifacts,,until around the late seventies/early eighties,(i forget what year), they ran a multilane highway(635) right smackdab through the middle of the north bank encampment that was used. A great amount of history was lost then as the Indians arrived there in canoes for decades, even before the horse had arrived, http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/thennow/TN61.htm Kaw indians were repeatedly moved onto smaller and smaller reservations, their last treaty siging was at Council Groves, Kansas, and they were moved to Oklahoma then. http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/retank/Lastfull-bloodKawTribalCouncilcirca.jpg
• Oops, I meant just west of KC,
• Nice maps, Chyren -- thanks!
• The First Nations people in my area -- the Neutrals -- don't appear on the map at all. To be fair, though, they may not have been a major nation, and sometimes were counted among either the Hurons or the Iroquois, although strictly speaking, they weren't either (thus the name). And there appear to be Hurons on the other side of the ditch, over by Niagara Falls/Buffalo, and historically, that's not right at all. That was all Five Nations. The Hurons (or what were left of them) were pushed to either Quebec or Kansas. Traditional Huron territory is shown as a void, with some of the Mohawks that were pushed there later. So if the map is based on first contact, it's wrong, and if it's based on where-they-are-now, it may be wrong as well. Need more info.
• The maps is accurate as far as the Cherokee go, in that they appear in their general pre-1838 area. Definitely wrong as to where-they-are-now (at least for the vast majority of Cherokee).
• If anyone ever gets a chance to hit the far northern corner of the Washington coast, I highly recommend visiting the Makah Museum. It's simply incredible, fascinating, and very well-done. Certainly one of the most interesting and impressive tribes of the state. Great find, Chy!!
• /off topic bees' comment reminded me of this woman I was wrangled into seeing, Marlo Morgan. She was giving a talk on a walkabout she had experienced with some aborigines. It was standing room only, which amazed me as I had never heard of this woman nor her book "Mutant Message Down Under". It started out interesting enough, then spiraled on down to hokiness--although I really wanted to believe what she was saying. In retrospect, I felt as if I was experiencing a JZ Knight moment with "What the Bleep Do We Know". Anyway, I am curious if anyone has read this particular book (it's at least 15 years old) and what their general concensus is on it. I like the general idea of what she was trying to say, but she's not a very good writer and it was too far-fetched.
• I thought this might be of interest.
• Here's some infornation about Edward Curtis, the most famous photographer of Indian/Native American peoples, and varied reactions, not all favourable, to his work.
• Thanks bees
• Disappointed that my SO's tribe (Okanagan) isn't listed. But otherwise a pretty neat map. Thanks, Chy!
• Native Americans in the Gold Rush