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Indians is the common name for the entire indigenous population of North and South America, who lived here before the arrival of Europeans. And it arose, as you know, for the simple reason that the “pioneer” (very controversial!) Of this continent, Christopher Columbus, was sincerely sure that he had arrived in India.
According to various estimates, before the advent of “civilizers” on the two American continents lived from 6 to 15 (and according to some researchers – up to 46) million people (about 2200 tribes), of which from 2 to 4 million (400 tribes ) in what is now the United States and Canada.
Well, by the beginning of the 250th century, thanks to the “care” of white people, only XNUMX thousand (!) Indians remained in North America. (And someone else doubts that the history of the development of the Wild West was directly connected with the wildest genocide of the indigenous population!?)
For comparison: the Spaniards and the Portuguese, who “mastered” South America and also did not really consider the local Indians as people, nevertheless did not massacre them with entire villages and did not specifically infect them with European diseases (the immunity from which the Quechua Incas, Araucans, Mojos etc. was not). They converted them to Christianity (yes, often by completely inhumane methods) and assimilated them.
As a result, today in South America there are more than 40 million descendants of those Indians, and in North America (in the USA and Canada together) – about 3,5 million. Many North American tribes were destroyed to the last man.
Let’s remember at least the 10 most famous to us (from books and movies) tribes of North American Indians, once numerous and brave.
10 Cheyenne (Cheyenne)
The Cheyenne Indians of the Great Plains were buffalo hunters who roamed from the Black Hills to the Arkansas River. Until the middle of the XNUMXth century, they got along quite well with the white settlers, but, of course, they were increasingly worried that newcomers from another continent were not just walking around wherever they wanted on their lands, but also establishing farms here, building military forts, etc. d.
The Cheyenne twice (in 1825 and 1851) entered into treaties with the American government on friendly and trade relations (as well as on the delimitation of territories), but, as you know, the Americans did not at all try to comply with these agreements.
And so, after several serious incidents (including the surprise attack by Colonel J. Chivington’s detachment on the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek and the destruction of the settlement of the leader of the Black Kettle on the Washita River by J. Custer), the Cheyenne “went on the warpath” against the whites .
They united with neighboring tribes (Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanches, etc.), played a big role in the Great Sioux War, earning the glory of fierce and brave fighters, but still were forced to surrender in 1877.
Today, there are about 11,5 thousand Cheyennes left, they live on reservations.
9. Delaware
We know the Delawares mainly thanks to the works of J. Fenimore Cooper. They lived in the border area of the current United States and Canada, along the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
By the way, the name “Delaware” is not at all “native” to the tribe: Captain Sam Argyle named the bay, on the banks of which the Lennie-Lenape Indians lived, in honor of Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr, but along with the bay, the Europeans, without thinking twice , at the same time “renamed” the local residents.
And, in fact, the Delawares were not at all as noble and freedom-loving as Cooper portrayed them in his books. Before the arrival of Europeans, they constantly fought with their Iroquois neighbors (and the Iroquois, most often, won).
And with the advent of white people, the Delawares almost immediately established mutually beneficial relations with them, unlike many other tribes, preferring not to fight, but to trade and, for example, serve in the American army as scouts. In many ways, it is because of this that they, in the end, survived. Now the Delawares number about 16 thousand people.
By the way, it was the leader of the Lenape Tammany who sold Manhattan to the Dutch in 1625.
The Navajo are one of the largest Indian tribes in North America today (there are more than 280 of them). They live mainly in the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Unlike many neighbors, the Navajos were settled Indians, engaged in agriculture (growing corn), cattle breeding and hunting, and also owned a craft: pottery, basket weaving, weaving, etc. (borrowing these skills from their predecessors in this territory – the Pueblo Indians).
After the arrival of the whites, the Navajo lands first belonged to the Spaniards, whose expansion the tribe resisted for a long time (but at the same time borrowed a lot of useful things from them: for example, horse breeding, growing fruit and cotton trees, cheese production, etc.).
In 1860, after the war for the territories of the current states of Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, etc. between Mexico and the United States, the Navajo Indians ended up on an American reservation (which today has a semi-autonomous status and even its own president, court and police).
During the Second World War, the Navajo Indians, who served in the US Army, gained fame as the best cryptographers – “speaking with the wind” (this is the Navajo language, which is so rare and complex that none of the opponents understood it).
7. Comanches
The Comanches were well known both to their neighbors and to white Europeans as a very warlike and brave tribe. In battle, they had no equal (especially after they mastered riding).
The surrounding Indian peoples considered the Comanches a real disaster, because they, quite often organizing raids, took captive women (making them concubines) and very young children – in order to raise them according to their own traditions.
With fellow tribesmen who violated the laws of the Comanches, they treated no less cruelly: for example, a woman caught cheating on her husband could be killed or (in rare cases) “simply” cut off her nose.
The white settlers were also very afraid to enter Comanche territory – it was certain death. In addition, the Comanches are also famous for the fact that they were the first among all the Indian tribes to put the breeding of horses “on stream”, supplying them, including to their neighbors.
The main thing for them was precisely the military leader, who controlled the whole structure of detachments for various purposes: cavalry, foot, reconnaissance, and even a semblance of “rear service”.
The Comanches caused a lot of problems for both Mexicans and Texans. The US Army managed to break their resistance only in 1874 in the battle of the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas.
Today there are about 14,5 Comanches.
6. Apaches
No less blood spoiled the European colonialists by another Indian tribe that roamed the “disputed” lands between the Mexicans and the Americans – the warlike Apaches. In fact, this is the common name of six fairly large tribes, of which the brightest of all showed themselves in the wars with the white Chiricahua Apaches and Lipan Apaches.
They made raids not only on the Spaniards and the French (who were the first to occupy the territories of the future Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, etc.), and later on the Mexicans and Americans, but also on the neighboring Indian tribes (moreover, they were extremely cruel with the captives).
Most of all, the Apaches became famous for their talent for “guerrilla warfare”: they knew how to attack completely unexpectedly and hide in a matter of minutes.
Among them were many military leaders who terrified even experienced enemy veterans: Colorado, Kochis, Victorio, Yuh, Naiche. But the most famous among them was Geronimo, who continued to wage war with the US Army for another quarter of a century after the Indians of the Great Plains were driven into reservations (until 1886).
There are about 112 Apaches today.
5. Cherokee
The Cherokee are one of the 5 tribes that the newly arrived white Americans referred to as “civilized Indians”. Why did they receive such an honor? For the fact that the Cherokee were actually the first of the indigenous people of North America to abandon the nomadic lifestyle and even tried to build their own state.
Throughout the 90th century, this tribe fought both with white aliens and with neighbors, but at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. they made peace with the US government, converted to Christianity, began to willingly adopt elements of European culture (the leader Seikvoya, having taken the idea from the “civilizers”, invented the Cherokee script, and already during his lifetime XNUMX% of his fellow tribesmen could read and write).
Moreover, in their territories they founded more than 30 schools, published a newspaper and even drew up their own constitution! And by the way, the most noble and richest Cherokee chiefs (imagine) had plantations and black slaves.
But, alas, all this did not help them. The rather extensive Cherokee lands were a tasty morsel for white farmers and authorities, and therefore in 1838-1839. Indians were forcibly evicted to the arid Great Plains. Up to 15 Cherokee died along the path, known in history as the “Road of Tears”.
Today there are more than 300 thousand of them – this is the largest tribe in the United States.
4. Mohican
The title of J. Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans immediately comes to mind, doesn’t it? Yes, the writer was almost right: today, from the former rather large (more than 35 thousand people) union of 5 tribes under one common name, there are a maximum of 150 descendants living in Connecticut.
These neighbors are the Iroquois, the Delawares, the Hurons, and so on. either partially dissolved among them, or adopted the culture and customs of white people and assimilated among Europeans.
It was the Mohicans who were among the first to cooperate with newcomers from across the ocean: they entered into trade agreements with them, supplied furs and products of their own agriculture, etc., adopted Christianity at the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
During the years of the War of Independence, the Mohicans took the side of the United States, willingly helping the Americans as scouts, but nevertheless they were expelled from their lands by the new settlers.
3. Sioux (Dakota, Teton-Lakota, Nakota)
Perhaps the best of all the life and customs of the Sioux Indians (more precisely, the Sioux Dakota) was described in her trilogy “Sons of the Big Dipper” by Liselotte Welskopf-Heinrich, a German writer and historian.
From her works it is quite possible to draw all the basic information about this large tribe, which numbered about 35 thousand people by the beginning of the XNUMXth century: the Sioux were typical nomads of the Great Plains, hunted buffalo, waged wars with their neighbors (Crow, Pawnee, Shoshone, etc. ), chose “peaceful” and military leaders in each clan, who distinguished between themselves the corresponding duties, etc.
In general, the Sioux are seven related tribes (Oglala, Brule, Hunkpapa, Minnikonjou, Sansarks, Uhenopa, and Blackfoot). On the Great Plains, they were the most powerful, as well as the most “organized”: every summer, the Sioux tribes gathered together for the Council of Seven Bonfires to renew family ties, discuss common problems, choose four main leaders, etc.
As early as the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the Sioux concluded an agreement with the whites on relations and the delimitation of lands, which, of course, was soon repeatedly and shamelessly violated by the “colonialists”.
The last straw of the Sioux’s patience was the beginning of the construction of a railway through their lands without the permission of the owners (as a result of which the bison went to another part of the Great Plains, and the Indians had problems with food).
Started in the late 1870s. The Great Sioux War (which was joined by many neighboring tribes) cost both the Indians and the white settlers and the US Army considerable casualties and ended, as you might guess, with the defeat of the Sioux and their resettlement on reservations.
Today, the Sioux tribe has almost 120 people.
2. Hurons
The Hurons, once one of the largest tribes in North America (before the arrival of Europeans, there were up to 40 thousand people), were the closest relatives and worst enemies of the Iroquois.
Largely due to constant wars with them (as well as due to infectious diseases brought by Europeans), by the end of the 4th century, the number of Hurons decreased several times. Today there are (according to various estimates) only 7 to XNUMX left.
And at one time, it was this tribe that was the first to establish trade relations with the French in the Ontario region, supplying them with furs, corn, tobacco, etc., and also attracted other neighboring tribes to trade with Europeans (for which the French supported them for a long time in the war with the Iroquois).
In addition, the Hurons were one of the few then tribal confederations (the common name “Hurons” meant 4 tribes with similar culture and customs).
But immediately after the American War of Independence, the tribe finally lost its former well-being and all the lands, ending up on the territory of the United States.
Today the Hurons have forgotten even their own language.
1. Iroquois
And finally, the Iroquois – the Union of the Five Nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk) under one common name. Who hasn’t heard about the most cruel, fearless and warlike Indians in the area of the future US-Canada border (from the Hudson River to Lake Erie)?
Again, first of all, thanks to J. Fenimore Cooper for this. The Iroquois Union was not just a formal confederation – they even had an official charter, “written” in the form of wampum (shells strung on a string in a certain order).
In this Union, the Iroquois, by the way, later accepted tribes unrelated to them, who wished to live according to their laws and traditions (for this, of course, receiving protection and military assistance).
Actually, the name “Iroku”, which comes from the language of the neighboring Algonquian tribes, means “vipers”. Well … they clearly “disliked” the Iroquois, – and there was a reason: they were not distinguished by a meek disposition and constantly raided the Hurons, Mohicans, Delawares, Otawa, Erie, etc., after the arrival of the Europeans, the Iroquois began to expand their possessions at the expense of the territories of their neighbors with double enthusiasm.
The more actively they traded beaver furs, first with the Dutch, then with the French and the British, the faster the population of these animals on their lands melted away – it was necessary to “renew resources”.
As a result, the strength and influence of the Union of the Five Nations became so great that the Europeans (who also fought among themselves for North American territories) tried to use it more often as an ally.
Alas, this, in the end, led the Union to collapse – in constant wars, it exhausted its strength and became no longer needed by the new masters of the continent. The Iroquois were scattered across various reservations in the United States and Canada.
Today there are about 125 thousand people.