| Native American Tribes Overview: Their Culture and History Page 1 & Page 2 Photos Courtesy of Denver Museum Digital Archive & Library of Congress. The Hopi Indian: They live in Northeastern Arizona and New Mexico. According to legend, the ancestors of the Hopi Indian migrated from various locations and settled near the Grand Canyon. Legend also portrays a peaceful people, willing to cooperate with others to improve their life. Classified as Pueblo Indians they most likely descended from the Anasazi. The Hopi were the only Pueblo Indians that spoke a dialect of the Uto-Aztecan language family called Shoshone. At right: A Hopi Native American woman in 1900. More on the Development of Hopi Indian Jewelry The word "Hopi" means good, peaceful, or wise. They come from a group of Southwestern people called Pueblo, but their language is different. They live in northeast Arizona, mostly on the mesa tops in villages called pueblos. Their homes are usually many stories high, as shown in the photo. Hopi men wore a straight sleeved or sleeveless shirt of undyed, native cotton, worn like a poncho; knitted cotton leggings reaching half way up the thighs; cotton loin cloth; and moccasins of deerskin. Women wore an undyed cotton robe, which passed under the left arm and was fastened above the right shoulder and an embroidered belt. Hopi Indian Ceremonies The Hopi Indian's religious ceremonies are held underground in rooms called "kiva's." They famous for their Kachina dolls, which tourists buy for their children. However, Hopi children cannot play with Kachinas. They are used to teach Hopi Indian children about spirit powers. Hopi Kiva Kachina Dolls Shop Hopi Indian Jewelry The Navajo Indians: The name Navajo generally meaning “Takers of the field” were given their Indian name by the Tewa Indian people. The Navajo are also referred to as Diné, meaning “The People”. The Navajo belong to the linguistic group known as the Athapaskan. They are located in the regions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Indians lived in homes called hogans. Their hogan was made from wooden poles, tree bark, and mud. The doorway opened to the east so they could welcome the sun. The Navajo woman's traditional style of dress consisted usually of foot or knee-high moccasins, a pleated velvet or cotton skirt, a matching long-sleeve blouse, concho and/or sash belt, Indian jewelry and a shawl. Men also wore Indian jewelry, and moccasins and preferably a velveteen shirt. Although many Navajo people wear contemporary clothing, they continue to carry on their cultural practices by wearing traditional outfits when the occasion requires it. It is believed that before an individual can receive help from the Great Spirit, one must first wear appropriate clothing in order to be recognized. The Navajo Indians were great farmers. That’s why they moved to the south because it was warmer and they could grow more food. After the Navajo came in contact with the Pueblo people, they began to make pottery and weave rugs, blankets and other items. The men were great silversmiths, mostly making jewelry. When the Navajos -or "Dine" as they called themselves, needed healing they called upon a medicine man whom they called a singer. The singer would make a mixture out of pollen, cornmeal, ground charcoal, and colorful powdered minerals. Then they would use the mixture to make a religious painting. Then the singer would make the ill villager sit on the painting so the gods could heal him. When the service was over they’d destroy the painting. Once on the Navajo Reservation, they needed new skills to survive. This led them to learn weaving, making cloth, and art from the Pueblo Indians. They used sheep to make clothes, blankets, and rugs. They use the same natural vegetable dyes today. In their artistic designs the Navajo used symbols and signs to represent their ideas and beliefs. They had made pottery for domestic use for many decades. When they could obtain better utensils made from metal and glass, the need to make pottery for daily use declined. Instead they made pottery for the tourist trade which had been growing steadily, and they made beautiful silver jewelry. Shop Navajo Indian Necklaces The Navajo Indians learned to work silver from the Mexican silver workers, who had supplied them with silver ornaments, and they soon outstripped the Mexicans in technique. The Navajo known as the "Old Smith" was probably the first of his tribe to carry on the work, and he learned it from a Mexican known as Cassilio, who was still living in 1870. Copper and brass were worked by the beginners who were able to get sheet copper and copper wire from the Indian traders. Very few tools were employed and these were simple. The bellows consisted of a skin bag about a foot long, held open with wooden hoops. It was provided with a valve and a nozzle. A forge, crucibles, an anvil, and tongs was used. Molds, the matrix and die, cold chisels, scissors, pliers, files, awls, and emery paper also came into play. A soldering outfit, consisting of a blowpipe, and a torch made of oil-soaked rags, used with borax, was manipulated successfully by the skillful silversmith. He used grinding stone, sandstone dust, and ashes for whitening them, and salt and water with a mineral called almogen. Buy Navajo Squash Blossom Necklaces Apache Native Americans: The Apache culture originated in Canada but most migrated to the American Great Plains. Some of the Apache Indian Bands settled in Texas, and several settled in Arizona and New Mexico. Apaches were organized into bands that traveled, hunted and fought together. The Apaches were skilled horsemen and often teamed up when hunting buffalo. Lipan Apaches were also farmers which was very unusual for Apaches. Women also rode horses. See 1840 photo taken at San Carlos Reservation below. Apaches were a migratory, horse culture which were divided into multiple decentralized bands. At times, they had good trade relations with Mexicans and Pueblos. Mescalero had been rounded up (frequently) and held (infrequently) at the Bosque Redondo of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, since 1865, although army agents in charge of them continually complained that they came and went with alarming frequency. Four centuries of almost constant conflict and decimation by disease along with the loss of the land base that had sustained them all combined to reduce the Mescalero to a pitiful few by the time their reservation was established. The late 1870s through the teens of the twentieth Century was a particularly difficult time, because of inadequate food, shelter, and clothing. Despite their own suffering, they accepted their "relatives," first the Lipan and later the Chiricahua, onto their reservation. By the 1920s there was a small but significant improvement in the standard of living, although attempts at making Mescalero farmers have never succeeded. The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act found the Mescalero eager and fully able to assume control over their own lives, a fight they still wage through the courts today on issues of land use, water rights, legal jurisdiction, and wardship. Although the arena of the fight for survival has moved from horseback to a Tribal plane that makes frequent trips to Washington, the Apache are still formidable foes. The Apaches are well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and inexhaustible endurance. Continuous wars among other tribes and invaders from Mexico followed the Apaches' growing reputation of warlike character. When they confronted Coronado in 1540, they lived in eastern New Mexico, and reached Arizona in the 1600s. The Apache are described as a gentle people; faithful in their friendship. The Apache attained their greatest fame as guerrilla fighters defending their mountainous homelands under the Chiricahua leaders Cochise, Geronimo, Mangas Coloradus, Victorio, and Juh. Apache Indian Jewelry The Apache tribe is perhaps best known for its amazing variety of jewelry designs. The tribe was renowned for mastery in silversmithing which they employed to create unique jewelry designs. Silver was the medium of choice when it came to jewelry. They would incorporate the use of some exquisite precious stones such as lapis lazuli and Jade to create some brilliant work of jewelry. The designs were inspired by historical symbols that held great significance amongst the tribe members. The Western Apache of Arizona have a beadwork tradition that extends back at least to the middle of the nineteenth century. Beadwork is not a craft commonly associated with Above: Apache women wearing jewelry. Southwestern Indian tribes, who are best known for their pottery, basketry and textiles. However, the Western Apache clothing (San Carlos, Arizona), styles were sewn with beadwork resembling that of tribes of the Southern Plains and Great Basin. The Eastern Apaches-Jicarilla, Lipan, Kiowa and Mescalero-as well as the Chiricahua were all beadmakers as well. The Jicarilla, Lipan and Kiowa have a style very similar to that of the Southern Plains tribes near whom they lived. Beadwork styles of the Mescalero, Chiricahua and Western Apache are all similar to each other, but lack a strong Plains stylistic connection. The Western Apache also used the peyote stitch technique to cover handles for objects such as riding quirts (for horses or dogs), and later cover bottles and make keychains. See photos and additional background on Apache Indian beadwork. At right: Photo of Apache Shirt with Peyote Stitching. Shop Apache Jewelry Why Apaches Were Considered Hostile Apaches usually formed small, undetectable groups to assault the cattle herds of missions and small ranches, maintaining all the while their pledges of peace. Nevertheless, on one occasion in the mid-1750s, during a dry spell, hunger drove them to organize a group of three hundred men that descended on the mission herds near San Juan Bautista, killing hundreds of cattle. Since the attack occurred in March, the animals were thin and the Apaches took "only the tongue," a commonpractice. Similar butchering occurred among the herds belonging to the San Antonio missions; oneobserver suggested that Apaches took on average twenty head of cattle a day for food by the 1760s and 1770s. The Spanish responded cautiously to this threat, primarily because they lacked the troops to protect the new ranches and the civilian population. The vecino populations of the small Spanish towns and even the missions had more to gain from continued trade with the Apaches, and they saw little wrong with the poaching of wild livestock. But when raids occurred which threatened the existence of ranches and settlers, small patrols, often consisting of ranchers, vecinos, and a few soldiers, went after Indian parties, occasionally engaging them in a fight or negotiating a return of stock. Yet other, mostly futile, efforts by Spanish authorities consisted of issuing orders prohibiting the trading of guns, powder, and sabers to Apaches by vecinos or mission Indians. The situation turned more violent after 1770, however, when Spanish officials finally concluded that more than three thousand Lipan Apaches—probably an exaggeration—were roaming along the lower Rio Grande butchering cattle and horses. Their Mescalero relatives along the Rio Grande below El Paso seemed to have adopted a similar way of making a living. There is little evidence that lives had been lost in any numbers on either side at this point. Nevertheless, Bernardo de Gálvez attempted to stop the depredations that fall, attacking a Mescalero village on the Pecos and killing twenty-eight Indians. Two months later the Mescaleros retaliated, destroying a mule train in Nueva Vizcaya, killing seven men, and taking one thousand mules. A similar assault occurred the following year in Coahuila, where Lipans killed thirteen members of a ranch community and carried off ten captive children. They even briefly assailed the presidio of Santa Rosa in July 1771, killing one soldier. The Spanish had started a war along the Rio Grande by 1771. With the adoption of the Reglamento de 1772, Lieutenant Colonel O'Conor assumed command of the entire northeastern frontier and Spain decided to exterminate the Apaches. While O'Conor experienced some success at driving Apache bands from the Bolsón de Mapimí, inflicting damage on Mescaleros especially, his efforts had little impact on the Lipans. Lipans, already having fought with the superior Norteño groups, had altered their band structures by forming small groups. The smaller bands were less detectable and more successful at poaching stock and maintaining exchange ties in Spanish towns. Gancio was openly frustrated in Coahuila because the Lipans who lived in the region remained peaceful and could not legally be punished without evidence of their guilt. The poaching and raiding and the diversity of the groups that did it had reached such a point by the 1770s that the term "Lipan" ceased to have much meaning. Typical of such a group was a band under the leadership of Josecillo El Manco, or One-handed Joe, who came into San Juan Bautista in December 1777. Joe had been baptized at San Pedro de Gigedo in northern Coahuila and taken by the Lipans in a raid when he was about seven years old. He spoke Spanish fluently. Later, as a leader of a small Lipan band, he cultivated good relations with the Spanish and often exchanged goods in Spanish towns. When necessary his people quietly poached livestock for food. Just as frequently they approached San Juan as peaceful friends, anticipating a warm welcome. They "spread out through the town," according to Morfí, "where they have formed many friendships of little advantage to our people." Joe, in the meantime, asked Ganzio for corn, tobacco, bridles, and even gunpowder and shot while waiting for his people to finish their exchanges. Of course, Morfí's assessment of this commerce reflected the typical Spanish bias toward native economies. He saw little in the exchanges that benefited the Spanish Crown. Few of the goods brought in by the Apaches could be carried south to markets in Mexico; most consisted of consumer goods for which market value could not easily be determined. Nevertheless, the Apache offering of dried buffalo or horse meat, hides, tallow, and salt for corn, tobacco, bridles, and a few munitions had become important to the vecinos of San Juan Bautista. These exchanges also worked to create regional alliances, since the people involved pledged to look out for each other's safety and shared important information. Vecinos of small Rio Grande communities received warnings and aid from nearby Apaches, and they responded in kind, even protecting them from attacks by Spanish troops. Why Apache Indians Took Women and Children Captive The emergence of One-handed Joe as a leader among the Lipan Apaches was not surprising to the Spaniards who reported his existence. Indeed, many people of Spanish descent lived with the southern Apaches. When a patrol from Coahuila recaptured a Spanish boy in 1776, they learned from him that the Lipan band in which he had lived harbored many different people—Indian, Hispanic, and African. One of the band leaders, who called himself Andrés, had escaped from the prison at Durango. Considerable numbers of other Spaniards, both women and children, also could be found in the band. The captive mentioned that some came from Saltillo, well to the south, as well as from Nueva Vizcaya and Coahuila. When brought into the band, this Spanish boy was placed under the charge of a "mulatto man, with the upper lip cut in the middle," whose job included watching and directing the captive herd boys. Although it might be an exaggeration to suggest that Rio Grande Apache groups were becoming havens for mistreated, exploited, underprivileged elements in Spanish society, certainly many such individuals had joined them. Just how many children and women were carried off by Apaches is impossible to determine. Some bands no doubt built their population with captives. They had lost so many people of their tribe, taking captives, instead of killing them was a logical solution. Fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, among others, noted the kidnapping that occurred in the Spanish towns along the Rio Grande in 1775, suggesting that Apaches took children almost as frequently as they robbed "horses and mules." This taking of "captives of infants that they grab by the hands," the good padre asserted, had left their parents "in misery." Such captives obviously replaced people taken in the raids by the Norteños as well as by Gálvez and O'Conor. Morfí found considerable evidence of kidnapping in Coahuila and southern Texas two years later. When Spanish troops overran a Mescalero camp in December they took eleven women and thirteen children prisoner, including three "Spanish boys," who, according to Morfí "had been taken captive by the Apaches and who had already forgotten our language." If these numbers were representative of Apache society, fully a quarter of the children in their camps could easily have been captives. But it should be remembered that the Spanish could only recognize children with fair complexions, and many other Indian children, especially natives from missions, probably escaped recognition. The ethnic diversity in Apache camps prompted changes in the relations of production. Various social and economic roles changed as the Apaches evolved from a method of production highly dependent on buffalo hunting to one more closely tied to raiding and poaching. 19 Herding became an ideal occupation for captive children, who seem to have been taken specifically for this purpose. Other members of the society found it possible to acquire more status through working in exchange networks, and they learned the languages necessary to deal with vecino populations, such as the one at San Juan Bautista, and even other natives who still lived in missions. Captives who came into this changing environment had to be indoctrinated, leading to a more extensive projection of Apache identity. The Spanish boy taken in 1776 noted that Andrés and his followers picked out a soft spot along his ear and continually aggravated it with an occasional lashing, a seasoning process administered to all the new Apache children and women. Another captive a ten-year-old boy who wandered into a Spanish military camp along the Rio Grande in 1808, reported the same treatment. Apaches "had whipped him cruelly at every turn," the soldiers reported. With the lashing came work, discipline, and cultural indoctrination. Once accustomed to obeying orders, captives performed work assignments without a guard and were applauded for a job well done. In addition to herding livestock, boys often hunted small game. For women, gathering firewood and picking berries and nuts were standard assignments. With demonstrated loyalty came more rewards, such as a new name and possibly adoption and the right to enter manhood and womanhood ceremonies. "New Apaches" reached acceptance when they were allowed to serve as lookouts or even to join raiding or poaching parties, or in the case of women, receive a husband. The mulatto who commanded the Spanish captives noted that his position in Apache society was such that he enjoyed more freedom than he expected would have been accorded him in a Spanish town. Yet he remained a full notch below his companion, Andrés, who had bragged of his right to lead small poaching and raiding parties, even though Spanish by birth. Southern Apaches, then, certainly saw an advantage in adding people of different ethnic origin to their bands, dealing with the changes that this brought by creating new structures and roles for individuals. But adoptions created new relations of production, directly influenced by poaching and raiding. Captive boys were directed by herd bosses, who in turn received orders from senior men. When the boys could be fully trusted,they helped guide poaching parties through Spanish ranchlands, giving the society access to more valuable stock. The use of boys, particularly as herders, freed junior men to hunt, defend the society, and poach and raid. Despite gender roles and a hierarchical structure, the Apaches embraced a social mobility that seemed to have an important impact on the assimilation process. This mobility even included flexible marriage rules. While twentieth-century anthropological field research suggests that Apache bands in general maintained matrilocal social organization and endorsed cross-cousin marriage, considerable evidence shows that for the eastern Lipan and their Mescalero relatives, such rules, had they existed at all, fell into disuse after 1750. A flexible marriage system had to be implemented to incorporate so many newcomers into the society. Cementing Relationships Between the Apache Indian Bands Patrilocal or bilocal marriage became the rule in southern plains Apache societies during the latter decades of the eighteenth century. When the Lipans negotiated peace at San Antonio in 1749, they left a considerable number of their young women behind to cement the agreement and to become wives of mission Indian men, indicating the use of patrilocal relationships in alliance. A young male mulatto captive retaken from the Mescaleros near El Paso noted that a chief and his two sons controlled the group that he lived with, strongly implying the handing down of political control from father to son, along hierarchical, patrilocal, or bilateral lines. Even more telling, Antonio Cordero y Bustamante, the most astute late-eighteenth-century observer of Apache life, said simply that ''matrimony takes place by the bridegroom buying the one who is to be his wife from her father." In divorce, the woman was returned to her father, a clear indication of patrilocal marriage. Patrilocal marriage arrangements served to cement alliances between various Apache bands. Click to Continue to page 2 |
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