US Tribes N to P

The Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island were a water-going people capable of building dugout canoes that could hold as many as 40 men.

Official Tribal Name: Narragansett Indian Tribe

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Recognition Status: Federally Recognized

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Alternate names / Alternate spellings / Mispellings: Formerly known as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.

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Region: Northeast (Eastern Woodland)

State(s) Today: Rhode Island

Traditional Territory:

The Narragansett Indians were indigenous to the coastal region of southern Rhode Island. Likely inhabiting the region for at least 30,000 years, the tribe first came into contact with Europeans in 1524 with the arrival of explorer Giovanni di Verrazano. The continual wave of immigration from Europe would ultimately prove destabilizing to relationships among tribes in the region when they allied with the English, exacerbating already tense territorial competition among their traditional enemies, the powerful Wampanoag, Pequot and Mohegan nations.

Confederacy: Algonquian

Treaties:

Reservation: Narragansett Reservation

The Narragansett’s land is not currently considered a federal reservation because the land is not held in federal trust status. Additionally, they own a 31acre parcel which they acquired after the implementation of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, and for which they could be granted trust status under that law through the Department of the Interior.

However, the state of Rhode Island sued the DOI and won in the Supreme Court (Carcieri v. Salazar, 2009); the decision set a dangerous precedent for Indian country, delivering a crippling blow to tribal sovereignty. Congress is currently considering legislation reversing the precedent, and is known as the “Carcieri Fix.”

Land Area: 1800 acres
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The Narragansett were an Algonquin-speaking people of the Y-dialect (along with the Shinnecock and Pequots (compared to the N-dialect of the Wampanoag and Massachusetts Indians).

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Origins:

Bands, Gens, and Clans

Related Tribes:

Nipmuc, Niantic, Pawtuxet, Pequot, Shawomet

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Politically and militarily, they were a populous and powerful nation in the region.

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They migrated between winter and summer homes, in the winter occupying long houses that could hold 20 or more people and in the summer they moved to the shore and constructed wigwams, or “wetus.”

Subsistance:

As is typical for the tribes of the northeast, the Narragansett subsisted on a combination of hunting, fishing, gathering and agriculture which centered on the three sacred plants known as the Three Sisters, or corn, beans and squash.

They were governed by a system of sachems, or chiefs, who could be allied with other smaller nations like the Wampanoag or the Niantic.

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Famous Narragansett Chiefs and Leaders

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The plague that swept through the region from 1616 to 1619 left the Narragansett’s largely untouched while the Wampanoag and others suffered devastating losses, increasing the Narragansett’s power.

Tribe History:

What is known about the Narragansett is derived from colonial writings, especially those of Roger Williams, an English colonist considered to be a founder of Rhode Island, who purchased land rights from them and learned their language. His knowledge was written into a book called “A Key into the Language of America,” a text which is generally considered the canon of Narragansett history (although a recent burial discovery has uncovered evidence that calls into question some of Williams’ assumptions).

Throughout the 17th century the Narragansetts, like all the regional tribes, were caught in battles for power to maintain control of ancestral lands against the incursions of Europeans, or to gain control of other territories.

After the Pequot War in 1637-1638, Pequot lands that had been promised to the Narragansetts by the English went under the control of the Mohegans and incoming British settlers, inciting renewed battles between the Narragansetts and the Mohegan.

With the English threatening to invade Narragansett territory, a peace treaty was eventually signed, with the peace lasting 30 years. Increasing tensions between the Wampanoag and the colonists, eventually drew in other tribes including the Narragansett in a general Indian uprising culminating in King Philip’s War in 1675.

In the Great Swamp Battle, colonists attacked a Narragansett palisades fortress on December 19, massacring hundreds of old men, women and children and burned down the fort. The next spring, the surviving warriors launched a counter-offensive but were resoundingly defeated, crushing the Indian resistance.

The Narragansetts that remained scattered among other tribal and settler communities throughout the 18^th and 19^{th centuries, intermarrying with African-Americans and white Americans who adopted Narragansett culture.}

Attempts to “detribalize” them by the US after the Civil War based on their multiracial heritage, and later by the state of Rhode Island meant giving up their treaty rights as an autonomous people and was met with resistance. Ancestral lands were sold to the state—a move they soon regretted as they moved to regain their lost lands.

Organized to reclaim the lands, in 1800 the tribal roll listed 324 tribal members. In 1978 the tribe regained 1,800 acres of land in an agreement with the state of Rhode Island as a result of a lawsuit against the state, although the agreement stipulated that the tribal land would be subject to state law (unlike most reservation lands in the US). In 1983 the tribe was granted federal recognition.

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The Navajo Nation is the largest indian tribe in the United States, with over 250,000 enrolled members and also has the largest indian reservation, covering approximately 27,425 square miles (71,000 km²). The Navajo also have the most complex tribal council, with 88 council delegates representing 110 Navajo Nation chapters (communities).

Official Tribal Name: Navajo Nation

Address: The Navajo Nation, P.O. Box 9000, Window Rock, AZ 86515
Phone: (928) 871-6000
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Official Website: www.navajo-nsn.gov

Recognition Status: Federally Recognized

Traditional Name / Traditional Meaning:

Diné – meaning The People.
Dinétah – the term used for the traditional homeland of the Navajo people.
Naabeehó Bináhásdzo, meaning the Navajo Nation geographic entity with its legally defined borders today.
Diné Bikéyah and Naabeehó Bikéyah, meaning the general idea of Navajoland.

Common Name: / Meaning of Common Name: Navajo, from a Tewa word for “planted fields.”

Alternate names /Alternate spellings / Misspellings:

Navaho (misspelling, but how it is pronounced in English), Dine’

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Region: Southwest

State(s) Today: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah

Traditional Territory:

Eastern side of the Navajo Reservation

The Navajo homeland was situated in the area between the mountains Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks), Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain), Sisnaajiní Mount Taylor).

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Reservation: Navajo Nation Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land

The principal reservation, formerly known as the Navajo Reservation, the name was changed to Navajo Nation.
Land Area: 27,425 square miles (71,000 km²)
Tribal Headquarters: Window Rock, Arizona
Time Zone: Mountain

Tribal Flag:

The Navajo Nation Flag, designed by Jay R. Degroat, a Navajo from Mariano Lake, New Mexico, was selected from 140 entries, and was officially adopted by the Navajo Nation Council on May 21, 1968 by Resolution CMY-55-68.

 On a tan background, the outline of the present Nation is shown in copper color with the original 1868 Treaty Reservation in Dark Brown. At the cardinal points in the tan field are the four sacred mountains. A rainbow symbolizing Navajo sovereignty arches over the Nation and the sacred mountains. In the center of the Nation, a circular symbol depicts the sun above two green stalks of corn, which surrounds three animals representing the Navajo livestock economy, and a traditional hogan and modern home. Between the hogan and the house is an oil derrick symbolizing the resource potential of the Tribe, and above this are representations of the wild fauna of the Nation. At the top near the sun, the modern sawmill symbolizes the progress and industry characteristic of the Navajo Nation’s economic development.

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The Navajo are the largest native American tribe in the US, with over 250,000 members.

Tribal Enrollment Requirements:

A person must be at least 1/4 Navajo to be enrolled as a member of the Navajo Nation.

Genealogy Resources:

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001
Telephone: 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272

U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100

Contact the Navajo tribe to see if they have records of your ancestors.

Government:

Charter:
The Navajo government refused the establishment of a tribal government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) three times. Members twice rejected constitutional initiatives offered by the federal government in Washington, first in 1935 and again in 1953. An initiative in 1963 failed after members found the process to be too cumbersome and a potential threat to tribal self-determination.

Name of Governing Body: Navajo Nation Council, formerly the Navajo Tribal Council, is the legislative branch of the Navajo Nation.

Number of Council members: The Navajo Nation Council Chambers has 24 council delegates representing 110 Navajo Nation chapters (communities).

Dates of Constitutional amendments: Reorganized in 1991 to form a three-branch system (executive, legislative and judicial), the Navajos conduct what is considered to be the most sophisticated form of Indian government.

Number of Executive Officers: When the Council is not in session, legislative work is done by 12 “standing committees” of the Council. Executive Officers are the President and Vice-President.

Elections: Held every four years.

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Download the Verdana Navajo Font. Click here for instructions on how to use the Navajo Font.
Download a Navajo font zip file of 3 different Navajo fonts for PCs and 2 Navajo fonts for Mac.

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Dictionary:

English to Navajo Dictionary
Navajo-English Dictionary (Hippocrene Dictionary)
A Navajo/English Bilingual Dictionary: Alchini Bi Naaltsoostsoh (English and Navaho Edition)
The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary
Instant Immersion Level 1 – Navajo [Download]

Tségháhoodzání, the Window Rock on the Navajo Reservation

Photo By Ben FrantzDale, GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Origins:

The Navajo people believe they passed through three different worlds before emerging into this world, The Fourth World, or Glittering World. The Diné believe there are two classes of beings: the Earth People and the Holy People.

Bands, Gens, and Clans

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Modern Day Events & Tourism:

The Navajo Reservation is home to more than a dozen national monuments, tribal parks and historical sites, and is peppered with a dozen lakes and ponds – Lake Powell alone has 186 miles of Navajoland shoreline.

The Navajo Nation Museum
P.O. Box 1840, Window Rock, AZ 86515
Visitor Services: (928) 871-7941

Navajo Nation Tourism Office

The Annual Navajo Nation Fair is the largest American Indian fair in the United States.

Navajo Legends

Art & Crafts:

In the old days, the Navajo practiced few manual arts, except the Navajo baskets. Their legends said that when they first arrived they did not know how to make blankets — weaving was learned from some Pueblo women who was captured and taken into the tribe. They soon became famous for their Navajo blankets, as they are today.

Similarly, they learned silversmithing in the 1800s as a way of having something to sell to tourists, and today they are world famous for their fine turquoise jewelry.

The differences between Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Santo Domingo jewelry styles

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Oil was discovered on Navajo lands in the early 1920’s.

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Meaning of the prayer or dance fan explained

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Navajo Burial Customs and Fear of the Dead

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Tribal Colleges:

Diné College, located in Tsaile, Arizona, serves the residents of the 26,000 square-mile Navajo Nation which is spread over Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Founded in 1968, it is the first of 37 tribal colleges. Diné College has two main campuses and six community centers serving approximately 2,000 students.

The Navajo Nation chartered the Navajo Technical University in 1979. Originally named the Navajo Skills Center, its founding purpose was to combat the reservation’s high unemployment rate by training and integrating Navajo workers into the workforce. In 1985, the college’s Board of Directors changed its name to Crownpoint Institute of Technology (CIT), as its mission expanded to meet the demand for greater post-secondary opportunities on the reservation. CIT received Land Grant status in 1994, and in November 2006, the Navajo Nation Council approved changing the name once again to Navajo Technical College.

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Newspapers: Navajo Times, The Navajo Post, Navajo-Hopi Observer

Navajo Nation Scholarships and Financial Assistance

Famous Navajo Chiefs and Leaders

Catastrophic Events:

In 1864 nearly nine thousand Navajo people were forced to trek more than three hundred miles to Fort Sumner where they were interned at Bosque Redondo for four years. The Navajo call this ‘The Long Walk’ and many died both along the way and while imprisoned.

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In the News:

Navajo Nation may stiffen crime penalties
Navajo Teen Turns Community Need Into Solar Oven

Further Reading:

The Nez Perce Tribe is one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. Their most famous chief is Chief Joseph.

Official Tribal Name: Nez Perce Tribe

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Recognition Status:

Federally Recognized

Traditional Name / Traditional Meaning:

Niimíipuu, meaning, “The People.”

cú·pʼnitpeľu, or Cuupn’itpel’uu  – Literal translation from Sahaptin to English: “the People Walking Single File Out of the Forest.” Nez Perce oral tradition indicates the name “Cuupn’itpel’uu” meant “we walked out of the woods or walked out of the mountains” and referred to the time before the Nez Perce had horses.

Common Name / Meaning of Common Name:

Nez Perce, from a French term meaning “pierced nose.” (The Nez Perce did not pierce their noses. That was a practice of the Chinook, a neighboring tribe.)

Alternate names / Alternate spellings / Mispellings:

Formerly the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho.

Chopunnish, used by (Lewis &) William Clark in his journals, meaning the Nez Perce people.  

Niimiipu, Nez Percé.

Other alternate names were Blue Mud Indians, Blue Earths, and Green Wood Indians. Those with the words “mud” and “earth” refer to the color of Nez Perce face paint.  

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Region: Columbia Plateau

State(s) Today: Idaho, Washington

Traditional Territory:

The Nez Perce territory at the time of Lewis and Clark (1804–1806) was approximately 17,000,000 acres (69,000 km2) and covered parts of present-day Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho, in an area surrounding the Snake, Salmon and the Clearwater rivers. The tribal area extended from the Bitterroots in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west.

Confederacy: Nez Perce

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Reservations: Nez Perce Reservation
Land Area:  1,195 square miles (3,100 km²)
Tribal Headquarters:  Lapwai, ID
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First European Contact:

The Nez Perce first encountered French fur traders in the late 1700s. In 1805, William Clark and five other men who were on an advance hunting trip for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, were the next white men to meet the Nez Perce.

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Language Classification: Penutian => Plateau Penutian => Sahaptian => Nez Perce (Niimi’ipuutímt)

Language Dialects: Upper Nez Perce and Lower Nez Perce

As in many other indigenous languages of the Americas, a Nez Perce verb can have the meaning of an entire sentence in English.

Number of fluent Speakers:

Nez Perce is a highly endangered language. While sources differ on the exact number of fluent speakers, it is almost definitely under 100. The Nez Perce tribe is endeavoring to reintroduce the language into native usage through a language revitalization program, though at present the future of the Nez Perce language is far from assured.

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Origins:

Bands, Gens, and Clans

Related Tribes:

• Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
• Nez Perce Tribe

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Crow, Sioux

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The Nez Perce lived in a portable structure called a tipi. This consisted of a number of pine sapling poles tied together in a conical structure, which was covered with buffalo hides.

In 1800, the Nez Perce had more than 100 permanent villages, ranging from 50 to 600 individuals, depending on the season and social grouping. Archeologists have identified a total of about 300 related sites including camps and villages, mostly in the Salmon River Canyon.

Like other Plateau tribes, the Nez Perce had seasonal villages and camps in order to take advantage of natural resources throughout the year. Their migration followed a reoccurring pattern from permanent winter villages through several temporary camps, nearly always returning to the same locations each year. The Nez Perce traveled far east as the Great Plains of Montana to hunt buffalo and as far west as the West Coast.

Subsistance:

The Nez Perce were hunter gatherers, but they also had large permanent villages. Before the 1957 construction of The Dalles Dam, which flooded this area, Celilo Falls was a favored location on the Columbia River for salmon fishing. Hunters in small groups (and some women to help process the meat and tan the hides) made trips to Montana to hunt bison every couple years, but fish was their primary meat. They also hunted deer, elk, and small game. Camas was a staple root, which is similar to a potato. Camas bulbs were gathered in the region between the Salmon and Clearwater river drainages. They were also used as a trade item. They also gathered other plants and root crops for both food and medicine, and various berries, which were ground with fat to make pemmican.

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Traditional Religion & Spiritual Beliefs:

The Nez Perce believed in spirits called weyekins (Wie-a-kins) which would offer “a link to the invisible world of spiritual power.” The weyekin would protect one from harm and become a personal guardian spirit.

To receive a weyekin, a seeker would go to the mountains alone on a vision quest. This included fasting and meditation over several days. While on the quest, the individual may receive a vision of a spirit, which would take the form of a mammal or bird. This vision could appear physically or in a dream or trance.

The weyekin was to bestow the animal’s powers on its bearer, for example; a deer might give its bearer swiftness or a bear might give them understanding of medicines to cure specific ailments. A person’s weyekin was very personal. It was rarely shared with anyone and was contemplated in private. The weyekin stayed with the person until death.

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Wedding Customs

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Famous Nez Perce Chiefs & Leaders

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In the News:

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