The Maryhill Museum located near Goldendale, Washington, has a display of Plateau beadwork. The Plateau Culture Area is the area between the Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, British Columbia, and Western Montana. From north to south it runs from the Fraser River in the north to the Blue Mountains in … Continued
The East Benton County Museum in Kennewick, Washington, has a number of American Indian artifacts from the Plateau culture area on display. The East Benton County Museum is shown above. Shown above are some examples of bead and shell necklaces and beadwork. The photograph above shows Indians fishing on the Columbia River before the dams … Continued
The Artic Culture Area includes the Aleutian Islands, most of the Alaska Coast, the Canadian Artic, and parts of Greenland. It is an area which can be described as a “cold” desert. Geographer W. Gillies Ross, in his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 3: A Continent Comprehended, writes: “The North American Arctic is usually … Continued
During the nineteenth century, the policy of the United States government was to encourage, and sometimes require, the conversion of American Indians to Christianity. Christianity was seen as a key element in “civilizing” American Indians and thus, the American government not only encouraged Christian missionaries, Indian agents actively discouraged the practice of traditional Indian ceremonies. … Continued
In providing a broad overview of the hundreds of distinct American Indian cultures found in North America, it is common for museums, historians, archaeologists, and ethnologists to use a culture area model. This model is based on the observation that different groups of people living in the same geographic area often share many cultural features. … Continued
One of the displays in The Cahuilla Continuum exhibit in the Riverside Metropolitan Museums shows some of the material culture associated with traditional Cahuilla daily life. The Cahuilla homeland in California was bounded on the north by the San Bernardino Mountains; on the south by the northern Borrego Desert; on the east by the Colorado … Continued
Kickapoo women around 1900. Nearly 125 years ago, on May 23, 1895, the smallest and last federally-approved land rush in Oklahoma Territory got under way as “surplus lands” of the Kickapoo were thrown open for settlers to homestead. That rip-off had begun in 1889. The Kickapoo had fled their homeland in southwestern Wisconsin after the … Continued
Long before the first Spaniards arrived in Southern California, the area was occupied by six distinct Native American tribes: Chumash, Tongva, Serrano, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Kumeyaay. The map shown above shows the territories of the six Southern California Indian nations. The Riverside Metropolitan Museum in Riverside, California has a display on Southern California’s First Peoples. … Continued
The idea that the soul leaves the physical body at death and journeys to the land of dead is found in Native American cultures throughout North America. In some instances, the soul may remain in the land of the living and become a ghost. Belief in ghosts is common in many American Indian cultures. In … Continued
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D. HI) in support of his colleague, U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s (D. MT) re-election campaign: Sen. Jon Tester (D. MT) I wanted to send you a message today about my friend and colleague, Senator Jon Tester. Jon represents the state of Montana in the U.S. Senate. … Continued
