In 1527, The Spanish soldier Pánfilio de Narváez, with a reputation for brutality and a strong desire to find gold and wealth, began his ill-fated invasion of Florida. Failing to find the mythical gold and militarily defeated by the Indians, the surviving Spanish built five boats with the intention of sailing from the panhandle of … Continued
The traditional homelands of the Caddo stretched from the Red River Valley in Louisiana to the Brazos River Valley in Texas. The Caddo were agricultural people whose culture emerged about 800 CE. Caddo culture is considered to be related to the Mississippian mound-building cultures. The term “Caddo” originates from one particular tribe, the Kadohadacho who … Continued
The river known to the Chinook Indians as Hyas Cooley Chuck collides with the Pacific Ocean to create the worst wave conditions on the planet. While Native people regularly crossed the Bar in their large ocean-going canoes, the rough water stopped many of the early European explorers who were looking for the mythical River of … Continued
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 Desert; on the west by the present-day city of Riverside. The map shown above shows Cahuilla territory in relationship to other Southern California Indian nations. While … Continued
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
Why is Germany now a human rights leader on the world stage and not the United States? There are two reasons I can think of (Tr*mp aside). One is the denazification of Germany after WWII; and two, the United States needs to cease believing the American Indian and the Native Alaskan are vanished races. By … 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
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
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
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
