Indians are 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 “discoverer” (very controversial!) Of this continent, Christopher Columbus, was sincerely sure that he had arrived in India.
According to various estimates, before the advent of the “civilizers”, two to two continents lived on 6 to 15 (and, according to some researchers, up to 46) million people (about 2200 tribes), of which 2 to 4 million (400 tribes ) - in the territory of the current USA and Canada.
Well, by the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the “care” of white people, only 250 thousand (!) Indians remained in North America. (And someone else doubts that the history of the development of the Wild West was directly related to 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, still did not cut them out with whole villages and did not infect them specifically with European diseases (immunity from which the Quechua Incas, Araucans, moss etc. was not). They converted them to Christianity (yes, often with completely inhumane methods) and assimilated.
As a result, today in South America there are more than 40 million descendants of those Indians, and in the North (in the USA and Canada together) - about 3.5 million. Many North American tribes were destroyed to the last man.
Let us recall at least 10 of the most famous (from books and movies) tribes of the Indians of North America, once numerous and courageous.
10. Cheyenne (Cheyenne)
The Cheyenne - Indians of the Great Plains, were bison hunters wandering from the Black Hills to the Arkansas River. Until the middle of the XIX century, they got along quite well with white settlers, but they, of course, were increasingly worried that newcomers from another continent not only walk around their lands, but also establish farms here, build military forts, etc. d.
The Cheyenne twice (in 1825 and 1851) entered into agreements with the American government on friendly and trade relations (as well as on delimitation of territories), but, as you know, the Americans did not try to comply with these agreements at all.
And so, after several serious incidents (including the sudden attack of Colonel J. Chewington’s detachment on the Cheyenne peace camp and the Arapaho at Send Creek and the destruction of the settlement of the leader of the Black Cauldron on the Washita River by J. Custer), the Cheyenne “went on the warpath” against the white .
They teamed up with neighboring tribes (Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanches, etc.), played a large role in the Great Sioux War, earning the glory of fierce and brave fighters, but still had to surrender in 1877.
Today, about 11.5 thousand people remain Cheyenne, they live on reservations.
9. Delaware
We know Delawarov mainly thanks to the works of J. Fenimore Cooper. They lived in the border area of the current USA and Canada, along the Delaware and Hudson Rivers.
By the way, the name “Delaware” is not at all “native” to the tribe: Captain Sam Argyll named the gulf, on the banks of which the Lenny-Lenape Indians lived, in honor of Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Verre, and Europeans, without thinking twice, , at the same time "renamed" and local residents.
And, in fact, the Delaware was not at all so noble and freedom-loving, as Cooper portrayed them in his books. Before the Europeans arrived, they constantly fought with the Iroquois neighbors (and the Iroquois, most often, won).
And with the advent of white people, the Delaware almost immediately established mutually beneficial relations with them, unlike many other tribes, preferring not to fight, but to trade and, for example, serve as scouts in the American army. Largely because of this, they, in the end, survived. Now there are about 16 thousand people in Delaware.
By the way, it was the leader of Lenape Tammany who sold Manhattan to the Dutch in 1625.
8. Navajo
Navajo is one of the most numerous tribes of the Indians of North America today (there are more than 280 thousand of them). They live mainly in the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Unlike many neighbors, the Navajos were sedentary Indians, engaged in farming (growing corn), cattle breeding and hunting, and also owned crafts: pottery, basketry, weaving, etc. (borrowing these skills from their predecessors in this territory - Pueblo Indians).
After the arrival of the white lands, the Navajos belonged first 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, cultivation of fruit and cotton trees, cheese production, etc.).
In 1860, after the war over the territories of the current states of Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, etc. between Mexico and the United States, the Navajo Indians ended up on the 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 - "talking with the wind" (the matter is in the Navajo language - so rare and complex that none of the opponents understood it).
7. Comanches
Comanches were well known to their neighbors and white Europeans as a very warlike and brave tribe. They had no equal in battle (especially after they mastered horseback riding).
The surrounding Native American peoples considered Comanches a real disaster, because they quite often raided, captured women (making them concubines) and very young children, in order to raise them according to their own traditions.
They treated their tribesmen who violated the laws of the Comanches no less cruelly: for example, a woman caught cheating on her husband could be killed or (in rare cases) “just” cut off her nose.
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 Indian tribes to put horses on the stream, putting them, including neighbors.
The main thing they had was precisely the military leader, who controlled the whole structure of detachments for various purposes: horse, foot, reconnaissance, and even a semblance of a "rear service".
Both Mexicans and Texans, Comanches brought a lot of problems. The US Army managed to break their resistance only in 1874 in a battle at the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas.
Today, Comanches - about 14.5 thousand.
6. Apache
No less blood spoiled the European colonialists, another Native American tribe that roamed the "disputed" lands between Mexicans and Americans - warlike Apaches. In fact, this is the common name of six fairly large tribes, of which the brightest of all proved to be in the wars with the white chirikahua apaches and lipan apaches.
They raided not only 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 tribes of the Indians (and they were extremely cruel with the captives).
Most of all, the Apaches became famous for their talent for a "guerrilla war": they knew how to attack completely unexpectedly and hide in a matter of minutes.
Among them there were many military leaders who terrified even experienced veterans of the enemy: Colorado, Kochis, Victorio, Yuh, Naiche. But the most famous among them was Jeronimo, who continued to wage war on the US Army for another quarter century after the Great Plains Indians were driven into the reservation (until 1886).
Today, there are about 112 thousand Apaches.
5. Cherokee
Cherokee is one of the 5 tribes that the newly arrived white Americans attributed to the "civilized Indians." Why did they receive such an honor? Because the Cherokee were actually the first of the indigenous inhabitants of North America to abandon the nomadic lifestyle and even tried to build their own state.
Throughout the 18th century, this tribe fought both against white aliens and with its neighbors, but at the beginning of the 19th century. they made peace with the US government, adopted Christianity, began to eagerly adopt elements of European culture (the leader Seikvoya, taking the idea from the "civilizers", invented Cherokee writing, and already during his lifetime 90% of his fellow tribesmen could read and write).
Moreover, in their territories they founded more than 30 schools, published a newspaper and even made up their constitution! And by the way, the most noble and richest Cherokee leaders (imagine) had plantations and black slaves.
But, alas, all this did not help them. The rather vast lands of the Cherokee were a tidbit for white farmers and authorities, and therefore in 1838-1839. Indians were forcibly evicted to the arid Great Plains. Up to 15 thousand Cherokee died on the way, which in history was called the “Road of Tears”.
Today there are more than 300 thousand - this is the largest tribe in the United States.
4. Mohicans
The name of John Fenimore Cooper's novel “The Last of the Mohicans” immediately arises in my head, right? Yes, the writer was almost right: today from the formerly large (more than 35 thousand people) union of 5 tribes under one common name, a maximum of 150 descendants living in Connecticut remained.
These neighbors are the Iroquois, Delaware, Huron, etc. 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 concluded trade agreements with them, supplied furs and products of their own agriculture, etc., adopted Christianity at the beginning of the 18th 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 new settlers.
3. Siu (Dakota, Teton Lakota, Nakota)
Perhaps the best life and customs of the Sioux Indians (more precisely - Sioux-Dakota) was described in her trilogy “Sons of the Big Dipper” by Liselott Welskopf-Heinrich, a German writer and historian.
From her works it is possible to draw all the basic information about this large tribe, numbering about 35 thousand people by the beginning of the 19th century: the Sioux were typical nomads of the Great Plains, hunted buffalo, waged wars with neighbors (crow, Pawnee, Shoshone, etc. ), elected in each kind of “peaceful” and military leaders who distinguished between themselves the respective duties, etc.
In general, Sioux are seven related tribes (oglala, brulee, hunkpapa, minnikonzhu, sansarka, uhenopa and black-footed). In 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 the four main leaders, etc.
As early as the beginning of the 19th century, Sioux entered into an agreement with the Whites on relations and delineation of lands, which, of course, was soon repeatedly and shamelessly violated by the “colonialists”.
The last straw of Sioux patience was the beginning of the construction of a railway through their land 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).
Beginning 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 U.S. Army considerable casualties and ended, as you might guess, with the defeat of the Sioux and their relocation on the reservation.
Today, the Sioux tribe has nearly 120 thousand people.
2. Hurons
The Hurons - once one of the most numerous tribes of North America (up to the arrival of Europeans, there were up to 40 thousand people), were the closest relatives and the worst enemies of the Iroquois.
Largely because of the constant wars with them (and also because of the contagious diseases brought by Europeans), by the end of the 18th century the number of Hurons decreased several times. Today there are only 4 to 7 thousand of them left (according to various estimates).
And at one time, it was this tribe that first established 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 against the Iroquois).
In addition, the Hurons were one of the few then tribal confederations (under the general name "Hurons" 4 tribes with a similar culture and customs were understood).
But immediately after the US War of Independence, the tribe finally lost its former prosperity and all the lands, being in the United States.
Today, the Hurons have even forgotten their language.
1. Iroquois
And finally, the Iroquois - the Union of Five Nations (Seneca, Kayyug, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk) under one common name. Who has not heard of the most cruel, fearless and warlike Indians in the area of the future border of the United States and Canada (from the Hudson River to Lake Erie)?
Again, first of all, thanks to J. Fenimore Cooper. The Iroquois Union was not just a formal confederation - they even had an official charter, “written” in the form of a wampum (shells strung on a thread in a certain order).
By the way, the Iroquois were later accepted into this Union by unrelated tribes who wished to live according to their laws and traditions (for this, of course, receiving protection and military assistance).
Actually, the name "Iroku", originating from the language of neighboring Algonkin tribes, means "vipers". Yeah ... They clearly "didn’t like the Iroquois," and there was a reason for that: they were not mild-tempered and constantly raided the Hurons, Mohicans, Delawars, aftermaths, Erie, etc., after the arrival of the Europeans, the Iroquois began to expand their possessions at the expense of neighboring territories 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 melted on their lands - it was necessary to “update resources”.
As a result, the strength and influence of the Union of Five Nations became so great that the Europeans (also fighting 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 forces and was no longer needed by the new masters of the continent. The Iroquois were scattered on various reservations in the United States and Canada.
Today there are about 125 thousand people.