Click on the different colored regions to learn about one featured tribe from each region.
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The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy
Region: The sixteenth-century nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy occupied most of what is now New York and Canada. Many Haudenosaunee people continue to live in the region. The Haudenosaunee have eight reservations in New York and Wisconsin, and two more in Canada.
Climate: This region fully experiences each of the four seasons, with hot summers, cool falls, cold winters, and warm springs.
Sixteenth-century Haudenosaunee lived in longhouses—long, narrow buildings with a door at both ends. Each longhouse could hold several families, each with their own firepit.
The Haudenosaunee were mostly hunter-gatherers. Women and children gathered wild roots, nuts, and vegetables. Men used bows and arrows to hunt black bears, deer, and rabbits. They also used traps for wild turkeys, ducks, and other wild birds.
Besides hunting and gathering, they also grew their own corn, beans, and squash.
Since its founding, probably in the fifteenth century, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy has included the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida peoples. The Tuscarora Nation joined in 1720. Each nation made their own decisions, spoke different versions of the language, and had different rulers. However, they came together to work on issues that concerned the whole Confederacy, and make decisions with a council of representatives from all the nations.
The Haudenosaunee believed that all members of the nation were equal and deserving of respect. Leaders were respected but were not considered above any other member of the nation.
The Haudenosaunee also believed that Tarachiawagon (Holder of the Heavens/The Great Spirit) cared for his people and demanded that they care for one another.
The Comanche
Region: The seventeenth-century Comanche formed within the Shoshone group in what is now Wyoming. However, after they obtained horses from European traders, they broke away from the Shoshone and lived throughout what is now eastern Colorado, western Kansas, Texas, and Mexico.
Climate: The Great Plains region experiences many extremes in climate. During the summer, it is hot and humid, while the winters can be harsh and cold.
Like many other tribes in the Great Plains region, the seventeenth-century Comanche used teepees, cone-shaped tents, for shelter because it was easy to set up and pack up again.
The Comanche were hunter-gatherers and did not stay in one place to farm. They were skilled hunters who used horses to hunt buffalo.
The seventeenth-century Comanche were made up of smaller groups. Leaders of the groups were always men and earned leadership by showing 1) bravery in battle, 2) healing powers (“puha”), and 3) influence with other members of the group. The power of the leader depended on how many groups he led.
The seventeenth-century Comanche were fierce warriors and were the first tribe to master and use the horse, both in war and to hunt. They used these horses and painted their bodies to scare their enemies in battle.
The Chinook
Region: The Chinook’s traditional lands are not part of the States of Washington and Oregon. Most Chinook people still live in this region.
Climate: This region has a generally cool and wet climate.
In the sixteenth century, Chinook people lived in large longhouses: long, narrow buildings with a door at each end. The size of the longhouse displayed the importance and wealth of the people who lived there.
Outside each longhouse, a family group put up a totem pole, a large wooden pole decorated with carvings that represented the family or important stories in their history.
The sixteenth-century Chinook were hunter gatherers. They hunted elk, deer, and bear and fished for salmon and sturgeon. They also gathered wild roots and plants, such as the camas root and wapato.
The Chinook did not have any official leaders. Instead, villages were guided by “big men.”
Chinook society had levels that were strictly defined. At the bottom of the society were enslaved people. Above them were free people, then, above everyone else, the powerful and rich.
It was a common practice to flatten babies’ foreheads by tying pieces of wood to the skull as the baby grew. A flat forehead was considered beautiful.
Nimiipuu (or Nez Percé)
The sixteenth-century Nimiipuu lived in the Plateau region. The plateau is relatively level high ground. The area is surrounded by the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Blue Mountains on the south, and the Cascade Range on the west. Today, some Nimiipuu live on the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho.
The climate in this area is ever-changing, ranging from -30°F in the winter to 100°F in the summer.
The sixteenth-century Nimiipuu were hunter-gatherers. They fished and hunted animals for food, but also gathered berries, roots, and vegetation. They were actually known to the southern tribes as “Khouse Eaters” because they ate a root called khouse (qawas), which had nutritional and medicinal value.
Other tribes also knew the Nimiipuu as "people under the tule" for the special material they used to build and seal walls in their longhouses.
The name “Nez Percé” means “pierced nose” in French. A translator on the Lewis and Clark expedition named the Nimiipuu this after encountering members of the tribe. However, the practice of nose-piercing was not very common among them, so it is a misnomer, an incorrect name.
The name Nimiipuu means “the real people” or “we the people.”
Before the 18th century, the sixteenth-century Nimiipuu lived in small villages near the water. However, when they acquired horses in the 1700s, they began to explore neighboring areas and created a trade economy with neighboring tribes. In fact, the impact of horses on their tribe was incredible. They had one of the largest horse herds on the continent and had a selective breeding program from which they created Appaloosa horses.
The Shoshone
Region: The sixteenth-century Shoshone occupied a large part of the Great Plains region across what is now Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Today, some Shoshone people live on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation on the Nevada-Idaho border, the Goshute Reservation in Utah, the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho, and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Climate: This region experiences many extremes in climate. The summers are generally hot and humid, while the winters can be harsh and cold.
The sixteenth-century Shoshone were a nomadic people, and would use the teepee, a small cone-shaped tent, for shelter because it was easy to set up and pack up again.
The sixteenth-century Shoshone diet depended on where they lived or had traveled. Shoshone in some places were known as Buffalo Eaters (Guchundeka'), while Shoshone in other areas were known as the Sheep Eaters (Dukundeka').
Many Shoshone also hunted elk, deer, beaver, and rabbits and would gather wild plants, such as berries and roots.
The sixteenth-century Shoshone were usually separated into smaller groups that would hunt and travel together, only coming together for important ceremonies or trade after the spring hunt and again in the winter.
The Navajo
Region: The sixteenth-century Navajo mostly occupied large portions of what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Today, the Navajo Indian Reservation is approximately 5,200 square miles of land located within the Navajo peoples’ original homeland.
Climate: This region has hot, dry summers and desert surroundings.
The sixteenth-century Navajo lived in structures called hogans, which were created by digging an underground living space with mud, sod, and reeds covering the top.
In the beginning, the Navajo were hunter-gatherers, meaning they hunted animals and gathered wild fruits and vegetables. Later, in the seventeenth century, the Pueblo Indians taught them how to grow corn, beans, and squash.
In the sixteenth-century Navajo did not have a formal government. Instead, they depended on every person to do their part in keeping order and peace.
The men were political leaders, warriors, and hunters. Women gathered and tended crops, cared for animals, and raised children.
The Navajo religious beliefs focused on the idea that everything has a spirit and a soul, including all things in the natural world.
The Cherokee
Region: Traditional Cherokee land included what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Today, many Cherokee citizens live within the tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.
Climate: This region is hot and humid in the summer, but the winters are mild.
The sixteenth-century Cherokee lived in villages of several cabins made out of logs. There were smaller houses used by families and one large council house used for meetings and gatherings.
During the winter, however, they would live in smaller, dome-shaped structures that were partly dug into the ground and made of wood, bark, and clay.
The Cherokee planted corn (selu), beans, and squash close together, which fed the people and was important in their religion.
In the sixteenth century, Cherokee villages had leaders, but decisions were often made through democratic agreement under their leadership. The idea that every member had a voice and should use it for the good of their people was central to the Cherokee way of life.
The Cherokee had a central belief, known as “the right way” (duyuktv). This was the harmony and balance between the natural world that surrounded them and other parts of their life.
The Cherokee were matrilineal, meaning family and clan relationships were passed down through the mother, not the father.
The Chumash
Region: In the sixteenth century, the Chumash lived along the coast of what is now southern California and on the Channel Islands. Today, a reservation north of Santa Barbara, California, is home to hundreds of people who are part of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
In the sixteenth century, the Chumash lived in large, dome-shaped structures of branches covered with woven mats. Some of these houses were large enough for as many as fifty people.
The Chumash were mostly hunter-gatherers and fishermen, meaning that they hunted land animals (deer, bear, quail), fished for fish and shellfish (mussels, clams), and gathered wild plants like nuts, fruits, and vegetables.
Chumash villages were ruled by a chief, known as the wot, who could rule over one or many villages.
Each village had its own shaman, whose job it was to track the movement of the stars. They believed that the skies gave them wisdom and guided their decisions.
Women could be shamans or chiefs.
Sixteenth-century Chumash society had different levels, with workers at the bottom, skilled craftsmen in the middle, then the chief and the shaman priests at the top.
