Click on the different colored regions to learn about one featured tribe from each region.
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The Iroquois
Region: The nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (established in the 1100s) occupied most of what is now New York and Canada. Their military victories gave them control over tribes as far south as Pennsylvania.
Climate: This region fully experiences each of the four seasons, with hot summers, cool falls, cold winters, and warm springs.
The Iroquois lived in longhouses—long, narrow buildings with a door at both ends. Each longhouse could hold several families, each with their own firepit.
The Iroquois 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.
The Iroquois Confederacy was made up of the Six Nations (as of 1722). Each nation made their own decisions, spoke different versions of the language, and had different rulers. However, they would come together to work on issues that concerned the whole Confederacy, and make decisions with a council of representatives from all the nations.
The Iroquois 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 Iroquois’ believed that Tarachiawagon (Holder of the Heavens/The Great Spirit) cared for his people and demanded that they care for one another. They also believed that Tarachiawagon had given them their land and taught them how to grow corn.
The Comanche
Region: In the beginning, the Comanche were part of the Shoshone group in Wyoming. However, after Europeans gave them horses and taught them how to ride, they broke away from the Shoshone and lived throughout Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas.
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 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 long enough to farm. They were skilled hunters and are known for using horses to hunt buffalo.
The 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 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 originally occupied what are now the states of Washington and Oregon. Climate: This region has a generally cool and wet climate.
The Chinook lived in large longhouses, long, narrow buildings with a doors 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 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 corns.
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 slaves. 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 in their culture.
Nimi’ipuu (or Nez Percé)
The Nimi’ipuu 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.
The climate in this area is ever-changing, ranging from -30°F in the winter to 100°F in the summer.
The Nimi’ipuu 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 Nimi’ipuu 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 Nimi’ipuu 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 Nimi’ipuu means “the real people” or “we the people.”
Before the 18th century, the Nimi’ipuu 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 Shoshone occupied a large part of the Great Plains region across what is now Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and 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 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 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 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 Navajo mostly occupied large portions of what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Climate: This region has hot, dry summers and desert surroundings.
The 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 1600s, the Pueblo Indians taught them how to grow corn, beans, and squash.
The 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: The Cherokee occupied land that is now North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.
Climate: This region is hot and humid in the summer, but the winters are mild.
The 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.
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: At one point, the Chumash territory was 7,000 square miles, around the size of present-day Massachusetts or Utah
Climate: This region experiences warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
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. ([Mural, Chumash Tomol, 1992 by Robert Thomas])
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.
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.
