The Most Famous Indian Tribes

Richard Thomas
Over 15 years handling, testing, and restoring pocket, fixed-blade, and Damascus steel knives across hunting and everyday-carry disciplines.

It is often said that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, but the truth is that the territory known today as the United States was occupied by significant Indian tribes long before Europeans reached its shores. They all wore Indian tattoos, and some of them wore a Native American headdress. If you were to ask them, these Native Americans would tell you that they have occupied this land since time immemorial.

Indeed, many Native American tribes have creation stories that teach that their people first came to this land when it was covered in water. These creation theories are, of course, contrary to the theory of Euro-anthropologists, which suggests there was once a land bridge between Asia and North America, making it a one-way street through which peoples from Asia migrated to a previously empty North America.

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1) Native American Tribes of the Great Plains

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2) Indian Tribes of Canada

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3) Indian Tribes of the U.S.A.

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4) Native American Tribes of South America

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5) Extinct Indian Tribes:

5.1
The Koroa Indians

5.2
The Beothuk Indians

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Red Indian Headdress

6.1
The Pensacola Indians

6.2
The Westo Indians

6.3
The Aberginian Indians

6.4
Ababco Tribe

6.5
The Calusa Indians

6.6
The Utina Indians or the Timucua Indians

6.7
The Agna Dulce Indians, also known as the “Freshwater Tribe”

6.8
The Acuera Indians

6.9
Acolapissa merged with the Houma

6.10
Chimariko Tribe of California

6.11
Nacisi Tribe Fact Sheet

6.11.1
Brief summary:

6.12
The Timucua Indians – After the arrival of Europeans – (1562 – 1767)

1) Native American Tribes of the Great Plains

The Great Plains is a region of the United States that stretches from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from Canada to Mexico. The people of the Native American tribes of the Great Plains endured hot summers and long, cold winters, settling along rivers, hunting, fishing, and farming to survive. The Plains tribes shared certain cultural and traditional similarities, but each had unique qualities that made them distinct. Follow the slideshow to learn more about some of the most famous Native American tribes that inhabited the Great Plains in the 19th century.

Because the Native American tribes of the Great Plains were spread across vast lands, they spoke many different languages. They therefore developed a unique sign language that allowed people from all Native American tribes to communicate. They also shared a tradition of dance: different Indian tribes performed ceremonial dances. The Cheyenne (SHY-an) performed the Animal Dance, intended to bring luck to hunters so they would bring back enough food for the tribe. The Caddo (CAD-oh) performed the Turkey Dance, which celebrated the return of warriors from battle; and several Native American tribes performed the Sun Dance, in which dancers prayed for spiritual healing and the well-being of their communities.

2) Indian Tribes of Canada

It is estimated that 200,000 Indians (North American Indian tribe) and Inuit lived in what is now Canada when Europeans began to settle there in the 16th century. Over the next 200 years, the Native American population declined, largely due to territorial encroachment by Europeans and diseases brought by settlers. However, the Native American population of North American Indian tribes increased dramatically after 1950, with high birth rates and improved access to medical care. About one million people in Canada today identify as Native American Indian tribe members of Canada, Métis (of mixed European and Indian ancestry), or Inuit; of this number, more than three-fifths are Indian, nearly one-third are Métis, and most of the others are Inuit. Together, they represent less than 5% of Canada’s total population, although Native American tribes make up half the population of the Northwest Territories and a significantly larger proportion of Nunavut. The largest of the Indian tribes is the Cree, numbering some 120,000 people.

The Inuit who live in the Far North have no reservations and are not protected by any treaties. Many of them—estimated at over 40,000—still live in scattered camps and settlements of 25 to 500 people, although large towns like Iqaluit in Nunavut are growing rapidly. Since the end of the 20th century, mining, oil exploration, pipeline construction, and massive hydroelectric developments have greatly affected their traditional way of life. The global decline in demand for furs has significantly reduced their income, and the Inuit have come to depend increasingly on government social and welfare programs. Education and training programs have been put in place to enable them to compete in the job market. However, the most decisive step was arguably the creation in 1999 of the territory of Nunavut—carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories—with a largely Inuit population and an advanced form of self-government.

They considered the Native American tattoo to be a divine art. Our Temporary Native American Tattoo Collection

3) Indian Tribes of the U.S.A.

There are 574 federally recognized Indian tribes in the U.S.A. (referred to in various ways as tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities, and Native villages) in the United States. About 229 of these ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse nations are located in Alaska; the other federally recognized tribes are located in 35 other states. In addition, there are Native American tribes recognized by states throughout the U.S. and acknowledged by their respective state governments.

Native American peoples and governments have inherent rights and a political relationship with the U.S. government that does not stem from race or ethnicity. Members of an Indian tribe in the U.S.A. are citizens of three sovereigns: their tribe, the United States, and the state in which they reside. They are also individuals in an international context with the rights granted to any other individual.

It was between the U.S. Army and the Indian tribes of the United States that the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn took place. The Native American tribes (Lakota, Sioux) were led by chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and the American cavalry by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

4) Native American Tribes of South America

The customs and social systems of South American peoples are closely and naturally linked to the environments in which they live. These environmental relationships are mediated by the technological systems that people use to exploit their resources. Four fundamental types of social and cultural organization of Native American tribes in South America emerge from archaeological and historical records:

Central Andean irrigation civilizations.
Chiefdoms of the Northern Andes and the Caribbean.
Tropical forest agricultural villages.
Nomadic hunters and gatherers.

Each type developed in its own way over thousands of years, and since the 16th century, each has adapted to the impact of European civilization. The first peoples of the Native American tribes, hunters and gatherers with no knowledge of agriculture, gradually crossed the Bering Strait in search of food and traveled through North and South America in small migratory bands for thousands of years. They reached Tierra del Fuego about 6000 B.C., after crossing the bottleneck of Central America, dispersing into the rugged terrain of the northern Andes, following the resource-rich Caribbean coast eastward, and filtering southward through the tropical lowlands that are now part of Venezuela, the Guianas, and Brazil. They also hunted game in the basins of the central Andean highlands and hunted and fished along the west coast of South America to the end of the land.

5) Extinct Indian Tribes:

The Koroa Indians

The Koroa Indians are one of the many “small Indian tribes of the U.S.A.” in the Southeast that are briefly mentioned in historical accounts and then disappear from the records during the colonial period. There is evidence that some Koroa may have resided in present-day Arkansas in the late 17th century, but the ancestral homeland, cultural roots, and historical fate of the Koroa remain subjects of disagreement among scholars today.

The Beothuk Indians

The Beothuk were the indigenous inhabitants of Newfoundland, a “North American Indian tribe,” at the time of European arrival, and were the first Native American tribe that Europeans encountered in North America. They are now an extinct tribe, at least as a culture. Recently, DNA was found in Iceland, which indicates that they might, in fact, have some descendants still alive.

The Pensacola Indians

The Pensacola Indians, an “Indian tribe of the U.S.A.,” were a Native American people who lived in the western part of what is now Florida and eastern Alabama for centuries before first contact with Europeans until the early 18th century. They spoke a Muskogean language. They are the origin of the name of Pensacola Bay and the city of Pensacola. They lived in the region until the mid-18th century but were later assimilated into other groups.

The Westo Indians

The Westo Indians lived in South Carolina along the central Savannah River in Colleton County. They apparently went extinct before the early 1700s.

The Aberginian Indians

Aberginian is a collective term used by early settlers of Massachusetts Bay to refer to Native American tribes of North America. They were described in 1654 as being composed of the Massachusetts, Wippanap, and Tarratine tribes.

Ababco Tribe

The Ababco were a Quebec Indian tribe or eastern Algonquian subtribe.

The Calusa Indians

The Calusa Indians were a formidable Florida tribe that once held the southwest coast, from the vicinity of Tampa Bay to Cape Sable and Cape Florida, as well as all the outlying keys, and extended inland to Lake Okeechobee. They also claimed authority over the Indian tribes of the United States on the east coast, north to the vicinity of Cape Canaveral. The city of Tampa, Florida, is named after one of their main villages and is located on its site.

The Utina Indians or the Timucua Indians

The Utina, with the possible exception of the Potano, was the main division of the Timucua in Florida and gave its name to the whole. They lived along the Suwannee River to the St. Johns and eastward, although some of the given subdivisions should be considered as independent Indian tribes.

The Agna Dulce Indians, also known as the “Freshwater Tribe”

The Agna Dulce Indians were often called the Freshwater Tribe. This name applied to the inhabitants of seven to nine neighboring towns that were linked to the Acuera Indians. They lived along the east coast of Florida between St. Augustine and Cape Canaveral. It is a North American Indian tribe.

The Acuera Indians

The Acuera Indians belonged to the Timucuan linguistic division of the Muskogean language family. They lived near the upper reaches of the Ocklawaha River, in what is now Florida.

Acolapissa merged with the Houma

The Acolapissa disappeared as a distinct tribe in 1765, and their subsequent history is identical to that of the Houma with whom they merged. The Houma remained in Ascension Parish until 1776, when they were overrun by settlement. They sold their land to two French Creoles that year, but small groups of them remained in the vicinity until 1840. However, by 1785, the majority had moved southwest and concentrated in the parishes of La Fourche and Terrebonne (Houma, Louisiana), about 25 miles from New Orleans.

Chimariko Tribe of California

Originally hunter-gatherers, the Chimariko were likely the first inhabitants of their region in California, an “Indian tribe of the U.S.A..” They had good relations with the Wintu people and were enemies of the Hupa, a southern Athabascan people. The conflict between the Chimariko and white miners led to the near-total extinction of the entire population. The surviving Chimariko fled to live with the Hupa and Shasta and went extinct in 1900.

Nacisi Tribe Fact Sheet

Brief summary:

The Nacisi tribe was a small, lesser-known Indian tribe, likely of Caddoan stock, that once lived in the Red River region of Louisiana. They were first mentioned by Joutel in 1687, at which time they were at odds with the Cenis (Caddo confederacy). When Bienville and St. Denis explored the Red River in Louisiana in 1700, they found a Nacisi village consisting of 8 houses along the river. They were still in that neighborhood in 1741, but during the 18th century, the Nacisi seem to have drifted south beyond the border of the French province. From 1790, they are mentioned among the tribes under the jurisdiction of Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Timucua Indians – After the arrival of Europeans – (1562 – 1767)

When Christopher Columbus sailed the blue ocean in 1492 and “discovered” the Americas, he brought many changes. Over the next seventy years, the Spanish sent ships to the east coast of North America but focused on the west coast of Florida and on Central and South America. Although the Spanish encountered the Timucua, most of our information about these Native Americans comes from the French. French explorers lived in the Jacksonville area, near Chief Saturiwa and his people, for just over a year.