American Indian History

Native American Burials: Cave Burials and Mourning Rituals

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Native American Cave Burials

Primitive Calvaras California Skull

Natural or artificial holes in the ground, caverns, and fissures in rocks have been used as places of deposit for the dead since the earliest periods of time, and are used up to the present day by not only the American Indians, but by peoples noted for their mental elevation and civilization, our cemeteries furnishing numerous specimens of artificial or partly artificial caves. As to the motives which have actuated this 127mode of burial, a discussion would be out of place at this time, except as may incidentally relate to our own Indians, who, so far as can be ascertained, simply adopt caves as ready and convenient resting places for their deceased relatives and friends.

In almost every State in the Union burial caves have been discovered, but as there is more or less of identity between them, a few illustrations will serve the purpose of calling the attention of observers to the subject.

While in the Territory of Utah, in 1872, the writer discovered a natural cave not far from the House Range of mountains, the entrance to which resembled the shaft of a mine. In this the Gosi-Ute Indians had deposited their dead, surrounded with different articles, until it was quite filled up; at least it so appeared from the cursory examination made, limited time preventing a careful exploration. In the fall of the same year another cave was heard of, from an Indian guide, near the Nevada border, in the same Territory, and an attempt made to explore it, which failed for reasons to be subsequently given. This Indian, a Gosi-Ute, who was questioned regarding the funeral ceremonies of his tribe, informed the writer that not far from the very spot where the party were encamped, was a large cave in which he had himself assisted in placing dead members of his tribe. He described it in detail and drew a rough diagram of its position and appearance within. He was asked if an entrance could be effected, and replied that he thought not, as some years previous his people had stopped up the narrow entrance to prevent game from seeking a refuge in its vast vaults, for he asserted that it was so large and extended so far under ground that no man knew its full extent. In consideration, however, of a very liberal bribe, after many refusals, he agreed to act as guide. A rough ride of over an hour and the desired spot was reached. It was found to be almost upon the apex of a small mountain apparently of volcanic origin, for the hole which was pointed out appeared to have been the vent of the crater. This entrance was irregularly circular in form and descended at an angle. As the Indian had stated, it was completely stopped up with large stones and roots of sage brash, and it was only after six hours of uninterrupted, faithful labor that the attempt to explore was abandoned. The guide was asked if many bodies were therein, and replied “Heaps, heaps,” moving the hands upwards as far they could be stretched. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information received, as it was voluntarily imparted.

In a communication received from Dr. A. J. McDonald, physician to the Los Pinos Indian Agency, Colorado, a description is given of crevice or rock-fissure burial, which follows:

As soon as death takes place the event is at once announced by the medicine man, and without loss of time the squaws are busily engaged in preparing the corpse for the grave. This does not take long; whatever articles of clothing may have been on the body at the time of death are not removed. The dead man’s limbs are straightened out, his weapons of war laid by his side, and his robes and blankets wrapped securely and snugly around him, and now everything is ready for burial. It is the 128custom to secure if possible, for the purpose of wrapping up the corpse, the robes and blankets in which the Indian died. At the same time that the body is being fitted for internment, the squaws having immediate care of it, together with all the other squaws in the neighborhood, keep up a continued chant or dirge, the dismal cadence of which may, when the congregation of women is large, be heard for quite a long distance. The death song is not a mere inarticulate howl of distress; it embraces expressions eulogistic in character, but whether or not any particular formula of words is adopted on such occasion is a question which I am unable, with the materials at my disposal, to determine with any degree of certainty.

The next duty falling to the lot of the squaws is that of placing the dead man on a horse and conducting the remains to the spot chosen for burial. This is in the cleft of a rock, and, so far as can be ascertained, it has always been customary among the Utes to select sepulchers of this character. From descriptions given by Mr. Harris, who has several times been fortunate enough to discover remains, it would appear that no superstitious ideas are held by this tribe with respect to the position in which the body is placed, the space accommodation of the sepulcher probably regulating this matter; and from the same source I learn that it is not usual to find the remains of more than one Indian deposited in one grave. After the body has been received into the cleft, it is well covered with pieces of rock, to protect it against the ravages of wild animals. The chant ceases, the squaws disperse, and the burial ceremonies are at an end. The men during all this time have not been idle, though they have in no way participated in the preparation of the body, have not joined the squaws in chanting praises to the memory of the dead, and have not even as mere spectators attended the funeral, yet they have had their duties to perform. In conformity with a long-established custom, all the personal property of the deceased is immediately destroyed. His horses and his cattle are shot, and his wigwam, furniture, &c., burned. The performance of this part of the ceremonies is assigned to the men; a duty quite in accord with their taste and inclinations. Occasionally the destruction of horses and other properly is of considerable magnitude, but usually this is not the case, owing to a practice existing with them of distributing their property among their children while they are of a very tender age, retaining to themselves only what is necessary to meet every-day requirements.

The widow “goes into mourning” by smearing her face with a substance composed of pitch and charcoal. The application is made but once, and is allowed to remain on until it wears off. This is the only mourning observance of which I have any knowledge.

The ceremonies observed on the death of a female are the same as those in the case of a male, except that no destruction of property takes place, and of course no weapons are deposited with the corpse. Should a youth die while under the superintendence of white men, the Indians will not as a role have anything to do with the interment of the body. In a case of the kind which occurred at this agency some time ago, the squaws prepared the body in the usual manner; the men of the tribe selected a spot for the burial, and the employee at the agency, after digging a grave and depositing the corpse therein, filled it up according to the fashion of civilized people, and then at the request of the Indians rolled large fragments of rocks on top. Great anxiety was exhibited by the Indians to have the employes perform the service as expeditiously as possible.

Within the past year Ouray, the Ute chief living at the Los Pinos agency, died and was buried, so far as could be ascertained, in a rock fissure or cave 7 or 8 miles from the agency.

An interesting cave in Calaveras County, California, which had been used for burial purposes, is thus described by Prof. J. D. Whitney:27

The following is an account of the cave from which the skulls, now in the Smithsonian collection, were taken: It is near the Stanislaus River, in Calaveras County, on 129a nameless creek, about two miles from Abbey’s Ferry, on the road to Vallicito, at the house of Mr. Robinson. There were two or three persons with me, who had been to the place before and knew that the skulls in question were taken from it. Their visit was some ten years ago, and since that the condition of things in the cave has greatly changed. Owing to some alteration in the road, mining operations, or some other cause which I could not ascertain, there has accumulated on the formerly clean stalagmitic floor of the cave a thickness of some 20 feet of surface earth that completely conceals the bottom, and which could not be removed without considerable expense. This cave is about 27 feet deep at the mouth and 40 to 50 feet at the end, and perhaps 30 feet in diameter. It is the general opinion of those who have noticed this cave and saw it years ago that it was a burying-place of the present Indians. Dr. Jones said he found remains of bows and arrows and charcoal with the skulls he obtained, and which were destroyed at the time the village of Murphy’s was burned. All the people spoke of the skulls as lying on the surface and not as buried in the stalagmite.

The next description of cave burial, by W. H. Dall,28 is so remarkable that it seems worthy of admittance to this paper. It relates probably to the Innuits of Alaska.

The earliest remains of man found in Alaska up to the time of writing I refer to this epoch [Echinus layer of Dall]. There are some crania found by us in the lowermost part of the Amaknak cave and a cranium obtained at Adakh, near the anchorage in the Bay of Islands. These were deposited in a remarkable manner, precisely similar to that adopted by most of the continental Innuit, but equally different from the modern Aleut fashion. At the Amaknak cave we found what at first appeared to be a wooden inclosure, but which proved to be made of the very much decayed supra-maxillary bones of some large cetacean. These were arranged so as to form a rude rectangular inclosure covered over with similar pieces of bone. This was somewhat less than 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 18 inches deep. The bottom was formed of flat pieces of stone. Three such were found close together, covered with and filled by an accumulation of fine vegetable and organic mold. In each was the remains of a skeleton in the last stages of decay. It had evidently been tied up in the Innuit fashion to get it into its narrow house, but all the bones, with the exception of the skull, were minced to a soft paste, or even entirely gone. At Adakh a fancy prompted me to dig into a small knoll near the ancient shell-heap, and here we found, in a precisely similar sarcophagus, the remains of a skeleton, of which also only the cranium retained sufficient consistency to admit of preservation. This inclosure, however, was filled with a dense peaty mass not reduced to mold, the result of centuries of sphagnous growth, which had reached a thickness of nearly 2 feet above the remains. When we reflect upon the well-known slowness of this kind of growth in these northern regions, attested by numerous Arctic travelers, the antiquity of the remains becomes evident.

It seems beyond doubt that in the majority of cases, especially as regards the caves of the Western States and Territories, the interments were primary ones, and this is likewise true of many of the caverns of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, for in the three States mentioned many mummies have been found, but it is also likely that such receptacles were largely used as places of secondary deposits. The many fragmentary skeletons and loose bones found seem to strengthen this view.

Alaska Innuit Mummies - Native American Indian

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Alaska Innuit Mummies

The practice of preserving the bodies of those belonging to the whaling class—a custom peculiar to the Kodiak Innuit—has erroneously been confounded with the one now described. The latter included women as well as men, and all those whom the living desired particularly to honor. The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies of males, and they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have described. Indeed, the observations I have been able to make show the bodies of the whalers to have been preserved with stone weapons and actual utensils instead of effigies, and with the meanest apparel, and no carvings of consequence. These details, and those of many other customs and usages of which the shell heaps bear no testimony *** do not come within my line.

Figure 5, copied from Dall, represents the Alaskan mummies.

Martin Sauer, secretary to Billings’ Expedition,36 speaks of the Aleutian Islanders embalming their dead, as follows:

They pay respect, however, to the memory of the dead, for they embalm the bodies of the men with dried moss and grass; bury them in their best attire, in a sitting posture, in a strong box, with their darts and instruments; and decorate the tomb with various coloured mats, embroidery, and paintings. With women, indeed, they use less ceremony. A mother will keep a dead child thus embalmed in their hut for some months, constantly wiping it dry; and they bury it when it begins to smell, or when they get reconciled to parting with it.

Regarding these same people, a writer in the San Francisco Bulletin gives this account:

The schooner William Sutton, belonging to the Alaska Commercial Company, has arrived from the seal islands of the company with the mummified remains of Indians who lived on an island north of Ounalaska one hundred and fifty years ago. This contribution to science was secured by Captain Henning, an agent of the company who has long resided at Ounalaska. In his transactions with the Indians he learned 6that tradition among the Aleuts assigned Kagamale, the island in question, as the last resting-place of a great chief, known as Karkhayahouchak. Last year the captain was in the neighborhood of Kagamale in quest of sea-otter and other furs, and he bore up for the island, with the intention of testing the truth of the tradition he had heard. He had more difficulty in entering the cave than in finding it, his schooner having to beat on and off shore for three days. Finally he succeeded in affecting a landing, and clambering up the rocks he found himself in the presence of the dead chief, his family and relatives.

The cave smelt strongly of hot sulphurous vapors. With great care the mummies were removed, and all the little trinkets and ornaments scattered around were also taken away.

In all there are eleven packages of bodies. Only two or three have as yet been opened. The body of the chief is inclosed in a large basket-like structure, about four feet in height. Outside the wrappings are finely wrought sea-grass matting, exquisitely close in texture, and skins. At the bottom is a broad hoop or basket of thinly cut wood, and adjoining the center portions are pieces of body armor composed of reeds bound together. The body is covered with the fine skin of the sea-otter, always a mark of distinction in the interments of the Aleuts, and round the whole package are stretched the meshes of a fish-net, made of the sinews of the sea lion; also those of a bird-net. There are evidently some bulky articles inclosed with the chief’s body, and the whole package differs very much from the others, which more resemble, in their brown-grass matting, consignments of crude sugar from the Sandwich Islands than the remains of human beings. The bodies of a pappoose and of a very little child, which probably died at birth or soon after it, have sea-otter skins around them. One of the feet of the latter projects, with a toe-nail visible. The remaining mummies are of adults.

One of the packages has been opened, and it reveals a man’s body in tolerable preservation, but with a large portion of the face decomposed. This and the other bodies were doubled up at death by severing some of the muscles at the hip and knee joints and bending the limbs downward horizontally upon the trunk. Perhaps the most peculiar package, next to that of the chief, is one which incloses in a single matting, with sea-lion skins, the bodies of a man and woman. The collection also embraces a couple of skulls, male and female, which have still the hair attached to the scalp. The hair has changed its color to a brownish red. The relics obtained with the bodies include a few wooden vessels scooped out smoothly: a piece of dark, greenish, flat stone, harder than the emerald, which the Indians use to tan skins; a scalp-lock of jet-black hair; a small rude figure, which may have been a very ugly doll or an idol; two or three tiny carvings in ivory of the sea-lion, very neatly executed; a comb, a necklet made of bird’s claws inserted into one another, and several specimens of little bags, and a cap plaited out of sea-grass and almost water-tight.

Native American Burials: Urns

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Native American Burials: Urns

To close the subject of subterranean burial proper, the following account of urn-burial in Foster may be added:

It is with regret that the writer feels obliged to differ from the distinguished author of the work quoted regarding urn-burial, for notwithstanding that it has been employed by some of the Central and Southern American tribes, it is not believed to have been customary, but to a very limited extent, in North America, except as a secondary interment. He must admit that he himself has found bones in urns or ollas in the graves of New Mexico and California, but under circumstances that would seem to indicate a deposition long subsequent to death. In the graves of the ancient peoples of California a number of ollas were found in long used burying places, and it is probable that as the bones were dug up time and again for new burials they were simply tossed into pots, which were convenient receptacles, or it may have been that bodies

138were allowed to repose in the earth long enough for the fleshy parts to decay, and the bones were then collected, placed in urns, and reinterred. Dr. E. Foreman, of the Smithsonian Institution, furnishes the following account of urns used for burial:

I would call your attention to an earthenware burial-urn and cover, Nos. 27976 and 27977, National Museum, but very recently received from Mr. William McKinley, of Milledgeville, Ga. It was exhumed on his plantation, ten miles below that city, on the bottom lands of the Oconee River, now covered with almost impassible canebrakes, tall grasses, and briers. We had a few months ago from the same source one of the covers, of which the ornamentation was different but more entire. A portion of a similar cover has been received also from Chattanooga, Tenn. Mr. McKinley ascribes the use of these urns and covers to the Muscogees, a branch of the Creek Nation.

These urns are made of baked clay, and are shaped somewhat like the ordinary steatite ollas found in the California coast graves, but the bottoms instead of being round run down to a sharp apex; on the top was a cover, the upper part of which also terminated in an apex, and around the border, near where it rested on the edge of the vessel, are indented scroll ornamentations.

The burial urns of New Mexico are thus described by E. A. Barber:

Burial-urns *** comprise vessels or ollas without handles, for cremation, usually being from 10 to 15 inches in height, with broad, open mouths, and made of coarse clay, with a laminated exterior (partially or entirely ornamented). Frequently the indentations extend simply around the neck or rim, the lower portion being plain.

So far as is known, up to the present time no burial-urns have been found in North America resembling those discovered in Nicaragua by Dr. J. C. Bransford, U.S.N., but it is quite within the range of possibility that future researches in regions not far distant from that which he explored may reveal similar treasures. Figure 6 represents different forms of burial-urns, a, b, and e, after Foster, are from Laporte, Ind. f, after Foster, is from Greenup County, Kentucky; d is from Milledgeville, Ga., in Smithsonian collection, No. 27976; and c is one of the peculiar shoe-shaped urns brought from Ometepec Island, Lake Nicaragua, by Surgeon J. C. Bransford, U.S.N.

Navajo Burial Customs - Native American Indian

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Navajo Burial Customs

The Navajo custom is to leave the body where it dies, closing up the house or hogan or covering the body with stones or brush. In case the body is removed, it is taken to a cleft in the rocks and thrown in, and stones piled over. The person touching or carrying the body first takes off all his clothes and afterwards washes his body with water before putting them on or mingling with the living. When a body is removed from a house or hogan, the hogan is burned down, and the place in every case abandoned, as the belief is that the devil comes to the place of death and remains where a dead body is. Wild animals frequently (indeed, generally) get the bodies, and it is a very easy matter to pick up skulls and bones around old camping grounds, or where the dead are laid. In case it is not desirable to abandon a place, the sick person is left out in some lone spot protected by brush, where they are either abandoned to their fate or food brought to them until they die. This is done only when all hope is gone. I have found bodies thus left so well inclosed with brush that wild animals were unable to get at them; and one so left to die was revived by a cup of coffee from our house and is still living and well.

Lieut. George E. Ford, Third United States Cavalry, in a personal communication to the writer, corroborates the account given by Dr. Menard, as follows:

This tribe, numbering about 8,000 souls, occupy a reservation in the extreme northwestern corner of New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona. The funeral ceremonies of the Navajos are of the most simple character. They ascribe the death of an individual to the direct action of Chinde, or the devil, and believe that he remains in the vicinity of the dead. For this reason, as soon as a member of the tribe dies a shallow grave is dug within the hogan or dwelling by one of the near male relatives, and into this the corpse is unceremoniously tumbled by the relatives, who have previously protected themselves from the evil influence by smearing their naked bodies with tar from the piñon tree. After the body has thus been disposed of, the hogan (composed of logs and branches of trees covered with earth) is pulled down over it and the place deserted. Should the deceased have no near relatives or was of no importance in the tribe, the formality of digging a grave is dispensed with, the hogan being simply leveled over the body. This carelessness does not appear to arise from want of natural affection for the dead, but fear of the evil influence of Chinde upon the surviving relatives causes them to avoid doing anything that might gain for them his ill-will. A Navajo would freeze sooner than make a fire of the logs of a fallen hogan, even though from all appearances it may have been years in that condition. There are no mourning observances other than smearing the forehead and under the eyes with tar, which is allowed to remain until worn off, and then not renewed. The deceased is apparently forgotten, as his name is never spoken by the survivors for fear of giving offense to Chinde.

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J. L. Burchard, agent to the Round Valley Indians, of California, furnishes an account of burialsomewhat resembling that of the Navajos:

When I first came here the Indians would dig a round hole in the ground, draw up the knees of the deceased Indian, and wrap the body into as small a bulk as possible in blankets, tie them firmly with cords, place them in the grave, throw in beads, baskets, clothing, everything owned by the deceased, and often donating much extra; all gathered around the grave wailing most pitifully, tearing their faces with their nails till the blood would run down their cheeks, pull out their hair, and such other heathenish conduct. These burials were generally made under their thatch houses or very near thereto. The house where one died was always torn down, removed, rebuilt, or abandoned. The wailing, talks, &c., were in their own jargon; none else could understand, and they seemingly knew but little of its meaning (if there was any meaning in it); it simply seemed to be the promptings of grief, without sufficient intelligence to direct any ceremony; each seemed to act out his own impulse.

Native American Cairn or Rock Burial

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Native American Cairn or Rock Burial

The next mode of interment to be considered is that of cairn or rock burial, which has prevailed and is still common to a considerable extent among the tribes living in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. Illustration of American Indian Burials

In the summer of 1872 the writer visited one of these rock cemeteries in Middle Utah, which had been used for a period not exceeding fifteen or twenty years. It was situated at the bottom of a rock slide, upon the side of an almost inaccessible mountain, in a position so carefully chosen for concealment that it would have been almost impossible to find it without a guide. Several of the graves were opened, and found to have been constructed in the following manner: A number of bowlders had been removed from the bed of the slide until a sufficient cavity had been obtained; this was lined with skins, the corpse placed therein, with weapons, ornaments, &c., and covered over with saplings of the mountain aspen; on the top of these the removed bowlders were piled, forming a huge cairn, which appeared large enough to have marked the last resting place of an elephant. In the immediate vicinity of the graves were scattered the osseous remains of a number of horses which had been sacrificed, no doubt, during the funeral ceremonies. In one of the graves, said to contain the body of a chief, in addition to a number of articles useful and ornamental, were found parts of the skeleton of a boy, and tradition states that a captive boy was buried alive at this place.

From Dr. O. G. Given, physician to the Kiowa and Comanche Agency, Indian Territory, the following description of burial ceremonies was received. According to this gentleman the Kiowas call themselves Kaw-a-wāh, the Comanches Nerm, and the Apaches Tāh-zee.

They bury in the ground or in crevices of rocks. They do not seem to have any particular rule with regard to the position. Sometimes prone, sometimes supine, but always recumbent. They select a place where the grave is easily prepared, which they do with such implements as they chance to have, viz, a squaw-axe, or hoe. If they are traveling, the grave is often very hastily prepared and not much time is spent in finishing. I was present at the burial of Black Hawk, an Apache chief, some two years ago, and took the body in my light wagon up the side of a mountain to the place of burial. They found a crevice in the rocks about four feet wide and three feet deep. By filling in loose rocks at either end they made a very nice tomb. The body was then put in face downwards, short sticks were put across, resting on projections of rock at the sides, brush was thrown on this, and flat rocks laid over the whole of it.

The body of the deceased is dressed in the best clothing, together with all the ornaments most admired by the person when living. The face is painted with any colored paint they may have, mostly red and yellow, as I have observed. The body is then wrapped in skins, blankets, or domestic, with the hands laid across the breast, and the legs placed upon the thighs. They put into the grave their guns, bows and arrows, tobacco, and if they have it a blanket, moccasins, and trinkets of various kinds. One

143or more horses are killed over or near the grave. Two horses and a mule were killed near Black Hawk’s grave. They were led up near and shot in the head. At the death of a Comanche chief, some years ago, I am told about seventy horses were killed, and a greater number than that were said to have been killed at the death of a prominent Kiowa chief a few years since.

The mourning is principally done by the relatives and immediate friends, although any one of their own tribe, or one of another tribe, who chances to be passing, will stop and moan with the relatives. Their mourning consists in a weird wail, which to be described must be heard, and once heard is never forgotten, together with the scarifying of their faces, arms, and legs with some sharp instrument, the cutting off of the hair, and oftentimes the cutting off of a joint of a finger, usually the little finger (Comanches do not cut off fingers). The length of time and intensity of their mourning depends upon the relation and position of the deceased in the tribe. I have known instances where, if they should be passing along where any of their friends had died, even a year after their death, they would mourn.

The Shoshones, of Nevada, generally concealed their dead beneath heaps of rocks, according to H. Butterfield, of Tyho, Nye County, Nevada, although occasionally they either burn or bury them. He gives as reasons for rock burial: 1st, to prevent coyotes eating the corpses; 2d, because they have no tools for deep excavations; and 3d, natural indolence of the Indians—indisposition to work any more than can be helped.

The Pi-Utes, of Oregon, bury in cairns; the Blackfeet do the same, as did also the Acaxers and Yaquis, of Mexico, and the Esquimaux; in fact, a number of examples might be quoted. In foreign lands the custom prevailed among certain African tribes, and it is said that the ancient Balearic Islanders covered their dead with a heap of stones, but this ceremony was preceded by an operation which consisted in cutting the body in small pieces and collecting in a pot.

Voyage of John Cabot of Labrador in 1497

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John Cabot

At the close of the fifteenth century the town of Bristol enjoyed a pre-eminence which it has since lost. It stood second only to London as a British port. A group of wealthy merchants carried on from Bristol a lively trade with Iceland and the northern ports of Europe. The town was the chief centre for an important trade in codfish. Days of fasting were generally observed at that time; on these the eating of meat was forbidden by the church, and fish was consequently in great demand. The merchants of Bristol were keen traders, and were always seeking the further extension of their trade. Christopher Columbus himself is said to have made a voyage for the Bristol merchants to Iceland in 1477. There is even a tale that, before Columbus was known to fame, an expedition was equipped there in 1480 to seek the 'fabulous islands' of the Western Sea. Certain it is that the Spanish ambassador in England, whose business it was to keep his royal master informed of all that was being done by his rivals, wrote home in 1498: 'It is seven years since those of Bristol used to send out, every year, a fleet of two, three, or four caravels to go and search for the Isle of Brazil and the Seven Cities, according to the fancy of the Genoese.'

We can therefore realize that when Master John Cabot came among the merchants of this busy town with his plans he found a ready hearing. Cabot was soon brought to the notice of his august majesty Henry VII of England. The king had been shortsighted enough to reject overtures made to him by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, and no doubt he regretted his mistake. Now he was eager enough to act as the patron of a new voyage. Accordingly, on March 5, 1496, he granted a royal licence in the form of what was called Letters Patent, authorizing John Cabot and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius to make a voyage of discovery in the name of the king of England. The Cabots were to sail 'with five ships or vessels of whatever burden or quality soever they be, and with as many marines or men as they will have with them in the said ships upon their own proper costs and charges.' It will be seen that Henry VII, the most parsimonious of kings, had no mind to pay the expense of the voyage. The expedition was 'to seek out, discover and find whatsoever islands, countries, regions and provinces of the heathens or infidels, in whatever part of the world they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians.' It was to sail only 'to the seas of the east and west and north,' for the king did not wish to lay any claim to the lands discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese. The discoverers, however, were to raise the English flag over any new lands that they found, to conquer and possess them, and to acquire 'for us dominion, title, and jurisdiction over those towns, castles, islands, and mainlands so discovered.' One-fifth of the profits from the anticipated voyages to the new land was to fall to the king, but the Cabots were to have a monopoly of trade, and Bristol was to enjoy the right of being the sole port of entry for the ships engaged in this trade.

John Cabot set sail

Not until the next year, 1497, did John Cabot set out. Then he embarked from Bristol with a single ship, called in an old history the Matthew, and a crew of eighteen men. First, he sailed round the south of Ireland, and from there struck out westward into the unknown sea. The appliances of navigation were then very imperfect. Sailors could reckon the latitude by looking up at the North Star, and noting how high it was above the horizon. Since the North Star stands in the sky due north, and the axis on which the earth spins points always towards it, it will appear to an observer in the northern hemisphere to be as many degrees above the horizon as he himself is distant from the pole or top of the earth. The old navigators, therefore, could always tell how far north or south they were. Moreover, as long as the weather was clear they could, by this means, strike, at night at least, a course due east or west. But when the weather was not favourable for observations they had to rely on the compass alone. Now the compass in actual fact does not always and everywhere point due north. It is subject to variation, and in different times and places points either considerably east of north or west of it. In the path where Cabot sailed, the compass pointed west of north; and hence, though he thought he was sailing straight west from Ireland, he was really pursuing a curved path bent round a little towards the south. This fact will become of importance when we consider where it was that Cabot landed. For finding distance east and west the navigators of the fifteenth century had no such appliances as our modern chronometer and instruments of observation. They could tell how far they had sailed only by 'dead reckoning'; this means that if their ship was going at such and such a speed, it was supposed to have made such and such a distance in a given time. But when ships were being driven to and fro, and buffeted by adverse winds, this reckoning became extremely uncertain.

John Cabot and his men mere tossed about considerably in their little ship. Though they seem to have set out early in May of 1497, it was not until June 24 that they sighted land. What the land was like, and what they thought of it, we know from letters written in England by various persons after their return. Thus we learn that it was a 'very good and temperate country,' and that 'Brazil wood and silks grow there.' 'The sea,' they reported, 'is covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the net, but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the water.' Henceforth, it was said, England would have no more need to buy fish from Iceland, for the waters of the new land abounded in fish. Cabot and his men saw no savages, but they found proof that the land was inhabited. Here and there in the forest they saw trees which had been felled, and also snares of a rude kind set to catch game. They were enthusiastic over their success. They reported that the new land must certainly be connected with Cipango, from which all the spices and precious stones of the world originated. Only a scanty stock of provisions, they declared, prevented them from sailing along the coast as far as Cathay and Cipango. As it was they planted on the land a great cross with the flag of England and also the banner of St Mark, the patron saint of Cabot's city of Venice.

The older histories used always to speak as if John Cabot had landed somewhere on the coast of Labrador, and had at best gone no farther south than Newfoundland. Even if this were the whole truth about the voyage, to Cabot and his men would belong the signal honour of having been the first Europeans, since the Norsemen, to set foot on the mainland of North America. Without doubt they were the first to unfurl the flag of England, and to erect the cross upon soil which afterwards became part of British North America. But this is not all. It is likely that Cabot reached a point far south of Labrador. His supposed sailing westward carried him in reality south of the latitude of Ireland. He makes no mention of the icebergs which any voyager must meet on the Labrador coast from June to August. His account of a temperate climate suitable for growing dye-wood, of forest trees, and of a country so fair that it seemed the gateway of the enchanted lands of the East, is quite unsuited to the bare and forbidding aspect of Labrador. Cape Breton island was probably the place of Cabot's landing. Its balmy summer climate, the abundant fish of its waters, fit in with Cabot's experiences. The evidence from maps, one of which was made by Cabot's son Sebastian, points also to Cape Breton as the first landing-place of English sailors in America.

There is no doubt of the stir made by Cabot's discovery on his safe return to England. He was in London by August of 1497, and he became at once the object of eager curiosity and interest. 'He is styled the Great Admiral,' wrote a Venetian resident in London, 'and vast honour is paid to him. He dresses in silk, and the English run after him like mad people.' The sunlight of royal favour broke over him in a flood: even Henry VII proved generous. The royal accounts show that, on August 10, 1497, the king gave ten pounds 'to him that found the new isle.' A few months later the king granted to his 'well-beloved John Cabot, of the parts of Venice, an annuity of twenty pounds sterling,' to be paid out of the customs of the port of Bristol. The king, too, was lavish in his promises of help for a new expedition. Henry's imagination had evidently been fired with the idea of an Oriental empire. A contemporary writer tells us that Cabot was to have ten armed ships. At Cabot's request, the king conceded to him all the prisoners needed to man this fleet, saving only persons condemned for high treason. It is one of the ironies of history that on the first pages of its annals the beautiful new world is offered to the criminals of Europe.

During the winter that followed, John Cabot was the hero of the hour. Busy preparations went on for a new voyage. Letters patent were issued giving Cabot power to take any six ships that he liked from the ports of the kingdom, paying to their owners the same price only as if taken for the king's service. The 'Grand Admiral' became a person of high importance. On one friend he conferred the sovereignty of an island; to others he made lavish promises; certain poor friars who offered to embark on his coming voyage were to be bishops over the heathen of the new land. Even the merchants of London ventured to send out goods for trade, and brought to Cabot 'coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles.'

The second expedition sailed from the port of Bristol in May of 1498. John Cabot and his son Sebastian were in command; of the younger brothers we hear no more. But the high hopes of the voyagers were doomed to disappointment. On arriving at the coast of America Cabot's ships seem first to have turned towards the north. The fatal idea, that the empires of Asia might be reached through the northern seas already asserted its sway. The search for a north-west passage, that will-o'-the-wisp of three centuries, had already begun. Many years later Sebastian Cabot related to a friend at Seville some details regarding this unfortunate attempt of his father to reach the spice islands of the East. The fleet, he said, with its three hundred men, first directed its course so far to the north that, even in the month of July, monstrous heaps of ice were found floating on the sea. 'There was,' so Sebastian told his friend, 'in a manner, continual daylight.' The forbidding aspect of the coast, the bitter cold of the northern seas, and the boundless extent of the silent drifting ice, chilled the hopes of the explorers. They turned towards the south. Day after day, week after week, they skirted the coast of North America. If we may believe Sebastian's friend, they reached a point as far south as Gibraltar in Europe. No more was there ice. The cold of Labrador changed to soft breezes from the sanded coast of Carolina and from the mild waters of the Gulf Stream. But of the fabled empires of Cathay and Cipango, and the 'towns and castles' over which the Great Admiral was to have dominion, they saw no trace. Reluctantly the expedition turned again towards Europe, and with its turning ends our knowledge of what happened on the voyage.

That the ships came home either as a fleet, or at least in part, we have certain proof. We know that John Cabot returned to Bristol, for the ancient accounts of the port show that he lived to draw at least one or two instalments of his pension. But the sunlight of royal favour no longer illumined his path. In the annals of English history the name of John Cabot is never found again.

The son Sebastian survived to continue a life of maritime adventure, to be counted one of the great sea-captains of the day, and to enjoy an honourable old age. In the year 1512 we hear of him in the service of Ferdinand of Spain. He seems to have won great renown as a maker of maps and charts. He still cherished the idea of reaching Asia by way of the northern seas of America. A north-west expedition with Sebastian in command had been decided upon, it is said, by Ferdinand, when the death of that illustrious sovereign prevented the realization of the project. After Ferdinand's death, Cabot fell out with the grandees of the Spanish court, left Madrid, and returned for some time to England. Some have it that he made a new voyage in the service of Henry VIII, and sailed through Hudson Strait, but this is probably only a confused reminiscence, handed down by hearsay, of the earlier voyages. Cabot served Spain again under Charles V, and made a voyage to Brazil and the La Plata river. He reappears later in England, and was made Inspector of the King's Ships by Edward VI. He was a leading spirit of the Merchant Adventurers who, in Edward's reign, first opened up trade by sea with Russia.

The voyages of the Bristol traders and the enterprise of England by no means ended with the exploits of the Cabots. Though our ordinary history books tell us nothing more of English voyages until we come to the days of the great Elizabethan navigators, Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and to the planting of Virginia, as a matter of fact many voyages were made under Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both sovereigns seem to have been anxious to continue the exploration of the western seas, but they had not the good fortune again to secure such master-pilots as John and Sebastian Cabot.

In the first place, it seems that the fishermen of England, as well as those of the Breton coast, followed close in the track of the Cabots. As soon as the Atlantic passage to Newfoundland had been robbed of the terrors of the unknown, it was not regarded as difficult. With strong east winds a ship of the sixteenth century could make the run from Bristol or St Malo to the Grand Banks in less than twenty days. Once a ship was on the Banks, the fish were found in an abundance utterly unknown in European waters, and the ships usually returned home with great cargoes. During the early years of the sixteenth century English, French, and Portuguese fishermen went from Europe to the Banks in great numbers. They landed at various points in Newfoundland and Cape Breton, and became well acquainted with the outline of the coast. It was no surprise to Jacques Cartier, for instance, on his first voyage, to find a French fishing vessel lying off the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. But these fishing crews thought nothing of exploration. The harvest of the sea was their sole care, and beyond landing to cure fish and to obtain wood and water they did nothing to claim or conquer the land.

There were, however, efforts from time to time to follow up the discoveries of the Cabots. The merchants of Bristol do not seem to have been disappointed with the result of the Cabot enterprises, for as early as in 1501 they sent out a new expedition across the Atlantic. The sanction of the king was again invoked, and Henry VII granted letters patent to three men of Bristol—Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas—to explore the western seas. These names have a homely English sound; but associated with them were three Portuguese—John Gonzales, and two men called Fernandez, all of the Azores, and probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of the expedition, but it returned in safety in the same year, and the parsimonious king was moved to pay out five pounds from his treasury 'to the men of Bristol that found the isle.'

Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the English service and became subjects of King Henry. Again, in the summer of 1502, they were sent out on another voyage from Bristol. In September they brought their ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of the new lands they carried home 'three men brought out of an Iland forre beyond Irelond, the which were clothed in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh and were rude in their demeanure as Beestes.' From this description (written in an old atlas of the time), it looks as if the Fernandez expedition had turned north from the Great Banks and visited the coast where the Eskimos were found, either in Labrador or Greenland. This time Henry VII gave Fernandez and Gonzales a pension of ten pounds each, and made them 'captains' of the New Found Land. A sum of twenty pounds was given to the merchants of Bristol who had accompanied them. We must remember that at this time the New Found Land was the general name used for all the northern coast of America.

There is evidence that a further expedition went out from Bristol in 1503, and still another in 1504. Fernandez and Gonzales, with two English associates, were again the leaders. They were to have a monopoly of trade for forty years, but were cautioned not to interfere with the territory of the king of Portugal. Of the fate of these enterprises nothing is known.

By the time of Henry VIII, who began to reign in 1509, the annual fishing fleet of the English which sailed to the American coast had become important. As early as in 1522, a royal ship of war was sent to the mouth of the English Channel to protect the 'coming home of the New Found Island's fleet.' Henry VIII and his minister, Cardinal Wolsey, were evidently anxious to go on with the work of the previous reign, and especially to enlist the wealthy merchants and trade companies of London in the cause of western exploration. In 1521 the cardinal proposed to the Livery Companies of London—the name given to the trade organizations of the merchants—that they should send out five ships on a voyage into the New Found Land. When the merchants seemed disinclined to make such a venture, the king 'spake sharply to the Mayor to see it put in execution to the best of his power.' But, even with this stimulus, several years passed before a London expedition was sent out. At last, in 1527, two little ships called the Samson and the Mary of Guildford set out from London with instructions to find their way to Cathay and the Indies by means of the passage to the north. The two ships left London on May 10, put into Plymouth, and finally sailed therefrom on June 10, 1527. They followed Cabot's track, striking westward from the coast of Ireland. For three weeks they kept together, making good progress across the Atlantic. Then in a great storm that arose the Samson was lost with all on board.

The Mary of Guildford pursued her way alone, and her crew had adventures strange even for those days. Her course, set well to the north, brought her into the drift ice and the giant icebergs which are carried down the coast of America at this season (for the month was July) from the polar seas. In fear of the moving ice, she turned to the south, the sailors watching eagerly for the land, and sounding as they went. Four days brought them to the coast of Labrador. They followed it southward for some days. Presently they entered an inlet where they found a good harbour, many small islands, and the mouth of a great river of fresh water. The region was a wilderness, its mountains and woods apparently untenanted by man. Near the shore they saw the footmarks of divers great beasts, but, though they explored the country for about thirty miles, they saw neither men nor animals. At the end of July, they set sail again, and passed down the coast of Newfoundland to the harbour of St John's, already a well-known rendezvous. Here they found fourteen ships of the fishing fleet, mostly vessels from Normandy. From Newfoundland the Mary of Guildford pursued her way southward, and passed along the Atlantic coast of America. If she had had any one on board capable of accurate observation, even after the fashion of the time, or of making maps, the record of her voyage would have added much to the general knowledge of the continent. Unfortunately, the Italian pilot who directed the voyage was killed in a skirmish with Indians during a temporary landing. Some have thought that this pilot who perished on the Mary of Guildford may have been the great navigator Verrazano, of whom we shall presently speak.

The little vessel sailed down the coast to the islands of the West Indies. She reached Porto Rico in the middle of November, and from that island she made sail for the new Spanish settlements of San Domingo. Here, as she lay at her anchorage, the Mary of Guildford was fired upon by the Spanish fort which commanded the river mouth. At once she put out into the open sea, and, heading eastward across the Atlantic, she arrived safely at her port of London.

Cherokee Legends of White Indians and Burial Mounds

2023-11-02T00:50:00.003-07:00

Smithsonian Institutes 19th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1878

Myths of the Cherokee

There is a dim but persistent tradition of a strange white race preceding the Cherokee, some of the stories even going so far as to locate their former settlements and to identify them as the authors of the ancient works found in the country. The earliest reference appears to be that of Barton in 1797, on the stayement of a gentlemen whom he quotes as a valuable authority up[on the southern tribes. "The Cherokee tell us, that when they first arrived in the country, which they inhabit, they found it possessed by certain 'moon-eyed people', who could not see in the daytime. These wretches they expelled." He seems to consider them an albino race. Haywood, twenty-six years later, says that the invading Cherokee found 'white people' near the head of the little Tennessee, with forts extending thence down the Tennessee as far as Chickamauga Creek. He gives the location of three of these forts. The Cherokee made war against them and drove them to the mouth of Big Chickamauga Creek, whence they entered into a treaty and agreed to remove if permitted to depart in peace. Permission being granted they abandoned the country. Elsewhere he speaks of this extirpated white race as having extended into Kentucky and probably also into, western Tennessee, according to the concurrent traditions of different tribes.

Other Cherokee histories identify the Cherokee as the "White Indians"

Apache Indian's Medicine and Charms

2023-11-02T00:48:00.001-07:00

Apache Fetishes

Among the Athapascan Indians the Apaches, both male and female, wear fetishes which they call tzi-daltai, manufactured from lightning-riven wood, generally pine or cedar, or fir from the mountains. These are highly valued, and are never sold. They are shaved very thin, rudely carved in the semblance of the human form, and decorated with incised lines representing the lightning. They are small in size, and few of them are painted.

Bourke describes one that an Apache chief carried about with him, which was made of a piece of lath, unpainted, having a figure in yellow drawn upon it, with a narrow black band and three snake's heads with white eyes. It was further decorated with pearl buttons and small eagle-down feathers. The reverse and obverse were identical.

Many of the Apaches attached a piece of malachite to their guns and bows to make them shoot accurately. Bourke mentions a class of fetishes which he terms 'phylacteries.' These are pieces of buckskin or other material upon which are inscribed certain characters or symbols of a religious or 'medicine' nature, and they are worn attached to the person who seeks benefit from them. They differ from the ordinary fetish in that they are concealed from the public gaze. These 'phylacteries,' Bourke says, "themselves medicine," may be employed to enwrap other 'medicine,' and "thus augment their own potentialities." He describes several of these objects. One worn by an Indian named Ta-ul-tzu-je "was tightly rolled in at least half a mile of saddler's silk, and when brought to light was found to consist of a small piece of buckskin two inches square, upon which were drawn red and yellow crooked lines, which represented the red and yellow snake. Inside were a piece of malachite and a small cross of lightning-riven pine, and two very small perforated shells. The cross they designated 'the black mind.'" Another 'phylactery' consisted of a tiny bag of hoddentin, holding a small quartz crystal and four feathers of eagle-down. This charm, it was explained by an Indian, contained not merely the 'medicine' of the crystal and the eagle, but also that of the black bear, the white lion, and the yellow snake.

PIma Indian Burial Ceremony

2023-11-02T00:46:00.006-07:00

The Pimas of Arizona, actuated by apparently the same motives that led the more eastern tribes to endeavor to prevent contact of earth with the corpse, adopted a plan which has been described by Capt. F. E. Grossman and the account is corroborated by M. Alphonse Pinart and Bancroft.

Captain Grossman’s account follows:

Fig. 2.—Pima burial.

The Pimas tie the bodies of their dead with ropes, passing the latter around their neck and under the knees, and then drawing them tight until the body is doubled up and forced into a sitting position. They dig the graves from four to five feet deep and perfectly round (about two feet in diameter), and then hollow out to one side of the bottom of this grave a sort of vault large enough to contain the body. Here the body is deposited, the grave is filled up level with the ground, and poles, trees, or pieces of timber placed upon the grave to protect the remains from coyotes.

Burials usually take place at night without much ceremony. The mourners chant during the burial, but signs of grief are rare. The bodies of their dead are buried if possible, immediately after death has taken place and the graves are generally prepared before the patients die. Sometimes sick persons (for whom the graves had already been dug) recover. In such cases the graves are left open until the persons for whom they are intended die. Open graves of this kind can be seen in several of their burial grounds. Places of burial are selected some distance from the village, and, if possible, in a grove of mesquite trees.

Immediately after the remains have been buried, the house and personal effects of the deceased are burned and his horses and cattle killed, the meat being cooked as a 99repast for the mourners. The nearest relatives of the deceased as a sign of their sorrow remain within their village for weeks, and sometimes months; the men cut off about six inches of their long hair, while the women cut their hair quite short.***

The custom of destroying all the property of the husband when he dies impoverishes the widow and children and prevents increase of stock. The women of the tribe, well aware that they will be poor should their husbands die, and that then they will have to provide for their children by their own exertions, do not care to have many children, and infanticide, both before and after birth, prevails to a great extent. This is not considered a crime, and old women of the tribe practice it. A widow may marry again after a year’s mourning for her first husband; but having children no man will take her for a wife and thus burden himself with her children. Widows generally cultivate a small piece of ground, and friends and relatives (men) plow the ground for them.

Fig. 2, drawn from Captain Grossman’s description by my friend Dr. W. J. Hoffman, will convey a good idea of this mode of burial.

Sioux Indians Creation Myth

2023-10-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

Siouan Cosmology

Sioux Indians Creation Myth

The Mandan tribes of the Sioux possess a type of creation-myth which is common to several American peoples. They suppose that their nation lived in a subterranean village near a vast lake. Hard by the roots of a great grape-vine penetrated from the earth above, and, clambering up these, several of them got a sight of the upper world, which they found to be rich and well stocked with both animal and vegetable food. Those of them who had seen the new-found world above returned to their home bringing such glowing accounts of its wealth and pleasantness that the others resolved to forsake their dreary underground dwelling for the delights of the sunny sphere above. The entire population set out, and started to climb up the roots of the vine, but no more than half the tribe had ascended when the plant broke owing to the weight of a corpulent woman. The Mandans imagine that after death they will return to the underground world in which they originally dwelt, the worthy reaching the village by way of the lake, the bad having to abandon the passage by reason of the weight of their sins.

The Minnetarees believed that their original ancestor emerged from the waters of a lake bearing in his hand an ear of corn, and the Mandans possessed a myth very similar to that of the Muskhogees concerning the origin of the world.

Native American Cherokee Indian Symbols

2023-10-30T02:39:00.001-07:00

The Cherokees Symbols

Native American Cherokee Indian Symbols

Everyone should know of Sequoyah or George Guess or Guest, as he was called in English. He was a Cherokee who loved to work at machinery and invent handy devices. He determined to invent a system of writing his language. He saw that the writing of the white men consisted in the use of characters to represent sounds. At first he thought of using one character for each word; this was not convenient because there are so many words.

He finally concluded that there were eighty-six syllables in Cherokee, and he formed a series of eighty-six characters to represent them. Some of these characters were borrowed from the white man's alphabet; the rest were specially invented. It took some little time ]for the Cherokees to accept Sequoyah's great invention, but by 1827 it was in use throughout the nation.

Types were made, and soon books and papers were printed in the Cherokee language in Sequoyah's characters. These are still in use, and to-day in the Indian Territory, a newspaper is regularly printed by the Cherokee Nation, part of which is in English, part in the Cherokee character. This newspaper is, by the way, supplied free to each family by the Cherokee government.

300+ Native American Indian Names for Boys

2023-10-30T02:35:00.001-07:00

List of Native American Indian Tribes Most Popular Names For Boys

Native American Indian Names for Children

ABUKCHEECH: Algonquin name meaning "mouse."
ACHAK: Algonquin name meaning "spirit."
ADAHY: Cherokee name meaning "lives in the woods."
AHANU: Algonquin name meaning "he laughs."
AHIGA: Navajo name meaning "he fights."
AHILIYA: Hopi name. Meaning unknown
AHMIK: beaver
AHOTE: Hopi name meaning "restless one."
AHTUNOWHIHO: Cheyenne name meaning "one who lives below."
AKANDO: ambush
AKECHETA: Sioux name meaning "fighter."
AKULE: looks up
ALO: Hopi name meaning "spiritual guide."
ALOSAKA: Hopi myth name
ANAKAUSUEN: Algonquin name meaning "worker."
ANOKI: actor
APENIMON: worthy of trust
APONIVI: Hopi name meaning "where the wind blows down the gap."
ARANCK: Algonquin name meaning "stars."
ASHKII: Navajo name meaning "boy."
ASKOOK: Algonquin name meaning "snake."
ASKUWHETEAU: Algonquin name meaning "he keeps watch."
ATA'HALNE': Navajo name meaning "he interrupts."
AVONACO: Cheyenne name meaning "lean bear."
AWAN: somebody
AYAWAMAT: Hopi name meaning "one who follows orders."
BEMOSSED: walker
BIDZIIL: Navajo name meaning "he is strong."
BILAGAANA: Navajo name meaning "white person."
BIMISI: slippery
BODAWAY: fire-maker
CHA'AKMONGWI: Hopi name meaning "crier chief."
CHA'TIMA: Hopi name meaning "the caller."
CHANKOOWASHTAY: Sioux name meaning "good road."
CHANSOMPS: Algonquin name meaning "locust."
CHAS-CHUNK-A: Winnebago name meaning "wave."
CHAVATANGAKWUNUA: Hopi name meaning "short rainbow."
CHAYTON: Sioux name meaning "falcon."
CHESMU: gritty
CHEVEYO: Hopi name meaning "spirit warrior."
CHOCHMO: Hopi name meaning "mud mound."
CHOCHOKPI: Hopi name meaning "throne for the clouds."
CHOCHUSCHUVIO: Hopi name meaning "white-tailed deer."
CHOGAN: Algonquin name meaning "blackbird."
CHOOVIO: Hopi name meaning "antelope."
CHOVIOHOYA: Hopi name meaning "young deer."
CHOWILAWU: Hopi name meaning "joined together by water."
CHU'A: Hopi name meaning "snake."
CHUCHIP: Hopi name meaning "deer spirit."
CHUNTA: Hopi name meaning "cheating."
CIQALA: Dakota name meaning "little one."
DELSIN: he is so
DEMOTHI: talks while walking
DICHALI: speaks a lot
DOHOSAN: bluff
DUSTU: Cherokee name. Meaning unknown
DYAMI: eagle
ELAN: friendly
ELKI: Miwok name. Meaning unknown
ELSU: flying falcom
ELUWILUSSIT: Algonquin name meaning "holy one."
ENAPAY: Sioux name meaning "brave."
ENKOODABOOAOO, ENKOODABAOO: Algonquin name meaning "one who lives alone."
ENYETO: walks as a boar
ETCHEMIN: Algonquin name meaning "canoe man."
ETLELOOAAT: Algonquin name meaning "shouts."
ETU: sun
EZHNO: solitary
GAAGII: Navajo name meaning "raven."
GAD: Navajo name meaning "juniper tree."
GOSHEVEN: leaper
GUYAPI: frank
HAHKETHOMEMAH, HARKAHOME: Cheyenne name meaning "little robe."
HAHNEE: beggar
HAKAN: fire
HANIA: Hopi name meaning "spirit warrior."
HASSUN: Algonquin name meaning "stone."
HASTIIN: Navajo name meaning "man."
HAWIOVI: Hopi name meaning "going down the ladder."
HE-LUSH-KA: Winnebago name meaning "fighter."
HEAMMAWIHIO: Cheyenne name meaning "wise one above."
HELAKU: full of sun
HELKI: Miwok name meaning "touch."
HESKOVIZENAKO: Cheyenne name meaning "porcupine bear."
HESUTU: Miwok name meaning "yellow jacket nest rising out of the ground."
HEVATANEO: Cheyenne name meaning "hairy rope."
HEVOVITASTAMIUTSTO: Cheyenne name meaning "whirlwind."
HIAMOVI: Cheyenne name meaning "high chief."
HINUN: myth name
HINTO: Dakota name meaning "blue."
KOHKAHYCUMEST: Cheyenne name meaning "white crow or white antelope."
HOHNIHOHKAIYOHOS, NEEHEEOEEWOOTIS: Cheyenne name meaning "high-backed wolf."
HOK'EE: Navajo name meaning "abandoned."
HONANI: Hopi name meaning "badger."
HONAW: Hopi name meaning "bear."
HONIAHAKA: Cheyenne name meaning little wolf."
HONON: Miwok name meaning "bear."
HONOVI: strong
HOTAH: Sioux name meaning "white."
HOTOTO: Hopi name meaning "warrior spirit who sings; he who whistles"
HOTUAEKHAASHTAIT: Cheyenne name meaning "tall bull."
HOWAHKAN: Sioux name meaning "of the mysterious voice."
HOWI: Miwok name meaning "turtle-dove."
HURITT: Algonquin name meaning "handsome."
IGASHO: wanders
ISTAQA: Hopi name meaning "coyote man."
INTEUS: has no shame
ISTU: sugar
IYE: smoke
JACY: moon
JOLON: valley of the dead oaks
KACHADA: Hopi name meaning "white man."
KAGA: chronicler
KAJIKA: walks without sound
KANGEE: Sioux name meaning "raven."
KELE: Hopi name meaning "sparrow."
KEME: Algonquin name meaning "secret."
KESEGOWAASE: Algonquin name meaning "swift."
KESTEJOO: Algonquin name meaning "slave."
KITCHI: Algonquin name meaning "brave."
KNOTON: wind
KOHANA: Sioux name meaning "swift."
KOLICHIYAW: Hopi name meaning "skunk."
KONO: Miwok name. meaning unknown
KOSUMI: Miwok name meaning "fishes for salmon with spear."
KOTORI: Hopi name meaning "screech owl spirit."
KUCKUNNIWI: Cheyenne name meaning "little wolf."
KURUK: Pawnee name meaning "bear."
KWAHU: Hopi name meaning "eagle."
KWATOKO: Hopi name meaning "bird with big beak."
LANGUNDO: peaceful
LANSA: Hopi name meaning "lance."
LANU: Miwok name. Meaning unknown
LAPU: Hopi name meaning "cedar bark."
LEN: Hopi name meaning "flute."
LENNO: man
LEYATI: Miwok name meaning "shaped like an abalone shell."
LISE: Miwok name meaning "salmon head rising above water."
LIWANU: Miwok name meaning "growl of a bear."
LOKNI: Miwok name meaning "rain falls through the roof."
LONATO: flint
LOOTAH: Sioux name meaning "red."
MACHAKW: Hopi name meaning "horny toad."
MACHK: Algonquin name meaning "bear."
MAHKAH: Sioux name meaning "earth."
MAHPEE: Sioux name meaning "sky."
MAKKAPITEW: Algonquin name meaning "he has large teeth."
MAKYA: Hopi name meaning "eagle hunter."
MANIPI: amazing
MANTOTOHPA: Cheyenne name meaning "four bears."
MASICHUVIO: Hopi name meaning "gray deer."
MASKA: strong
MASOU: myth name
MATCHITEHEW: Algonquin name meaning "he has an evil heart."
MATCHITISIW: Algonquin name meaning "he has bad character."
MATOSKAH: Sioux name meaning "white bear."
MATUNAAGA: Algonquin name meaning "fights."
MATWAU: Algonquin name meaning "enemy."
MAZA BLASKA: Dakota name meaning "flat iron."
MEGEDAGIK: Algonquin name meaning "kills many."
MELKEDOODUM: Algonquin name meaning "conceited."
MELVERN: meaning unknown
METURATO, MOKATAVATAH, MOKETAVATO, MOKETAVETO, MOKETOVETO, MOKOVAOTO, MOTAVATO: Cheyenne name meaning "black kettle."
MILAP: charitable
MINGAN: gray wolf
MINNINNEWAH: Cheyenne name meaning "whirlwind."
MISU: Miwok name meaning "rippling brook."
MOCHNI: Hopi name meaning "talking bird."
MOJAG: never silent
MOKI: Hopi name meaning "deer."
MOLIMO: Miwok name meaning "bear walking into shade."
MOMUSO: Miwok name. Meaning unknown
MONA: Miwok name meaning "gathers jimson weed seed."
MONGWAU: Hopi name meaning "owl."
MOTEGA: new arrow
MUATA: Miwok name meaning "yellow jackets inside a nest."
MUKKI: Algonquin name meaning "child."
MURACO: white moon
NAALNISH: Navajo name meaning "he works."
NAALYEHE YA SIDAHI: Navajo name meaning "trader."
NAHCOMENCE: Cheyenne name meaning "old bark."
NAHELE: forest
NAHIOSSI: Cheyenne name meaning "has three fingers."
NAPAYSHNI: Sioux name meaning "strong, courageous."
NASTAS: Navajo name meaning "curve like foxtail grass."
NAWAT: left-handed
NAWKAW: Winnebago name meaning "wood."
NAYATI: he who wrestles
NEKA: wild goose
NIGAN: ahead
NIICHAAD: Navajo name meaning "swollen."
NIKITI: round, smooth
NITIS: friend
NIXKAMICH: Algonquin name meaning "grandfather."
NIYOL: Navajo name meaning "wind."
NODIN: wind
NOOTAU: Algonquin name meaning "fire."
NOSH, NOSHI: Algonquin name meaning "father."
NUKPANA: Hopi name meaning "evil."
OCUMWHOWURST, OCUNNOWHURST: Cheyenne name meaning "yellow wolf."
ODAKOTA: Sioux name meaning "friend."
OGALEESHA: Sioux name meaning "wears a red shirt."
OHANKO: reckless
OHANZEE: Sioux name meaning "shadow."
OHCUMGACHE, OKHMHAKA: Cheyenne name meaning "little wolf."
OHITEKAH: Sioux name meaning "brave."
OMAWNAKW: Hopi name meaning "cloud feather."
OTAKTAY: Sioux name meaning "kills many."
OTOAHHASTIS: Cheyenne name meaning "tall bull."
OTOAHNACTO: Cheyenne name meaning "bull bear."
OURAY: arrow
OYA: Miwok name. Meaning unknown
PACHU'A: Hopi name meaning "feathered water snake."
PACO: eagle
PAHANA: Hopi name meaning "lost white brother."
PAJACKOK: Algonquin name meaning "thunder."
PALLATON: warrior
PANNOOWAU: Algonquin name meaning "he lies."
PAT: fish
PATAMON: tempest
PATWIN: man
PAYAT, PAY, PAYATT: he is coming
PAYTAH: Sioux name meaning "fire."
PINON: myth name
PIVANE: Hopi name meaning "weasel."
POWWAW: Algonquin name meaning "priest."
QALETAQA: Hopi name meaning "guardian of the people."
QOCHATA: Hopi name meaning "white man."
ROWTAG: Algonquin name meaning "fire."
SAHALE: falcon
SAKIMA: king
SANI: Navajo name meaning "the old one."
SEGENAM: Algonquin name meaning "lazy."
SEWATI: Miwok name meaning "curved bear claw."
SHILAH: Navajo name meaning "brother."
SHIRIKI: Pawnee name meaning "coyote."
SHIYE: Navajo name meaning "son."
SHIZHE'E: Navajo name meaning "father."
SHOEMOWETOCHAWCAWEWAHCATOWE: Cheyenne name meaning "high-backed wolf."
SICHEII: Navajo name meaning "grandfather."
SIK'IS: Navajo name meaning "friend."
SIKE: Navajo name meaning "he sits at home."
SIKYAHONAW: Hopi name meaning "yellow bear."
SIKYATAVO: Hopi name meaning "yellow rabbit."
SIWILI: tail of the fox
SKAH: Sioux name meaning "white."
SONGAN: strong
SOWI'NGWA: Hopi name meaning "black-tailed deer."
SUCKI: Algonquin name meaning "black."
SUNUKKUHKAU: Algonquin name meaning "he crushes."
T'IIS: Navajo name meaning "cottonwood."
TAHKEOME: Cheyenne name meaning "little robe."
TAHMELAPACHME: Cheyenne name meaning "dull knife."
TAIMA: thunder
TAKODA: Sioux name meaning "friend to everyone."
TANGAKWUNU: Hopi name meaning "rainbow."
TAREGAN: Algonquin name meaning "crane."
TASUNKE: Dakota name meaning "horse."
TATANKA-PTECILA: Dakota name meaning "short bull."
TATE: he who talks too much
TEETONKA: Sioux name meaning "talks too much."
TELUTCI, TUKETU: Miwok name meaning "bear making dust."
TIHKOOSUE: Algonquin name meaning "short."
TOCHO: Hopi name meaning "mountain lion."
TOGQUOS: Algonquin name meaning "twin."
TOHOPKA: Hopi name meaning "wild beast."
TOKALA: Dakota name meaning "fox."
TOOANTUH: Cherokee name meaning "spring frog."
TSE: Navajo name meaning "rock."
TSIISHCH'ILI: Navajo name meaning "curly-haired."
TUPI: Miwok name meaning "to pull up."
UZUMATI: Miwok name meaning "bear."
VAIVEAHTOISH, VAIVE ATOISH: Cheyenne name meaning "alights on the cloud."
VIHO: Cheyenne name meaning "chief."
VIPPONAH: Cheyenne name meaning "slim face."
VOHKINNE: Cheyenne name meaning "Roman nose."
VOISTITOEVITZ, VOISTTITOEVETZ: Cheyenne name meaning "white cow."
VOKIVOCUMMAST: Cheyenne name meaning "white antelope."
WAHANASSATTA: Cheyenne name meaning "he who walks with his toes turned outward."
WAHCHINKSAPA: Sioux name meaning "wise."
WAHCHINTONKA: Sioux name meaning "has much practice."
WAHKAN: Sioux name meaning "sacred."
WAKIZA: desperate warrior
WAMBLEE: Sioux name meaning "eagle."
WAMBLEESKA: Sioux name meaning "white eagle."
WAMBLI-WASTE: Dakota name meaning "good eagle."
WANAGEESKA: Sioux name meaning "white spirit."
WANAHTON: Sioux name meaning "charger."
WANIKIYA: Sioux name meaning "savior."
WAPI: lucky
WAQUINI: Cheyenne name meaning "hook nose."
WEAYAYA: Sioux name meaning "setting sun."
WEMATIN: Algonquin name meaning "brother."
WEMILAT: of wealthy parents
WICASA: Dakota name meaning "sage."
WIKVAYA: Hopi name meaning "one who brings."
WILNY: meaning unknown
WOHEHIV: Cheyenne name meaning "dull knife."
WOKAIHWOKOMAS: Cheyenne name meaning "white antelope."
WUYI: Miwok name meaning "soaring turkey vulture."
WYNONO: firstborn
YAHTO: Sioux name meaning "blue."
YANCY: Englishman
YANISIN: Navajo name meaning "ashamed."
YAS: Navajo name meaning snow."
YISKA: Navajo name meaning the night has passed."
YOSKOLO: meaning unknown
YUMA: son of a chief

250+ Native American Names for Girls / Female

2023-10-30T02:31:00.003-07:00

Native American Indian List of names for children

Native American Names for Female

ABEDABUN: Cheyenne name meaning sight of day."
ABEQUA, ABEQUE: Cheyenne name meaning stays at home."
ABETZI: Omaha name meaning "yellow leaf."
ABEY: Omaha name meaning "leaf."
ABEYTU: Omaha name meaning "green leaf."
ADOETTE: large tree
ADSILA: Cherokee name meaning blossom."
AIYANA: eternal blossom
ALAMEDA: grove of cottonwood
ALAQUA: sweet gum tree
ALAWA: Algonquin name meaning pea."
ALGOMA: valley of flowers
ALSOOMSE: Algonquin name meaning independent."
ALTSOBA: Navajo name meaning all war."
AMADAHY: Cherokee name meaning forest water."
AMAYETA: Miwok name. Meaning is unknown
AMITOLA: rainbow
ANABA: Navajo name meaning returns from war."
ANEVAY: superior
ANGENI: spirit
ANGWUSNASOMTAQA: Hopi name meaning crow mother spirit."
ANKTI: Hopi name meaning repeat dance."
ANNA: Algonquin name meaning mother."
ANPAYTOO: Sioux name meaning "radiant."
APONI: butterfly
AQUENE: peace
ASDZA: Navajo name meaning woman."
AT'EED: Navajo name meaning girl."
ATEPA: Choctaw name meaning wigwam."
AWANATA: Miwok name meaning "turtle."
AWENASA: Cherokee name meaning my home."
AWENDELA: morning
AWENTIA: fawn
AWINITA: Cherokee name meaning fawn."
AYASHE, AYASHA: Cheyenne name meaning little one."
AYITA: Cherokee name meaning first to dance."
BENA: pheasant
BLY: tall
CATORI: Hopi name meaning spirit."
CHA'KWAINA: Hopi name meaning one who cries."
CHA'RISA: Hopi name meaning elk."
CHAPA: Sioux name meaning "beaver."
CHENOA: dove
CHEPI: Algonquin name meaning fairy."
CHILAILI: snowbird
CHIMALIS: bluebird
CHITSA: fair
CHOCHMINGWU: Hopi name meaning corn mother."
CHOLENA: bird
CHOSOVI: Hopi name meaning bluebird."
CHOSPOSI: Hopi name meaning bluebird eye."
CHU'MANA: Hopi name meaning snake maiden."
CHU'SI: Hopi name meaning snake flower."
CHUMANI: Sioux name meaning "dewdrops."
COCHETA: stranger
DENA: valley
DEZBA: Navajo name meaning goes to war."
DIBE: Navajo name meaning "sheep."
DOBA: Navajo name meaning "no war."
DOLI: Navajo name meaning "bluebird."
DONOMA: Omaha name meaning "sight of the sun."
DYANI: deer
EHAWEE: Sioux name meaning "laughing maiden."
ENOLA: solitary
ETENIA: rich
EYOTA: great
FALA: Choctaw name meaning crow."
FLO: arrow
GAHO: mother
GALILAHI: Cherokee name meaning attractive."
HAKIDONMUYA: Hopi name meaning time of waiting moon."
HALOKE: Navajo name meaning "salmon."
HALONA: of happy fortune
HANTAYWEE: Sioux name meaning "faithful."
HAUSIS, HAUSISSE: Algonquin name meaning old woman."
HEHEWUTI: Hopi name meaning warrior mother spirit."
HELKI: Miwok name meaning "touch."
HONOVI: Hopi name meaning strong deer."
HUATA: Miwok name meaning "carrying seeds in a basket."
HUMITA: Hopi name meaning shelled corn."
HURIT: Algonquin name meaning beautiful."
HUYANA: Miwok name meaning "falling rain."
IMALA: disciplines
ISI: Choctaw name meaning deer."
ISTAS: snow
ITUHA: sturdy oak
ITUHA: white stone
KACHINA: Hopi name meaning spirit, sacred dancer."
KAI: Navajo name meaning "willow tree."
KAKAWANGWA: Hopi name meaning bitter."
KALISKA: Miwok name meaning "coyote chasing deer."
KANTI: Algonquin name meaning sings."
KASA: Hopi name meaning dressed in furs."
KAYA: Hopi name meaning elder sister."
KEEGSQUAW: Algonquin name meaning virgin."
KEEZHEEKONI: Cheyenne name meaning burning fire."
KIMAMA: Shoshone name meaning butterfly."
KIMI: Algonquin name meaning secret."
KIMIMELA: Sioux name meaning "butterfly."
KINEKS: rosebud
KIWIDINOK: Cheyenne name meaning of the wind."
KOKO: Blackfoot name meaning night."
KOKYANGWUTI: Hopi name meaning spider woman at middle-age."
KOLENYA: Miwok name meaning "coughing fish."
KUWANLELENTA: Hopi name meaning to make beautiful surroundings."
KUWANYAMTIWA: Hopi name meaning beautiful badger going over the hill."
KUWANYAUMA: Hopi name meaning butterfly showing beautiful wings."
LEOTIE: flower of the prairie
LENMANA: Hopi name meaning flute girl."
LEQUOIA: meaning unknown (probably an alteration of sequoia, name of a giant redwood tree)
LILUYE: Miwok name meaning "singing chicken hawk that soars."
LISELI: Zuni name. Meaning unknown
LITONYA: Miwok name meaning "darting hummingbird."
LOMAHONGVA: Hopi name meaning beautiful clouds arising."
LOMASI: pretty flower
LULU: rabbit
LUYU: wild dove
MACAWI: Sioux name meaning "generous."
MAGASKAWEE: Sioux name meaning "graceful."
MAGENA: moon
MAHAL: woman
MAHU: Hopi myth name.
MAI: coyote
MAKA: Sioux name meaning "earth."
MAKAWEE: Sioux name meaning "mothering."
MAKKITOTOSIMEW: Algonquin name meaning she has large breasts."
MALIA: Zuni name meaning "bitter."
MALILA: Miwok name meaning "fast salmon swimming up a rippling stream."
MANABA: Navajo name meaning "return to war."
MANKALITA: Zuni name. Meaning unknown
MANSI: Hopi name meaning plucked flower."
MAPIYA: Sioux name meaning "sky."
MARALAH: born during an earthquake
MAUSI: plucks flowers
MEDA: prophetess
MELI: Zuni name meaning "bitter."
MEMDI: henna
MEOQUANEE: Cheyenne name meaning wears red."
MIGISI: Cheyenne name meaning eagle."
MIAKODA: power of the moon
MIGINA: Omaha name meaning "returning moon."
MIKA: intelligent raccoon
MIMITEH: Omaha name meaning "new moon."
MINAL: fruit
MISAE: Osage name meaning white sun."
MITUNA: Miwok name meaning "wraps salmon in willow leaves."
MONA: gathered of the seed of a jimson weed
MOSI: Navajo name meaning "cat."
MUNA: Hopi name meaning overflowing spring."
NADIE: Algonquin name meaning wise."
NAHIMANA: Sioux name meaning "mystic."
NAMID: Cheyenne name meaning star dancer."
NARA: from Nara
NASCHA: Navajo name meaning "owl."
NASHOTA: twin
NATA: speaker
NIABI: Osage name meaning fawn."
NIDAWI: Omaha name meaning "fairy."
NIJLON: Algonquin name meaning mistress."
NINA: strong
NITA: Choctaw name meaning bear."
NITTAWOSEW: Algonquin name meaning she is not sterile."
NITUNA: daughter
NOKOMIS: Cheyenne name meaning grandmother."
NOVA: Hopi name meaning chases butterfly."
NUKPANA: Hopi name meaning "evil."
NUMEES: Algonquin name meaning sister."
NUNA: land
NUTTAH: Algonquin name meaning my heart."
ODAHINGUM: Cheyenne name meaning rippling water."
OGIN: wild rose
OLATHE: beautiful
OMINOTAGO: Cheyenne name meaning beautiful voice."
OMUSA: Miwok name meaning "misses with arrows."
ONATAH: Iroquois name meaning of the earth."
ONAWA: wide awake
ONIDA: the one searched for
OOLJEE: Navajo name meaning "moon."
OOTA DABUN: Algonquin name meaning day star."
ORENDA: Iroquois name meaning magic power."
PAKWA: Hopi name meaning "frog."
PAKUNA: Miwok name meaning "deer jumping downhill."
PAMUYA: Hopi name meaning "water moon."
PAPINA: Miwok name meaning "vine growing around an oak tree."
PATI: Miwok name meaning "break by twisting."
PAUWAU: Algonquin name meaning "witch."
PAVATI: Hopi name meaning "clear water."
PETA: Blackfoot name meaning "golden eagle."
PETUNIA: flower name
POLIKWAPTIWA: Hopi name meaning "butterfly sitting on a flower."
POLOMA: Choctaw name meaning "bow."
POSALA: Miwok name meaning "farewell to spring flowers."
POWAQA: Hopi name meaning "witch."
PTAYSANWEE: Sioux name meaning "white buffalo."
PULES: Algonquin name meaning pigeon."
ROZENE: rose
SAHKYO: Navajo name meaning "mink."
SALALI: Cherokee name meaning squirrel."
SANUYE: Miwok name meaning "red cloud at sundown."
SATINKA: magical dancer
SHADA: pelican
SHADI: Navajo name meaning "older sister."
SHESHEBENS: Cheyenne name meaning small duck."
SHIDEEZHI: Navajo name meaning "younger sister."
SHIMA: Navajo name meaning "mother."
SHIMASANI: Navajo name meaning "grandmother."
SHUMAN: Hopi name meaning "rattlesnake handler."
SIHU: Hopi name meaning "flower."
SINOPA: Blackfoot name meaning fox."
SISIKA: bird
SITALA: Miwok name meaning "of good memory."
SITSI: Navajo name meaning "daughter."
SOKANON: Algonquin name meaning rain."
SOKW: Algonquin name meaning sour."
SOOLEAWA: Algonquin name meaning silver."
SOYALA: Hopi name meaning "time of the winter solstice."
SULETU: Miwok name meaning "flies."
SUNKI: Hopi name meaning "to catch up with."
TABLITA: Hopi name meaning "tiara."
TADEWI: Omaha name meaning "wind."
TADITA: Omaha name meaning "one who runs."
TAIGI, TAINI: Omaha name meaning "returning moon."
TAIMA: thunder
TAIPA: Miwok name meaning "spread wings."
TAKALA: Hopi name meaning "corn tassel."
TAKCHAWEE: Sioux name meaning "doe."
TAKHI: Algonquin name meaning cold."
TALA: wolf
TALULAH: Choctaw name meaning leaping water."
TALUTAH: Sioux name meaning "blood-red."
TAMA: thunder
TANSY: Hopi name meaning "name of a flower."
TAYANITA: Cherokee name meaning young beaver."
TEHYA: precious
TIPONI: Hopi name meaning "child of importance."
TIS-SEE-WOO-NA-TIS: Cheyenne name meaning she who bathes with her knees."
TIVA: Hopi name meaning "dance."
TOLINKA: Miwok name meaning "flapping ear of a coyote."
TOTSI: Hopi name meaning "moccasins."
TUWA: Hopi name meaning "earth."
UNA: Hopi name meaning "remember."
URIKA: Omaha name meaning "useful to all."
UTINA: meaning unknown
WACHIWI: Sioux name meaning "dancer."
WAKANDA: Sioux name meaning "possesses magical power."
WAKI: Hopi name meaning "shelter."
WANETA: charger
WAUNA: Miwok name meaning "singing snow goose."
WEEKO: Sioux name meaning "pretty."
WENONA: firstborn daughter
WICAPI WAKAN: Dakota name meaning holy star."
WIHAKAYDA: Sioux name meaning "little one."
WIKIMAK: Algonquin name meaning wife."
WINEMA: chief
WINONA, WENONA, WENONAH: Sioux name meaning giving."
WITASHNAH: Sioux name meaning "virginal."
WUTI: Hopi name meaning "woman."
WYANET: beautiful
YAMKA: Hopi name meaning "blossom."
YAZHI: Navajo name meaning "little one."
YEPA: snow woman
YOKI: Hopi name meaning "rain."
ZALTANA: high mountain
ZIHNA: Hopi name meaning "spins."
ZITKALA: Dakota name meaning bird."