The Map Of Native American Tribes You've Never Seen Before

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

This is awesome!

While my parents were renovating the backyard, years ago, we found hundreds of arrowheads. There were also 2 rocks that were used as a mortar and pestle, we only had the 2 bowls however. I really wanted to take the bowls with me when my parents sold the house but felt like they should stay with the house.

There was a tribe that lived in the area, The Suisunes and the former village of Yulyul was eventually where I grew up.

The Suisunes, known as the Wappo, were a subset of the Wintun people, members of the Penutian language group that dominated the Central Valley.

Of course it's a sad story and I've always wondered if there were that many arrowheads because of this battle.

In 1817, a Mexican force under Lt. Jose Sanchez crossed the Carquinez Strait on tule rafts, guiding swimming cavalry horses by their bridles.
They fought a heavy battle against the Suisunes, eventually surrounding them at Yulyul.
After a three-day siege, Chief Molica supposedly told his tribe to flee subjugation by setting huts aflame and dying in the fires.
This could be a victor's version. On a raid seven years earlier, soldiers under Gabriel Moraga had intentionally used fire to massacre Suisunes in their huts.

source

a reply to: Blackmarketeer
Hey there blackmarketeer,
Thanks for posting that map.
They did a pretty good job, especially in California, they missed a few obscure groups.
I say groups because of all the native Californians only the Yokuts could be said to have an actual tribal structure.
And speaking of the Yokuts, I'm glad to see they listed some of them, 13 of nearly 40 distinct languages.
They also left out the Mono(western sierra shoshone) although they do have their southern cousins the Monache, it's also missing a couple of piute groups from the eastern sierra and a few groups of the central coast ranges.

Lately I've been reading up comparative mythology, and what got me into it was a posting of an article by a Russian mythologist, and the distribution of the "earth diver" motiff within the creation mythos of groups from NA and Eurasia.
In the earth diver creation, after the flood covers the world with water, the creator spirit enlists the help of animals to create land.
The helpers dive into the water and try to bring up some mud with which to make land. They usually fail and die trying, with the least likely candidate finally succeeding.
This motiff is common among native Americans and is prevalent all through central and northern Eurasia.
The yokuts all have similar but slightly different versions.
In an online discussion with a Russian anthropologist, and the with the author of the paper , I learned that , in very generalized terms,
the closer you are to the source area the more diverse the characters in the story
In most versions the helpers are birds, ie eagle, and waterfowl, with an occasional terrestrial animal, coyote for instance, but can also be turtles or arthropods. Arthropods are very popular among Siberian versions.
In the Gashowu yokuts(they lived along the san Joaquin river)
the list of characters is a virtual who's who of wildlife along the river, several types of ducks , otters, beavers,deer and of course eagle and coyote. The farther away from this location you get the simpler the story becomes, so that by the time you get to western Eurasia, there are only two characters, the creator and the helper.
If the mythologists are right, then the story has it's origin in central California

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Thanks a lot this was very cool to look at.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

This clearly displays the evils of the human ego as well as the impermanence of continental civilizations. This land was Native American land for 12,000 years and was still wilderness when we arrived, it's been ours for less than 300 years and look at the destruction we have caused. The question we should be asking ourselves is "how long till we are reduced to history as well?"

The truth of it all is nothing is permanent in this existence, it is ever changing through death and rebirth. This is how The Creator can be known, know your impermanence and use that wisdom to thrive to know your Self and assuredly you will stumble across the meaning of this existence as well as the meaning of your own immortality.

Thank you for sharing! S&F

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

The Mississippi Valley Civilization.

originally posted by: Gorman91
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

The Mississippi Valley Civilization.

OK, I think I still need you to further illuminate your remarks
"That depends on what you define as thriving. Many of these tribes were the unwashed barbarians to the pre-columbian societies that dotted north America. If we were to rewind time a few more centuries, you may have viewed these tribes quite negatively."
The Mississippian cultures had achieved a highly stratified society with monumental architecture and all that, but they were not new people. Thriving is a pretty relative term. The upper classes may have 'thrived' pretty nicely on the backs of the common folk that they historically referred to as 'stinkards' (translation, of course). Lots of reasons for the collapse, but it's not as if the people went away. I really don't get your point.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

My point is that to glorify mysticism and dark age ignorance when there's perfectly good examples of civilization.

There is an even Older race of "Asians" on the American continents, prior to the more modern so called "Indian" immigants.

They are related to the Australian early man, who is related to early Homos like Neanderthal/Denisovian/Homo Erectus (early man) etc etc.

The human story sure is a complicated one.

news.bbc.co.uk...

originally posted by: Gorman91
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

My point is that to glorify mysticism and dark age ignorance when there's perfectly good examples of civilization.

The quick answer is that you need to define those terms in the context of the First Nations for me to respond to your statement.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Mississippi Valley for one. There's a few out west that show levels of knowledge comparable to Celts and Egyptians. Civilized folks with society. The real first nations. I can't call a migratory hunter-gatherer group a nation.

a reply to: Gorman91
Taking it back to your original premise, though...

That depends on what you define as thriving. Many of these tribes were the unwashed barbarians to the pre-columbian societies that dotted north America. If we were to rewind time a few more centuries, you may have viewed these tribes quite negatively.

...I think you've fallen victim to an over-romanticised 19th century vision of the First Nations. For starters, the nomadic folk, in my area the Anishnaabe, were hardly a rag-tag lot, bumbling along in search of scraps to eat. They exploited the landscape in a well-defined manner, made their seasonal rounds, and engaged in a continent-wide trade network. Until the Europeans came along, they thrived and had done so for millennia. Incidentally, anthropologists tell us that HG societies spend less hours a day in making a living than we do. Kind of ironic when you figure most of us have to work 50 weeks in order to take time for some hunting, fishing, camping...whatever.

Those 'civilisations' you speak of collapsed, likely under their own weight, and I'd venture to guess that is was only the power elite that thrived. The rest had to provide food or build that monumental architecture. They were known to their masters by a word that has been translated to 'stinkards'.

Barbarian is an awfully subjective term. I'm not one to emulate the First Peoples...but I respect their achievements upon the land.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Society creates elites no matter where you are. That is the natural order. But you can't go to the moon or harvest the atom with what the non-civilized natives did. They may have led happy lives with little work, but they left little behind, and few go to their sites when there's large brick pyramids to the south that are cooler and richer in culture and history.

This view is romanticized. That doesn't mean it's wrong.

a reply to: Gorman91
The notion that elites are an automatic cosequemce of society is not correct at all.
With respect to the mound builders, an elite class doesnr show up until fairly late, around 500ad , and then it's is likely they were foreigners from Mexico.
In Europe am elite class doesn't show up until the lbk people essentially replace the previous people.
In most native California tribes there was no chief, everyone in the band had equal standing.

originally posted by: Gorman91
They may have led happy lives with little work, but they left little behind, and few go to their sites when there's large brick pyramids to the south that are cooler and richer in culture and history.

Spoken as a tourist. I am currently organising a field trip to a dramatic set of petroglyphs, that even today are regarded as sacred, as is the land that surrounds them. These people have been here over 10,000 years. They didn't invent the wheel...but they thrived (throve?), and that is the essence of your original objection.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Johnny ,
Thats is awesome.
May I ask where these petroglyphs are located.
My interest lies in the fact that only a few groups made petroglyphs, and they seem to be related.

a reply to: punkinworks10
These are associated with the Anishnaabe peoples. Check yer mailbox.
JC

All you have to do is go to the Smithsonian Native American History Museum in D.C., they have a map that blows this out of the water. Hundreds, literally hundreds of tribes occupied every last book and cranny of this country before genocide was foisted upon,them.