Native American culture areas

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: Ecological conditions determined tribal methods of material subsistence (food supply, type of shelter) as well as their main cultural patterns

No single method of assigning cultural boundaries between different groupings of Native Americans is fully adequate. Persuasive arguments exist for groupings that place primary emphasis, for example, on the most important language groupings (Algonquian, Athapaskan, Siouan, Tanoan, Muskogean, Caddoan, and Shoshonean). Because Native American groupings have undergone a series of displacements from region to region, however, their linguistic origins overlap, a situation which results in an equal amount of overlap in generalizations concerning original cultural traits.

Another mode of assigning culture areas draws on basic forms of technology—specifically on methods of producing household wares such as pottery and basketry. Here again one encounters a phenomenon of cultural overlap because of patterns of borrowing between tribal groupings.

To some degree, essential social indicators of culture can be transferred over time and space, making it difficult to draw boundaries between peoples of clearly distinct traditions. Such sociocultural factors include assignment of leadership, matriarchal versus patriarchal systems, degrees of formalization of kinship ties, and marriage patterns.

Considerations such as these make a division based on geographical/ecological factors the most manageable and, indeed, the most commonly adopted one in the general literature. Such a comparison of Indian culture areas necessarily involves discussion of material and cultural questions shared by all human societies. Among these cultural differences are food subsistence, lodging construction, common artifacts, group organization, and spiritual expression. Each of these elements of Indian life was influenced by the environmental conditions that existed in relatively distinct geographical zones.

Arctic and Subarctic

The northern continental zone running from the Arctic north to British Columbia and eastward to Hudson Bay, while not one culture area, was characterized by a common practice: Natives survived primarily by hunting and fishing. Because the northern Arctic zone is frozen most of the year, Eskimo populations that specialized in sea mammal hunting (especially the Aleuts) stayed isolated in areas where access to prey was assured. Central Inuit hunters in the interior of Alaska and the MacKenzie Territory, where kayak transportation was limited to a short summer season, reached their prey (usually caribou and moose) on toboggans or snowshoes.

Both Central Inuit and Athapaskan-speaking Dene peoples inhabited the less bountiful Subarctic culture area that forms the interior land mass of northern Canada. Because of the limited density of animal populations, Subarctic hunters relied extensively on trapping devices spread over a vast network, according to the season. Limited food sources limited human population patterns as well, especially deep in the interior. Frequent displacement for subsistence meant that Subarctic tribes maintained semipermanent camps rather than substantial villages.

Like their Eskimo neighbors farther north, Subarctic Indians maintained a network of customs in common that, in good times, helped celebrate nature’s bounty. One tribal meeting was the “potlatch,” when food-gathering tasks were temporarily suspended and groups from afar could share shelter, gifts, and storytelling, either with distant kin or “friendly” neighbors.

Religious traditions in these northern areas were usually based on a belief in spiritual forces coming both from the sky and the earth, including living spirits in the form of animals or one’s deceased kin.

Northwest Coast and Plateau

Indians in these areas lived more easily off nature’s bounty, partially because the climate was less harsh, facilitating seasonal hunting of deer and bears. Abundant sealife near the coast of Washington and Oregon and easy hunting grounds inland made Northwest Indians such as the Wakashan and Chinook relatively “wealthy,” in terms of both subsistence and displays of their “good fortune.”

The Kwakiutl of the Wakashan showed their wealth through large houses of split logs. Their clothing and bodies were decorated with copper and ornate shell jewelry. Frequent public potlatches to commemorate social advancement (such as passage rites for youths and marriages) were paid for by the wealthiest families to attain recognition.

Farther inland was the Plateau, inhabited by tribes of two main linguistic groups: the Sahaptin (including Walla Walla and Nez Perce) and the Salish (Flathead and Wenatchi). In this region, freshwater salmon fishing could be combined with hunting. Plateau river communication networks were less extensive than those of the Northwest, limiting the scope of interaction, even between clans of similar tribal origin. When horses were introduced from the Great Basin Shoshones, some tribes moved seasonally over the mountains into Idaho to hunt bison. Such groups abandoned their traditional pit house structures for portable hide-covered tipis.

California

The Western coast and inland area farther south were more diversified in language groupings, which broke down into the main Penutian language family and Hokan language family (the former including Klamath-Modoc, Miwok, and Central Valley Yokut and Maidu; the latter including Washoe and Yana in the north and in the central eastern zone near Nevada).

Three cultural zones corresponded primarily to ecological subregions. In the northwest corner, dense forests, rugged topography, and the absence of a coastal plain set off isolated (both linguistically and culturally) inhabitants from the fertile core of Penutian-Hokan groups around San Francisco Bay and in the much milder ecological zone of the Central Valley. In this core zone, economic patterns, based on hunting, fishing, and the gathering of available vegetal food sources (including a universal staple, acorn meal), tended to lend similarities to tribal social and cultural patterns. One similarity was the relative lack of formal institutional structures defining tribal organization and authority. Chiefs tended to be heads of the most numerous family among a multitude of generally equal family subdivisions of each clan. One of two main forms of lodging predominated: either the “house pit” scraped out of rolling knolls, or the wickiup, a bark-thatched covering stretched around portable poles. Central California tribes were highly skilled in basketweaving, some (mainly Pomos and Patwins) producing wares sufficiently tightly woven to serve as water containers.

South of the Central Valley, increasing aridity affected not only food-gathering conditions; basic technology (reflected in lodgings and artisanal production, including modes of dress) never attained levels that could be compared with tribes in the central region. Notable degrees of west-east interaction occurred, particularly between the Luiseños of present-day San Diego and Riverside counties (themselves of Shoshone stock) and Nevadan tribes. These contacts were reflected not only in trade of goods, but also in some shared cultural values that set the inland (less than the coastal) southern zone off from the relatively more developed Central Valley region.

Southwest

Beyond California was the inland cultural area of the Southwest. Despite the ecological austerity of these vast expanses, nearly all Indians in the Southwest culture area practiced some form of agriculture, supplemented by seasonally available wild plant foods. Most also developed technologically advanced cultures, as judged from the remains of their lodging and ceremonial sites (particularly the pueblos) and various artifacts, especially pottery and weaving.

Among the several Indian subgroupings in the Southwest are the Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni. Their life patterns, although not identical, exemplify the main lines of Southwest Indian culture. Characteristically, Indian villages in the Southwest were constructed in the compact stone and adobe pueblo form, usually located on higher ground or on mesas for purposes of defense. The limited circumstances of dry farming often meant that plantations were located some distance from the pueblo.

In addition to being a dwelling and defense unit, the pueblo was a microcosm for both political and religious life. Particularly among the Eastern Pueblos, different responsibilities, from practical work tasks to ceremonial leadership, were traditionally divided between two fully cooperative factions. Living in different sections of the village, each faction maintained a kiva, or religiously designated meeting place for its elders, and ceremonial dance (kachina) groups, or medicine men, organized in societies. When a particular “season” for representation of the pueblo’s ceremonial, political, or administrative needs was recognized, all loyalty was due to the kiva of the designated faction, while others rested from their responsibilities.

Southwest Indian religion and ceremonies were frequently tied to the concept of an “earth mother navel” shrine located in a sacred place within each pueblo. Around this ultimate source of bounty for the members of each tight-knit pueblo community were arranged the symbols of life (seeds and their products). Such symbols, plus other symbols of nature (especially rain) were incorporated into each pueblo’s ceremonial dances, according to the season.

Great Basin

In the area wedged between California and the Plateau to the west, and the Southwest and Great Plains to the east, Indian cultures tended to be rather dispersed. Areas of habitation remained highly dependent on the availability of water and vegetation to sustain limited village life. Although broad tribal groupings existed (including Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone), the main activities of Indian life, from food gathering through marital, social, and political alliances, tended to be conducted in smaller bands. Contacts between subtribal bands (the Ute, on both the Colorado and Utah sides of the Rockies, counted some dozen territorial bands) could be only periodic. This rather lower level of tribal cohesiveness relative to Plateau and Southwest Indians, for example, allowed quarreling families from one band to “transfer” over to a band to which they were not tied by kinship; even lines between the tribes (Ute and Paiute, for example) were not that definitely drawn.

Some shared features of cultural existence within and between tribes in the Great Basin culture area countered this general trend. Although religious consciousness among Great Basin Indians never attained a high degree of ceremonial sophistication, certain symbolic rites, among them the Sun Dance, provided a common cultural symbol in most regions.

Plains

It was among the Plains Indians that the most dramatic subsistence struggle was played out, by tribes such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Comanche. Acquisition of the horse from the Spanish after about 1600 transformed the subsistence potential of the Plains, which became the buffalo-hunting domains of competing Indian tribes. Pursuit of the great native herds of buffalo on horseback, beginning in the 1600’s, created a situation of Indian nomadism on the Plains. Buffalo hunting affected not only food supply, but also provided raw material for the organization of Plains tribes’ movable lodgings and the production of multiple lightweight artifacts. The high degree of mobility of Plains Indians also contributed to another key cultural trait: their tendency to war with rivals over hunting access.

Among the Sioux, the Lakota were drawn into the Plains from the Eastern Prairie region after becoming expert horsemen, well before the French entered the upper Mississippi Valley. Soon their nomadic way of life on the Plains allowed them to subjugate sedentary groupings such as the Arikara and Mandan, who were forced to trade their agricultural goods with the Lakota. The characteristic warring urge of such Plains nomads resulted in serious intertribal disputes, the best known resulting in the reduction and forced relocation of the Pawnees after multiple encounters with representatives of the Sioux Nation.

The simplicity of the material culture of the Plains Indians was to some degree offset by the complexity of some of their social and cultural patterns. A number of honorary societies, ranging from warrior groups through “headmen” societies (elders who had distinguished themselves earlier as warriors or leaders), provided means for identifying individuals of importance emerging from each family or clan within the tribe. Recognition was also given, among the women, to highly skillful beadworkers, who defined qualification for entry into their “guild” and excluded inferior workmanship from being used in ritual ceremonies.

Another specialized subgrouping, particularly among the Dakota peoples, was the Heyoka, consisting of people who were recognized as possessing some form of supernatural or visionary power. Although not specifically connected to Plains religious beliefs (frequently associated with Sun Dance ceremonies and related celebrations of thanks for bounty, physical endurance, and interclan alliances), Heyoka status implied the ability to communicate with spirits, either good or evil. In some Siouan tribes, such as the Omaha, Heyoka societies were evenly divided into specialized branches, the most notable being one reserved specifically for individuals presumed to have the power to cure diseases.

Northeast and Southeast

In the eastern third of the continent, a higher degree of sedentariness among various tribes prevailed, although this did not necessarily mean that agriculture was more developed. Plantations for food tended to be scattered in the heavily wooded Northeast, with hunting and trapping at least as important in most tribal economies. Another product of the forest, the paperlike bark of the birch tree, served multiple purposes, ranging from tipi-building material to the famous birchbark canoes used to fish or to travel through the extensive river and stream systems of the region.

In general, social organization among the tribes of the Northeast culture area bore two major characteristics. Groups that were known as hunters (such as the Micmacs of New Brunswick and Maine) lived as nuclear families, paramount status being reserved for the hunter-head of closely related kin. Lodgings might be limited to a single family (typically a tipi) or a grouping of families under the single roof of an extended longhouse. In most cases, ascription of chieftainship was determined by a hierarchy that also depended on hunting skills.

A second characteristic of Northeast Woodlands Indian life revolved around political confederations involving several tribes. The best known of these was the Iroquois “Five Nations,” but other groups, including the Algonquins and Hurons, formed federations for mutual security against common enemies.

Although the Southeast region of the United States can, like the Northeast, be described as heavily wooded, offering a combination of possibilities for hunting and agriculture, the Indian cultures of this area were substantially different. Some experts argue that there was less communality in cultural development in the Southeast culture area, making distinctions, for example, between peoples who were clearly reliant on the ecology of the first “layer” of the broad coastal plain (called the “Flatwoods,” blanketed by conifers and scrub oaks); those inhabiting the so-called Piedmont (further inland, with higher elevations and differing vegetation patterns); and those living in the Appalachian woodlands, with their extensive hardwood forests.

Some experts, noting communality in traits (such as a horticultural maize economy, nucleated villages, and matrilineal clan organization) between key Southeastern tribes such as the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Natchez, and the Iroquois, found farther north, assign a southeastern origin to the Iroquois. A substantial number of differences marked by cultural specialists, however, suggest closer ties between coastal and inland dwellers in the Southeast (especially in linguistic links) than between Southeast Indians as a whole and any of their Northeast neighbors. A series of lesser, but culturally significant, traits justify treating Southeast Indians as a largely homogeneous entity, including modes of processing staple nuts, especially acorns; rectangular, gabled houses with mud wattle covering; an absence of leather footwear; characteristic nested twilled baskets; and varied use of tobacco.

Even among key Southeast tribes, however, parallel traditions (such as matrilineal kinship descent) could be offset by striking differences. The Natchez tribe alone, for example, had a class system dividing tribal nobles (deemed descendants of the Sun), from whom the chief, or “Great Sun” was chosen, and commoners, who could not even enter the presence of tribal aristocrats.

Bibliography

Catlin, George. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of North American Indians. New York: 1841. A recognized classic, including personal observations of Indian ceremonial practices and daily life. Some editions include extremely valuable illustrations, which have gained international fame.

Driver, Harold E. Indians of North America. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. A widely cited textbook organized by subject area (for example, “Rank and Social Class,” “Exchange and Trade”) rather than geographical location.

Kehoe, Alice B. North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1992. Like the Spencer and Jennings book (below), this textbook is divided by geographical region. Less detailed on local conditions of life, it contains useful summary texts within each chapter and a number of translations of original Indian texts.

Ross, Thomas E., and Tyrel Moore, eds. A Cultural Geography of North American Indians. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987. Contains contributions by specialists dealing with several different geographical themes relating to culture, including “Spatial Awareness,” “Land Ownership,” and “Migration.”

Spencer, Robert, Jesse D. Jennings, et al. The Native Americans. 2d ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. A very detailed text. Attention is given to diverse patterns of local division of labor, kinship, rites of passage, and so on.

Sturtevant, William, gen. ed. Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978-. The Smithsonian series is a projected twenty-volume set, with a volume either published or planned for each of the culture areas. The scholarship and coverage are both first rate. The set was initiated in 1978 with the volume on the Northeast, edited by Bruce Trigger, and nine volumes had been published by 1994.