While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
A large family of North American Indians, embracing the Assiniboine or Stone
Sioux, the Dakotas proper, or, as they are called by the Algonkin, Nadowesioux,
from which is derived the word Sioux; Omaha, Otoe, Osage, Ponca, Iowa, Kansas,
Missouria, Minataree, and Crows. Until quite recently they occupied the larger
portion of the country bounded on the, east by the great lakes, on the north by
the British Possessions, on the west by the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by
the Platte River. According to their traditions they came eastward from the
Pacific, and encountered the Algonkin about the headwaters of the Mississippi,
where the mass of them were held in check. One of the tribes of this great
family, called by the Chippewa Winnebagook (men from the fetid or salt water),
pushed through their enemies and secured a foothold on the shores of Lake
Michigan. The Quapaw, called by their Algonkin foes the Alkansas or Arkansas,
settled on the Ohio, but were ultimately driven down the river by the Illinois
to the region now bearing their name. A few of the tribes retain very nearly
their original hunting-grounds; the principal migrations of those who have moved
having been southwest-wardly, from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the
Missouri.
In 1875 the Indians of this family residing within the limits of the United
States numbered nearly 68,000, with about 1,000 more within the British
Possessions. If the estimates of early explorers are to be relied upon, they
must have lost heavily in population within the last one hundred years intestine
wars, the aggressions of the whites, and the vices of civilization reducing many
once powerful tribes to demoralized remnants that are fast fading out of our
knowledge by absorption into the ranks of more powerful neighbors. The majority
of the tribes of this family are settled on reservations under the direct care
and support of the Government, and are fairly on the road to a civilized future.
The exceptions are some of the wild bands of the Sioux, the Minataree or Gros
Ventre, and the Crows. At the present writing most of the first-named are at war
with the United States forces, while the two latter are friendly.
Descriptive Catalogue, Photographs Of North American Indians. United States Geological Survey
of the Territories, 1877 by W. H. Jackson, Photographer of the Survey,
F. V. Hayden, U. S. Geologist.
