Tag Archives: first nation/indigenous peoples’ history

“Pontiac’s Rebellion: (1763-66), Indian uprising against the British, named after one of its leaders, Ottawa chief Pontiac. After the French and Indian War, the tribes north of the Ohio River, finding the British victors less generous than the French and unprotective of Indian lands, resolved upon war. Detroit and Fort Pitt withstood sieges in 1763, but the Indians captured many other British posts and spread terror along the Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland frontiers. In 1764 the British subdued the Shawnees and the Delawares in Pennsylvania. Lacking allies, Pontiac submitted in 1766 and was pardoned.”

Excerpted from: Rosenbaum, Robert A. The Penguin Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Penguin, 2003.

“Cree: One of the major Algonquian-speaking Indian peoples of an immense area from Western Connecticut to Eastern Alberta. They acquired firearms and engaged in the fur trade with Europeans beginning in the 17th century. There were two major divisions: the Woodland Cree, whose culture was essentially an Eastern Woodlands type, and the Plains Cree, bison hunters of the Northern Great Plains. Social organization in both groups was based on local bands. Among the Woodland Cree, rituals and taboos relating to the spirits of game animals were pervasive, as was fear of witchcraft. Among the more militant Plains Cree, rites intended to foster success in the bison hunt and warfare were common. Today over 100,000 Cree live in scattered communities in Canada.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

“The Coushattas (pronounced coo-SHAH-tuh), or Koasatis, lived in what is now the state of Alabama, especially where the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers merge to form the Alabama River. They were a Muskogean-speaking people and were closely related to the Creek tribe in history, language, and culture. The Coushattas lived near another Muskogean people, the Alabamas. Both Coushattas and Alabamas were part of the Creek Confederacy. The Coushattas, village farmers, are classified, along with these other tribes, in the Southeast Culture Area.

It is thought that the Coushattas had contact with the Spanish expedition of 1539-43 led by Hernando de Soto, and, after De Soto’s death, led by Moscoso de Alvaro. Other Spanish explorers passed through their territories in the 1500s and 1600s.

In the 1700s, after Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle’s 1682 voyage of exploration along the lower Mississippi River, the French became established in the region, founding the settlement of Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico in 1710. They became allies and trading partners with many of the Muskogean tribes of the region. Meanwhile, the English were pushing inland from the Atlantic Coast and developing relations with the Creeks living to the east of the Coushattas.

When the French were forced to give up their holdings in 1763 after they lost the French and Indian War against the British, most of the Coushattas dispersed. Some moved to Louisiana. Others joined the Seminoles in Florida, Others went to Texas.

Those that stayed in Alabama threw their lot in with the Creeks and were relocated west of the Mississippi to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) at the time of the Trail of Tears in the 1830s; their descendants still live there today. Descendants of those Coushattas who moved to Louisiana presently have a non-reservation community near the town of Kinder, as well as a recently purchased 15-acre reservation. Those in Texas were granted reservation lands in Polk County along with the Alabamas.

Excerpted from: Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York: Facts on File, 1988.