Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
The term Digger Indians has been given to various tribes conquered and
driven from their fishing and hunting grounds. They live almost wholly
upon roots of weeds or the few insects and small animals found in the
plains of eastern Utah and the surrounding country. The stronger tribes
will not let them fish in lake or stream, and their whole life is
miserable.
The Indians of California were originally very brave and warlike, but
the remnants of the tribes are broken in spirit and seem
broken-hearted. Those which have drifted or have been driven by whites
and red men into the peninsula of southern California are much like the
Diggers.
The different tribes and nations scattered over America seemed to have
known much about metals, although they used stone arrow points and
stone axes when the first explorers visited their homes.
The copper mines of Lake Superior show yet where the Indians have mined
in them. Gold and silver ornaments were used in many tribes to decorate
the braves and their squaws. Shells were carved with sharp tools and
used as ornaments, or cut small into wampum.
Arrowheads were of flint or jasper and were made by the arrow makers of
the tribe. It is said each nation had its own shape of arrowhead. Some
preferred very small points; some chose the larger ones.
The early races of white people in all ancient lands used stone for
many purposes. This first period has been called the Stone Age; this
was followed by the Copper Age; then came the Iron Age. The Indians do
not seem to have used iron before white men came, and were living in
what history would call the Stone Age.
THE INDIANS WHO LIVE IN BRICK HOUSES
The native Indians of the southwestern part of the United States were
much more civilized when discovered than the wandering tribes in other
parts of the country. They have built adobe houses for many centuries.
These houses of mud, brick, and hewn timbers cannot be removed like the
wigwams, teepees, or wickiups of the other tribes. The Spaniards named
these Indians Pueblos, for pueblo is the Spanish word for village.
There are twenty-seven Pueblo towns.
The Pueblos are a peaceful people. They have had time to invent things
that astonish the white men who have seen only the Indians of the
wandering tribes.
The pueblo of Zuñi is in New Mexico, about two hundred miles southeast
of Santa Fé. This Indian town was sought for by Coronado and his
Spanish soldiers. They had heard marvelous stories of the silver, gold,
and jewels owned by the red people living north of Mexico; but the
Pueblos were brave as well as wise, and the history of that Spanish
expedition is sad reading.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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