NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. The name of Indians was applied to the indigenous inhabitants of America on the first discovery of that continent, on the supposition that it formed a part of Asia, and the name has been retained ever since. By the great majorityof those of South America considerable progress in civilisation had been made at the time of the discovery, as is proved by our knowledge of the kingdoms of Peru, Quito, and, farther north, Mexico, and vestiges of this civilisation have been even preserved. A further portion was reduced to a state of semi. civilisation by the exertions of the Roman Catholic missionaries, and their influence is still visible in Paraguay and other places. Still there are a few tribes, as the Abipones in Paraguay [ABIPONIAN8, in GEM Div.], the Guarinis in Brazil, and a few others, which maintain a species of independence by living apart from the more civilised portion. But in North America, though pressed on all sides by the rapid increase of the immigrant European population, dispossessed of theemoet fertile parts of their territories, and vastly reduced in numbers by successive wars and the introduction of European diseases and vices, they ]Lave, with few exceptions, refused to amalgamate, or accept the opportunities of improving their position, but maintain their savage tastes, manners, and customs, with a precarious independence, depending on their withdrawal to still wilder regions as civilised man advances on their position. Their numbers now are not estimated at more than 1,500,000 in the whole ; they are scattered over a vast region, and they consist of a great variety of nations, as they term themselves, from the fact of their speaking a variety of languages, said to be full 500 in number, though certainly many roots arc common to most of them.
George Catlin, in his ' Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians,' London,1841, &aye that there is no idolatry found amongst them ; all worship or acknowledge one Great Spirit, and know nothing of any intermediator. The Mandans he thinks the relics of the mythic Welsh expedition of Madoc. They
have little government, though each tribe has a chief. The chief, however, has little real authority, and is in fact only a leader in war. They have no established laws beyond the few penalties established by custom, and their punishments when inflicted are cruel. War is decided on by the chiefs in council ; the chief's pipe, coloured red, is sent through the country by messengers, and every volunteer draws the smoke once through its stem, and thus pledges himself to serve : but he is still a volunteer, and is only 'restrained by pride, or the shame of retreat, or by feeling an immediate interest In the contest, from quitting the chief whenever he chooses. Ile adds that little progress has been mule in mechanical arts, and the figures cut on rocks or in turf show but little skill in design.
The physical character and appearance of these natives has been given in the Man of AMERicA, in the 0E00. DIV., col. 294; but we may Add that on the whole they do not exceed the average stature of Europeans, but in seine tribes the men exceed six feet in height; that they are more formed for fleetness than for strength ; that they have the virtues and vices of most savage tribes, hospitality and protection to strangers who trust them, revenge against enemies, want of prudence, and intemperance. Names are given to about 120 tribes or nations, most of them speaking a language different from the rest, though some of them now number but a few scores, and many but a few hundreds. We shall only notice a few of the more important of these tribes, taking them alphabetically, in accordance with our general arrangement.
Algonquin*. (ALGONQUINO, in GEO°. Dry.) Arapaheu, a small tribe of about 4000 souls, inhabiting the plains of the river Platte, at enmity with the Crows.
Araphoes are neighbours of the Camanches, inhabiting the Rocky mountains, with Santa F6 on the south and the coast of California on the west. They, with the Navalioes, who inhabit nearly the same districts, have much harassed the American settlers in California.