Aricaras, or Rikarees, dwell on the plains of the Upper Missouri, between 46° and 47' N. lat. They are skilful horsemen, were allied with the Mandans and Minatarees, and hostile to the Sioux, which are the neighbouring tribes. Their habitations are formed, in a conical shape, of wooden frames interlaced with osiers ; and they amount to about 3000.
Assinaboins, or stone-boilers, so called because they cook their food by inserting hot stones successively in a pit filled with water till the water boils. They inhabit the plains along the base of the Rocky Mountains, around the upper part of the Missouri, at its junction with the Yellow-sand river. Their number is supposed not to exceed 7000. They are horsemen, and use the gun with effect; they are a branch of the Sioux, and are usually allied with the Crees and the Ojibbeways, and at variance with the Blackfcet.
The Bearer Indians, of whom little is known, dwell about the forks of the Mackenzie river, west of Bear Lake. Their district is a wide one. With the Hare Indians and Lottcheux, who extend along the same river to the north, it reaches from about 61' to 70° N. lat., where they are bounded by the Esquimaux. Their numbers are unknown.
The Blackfcet is one of the most powerful tribes of the Rocky mountains ; it includes several minor tribes, as the Blood Indians, the Surcees, Grosventres, Cotonnois, &c., and their numbers are estimated at 20,000. Wilks (` Narrative of the United States Exploring Expe dition, 1S38 to 1842') thinks the number exaggerated ; but Catlin, who was among them, estimates the number, including all the sub-tribes (which, however, he thinks are improperly classed as Illackfect), at 23,000. The Blackfeet proper inhabit the district around the sources of the Missouri, but the Blood Indians extend to the roots of the Rocky Mountains on the west. The Blackfect are of middle stature and robust make ; are good horsemen, brave, and almost continually at war with one or other of the surrounding tribes.
Bonacks, or Bannacks, are widely scattered around the Snake river, and are neighbours and foes of the Blackfeet. Their numbers are small, but they are brave and enterprising, and accustomed to the use of fire-arms.
Camanchees, with the Pawnee Picts and a few minor tribes, such as the Kioways and Wicos, occupy a great portion of Texas about the Washita river, and the head waters Rio del Norte and the Arkansas river, the Pawnees extending to northern California. They amount together to about 19,000 smile, have large numbers of horses, are daring and expert riders, but, unlike most of the tribes, are not active on their feet. The women cultivate maize and a few other vegetables; the men are all warriors, and have maintained many contests with the American settlers. The Kioways are said to be a handsomer race than the Camanchees, and to speak a different language, but they are closely allied in manners.
Cherokees. [thisitoeres, in GEO°. Dry.] Chinooks is apparently a general name for a number of tribes that inhabit British Columbia, in the neighbourhood of the Oregon. They are short, bow-legged, with wedge-like heads, produced by compres sing the skulls of ther infants, high cheek-bones, long hair, aquiline noses, and of a light copper-colour. They live chiefly on fish. The Chilleoatans are found about Fraser's river. Other sub-tribes are the Callapayas, Cathlainales, Clatsops, Klackatacks, Wahkiacuma, and Wellawallas, the whole amounting to between 3000 and 4000. They live principally by fishing, the salmon caught in the Columbia river forming the chief part of their food. This they prepare by pounding the salmon, pressing the flesh between mats, and drying it, in which state it will keep good for three or four years.
The at icksaus and Choctaws were located in Mississippi, and numbered about 10,000 souls, but they have been transferred by the United States government to the district west of the Mississippi, where they now remain, reduced in number.
Cheyennes number about 2000 ; they are a branch of the Shaways, and were originally located in Wisconsin, whence they were driven by the Sioux, and now dwell about the Cheyenne river, towards the sources of the Upper Missouri. They are a tall and handsome race, possess
many horses, and the women raise some corn and other vegetables, Crees and Chippcicays constitute at present one of the most numerous and most widely extended of the aboriginal nations which inhabit the interior of North America, amounting to upwards of 10,000. The Crece, formerly called by the French Knistineaux, inhabit the shores of Hudson's Bay from Moose river, which falls into the south-western corner of James Bay, to the mouth of Churchill river (about N. lat.), and hence they extend westward to the Athabasca lake, and to the plains which lie betwixt the forks of the Saskatchewan, near Carlton House. They do not extend to the Rocky Mountains, the plains lying along the base of this range being in possession of a branch of the Assineboin Indians, who are of the Sioux stock, and speak the language of the Iroquois or Hurons. The Chippeways inhabit the country about Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. But it seems that many other tribes belong to the same stock as the Crees; for all the nations which are within the limits of the United States north of the Ohio and cast of the Mississippi speak languages which may be con sidered only as dialects of that spoken by the Crees and Chippeways. [Ar.coNout xs, in GEOG. Dry.] (See 'Sir G. Simpson and North American Indians,' Kane.) The Lennapi, one of these tribes, have a tradition amongst them, that "their ancestors, coming from the westward, took possession of the whole country from the Missouri to the Atlantic, after driving away or destroying the original inhabitants of the land, whom they termed Alligewi. In this migration and contest, which endured for a series of years, the Mengwe or Iroquois kept pace with them, moving in a parallel but more northern line, and finally settling on the banks of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes from whence it flows." (Richardson in Franklin's First Journey.') The Crees, like the other tribes of North America, live upon the produce of the chase and the fisheries in the numerous lakes and rivers by which their country is watered. No kind of agriculture has been introduced among them, as among those tribes that inhabit the southern portions of the United States. This is chiefly to be ascribed to the general sterility of the countries which they inhabit, and partly to the rigour of the climate. Even in the European settlements no attempt to sow and plant has been made north of Carlton House, on the Saskatchewan, and at the latter place only on a small scale. The hardships to which their manner of life frequently exposes them, and the want of food for some weeks together, sometimes compel them to commit cannibalism ; and Captain Back relates instances of this, and others of their abandoning the old and infirm. Instances of this kind are on record, even of parents having fed on their own children ; but these extreme cases are of rare occurrence. They commonly evince a strong affection for their off spring, and bewail for a length of time the loss of their relations. Europeans are very little acquainted with the language of the Crees. M'Keevor has added a short vocabulary to his voyage. Dr. Richardson collected a copious and valuable vocabulary, which is still unpublished. Mr. J. Howse of Cirencester, who was in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company for twenty years, has prepared. under the sanction of the London Geographical Society, a grammar of the Cree language. (Back's ' Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition,' in 1833, 1834, and 1835.) Creeks were, at the beginning of the present century, one of the most powerful native tribes within the limits of the United States of America. They occupied nearly all the countries lying north of 31° N. lat., between the Flint river, the eastern branch of the Chatahoochee, and the Tombidgee or western branch of the Mobile river, and numbered nearly 21,000 souls. Their wars with the United States were uniformly unsuccessful, and they have now been, together with the Cherokees and Choctaws, transported to a district west of the Missis sippi, a large tract of country having been ceded to them by the United States.