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LenapeThe Lenape or Lenni-Lenape (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans) were, in the 1600s, loosely organized bands of Native American people practicing small-scale agriculture to augment a largely mobile hunter-gatherer society in the region around the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River, and western Long Island Sound. The Lenape were the people living in the vicinity of New York Bay and in the Delaware Valley at the time of the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th and 17th century. Their Algonquian language is also known as Lenape or Delaware.
History
Early Lenape society
Although a different order may have prevailed during pre-colonial times, in Colonial times Lenape families (like many other Native American peoples) were organized into clans based on a common female ancestor. Phratries, which were groups of two or more clans, were identified by an animal sign. Three Lenape phratries emerge in the early historical record: Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf. These phratries were not political divisions, but rather 'flavors' of individuals common to all discrete bands of Lenape, which together made up the Lenape 'tribe' -- although the very notion of 'tribe' is misleading, suggesting a uniformity that did not exist.
Early Native American 'tribes' are perhaps better understood as language groups, rather than as 'nations.' A Lenape individual would have identified primarily with his or her immediate family and friends, or village unit; then with surrounding and familiar village units; next with more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect; and ultimately, while often fitfully, with all those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually-comprehensible languages, including the Mohican. Those of a different language stock -- such as the Iroquois (or, in the Lenape language, the Minqua) -- were regarded as foreigners, often, as in the Iroquois' case, with animosity stretching back many generations. (Interestingly, ethnicity itself seems not to have mattered much to the Lenape and many other 'tribes,' as illustrated by archaeological discoveries of Munsee burials that included identifiably ethnic-Iroquois remains carefully interred along with the ethnic-Algonquian Munsee ones. The two groups were bitter enemies since before recorded history, although intermarriage, perhaps through captive-taking, clearly occurred).
Overlaying these relationships was that of the phratry. Phratry membership was matrilineal; that is, a child inherited membership in a phratry from his or her mother. When a Lenape reached adulthood, he or she traditionally married outside of his or her phratry, a practice known by ethnographers as "exogamy", which effectively served to prevent inbreeding even among individuals whose kinship relationship was obscure or unknown.
Early Europeans who first wrote about Native Americans found this type of social organization to be unfamiliar and perplexing. As a result, Europeans often tried to interpret Lenape society through more familiar European arrangements. As a result, the early written records are full of clues about early Lenape society, but were usually written by observers who did not fully understand what they were seeing. For example, a man's closest male ancestor was usually considered to be his uncle (his mother's brother) and not his father, since his father belonged to a different phratry. Such a concept was often unfathomable to early European chroniclers.
Land was assigned to a particular clan for hunting, fishing, and cultivation. Individual private ownership of land was unknown, but rather the land belonged to the clan collectively while they inhabited it (see New Amsterdam for discussion of the Dutch "purchase" of Manhattan). Phratries lived in fixed settlements, using the surrounding areas for communal hunting and planting until the land was exhausted, at which point the group moved on to found a new settlement.
Colonial times
The early interaction between the Lenape and the Dutch was primarily through the fur trade, specifically the exchange of beaver pelts by the Lenape for European-made goods.
According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape's primary crop was maize, which they planted in March after breaking up the soil using metal tools acquired from the Europeans. In May, the Lenape planted kidney beans in the vicinity of the maize plants to serve as props. The summers were devoted to field work and the crops were harvested in August. Most of the field work was carried out by women, with the agricultural work of men limited to clearing the field and breaking the soil.
Hunting was the primary activity in the rest of the year. Dutch settler David de Vries, who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or "Ackingsah-sack," the Hackensack River), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be easily killed. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire.
The quick dependence of the Lenape on European goods, and the need for fur to trade with the Europeans, eventually resulted in a disaster with an overharvesting of the beaver population in the lower Hudson. The fur source thus exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-day Upstate New York. The Lenape population fell into disease and decline. Likewise, the differences in conceptions of property rights between the Europeans and the Lenape resulted in widespread confusion among the Lenape and the loss of their lands. After the Dutch arrival in the 1620s, the Lenape were successfully able to restrict Dutch settlement to present-day Jersey City along the Hudson until the 1660s, when the Dutch finally established a garrison at Fort Bergen, allowing settlement west of the Hudson.
The Treaty of Easton, signed between the Lenape and the English in 1766, removed them westward, out of present-day New York and New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then Ohio and beyond -- although sporadic raids on English settlers continued, staged from far outside the area.
The nineteenth century
The Lenape were the first Native American tribe to enter into a treaty with the future United States government during the American Revolutionary War. The Lenape supplied the Revolutionary army with warriors and scouts in exchange for food supplies and the promise of a role at the head of a future native American state.[http://members.tripod.com/~lenapelady/deltreaty1778.html].
The Lenape were continually crowded out by European settlers and pressured to move in several stages over a period of about 175 years with the main body arriving in the Northeast region Oklahoma in the 1860s. Along the way many smaller groups split off in different directions to settle, to join established communities with other native peoples, or to stay where they were and survive when their brothers and sisters moved on. Consequently today, from New Jersey to Wisconsin to southwest Oklahoma, there are groups which retain a sense of identity with their ancestors that were in the Delaware Valley in the 1600s and with their cousins in the vast Lenape diaspora. The two largest are:
- The Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)
- The Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma)
Most members of the Munsee branch of the Lenape live on three Indian reserves in Western Ontario, Canada, the largest being that at Moraviantown, Ontario where the Turtle clan settled in 1792.
The Oklahoma branches were established in 1867, with the purchase of land by Delawares from the Cherokee nation; two payments totalling $438,000 were made. A court dispute then followed over whether the sale included rights for the Delaware within the Cherokee nation. In 1898 the Curtis Act dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of tribal lands to individual members of tribes. The Lenape fought the act in the courts but lost, the courts ruling that in 1867 they had only purchased rights to the land for their lifetimes. The lands were allotted in 160 acre (650,000 m²) lots in 1907, with any land left over sold to caucasians.
In 1979 the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Delaware living among Cherokee in Oklahoma, and included the Delaware as Cherokee. This decision was finally overturned in 1996. The Cherokee nation then filed suit to overturn the recognition of the Delaware as a tribe.
In 2000 the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma took possesion of 11.5 acres of land in Pennsylvania http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues00/Co09232000/CO_09232000_Land.htm.
Lenape nations today
- in Colorado:
- Delaware Tribe of Colorado
- in Delaware:
- Nanticoke Indian Tribe
- in Kansas:
- Delaware and Ojibwe Tribe
- in New Jersey:
- Nanticoke Lenape Indians
- Ramapough Mountain Indians
- in Ohio:
- Delaware Tribe of Ohio
- in Oklahoma:
- Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)
- Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma)
- in Ontario:
- Moravian of the Thames First Nation
- Delaware of Six Nations (at Six Nations of the Grand River)
- Munsee-Delaware First Nation
- in Pennsylvania:
- Eastern Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania
- Laurel Rige Lenape Tribe
- Lightning Valley Lenape Tribe
Notable Lenape Indians
: - Tamanend -- leader who according to tradition negotiated treaty with William Penn
French and Indian War era:
: - Neolin -- the "Delaware Prophet"
: - Teedyuscung -- "King" of the eastern Delawares
: - Shingas -- Turkey clan war leader
: - Tamaqua -- Turkey clan civil leader, aka "King Beaver"
American Revolution era:
: - White Eyes -- Turtle clan civil leader
: - Killbuck (Gelelemend) -- Turtle clan leader
: - Buckongahelas -- Wolf clan war leader
: - Captain Pipe -- Wolf clan war chief
References to the Lenape in literature
The Delawares feature prominently in The Last of the Mohicans, a novel by James Fenimore Cooper.
The Delawares are the subject of a legend which inspires the Boy Scouts of America honor society known as the Order of the Arrow.
Further reading
- Adams, Richard Calmit, The Delaware Indians, a brief history, Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]
- Burrows, Edward G. and Wallace, Mike, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1989 ISBN 0-19-514049-4 Oxford Univ. Press (1999).
- Jackson, Kenneth T. (editor) The Encyclopedia of New York City ISBN 0-300-05536-6 Yale University Press (1995).
- Kraft, Herbert C., The Lenape: archaeology, history and ethnography, New Jersey Historical Society, (Newark, NJ 1986)
- O'Meara, John, Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, 1996) ISBN 0802006701.
- O'Meara, John, Delaware reference grammar, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, 2006) ISBN 0802043860.
- Weslager, Clinton Alfred, The Delaware Indians: A history, Rutgers University Press, (New Brunswick, NJ 1972).
External links
- [http://www.delawarenation.com Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma)]
- [http://www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us Delaware Tribe of Indians (Bartlesville, OK)]
- [http://www.delawareindian.com Delaware Indians]
- [http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5899151.htm Indian claim tests a family's roots]
- [http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2001/06/26indians.html Indians clash over heritage]
- [http://www.oceancountyhistory.org/Links/Lenape%20Links.htm Short Directory of Lenape Websites]
- [http://www.gilwell.com/lenape/index.htm Lenape/English dictionary]
- [http://www.unalachtigo.us The Unalachtigo Band of NJ]
- [http://lenapenation.org/ Lenape Nation]
- [http://www.lenape.org/ Lenni Lenape Historical Society]
Category:Native American tribes
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Category:First Nations in Ontario
1600s
Events and Trends
- November 5, 1605 - The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British Parliament.
- 1607 - John Smith of Jamestown enters Virginia and meets the princess, Pocahontas.
- September 2, 1609 - Henry Hudson enters New York Bay.
- Galileo popularizes the astronomical use of the telescope.
- Breast baring is a popular fashion amongst the women of England and the Netherlands. [http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040517/breasts.html]
Category:1600s
ko:1600년대
Native Americans in the United States:This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. For broader uses of "Native American" and related terms, see Native Americans.
Native Americans]
Native Americans in the United States (also Indians, American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Original Americans) are those indigenous peoples within the territory that is now encompassed by the continental United States, and their descendants in modern times. This collective term encompasses a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of them still enduring as political communities. A comprehensive tribal list can be found under "Classification of Native Americans."
The U.S. states and several of the inhabited insular areas which do not form part of the continental U.S. territory also contain indigenous groups. These other indigenous peoples in the United States are not generally designated as "Native Americans". This includes groups such as the Alaska Natives (Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, etc.), Native Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Māoli and Kanaka 'Oiwi), and various Pacific Islander peoples such as the Chamorros.
There is some controversy surrounding the names used to describe these peoples. U.S. specific teminology considerations are also covered in the Terminology differences section, below.
Early history
See also: archeology of the Americas, models of migration to the New World, and indigenous people of the Americas for more detailed history and migration theories.
The Bering Strait Land Bridge theory
Based on anthropological and genetic evidence, most scientists believe that most Native Americans descend from people who migrated from Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge between 17,000 and 11,000 years ago, where the Bering Strait is today.
The exact epoch and route is still a matter of controversy.
It should be noted, however, that many Native Americans reject theories of modern anthropology, having their own traditional stories that offer accounts to their origins, which are seen only as folklore by the scientific community.
The primarily Siberian origin is widely regarded as the most likely, consisting of at least three separate migrations from Siberia to the Americas:
- The first wave, during the late Pleistocene, would be the forerunners of the Clovis and Folsom cultures, both hunting the abundant large mammals of the virgin continent. This wave eventually spread over the entire hemisphere, as far south as Tierra del Fuego and is believed to have reached the New World no later than 11,000 years ago.
- The second migration brought the ancestors of the Na-Dene peoples. They lived in Alaska and western Canada, but some migrated as far south as the Pacific Northwestern U.S. and the American Southwest, and would be ancestral to the Dene, Apaches and Navajos. This group is believed to have reached North America between 6,000 to 8,000 years ago.
- The third wave brought the ancestors of the Inuit, Yupik and Aleut peoples. They may have come by sea over the Bering Strait, after the land bridge had disappeared. They are believed to have reached Alaska as late as 3,000 years ago.
In recent years, molecular genetics studies have suggested as many as four distinct migrations from Asia. These studies also provide surprising evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous migrations from Europe, possibly by peoples who had adopted a lifestyle resembling that of Inuits and Yupiks during the last ice age.
While many Native American groups retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle through the time of European occupation of the New World, in some regions, specifically in the Mississippi River valley of the United States, in Mexico, Central America, the Andes of South America, they built advanced civilizations with monumental architecture and large-scale organization into cities and states.
A recent (2004) study has claimed evidence which, if accepted, would extensively revise the timeline of human habitation in the Americas. At the Topper site on the Savannah River near Allendale, South Carolina, a team led by University of South Carolina archaeologist Dr. Albert Goodyear reported recovering what they claimed to be stone tool artifacts from strata considerably below that of Clovis culture remains. Using stratigraphy and charcoal material found with the artifacts, radiocarbon dating performed by the University of California at Irvine Laboratory dated these remains to be at least 50,000 years old. This would indicate the presence of humans well before the termination of the last glaciation. Other archaeologists have disputed the dating methodology employed, and have also questioned whether these "artifacts" are not in fact naturally-formed, rather than of human manufacture. Other recent claims for pre-Clovis artifacts have similarly been made in some South American sites. The notion of pre-Clovis habitation continues to be a subject of scholarly debate, and the issue has not yet been satisfactorily resolved.
Settling down
By 1500 B.C. many tribes had settled into small indigenous communities. In several regions temporary hunter-gatherer settlements were transformed into small permanent or semi-permanent settlements and villages, frequently established in the regions such as river valleys which were conducive to the raising of crops. Several such societies and communities over time intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Examples include those of the Mississippian Culture and the Pueblo peoples (Anasazi). They constructed large and complex earthworks, and were particularly skilled at small stone sculptures and engravings on shell and copper. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern United States by 2500 B.C., based on the domestication of indigenous sunflower, squash and goosefoot. Eventually, in the last eleven hundred years, the Mexican crops of corn and beans were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North American and replaced the indigenous crops.
The large pueblos, or villages, built on top of rocky talleland or mesas of Southwest around A.D. 700, were a complicated aggregate of family apartments. Towns were one large complex of buildings, with multistoried houses arranged around courtyards or plazas. Wooden ladders provided access to upper levels. Under the courtyards, subterranean kivas, or ceremonial structures, served as meeting rooms for religious societies.
While exhibiting widely divergent social, cultural, and artistic expressions, all Native American groups worked with materials available to them and employed social arrangements that augmented their means of subsistence and survival.
European colonization
Initial impacts
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were ravaged, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first Native American group encountered by Christopher Columbus, the 250,000 Island Arawaks more properly called Taino of Haiti Quiskaya, Cubanacan (Cuba) and Boriquen as Puerto Rico were known then, were enslaved. It is said that only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was considered extinct before 1650. Yet DNA studies show that the genetic contribution of the Taino to that region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to show relationships to the Northern Indigenous Nations, such as Inuit (Eskimo) and others.
In the 15th century Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses, were game for early hunters, and went extinct about 9000 years ago, just after the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game.
Europeans also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Chicken pox and measles, though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to Native Americans, and more dangerous diseases such as smallpox were especially deadly to Native American populations. It is difficult to estimate the total percentage of the Native American population killed by these diseases. Epidemics often immediately followed European exploration, sometimes destroying entire villages. Some historians estimate that up to 80% of some Native populations may have died due to European diseases. For more information, see population history of American indigenous peoples.
Early relations
During the Seven Years' War many Native Americans sided with France although some did fight alongside the British.
During the American War of Independence, the newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, hoping to use the war to halt colonial expansion onto American Indian land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. Cherokees split into a neutral (or pro-American) faction and the anti-American Chickamaugas, led by Dragging Canoe. Many other communities were similarly divided.
Frontier warfare during the American Revolution was particularly brutal, and numerous atrocities were committed on both sides. Noncombatants of both races suffered greatly during the war, and villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize Iroquois raids in upstate New York. The expedition failed to have the desired effect: American Indian activity became even more determined.
Native Americans were stunned to learn that when the British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), the British had ceded a vast amount of American Indian territory to the United States without even informing their Indian allies. The United States initially treated the American Indians who had fought with the British as a conquered people who had lost their land. When this proved impossible to enforce (the Indians had lost the war on paper, not on the battlefield), the policy was abandoned. The United States was eager to expand, and the national government initially sought to do so only by purchasing Native American land in treaties. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy.
Removal and reservations
Treaty of Paris (1783)
In the 19th century, the incessant Westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, sometimes by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Indian land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 American Indians eventually relocated in the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Indians did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on American Indian leaders to sign removal treaties. Arguably the most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy was the Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokees, but not the elected leadership. The treaty was brutally enforced by President Martin Van Buren, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees (mostly from disease) on the Trail of Tears.
Conflicts generally known as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. Authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. Well-known military engagements include the Native American victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. On January 31, 1876 the United States government ordered all remaining Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This, together with the near-extinction of the American Bison which many tribes had lived on, set about the downturn of Prairie Culture that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.
Prairie Culture
American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late nineteenth century reformers in efforts to "civilize" Indians adapted the practice of educating native children in Indian Boarding Schools. These schools, which were primarily run by Christians [http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=2616&id=7375], proved traumatic to Indian children, who were forbidden to speak their native languages, taught Christianity instead of their native religions and in numerous other ways forced to abandon their Indian identity[http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/native/day2_main.html] and adopt European-American culture. There are also many documented cases of sexual, physical and mental abuses occurring at these schools [http://www.prsp.bc.ca/history.html] [http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/soulwound.html].
Current status
There are 563 Federally recognized tribal governments in the United States. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to form their own government; to enforce laws, both civil and criminal; to tax; to establish membership; to license and regulate activities; to zone; and to exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money. [http://usinfo.state.gov/eur/Archive/2005/Jan/28-691277.html]
In addition, there are a number of tribes that are recognized by individual states, but not by the federal government. The rights and benefits associated with state recognition vary from state to state.
Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, outlawing of native languages and culture, termination policies of the 1950s, and 1960s, and slavery have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and physical health. Contemporary health problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, diabetes, and New World Syndrome.
As recently as the 1970s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was still actively pursuing a policy of "assimilation" [http://www.doiu.nbc.gov/orientation/bia2.cfm], the goal of which was to eliminate the reservations and steer Indians into mainstream U.S. culture. As of 2004, there are still claims of theft of Indian land for the coal and uranium it contains. [http://www.angelfire.com/band/senaaeurope/DRelocation.html]
[http://www.shundahai.org/bigmtbackground.html] [http://lists.wayne.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9703&L=tamha&F=&S=&P=7661]
[http://www.davidicke.net/emagazine/vol26/articles/tearsd.html]
In the state of Virginia, Native Americans face a unique problem. Virginia has no federally recognized tribes, largely due to the work of one man, Walter Ashby Plecker. In 1912, Plecker became the first registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving until 1946. An avowed white supremacist and fervent advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" with its African American population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly recognized only two races, "white" and "colored". Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored", leading to massive destruction of records on the state's Native American community.
African American
Even after his death, Plecker still haunts the state's Native American community. In order to receive federal recognition and the benefits it confers, tribes must prove their continuous existence since 1900. Plecker's policies have made it impossible for Virginia tribes to do so. The federal government, while aware of Plecker's destruction of records, has so far refused to bend on this bureaucratic requirement. A bill currently before U.S. Congress to ease this requirement has been favorably reported out of a key Senate committee, but faces strong opposition in the House from a Virginia member concerned that federal recognition could open the door to gambling in the state. [http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=74481&ran=162825]
In the early 21st century, Native American communities remain an enduring fixture on the United States landscape, in the American economy, and in the lives of Native Americans. Communities have consistently formed governments that administer services like firefighting, natural resource management, and law enforcement. Most Native American communities have established court systems to adjudicate matters related to local ordinances, and most also look to various forms of moral and social authority vested in traditional affiliations within the community. To address the housing needs of Native Americans, Congress passed the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA) in 1996. This legislation replaced public housing, and other 1937 Housing Act programs directed towards Indian Housing Authorities, with a block grant program directed towards Tribes.
Gambling has become a leading industry. Casinos operated by many Native American governments in the United States are creating a stream of gambling revenue that some communities are beginning to use as leverage to build diversified economies. Native American communities have waged and prevailed in legal battles to assure recognition of rights to self-determination and to use of natural resources. Some of those rights, known as treaty rights are enumerated in early treaties signed with the young United States government. Tribal sovereignty has become a cornerstone of American jurisprudence, and at least on the surface, in national legislative policies. Although many Native American tribes have casinos, they are a source of conflict. Most tribes, especially small ones such as the Winnemem Wintu of Redding, California, feel that casinos and their proceeds destroy culture from the inside out. These tribes refuse to participate in the gaming industry.
Many of the smaller eastern tribes have been trying to gain official recognition of their tribal status. The recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and they can apply for grants that are specifically reserved for Native Americans. But gaining recognition as a tribe is extremely difficult because of a Catch-22 in the process. To be established as a tribal groups, members have to submit extensive genealogical proof of tribal descent, yet in past years many Native Americans denied their Native American heritage, because it would have deprived them of many rights, such as the right of probate. The Waccamaw tribe and the Pee Dee tribe of South Carolina were granted official recognition February 17, 2005. Two other tribal applications were denied for lack of documentation.
According to 2003 United States Census Bureau estimates, a little over one third of the 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States live in three states: California at 413,382, Arizona at 294,137 and Oklahoma at 279,559 [http://www.census.gov/popest/states/asrh/tables/SC-EST2003-04.pdf].
As of 2000, the largest tribes in the U.S. by population were Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, Blackfeet, Iroquois, and Pueblo. In 2000 eight of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed blood. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine of ten [http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:D-aV4g_I9XQJ:www.law.nyu.edu/kingsburyb/spring04/indigenousPeoples/classmaterials/class10/Class%252010%2520Item%2520A6%2520-%2520Gould.doc+genealogy++%22affirmative+action%22+%22american+indian%22%22ward+churchill%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8].
The Massachusetts legislature repealed a 330-year-old law that barred Native Americans from entering Boston on the 19th of May 2005.
Cultural aspects
Though cultural features, including language, garb, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes.
Early nomadic hunters forged stone weapons from around 10,000 years ago; as the age of metallurgy dawned, newer technologies were used and more efficient weapons produced. Prior to contact with Europeans, most tribes used similar weaponry. The most common implement were the bow and arrow, the war club, and the spear. Quality, material, and design varied widely.
Large mammals such as the mammoth were largely extinct by around 8,000 B.C., and the Native Americans were hunting their descendants, such as bison. The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The acquisition of the horse and horsemanship from the Spanish in the 17th century greatly altered the natives' culture, changing the way in which these large creatures were hunted and making them a central feature of their lives.
bison
Society
The Iroquois tribes, living around the Great Lakes and extending east and north, used strings or belts called wampum that served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries.
Pueblo tribes crafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies. Kachina dancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits. Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroided decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were high-quality pottery and formalized pictorial arts.
Navajo spirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporating sand paintings. The colors—made from sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen—depicted specific spirits. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the ceremony.
Religion
The most widespread religion at the present time is known as the Native American Church. It is a syncretistic church incorporating elements of native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements from Christianity. Its main rite is the peyote ceremony. The church has had significant success in combatting many of the ills brought by colonization, such as alcoholism and crime. In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral.
Gender roles
Most Native American tribes had traditional gender roles. In some tribes, such as the Iroquois nation, social and clan relationships were matrilinear and matriarchal but several different systems were in use. Men hunted, traded and made war, while women cared for the young and the elderly, fashioned clothing and instruments and cured meat. The cradle board was used by mothers to carry their baby whilst working or traveling.
Music and art
cradle board
Native American music is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes drumming and/or the playing of rattles or other percussion instruments but little other instrumentation. Flutes and whistles made of wood, cane, or bone are also played, generally by individuals, but in former times also by large ensembles (as noted by Spanish conquistador de Soto). The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step.
Performers with Native American parentage have occasionally appeared in American popular music, most notably Shania Twain (ethnically European, but raised by a First Nations adoptive father), Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Rita Coolidge, Wayne Newton, and Redbone (band). Some, such as John Trudell have used music to comment on life in Native America, and others, such as R. Carlos Nakai integrate traditional sounds with modern sounds in instrumental recordings. A variety of small and medium-sized recording companies offer an abundance of recent music by Native American performers young and old, ranging from pow-wow drum music to hard-driving rock-and-roll and rap.
The most widely practiced public musical form among Native Americans in the United States is that of the pow-wow. At pow-wows, such as the annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, members of drum groups sit in a circle around a large drum. Drum groups play in unison while they sing in a native language and dancers in colorful regalia dance clockwise around the drum groups in the center. Familiar pow-wow songs include honor songs, intertribal songs, crow-hops, sneak-up songs, grass-dances, two-steps, welcome songs, going-home songs, and war songs. Most indigenous communities in the United States also maintain traditional songs and ceremonies, some of which are shared and practiced exclusively within the community. For further information, see A Cry from the Earth: Music of North American Indians by John Bierhorst (ISBN 094127053X).
Native American art comprises a major category in the world art collection. Native American contributions include pottery, paintings, jewelry, weavings, sculptures, basketry, and carvings.
carving
Artists have at times misrepresented themselves as having native parentage, most notably Johnny Cash, who traced his heritage to Scottish ancestors and admitted he fabricated a story that he was one-quarter Cherokee. The integrity of certain Native American artworks is now protected by an act of Congress that prohibits representation of art as Native American when it is not the product of an enrolled Native American artist.
See: Blackfoot music
Economy
Survival in the environments in which they lived defined the work of the native groups. The Inuit, or Eskimo, prepared and buried stocks of dried meat and fish. Pacific Northwest tribes crafted seafaring dugouts 40-50 feet long for fishing. Farmers in the Eastern Woodlands tended fields of maize with hoes and digging sticks, while their neighbors in the Southeast grew tobacco as well as food crops. On the Plains, some tribes engaged in agriculture but also planned buffalo hunts in which herds were efficiently driven over bluffs. Dwellers of the Southwest deserts hunted small animals and gathered acorns to grind into a flour with which they baked wafer-thin bread on top of heated stones. Some groups on the region's mesas developed irrigation techniques, and filled storehouses with grain as protection against the area's frequent droughts.
As these native peoples encountered European explorers and settlers and engaged in trade, they exchanged food, crafts, and furs for trinkets, blankets, iron, and steel implements, horses, firearms, and alcoholic beverages.
Terminology differences
:For more detail see, Native American name controversy
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the "New World", he described the people he encountered as Indians because he mistakenly believed that he had reached the islands known to Europeans as the Indies. Despite Columbus's mistake, the name Indian (or American Indian) stuck, and for centuries the native people of the Americas were collectively called Indians in America, and similar terms in Europe. The problem with this traditional term is that the peoples of India are, of course, also known as Indians.
Common usage in the U.S.
The term Native American was originally introduced in the United States by anthropologists as a more accurate term for the indigenous people of the Americas, as distinguished from the people of India. Because of the widespread acceptance of this newer term in and outside of academic circles, some people mistakenly believe that Indians was outdated or offensive. People from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are known as Indian Americans.
However, some American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, a famous American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. [http://www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/means.html] Furthermore, some American Indians question the term Native American because, they argue, it serves to ease the conscience of "white America" with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. [http://www.allthingscherokee.com/atc_sub_culture_feat_events_070101.html] Still others (both Indians and non-Indians) argue that Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be capitalized in order to differentiate this intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" (small 'n') can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin. However, neither of these two senses invalidates the other, so long as the intended sense is made clear by the context.
A [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762158.html 1996 survey] revealed that more American Indians in the United States still preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, and Native American, and the terms are now used interchangeably. [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html] The continued usage of the traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C..
Recently, the US Census introduced the "Asian Indian" category to more accurately sample the Indian American population. In practice, most Indian Americans and of course Indian nationals think of themselves as the "real" Indians. This guarantees that the terms & their usages will evolve over the next few decades.
Bibliography
- Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, [http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/ University Press of Kansas], 1975. ISBN 0-7006-0735-8 (hbk); ISBN 0-7006-0838-9 (pbk).
- Bierhorst, John. A Cry from the Earth: Music of North American Indians. ISBN 0-9412-7053-X.
- Hirschfelder, Arlene B.; Byler, Mary G.; & Dorris, Michael. Guide to research on North American Indians. American Library Association (1983). ISBN 0-8389-0353-3.
- Nichols, Roger L. Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History. University of Nebraska Press (1998). ISBN 0-8032-8377-6.
- Snipp, C.M. (1989). American Indians: The first of this land. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
- Tiller, Veronica E. (Ed.). Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide. Foreword by Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Council Publications, Denver, Colorado (1992). ISBN 0-9632580-0-1.
See also
- Classification of Native Americans is a list of the tribes by cultural area
- List of pre-Columbian civilizations
- European colonization of the Americas - historical treatment
- First Nations of Canada
- Indian Campaign Medal
- Indian Massacres
- Indian Removal
- Indian Territory
- List of English words of Native American origin
- List of Indian reservations in the United States
- List of Native Americans
- List of Native American writers
- List of Native American actors
- List of Native American musicians
- List of Native American artists
- List of Native American politicians
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Native American Church
- Native American fighting styles
- Native American languages
- Native American mythology
- Native American pottery
- Population history of American indigenous peoples
- Fur trade - historical treatment
- Trails of tears
- Two-Spirit
- Residential school
- Medicine wheel
- Rainbow Warrior
External links
General information and history
- [http://www.LostWorlds.org Lost Worlds: An Interactive Museum of the American Indian]
- [http://soda.sou.edu/tribal.html Southern Oregon Digital Archives First Nations Tribal Collection], ethnographic, linguistic, & historical material.
- [http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_000107_entries.htm Houghton Mifflin Encyclopedia of North American Indians]
- [http://www.comanchelodge.com Comanche Lodge - American Indian History And Genealogy]
- [http://www.csulb.edu/projects/ais/ American Indian History and Related Issues]
- [http://www.nativepeoples.com/ Native Peoples Magazine - Arts, Culture and Lifeways of the Native Peoples of the Americas]
Tribal, regional and reservation information
- [http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/cultmap.html North American Pre-Contact Culture Areas]
- [http://www.dickshovel.com/trbindex.html List of North American Tribes]
- [http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/IndianPlaceNames.html American Indian Place Names], incl. Bibliography
- [http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030193 A Population Genetic Portrait of the Peopling of the Americas] by Jody Hey
Organizations
- [http://www.ncai.org National Congress of American Indians]
- [http://www.ncaied.org/ The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development]
- [http://www.narf.org/ Native American Rights Fund]
Photography
- [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/tribes.html Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images (by culture area)]
- [http://www.csulb.edu/projects/ais/nae/ American Historical Images On File: The Native American Experience]
Culture
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-2/antibias.htm Countering Prejudice against American Indians and Alaska Natives]
- [http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/NativeAmerica/ The Two-Spirit Tradition], an essay on shamanism and male love in Native American religion.
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-2/natives.htm Using Literature by American Indians and Alaska Natives in Secondary Schools]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-4/native.htm Teaching Young Children about Native Americans]
Language
- Map of languages in the US - William C. Sturtevant. (1967). Early Indian tribes, culture areas, and linguistic stocks.: (caution: Material is out-of-date)
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_alaska.jpg Alaska & Hawai‘i]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_west.jpg Western US]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_east.jpg Eastern US]
Art
- [http://www.nativetech.org/ NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art]
Category:Native American history
Category:North American history
Category:Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica
ja:アメリカ州の先住民族
nb:Innfødte amerikanere
simple:Native American
Long Island Sound, 3. Long Island Sound, 4. Newark Bay, 5. Upper New York Bay, 6. Lower New York Bay, 7. Jamaica Bay, 8. Atlantic Ocean]]
Atlantic Ocean
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean and various rivers in the United States. It lies between the coast of Connecticut to the north and Long Island to the south. It is also known as "THE GOLD COAST" due to its breathtaking properties along the shoreline. Many mansions along with wealthy neighborhoods characterize a good portion of the sound from the cityline of New York out to Setauket and Port Jefferson. The towns of Orient, Greenport, East Marion, Southold, and Mattituck have smaller populations are are located on the extreme eastern tip of the Long Island Sound. They offer great property value as well. On the extreme western end, it is bounded on the north side by Westchester County, New York and the Bronx, and connects to the East River. On its eastern end it is connected to Block Island Sound. The sound is considered by some to be the natural border between New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Sound is 110 miles (177 km) long and 21 miles (34 km) wide at its widest point. It has an average depth of 78 feet (24 m), with the deepest point being 300 feet (90 m). The volume of water in the Sound is 8 trillion US gallons (30 km³). Including all islands, the Long Island Sound has a shoreline of 548 miles (882 km).
The first European to record the existence of Long Island Sound was the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block, who entered the sound from the East River in 1614.
Several major cities are situated along the Long Island Sound, resulting in a total of more than 8 million people living within its watershed. Major Connecticut cities on the Sound include Bridgeport, New London, Stamford, Norwalk, and New Haven. New York cities on the Sound include New York City (the Bronx borough).
Ferries provide service between Long Island and Connecticut, notably between Port Jefferson, New York and Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Orient Point, New York and New London, Connecticut. Some of the ferries that cross the Long Island Sound carry automobiles as well as passengers.
Underwater cables transmit electricity under the Long Island Sound, most notably the controversial Cross-Sound Cable that runs from New Haven in western Connecticut, to Brookhaven in central Long Island. Scientists debate whether or not these cables are safe for the fragile Long Island Sound environment, especially the underwater lifeforms.
The Long Island Sound side differs from the Atlantic Ocean side of Long Island because the shorelines here are rocky. The Atlantic Ocean side remains sandy with no rocks. This is due to the formation of Long Island nearly 10,000 years ago as glaciers formed the fish-shaped island.
Many attempts have been made to build a bridge over the sound, including a bridge from Rye, New York to Oyster Bay, New York, from New Haven, Connecticut to Shoreham, New York on Long Island and from Orient Point, New York to Rhode Island.
Long Island Sound has historically had a rich fishery, but in recent years the western part of the sound has become increasingly deficient of marine life. The fishing and lobstering industries have encouraged efforts to identify the cause of the dead water and rectify the problem.
Major environmental problems currently affecting the Sound include hypoxia, toxic substance and pathogen contamination, debris and other man-made pollution, and overdevelopment.[http://www.epa.gov/ecoplaces/part2/region2/site15.html]
See also
- Sound (geography)
External links
Sound (geography)]]
- [http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/lis/index.html What Makes Long Island Sound So Special?] - EPA website
- [http://www.savethesound.org/ Save The Sound] - non-profit preservation group
- [http://www.lisfoundation.org/ Long Island Sound Foundation] - non-profit preservation group
- [http://www.crosssoundcable.com/ Cross-Sound Cable] - official CSC website
- [http://www.nytimes.com/ref/nyregion/LISOUND-INDEX.html Human Nature] - New York Times series on Long Island Sound
Category:Estuaries
Category:Geography of Connecticut
Category:Geography of New York
Category:Long Island
New York BayNew York Bay is the collective term for the marine areas surrounding the entrance of the Hudson River into the Atlantic Ocean. Its two largest components are Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay, which are connected by the Narrows.
The term New York Harbor is sometimes taken to be identical to New York Bay.
See also: Geography of New York Harbor
Category:New York City geography
16th century
As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600.
See also: 16th century in literature
Events
- 1501: Safavid dynasty rules Iran until 1736.
- 1509: The Battle of Diu marks the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the Spice trade.
- 1514: The Battle of Orsha halts Muscovy's expansion into Eastern Europe.
- 1515: The Ottoman Empire wrests Eastern Anatolia from the Safavids after the Battle of Chaldiran.
- 1516-17: The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks and gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant.
- 1517: The Protestant Reformation begins when Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Saxony.
- 1519-21: Hernán Cortés leads the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.
- 1520-66: The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent marks the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1521: Belgrade is captured by the Ottoman Empire.
- 1523: Sweden gains independence from the Kalmar Union.
- 1524-25: Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1526: The Ottomans conquer the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács.
- 1526: Mughal Empire, founded by Babur, rules India until 1857.
- 1527: Sack of Rome is considered the end of the Italian Renaissance.
- 1529: The Siege of Vienna marks the Ottoman Empire's furthest advance into Europe.
- 1531-32: The Church of England breaks away from the Roman Catholic Church and recognizes King Henry VIII as the head of the Church.
- 1532: Francisco Pizarro leads the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
- 1534: Jacques Cartier claims Quebec for France.
- 1534: The Ottomans capture Baghdad.
- 1543: The Nanban trade period begins after Portuguese traders make contact with Japan.
- 1552: Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan.
- 1553: Macau founded by Portuguese in China.
- 1555: The Muscovy Company is the first major English joint stock trading company.
- 1556: The Shaanxi Earthquake in China is history's deadliest known earthquake.
- 1556: Russia conquers the Astrakhan Khanate.
- 1556-1605: During his reign, Akbar expands the Mughal Empire in a series of conquests and is considered the greatest Mughal emperor.
- 1558-1603: The Elizabethan era is considered the height of the English Renaissance.
- 1558-83: Livonian War between Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
- 1558: After 200 years, England loses Calais to France.
- 1559: With the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, the Italian Wars conclude.
- 1562-98: French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots.
- 1566-1648: Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands.
- 1568-1600: The Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan.
- 1569: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is created with the Union of Lublin which lasts until 1795.
- 1577-80: Francis Drake circles the World and claims California for England.
- 1580: After the struggle for the throne of Portugal, the Portuguese Empire comes to an end and the Spanish and Portuguese crowns are united for 60 years.
- 1582: Yermak Timofeyevich conquers the Siberia Khanate on behalf of the Stroganovs.
- 1584-85: After the Siege of Antwerp, many of its merchants fled to Amsterdam.
- 1585-1604: The Anglo-Spanish War is fought on both sides of the Atlantic.
- 1588: England repulses the Spanish Armada.
- 1589: Spain repulses the English Armada.
- 1592-98: Korea and China repel two Japanese invasions during the Seven-Year War.
- 1598-1613: Russia descends into anarchy during the Time of Troubles.
- 1600: British East India Company chartered.
Significant people
British East India Company]
- Nicolaus Copernicus, developed the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory using scientific methods (1473 - 1543).
- Henry VII of England, founder of the Tudor dynasty. Introduced ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation which restored the kingdom after a state of virtual bankruptcy due to the effects of the Wars of the Roses (1457 - 1509).
- György Dózsa, leader of the peasants' revolt in Hungary (1470 - 1514)
- Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter and sculptor (1475 - 1564).
- Thomas More, English politician and author (1478 - 1535).
- Martin Luther, German religious reformer (1483 - 1546).
- Hernán Cortés, Spanish Conquistador (1485 - 1547).
- King Henry VIII of England, founder of Anglicanism (1491 - 1547).
- King Francis I of France, considered the first Renaissance monarch of his Kingdom (1494 - 1547).
- Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Conqueror and legal reformer (1494 - 1566).
- Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and the first to reign as King of Spain. Involved in almost constant conflict with France and the Ottoman Empire while promoting the Spanish colonization of the Americas (1500 - 1558).
- Cuauhtémoc becomes last Tlatoani of the Aztec, leads the native resistance against the Spanish and is finally defeated in the siege of Tenochtitlan. He is hanged on February 26, 1525 (1502 - 1525)
- Mary I of England. Attempted to counter the Protestant Reformation in her domains. Nick-named Bloody Mary for her Religious persecution (1516 - 1558).
- King Philip II of Spain, self-proclaimed leader of Counter-Reformation (1527 - 1598).
- Queen Elizabeth I of England, central figure of the Elizabethan era (1533 - 1603).
- Oda Nobunaga , daimyo of the Sengoku period of Japanese civil war. First ruler of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1534 - 1582).
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi , daimyo of the Sengoku period of Japanese civil war. Second ruler of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1536 - 1598).
- Admiral Yi Sun-sin , respected as one of the greatest admirals and military leaders in world history. (1545 - 1598).
- Edward VI of England, notable for further differentiating Anglicanism from the practices of the Roman Catholic Church (1537 - 1553).
- Lady Jane Grey, Queen regnant of England and Ireland. Notably deposed by popular revolt (1537 - 1554).
- Queen Mary I of Scotland, First female head of the House of Stuart (1542 - 1587).
- Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (1547 - 1616).
- King Henry IV of France and Navarre, ended the French Wars of Religion and reunited the kingdom under his command (1553 - 1610).
- William Shakespeare, English author (1564 - 1616).
- John Donne, English metaphysical poet (1572 - 1631)
- Miyamoto Musashi, famous warrior in Japan, author of The Book of Five Rings, a treatise on strategy and martial combat. (1584 - 1645)
- Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, Somali Imam and general (1507 - 1543).
- Ivan IV of Russia, first Russian tsar (1530-1584).
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
List of 16th century inventions
- The Columbian Exchange introduces many plants, animals and diseases to the Old and New Worlds.
- Introduction of the spinning wheel revolutionizes textile production in Europe.
- Modern square root symbol (√ )
- Copernicus publishes his theory that the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun (1543)
- Gregorian Calendar adopted by Catholic countries (1582)
- 1513: Juan Ponce de León sights Florida and Vasco Núñez de Balboa sights the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean.
- 1519-22: Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano lead the first circumnavigation of the World.
- 1540: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado sights the Grand Canyon.
- 1541-42: Francisco de Orellana sails the length of the Amazon River.
- 1597: Opera in Florence by Jacopo Peri
Decades and years
Category:16th century
Category:Centuries
ko:16세기
ja:16世紀
th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 16
17th century
As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.
Gregorian calendar, Iran (completed 1638) is considered to be one of the world's greatest architectural achievements.]]
1638.]]
Events
- 1602: Dutch East India Company founded. Its success contributes to the Dutch Golden Age.
- 1603: Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.
- 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu seizes control of Japan and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate which rules the country until 1868.
- 1603-23: After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands Persia by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese.
- 1605: Gunpowder Plot foiled in England.
- 1607: The London Company establishes the Jamestown Settlement in North America precipitating the British colonization of the Americas.
- 1608: Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada).
- 1613: The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov which rules until 1917.
- 1615: The Mughal Empire grants extensive trading rights to the British East India Company.
- 1618-48: The Thirty Years' War devastates Central Europe.
- 1624-42: As chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu centralizes power in France.
- 1625: New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America.
- 1637: The Dutch tulip mania bubble bursts.
- 1637: The Pequot War, the first of the American Indian Wars
- 1638: Completion of the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, instigated by Shah Abbas I of Safavid Persia.
- 1639-51: Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England.
- 1640: Portugal regains its independence from Spain bringing an end to the Iberian Union.
- 1640: Torture is outlawed in England.
- 1641: The Tokugawa Shogunate institutes Sakoku- foreigners are expelled and no one is allowed to enter or leave Japan.
- 1644: The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming Dynasty. The subsequent Qing Dynasty rules until 1912.
- 1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.
- 1648-53: Fronde civil war in France.
- 1648-67: The Deluge wars leave Poland in ruins.
- 1648-69: The Ottoman Empire captures Crete from the Venetians after the Siege of Candia.
- 1652: Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa.
- 1652: Anglo-Dutch Wars begin.
- 1653: The Taj Mahal in India is completed.
- 1655-61: The Northern Wars cement Sweden's rise as a Great Power.
- 1660: The Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the English Restoration.
- 1661: The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins.
- 1662: Koxinga captures Taiwan from the Dutch and founds the Kingdom of Tungning which rules until 1683.
- 1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York.
- 1665: Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire.
- 1667-99: The Great Turkish war halts the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.
- 1670: The Hudson's Bay Company is founded in Canada.
- 1674: Maratha empire founded in India by Shivaji.
- 1676: Russia and the Ottoman Empire commence the Russo-Turkish Wars.
- 1682: Peter the Great becomes joint ruler of Russia (sole tsar in 1696).
- 1682: La Salle explores the length of the Mississippi River and claims Louisiana for France.
- 1683: China conquers the Kingdom of Tungning and annexes Taiwan.
- 1685: Edict of Fontainebleau outlaws Protestantism in France.
- 1688-89: After the Glorious Revolution, England becomes a constitutional monarchy and the Dutch Republic goes into decline.
- 1688-97: The Grand Alliance sought to stop French expansion during the Nine Years War.
- 1689: Nerchinsk Treaty establishes a border between Russia and China.
- 1692: Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
- 1700-21: Russia supplants Sweden as the dominant Baltic power after the Great Northern War.
Significant people
- Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden (1594-1632).
- Francis Bacon, English philosopher and politician (1561-1626).
- Gabriel Bethlen, Hungarian prince of Transylvania (1580-1629)
- Sir Thomas Browne, English author, philosopher and scientist (1605-1682).
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish Author (1574 - 1616)
- Charles I of England (1600 - 1649).
- Charles II of England (1630 - 1685).
- Queen Christina of Sweden, high profile Catholic convert, matron of arts (1626 - 1689)
- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (1599 - 1658)
- Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (1626 - 1712).
- René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician (1596 - 1650)
- John Donne, English metaphysical poet (1572 - 1631)
- Elizabeth I of England (1533 - 1603).
- Galileo Galilei, Italian natural philosopher (1564 - 1642)
- Andreas Gryphius, German poet and dramatist(1616 - 1664)
- Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and mathematician (1588 - 1679)
- Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer (1629 - 1695)
- Johannes Kepler, German astronomer (1571 - 1630)
- Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician (1646 - 1716)
- John Locke, English philosopher (1632 - 1704)
- James I of England (1566 - 1625).
- James II of England (1633 - 1701).
- Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor ( | | |