Indian languages. Indian languages ​​The most famous Indian tribes of Canada

In the 15th century, Christopher Columbus discovered America, but at first he assumed that he was in India. It is for this reason that the indigenous inhabitants of those lands began to be called "Indians". Settlers from Europe brought to the American mainland not only unprecedented goods, products and progress, but also terrible diseases (smallpox, measles, influenza), to which the Indians had no immunity. Most of the indigenous people died in the struggle for survival, while others were expelled from their habitats in the reservations, where they live to this day. Due to the fact that the Indians still live in their communities, they were able to partially preserve the ancient customs and traditions, their native language and established way of life.

A bit about the history of the Indian tribes

Indians have lived in Canada since ancient times. Each tribe spoke its own language and had its own culture. In general, there were about 2,200 different peoples on the territory of America, and today there are just over 1,000 of them left. Many Indian tribes were at enmity with each other and waged constant internecine wars. The main occupations of the indigenous peoples of Canada were: bison hunting, fishing, and farming. After the Europeans brought weapons and horses to the Indians, it became much easier for them to hunt animals.

Indian genocide

Many scholars believe that the Europeans sought to specifically exterminate the indigenous people of Canada. But others do not agree with them. The indisputable fact is that after the discovery of America by Columbus, the number of Indian tribes (according to some sources) decreased tenfold. But the indigenous people of Canada also died due to diseases that were brought from the Old World. We must not forget about the constant internecine wars, which practically did not stop between individual tribes. The question of the genocide of Indian peoples is still open, but it is very controversial.

Indian life in Canada today

The 2006 census shows that just over 700,000 Indians live in Canada. All of them live in reservations, where all the necessary conditions for life are created. Although the Indians are still limited in their rights: they cannot sell their houses, move to a new place of residence, they are forbidden to do business. They do not have the opportunity to get a decent education and find a prestigious job. In this regard, many Indians are still engaged in occupations familiar from ancient times: hunting, fishing, and farming. Many receive benefits from the Canadian government, but out of desperation, they begin to get involved in alcohol and drugs.

It should be noted that over the past 25 years, infant mortality has significantly decreased, so the population of Indians in Canada has increased markedly.

The most famous Indian tribes of Canada

Different tribes lived in each region of Canada. They differed in languages, traditions, occupations. Hurons, Iroquois, Algonquins, Nootka, Mohawks and many other tribes that have lived in Canada since ancient times are included in the general group - "Indians". There were numerous settlements near the lakes in Canada, whose inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, hunting, trade and fishing. Others lived in the eastern forests, as well as in the north of the country. Nomadic tribes moved from place to place, while the settled ones built large settlements and erected wooden houses.

Iroquois - tribes of Indians, who had a well-developed agriculture. They grew corn, legumes and more. They were very hostile to other peoples, often waged wars with the Algonquins, Hurons, Mohicans. In the 16th century, the Iroquois League was created - a union of related tribes. In the 17th century, their number was only about 25,000 people, which is very small compared to other large language groups. Due to the continuous wars and diseases brought by the Europeans, their numbers were constantly decreasing.

In the north of Canada lived the ancestors of the Eskimos, who came there from Chukotka. They were mainly engaged in hunting walruses and deer. The descendants of these tribes call themselves "Inuit". They live in autonomous territories and receive subsidies from the Canadian government.

The Algonquins lived in the eastern forests. This is a large tribe of Indians that belongs to the Algonquian language group. According to scientists, before the arrival of Europeans, their number was about 6,000 people. The Algonquins were constantly at odds with the Iroquois. To date, the descendants of this tribe live on ten reservations in Canada. Their number is 11,000 people.

The Hurons were an alliance of five tribes. They lived in a vast area in the Great Lakes region. By the way, the word "Huron" refers to both an Indian and a lake in Canada. These tribes led a settled way of life and built quite large and fortified settlements. They were mainly engaged in fishing and farming, believed in the existence of spirits and professed shamanism. The language of the Huron Indians is now lost, but the descendants of these peoples live in Canada today.

Ancient customs, languages ​​and traditions

Some ancient Indian languages ​​have survived to this day. In general, scientists distinguish about 200 language families. Many tribes have completely died out, and their languages ​​have been lost forever.

The Indians of Canada, who live on reservations, celebrate ancient holidays to this day. In early August, for example, "Pow-Wow" is held - a bright, colorful festival, which attracts Indians from all over North America. Tourists and local residents of Canada during the festival can enjoy incendiary dances and see with their own eyes the colorful national costumes of the indigenous people of these lands. During the "Pow-Wow" there is also a fair where everyone can buy souvenirs and goods made by the hands of the Indians.

The holiday has a sacred origin, it begins with a prayer. During the opening, you can see the legendary drumming, circle dances and Indian songs, which are very difficult for Europeans to understand, because they are not sung to the rhythm.

National cuisine of the Indians

Indian cuisine is very diverse. Different language groups have their own taste preferences and favorite foods. But since ancient times, American Indians have always had turkey meat, corn, potatoes, legumes and pumpkin in their diet. Spicy foods are not popular. Indians use wild ginger and juniper as spices. The indigenous peoples of Canada have always eaten meat, and life without it was considered inferior. However, the Indians treated the killed animals very reverently. It is known, for example, that before the hunt they certainly prayed and asked for forgiveness in advance for the murder.

In the spring, the Indian tribes were collecting maple sap, from which syrup was made. You can try it now at the fair during the Pow-Wow. In addition, at the festival you can eat fried bread - a ritual dish of the Indians.

Religion

Most of the American Indians practiced shamanism. They believed in the power of spirits, in the supernatural abilities of animals. The Indians had special ideas about the afterlife: they believed that a person after death continues to live in the same way as on earth. The indigenous peoples of Canada did not have temples or special places for prayer. To date, the culture and beliefs of many tribes have been lost forever, but on the reservations you can find Indians who honor the memory of their ancestors and the ancient traditions of their people.

Reservations

Canada is a highly developed country, the main principle of which is the equality of all citizens.

It is located in northern North America. Canada ranks second in the world (in the first place - Russia) in terms of the size of the occupied territory. Indian tribes have lived on the territory of this country since ancient times, but after the arrival of Europeans, they were forced to leave their inhabited places. In the 19th century, the Canadian government decided to resettle all Indians on reservations.

They live there to this day. Their settlements are strikingly different from each other. In some people, literally fighting for their existence, have problems with clean water, heating and gas. On other reservations, you can see modern homes, institutions and hospitals.

Conclusion

When you read adventure books about the cruel customs and traditions of the Indians (for example, about removing the scalp from the enemy), it becomes creepy. It seems that this is all fiction. However, such tribes existed in reality. Many of them were very belligerent and constantly exterminated their neighbors in order to take over new territories. Other tribes lived quite calmly, were engaged in agriculture, raised cattle, hunted. But with the arrival of Europeans in America, the life of the Indians changed dramatically, and they had to fight for their rights, for the future in their native territories.

Native American languages ​​are often divided into 3 parts: North America (USA, Canada), Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) and South America. The variety of Indian languages ​​is great, it is difficult to specify their exact number and make an exhaustive list. First, the modern and pre-colonization language pictures differ significantly. It is estimated that before European colonization there were about 400 languages ​​in North America, and at the beginning of the 21st century there were just over 200 left. Many languages ​​disappeared before they were recorded. There are blank spots on the language maps of America about which no information can be obtained. On the other hand, such languages ​​as, for example, the Quechuan languages, over the past centuries have greatly expanded the territorial and ethnic base of their distribution. Second, many languages, especially in Mesoamerica and South America, are poorly documented. Thirdly, in many cases the problem of distinguishing between language and dialect has not been resolved.

The language situation in the regions of distribution of Indian languages ​​differs. North America is dominated by small language groups of several thousand or even hundreds of people. There are only a few languages ​​spoken by tens of thousands of people, including Navajo, Dakota, Cree, Ojibwa, Cherokee. Many Indian tribes in the 18-20 centuries completely disappeared or survived as ethnic groups, but lost their language; There are about 120 such extinct languages. According to the data of American researchers I. Goddard, M. Krauss, B. Grimes, and others, 46 indigenous languages ​​have been preserved, which are acquired by a sufficiently large number of children as native ones. 91 languages ​​are spoken by a fairly large number of adults, 72 languages ​​are spoken by only a few older people. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Native American activists and linguists are making vigorous efforts to revive indigenous languages ​​in several areas of the United States and Canada. It is impossible to say that the process of dying of languages ​​has been stopped, but in some cases it is slowed down and there is a chance of a linguistic revival.

There are a number of languages ​​in the Mesoamerica, the native speakers are calculated by hundreds of thousands: the Masaua Otmange language (250-400 thousand) and the Uto-Astek language of the UASTEK NAOATL (about 1 million) in Mexico, Mayan languages- Kekchi (420 thousand people) and Kiche (more than 1 million) in Guatemala, Yukatkate (500 thousand) in Mexico. The average number of speakers of a single Mesoamerican language is at least an order of magnitude higher than in North America. However, the social status of Indian languages ​​in Mesoamerica is rather low.

South America is characterized by a polarized linguistic situation. On the one hand, most languages, as in North America, have a very small number of speakers: several thousand, hundreds or even tens of people. Many languages ​​have disappeared (in most of the largest language families, between a quarter and a half of the languages ​​have already become extinct), and this process continues. At the same time, over 20 million people speak indigenous languages. Several South American languages ​​have become inter-ethnic languages, a means of self-identification for Indians (regardless of their specific ethnic origin) or even entire countries. In a number of states, Indian languages ​​have acquired official status (Quechua, Aymara, Guarani).

Due to the huge variety of American languages, the term "Indian languages" is very arbitrary; the expression "languages ​​of Native Americans" is sometimes used instead. In the latter case, not only the Indian proper, but also the Eskimo-Aleut languages ​​are included in the consideration.

The total number of speakers of Indian languages, according to estimates at the beginning of the 21st century, is over 32 million people, including about 21 million in South America, over 10 million in Mesoamerica, and over 500 thousand people in North America.

The American linguist R. Austerlitz made the observation that in America the average number of genealogical units per unit area (the so-called genealogical density) is much higher than in Eurasia. According to the American researcher J. Nichols (1990, 1992), the genealogical density in Eurasia is about 1.3, while in North America it is 6.6, in Mesoamerica it is 28.0, and in South America it is 13.6. In America, there are areas with a particularly high genealogical density - the so-called closed language zones. So, in California and on the Northwest coast of North America, squeezed between mountains and the ocean, the genealogical density reaches record values ​​(in California - 34.1). On the contrary, the center of North America (Great Plains) is the so-called extended zone, only a few families are distributed there with a rather large area, the genealogical density is 2.5.

The major genealogical associations of Native American languages ​​are listed below in the order in which they are located from north to south. No distinction is made between living and dead languages; the number of languages ​​indicated is as close as possible to the situation before colonization.

North America. In total, 34 families, 20 isolated languages, and about 7 unclassified languages ​​are known in North America. The Na-Dene languages ​​include the Tlingit, Eyak, and Athabaskan languages ​​(about 40) spoken in Alaska and western Canada, the US Pacific coast (Washington, Oregon, and northern California), and Southwest North America. Closely related are the South Athabaskan (Apache) languages, and the largest number of native speakers in North America, Navajo, also belongs to them. E. Sapir attributed the Haida languages ​​to Na-Dene, but after repeated verification, this hypothesis was rejected by most experts, and Haida is considered an isolate. A hypothesis is being developed about the Na-Dene genealogical links with the languages ​​of Eurasia, in particular with the Yenisei languages.

Salish languages ​​(over 20) are distributed compactly in southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States. Their external genealogical connections have not been proven. In the west of their range is the territory of the Chimakums (2), and in the east is the Kutenai isolate.

The area of ​​the Wakasha languages ​​(6) is in the west of Canada and the USA, on the coast of British Columbia and on Vancouver Island.

The main part of the Algic languages ​​​​is made up of the Algonquian languages ​​\u200b\u200b(about 30), whose territory is almost the entire east and center of Canada, as well as the area around the Great Lakes (except for the range of the Iroquois languages) and the northern part of the Atlantic coast of the USA (to the state of North Carolina in the south). Some Algonquian languages ​​(Blackfoot, Sheyenne, Arapaho) spread especially far west to the Great Plains. According to some researchers, the now extinct Beothuk language (Newfoundland Island) could belong to the Algonquian languages. In addition to Algonquian, the Wiyot and Yurok (Northern California) languages, sometimes referred to as Ritwan, belong to the Alg family. Numerous previously proposed external relations of the Alg family are hypothetical.

The Sioux languages ​​(Siouan; about 20) are compactly distributed in the main part of the Great Plains, and also have several enclaves on the Atlantic coast and in the South-East of North America. Within them, the largest group is the languages ​​of the Mississippi Valley, which include the Dakota dialects. It is probable that the Siouan languages ​​are related to the Iroquoian and Caddoan languages. Other previously proposed associations of the Siouan languages ​​are considered unproven or erroneous; the Yuchi language is classified as an isolate.

The range of the Iroquois languages ​​(about 12) is the region of the Great Lakes Erie, Huron and Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River, as well as to the south - the Atlantic coast of the USA (northern group), the Cherokee language is spread even further to the southwest.

The Caddoan languages ​​(5) have a number of enclaves stretched in a chain from north to south in the area of ​​the Great Plains. Their relationship with the Iroquoian languages ​​is considered practically proven.

The Muscogae language range (about 7) is a compact region in the Southeast of North America (east of the lower Mississippi, including Florida). The hypothesis of M. Haas (USA) about their association with 4 other languages ​​of the same area (Natchez, Atakapa, Chitimasha and Tunic) into the so-called Gulf macrofamily is considered untenable in modern linguistics; these 4 languages ​​are considered as isolates.

The Kiowatanoan languages ​​include the Kiowa language (central Great Plains) and 6 languages ​​in the Southwest of North America representing the culture of the Pueblo peoples (along with the Keresian languages, the Hopi Uto-Astecan languages, and the Zuni isolate).

The allocation of the so-called macrofamily of Penutian languages, proposed at the beginning of the 20th century by Californian anthropologists A. L. Kroeber and R. Dixon, is extremely problematic and is not recognized by most experts. Within this association, the most probable genealogical links are between the Klamath and Molala languages ​​(both in Oregon) and Sahaptine (Oregon, Washington) [the so-called Plateau Penutian languages ​​(4 languages)]. A plausible genealogical connection also exists between the Miwok (7 languages) and Costanoan (8 languages) [form the so-called Utian family (northern California)]. The Penutian languages ​​also included 9 more families: Tsimshian (2 languages), Shinuk (3 languages), Alsei (2 languages), Siuslau language, Kus (2 languages), Takelma-Kalapuyan (3 languages), Vintuan (2 languages), Maiduan (3 languages) and Yokuts (at least 6 languages). E. Sapir also included the Cayuse language (Oregon) and the so-called Mexican Penutian languages ​​- the Mihe-Soke families of languages ​​and the Uave language - into the Penutian macrofamily.

The Kochimi-Yuman languages ​​(the border region between the United States and Mexico) combine the Kochimi languages ​​(range - the middle part of Baja California) and Yuman (about 10 languages; western Arizona, southern California and northern Baja California). The latter were previously included in the so-called macrofamily of the Khokan languages. In modern linguistics, the Kochimi-Yuman languages ​​are considered as the core of this hypothetical association. The most probable genealogical links between the Kochimi-Yuman languages ​​and the Pomoan languages ​​(about 7 languages) are common in northern California. According to modern ideas, the Hokan association is even less reliable than the Penutian one; in addition to those already mentioned, it previously included 8 independent families: the Seri language, the Washo language, the Salin (2 languages), the Yana languages ​​(4 languages), the Palainikhan (2 languages), the Shastan (4 languages), the Chimariko language, and the Karok language. E. Sapir also included the Esselen language, the now extinct Chumash family, and 2 languages ​​of the Yukian (Yuki-wappo) family, previously represented in California, among the Hokan languages.

Yuto-Aztec languages ​​(60) are spoken in the Great Basin, California, northwest and central Mexico (including the Aztec languages). There are approximately 22 languages ​​in the United States. The area of ​​the Comanche language is south of the Great Plains. Numerous external links of the Uto-Astek languages, proposed in the linguistic literature, are unreliable. The Kochimi-Yuman and Uto-Astek families are transitional between North America and Mesoamerica.

Another 17 isolated or unclassified languages ​​and small families were distributed along the southern periphery of North America: in the north of Florida - the Timukuan family; along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico - calusa, tunica, natchez, chitimasha, adai, atakapa, karankawa, tonkawa, aranama; further to the southeast - cotoname, coaviltec, solano, naolan, kinigua, maratino; in the very south of the California peninsula lived speakers of the languages ​​of the Guaicurian family (8).

In addition to the Kochimi-Yuman and Uto-Astek families, 9 more families and 3 isolates are represented in Mesoamerica. Otomanguean languages ​​(over 150) are spoken in central and southern Mexico. They include the previously considered separately Subtiaba-Tlapanec languages.

Totonac languages ​​(about 10) are represented in east-central Mexico and include two branches - Totonac and Tepehua.

The Mihe-Soque languages ​​(south of Mexico) comprise about 12 languages; 2 main branches - mihe and juice.

Maya languages ​​​​(Mayan) - the largest family of the south of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize; According to various classifications, it includes from 30 to 80 languages.

In addition, 4 small families are represented in Mesoamerica - Shinkan (Shinka), Tekistlatek (Oaxacco-Chontal), Lenkan and Khikak (tol), and 3 isolates - Tarasco (Purepecha), Kuitlatek and Uave.

The Chibchan languages ​​(24) are a transitional family between Mesoamerica and South America. Its range is Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia. It is possible that the languages ​​of a small Misumalpan family (4 languages; the territory of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras) are genealogically connected with them.

Further, the families under consideration are distributed almost entirely in South America, although some of them have peripheral representatives in Central America. In total, 48 families, 47 isolates and over 80 unclassified languages ​​are known in South America. The area of ​​the Arawakan languages ​​(Maipur; 65) is a significant part of South America, a number of countries in Central America, formerly also the islands of the Caribbean; their original territory is the western Amazon. Tukanoan languages ​​(15-25), Chapakur languages ​​(9), Aravan (8 languages), Puinawan (5 languages), Dyapan (Katukin; 5 languages), Tiniguan, Otomak families, 3 isolates, and several unclassified languages ​​are spoken in the western Amazon.

Caribbean languages ​​(25-40) are represented in northern South America. In the same place - Yanomami (4 languages), Saliwan and Guahib families, 2 isolates and several unclassified languages.

Barbacoan (8 languages), Chocoan (5 languages), Hirahara (3 languages), Timothean (3 languages) families, 4 isolates, and several unclassified languages ​​are common in northwestern South America.

In the northern foothills of the Andes (Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and southern Colombia), the Bora Huitot languages ​​(10), Khivaran (4 languages), Yaguan (Peba), Cawapan, Sapar families and 9 isolates are represented.

The Andes region is the area of ​​the Quechuan languages ​​(several dozen) and the languages ​​of the Aymaran (Khaki) family (3 languages, including Aymara). Many experts suggest that these languages ​​are related and form the Kechumara macrofamily, but other linguists attribute the similarities to borrowings. Also in the Andes are the families of Sechura-Katakao (3 languages), Uru-Chipaya and Cholon and 5 isolates.

The southern foothills of the Andes (northern Bolivia, eastern Peru and western Brazil) - the territory of the Pano-Takan languages ​​(33; includes 2 branches - Panoan and Takan), the Chon family (3 languages) and the isolates of Yurakare and Moseten.

In the northeast of Brazil, Indian languages ​​disappeared so quickly that only about 8 unclassified languages ​​are known.

The same languages ​​(at least 13) are represented mainly in Brazil. There is a hypothesis of a macro-family of macro-same languages, which, in addition to the languages, unites 12-13 more small families (from 1 to 4 languages), including Kamakan, Boror, Mashakali, Botokud, Purian, Kariri, Karazha, Chiquitano, Rikbaktsa, etc.

Along the periphery of the macro-same range (throughout Brazil and adjacent countries, including the northern part of Argentina), Tupi languages ​​\u200b\u200bare common (more than 70). Their core is made up of Tupi-Guarani languages, which include one of the great languages ​​of South America - Paraguayan Guarani. Tupi-Guarani refers to the once widely used, and now dead language, Tupinamba (old Tupi), or Lingua Geral (“common language”). The Tupi association includes, in addition to Tupi-Guarani, 8 more separate languages, the genealogical status of which has not been finally established. In addition, in the Central Amazon (Brazil, northern Argentina, Bolivia), the Nambiquarian (5 languages), Murano (4 languages), Jabutian (3 languages) families, 7 isolates and several unclassified languages ​​are represented.

In the Chaco region (northern Argentina, southern Bolivia, Paraguay) the Guaikuru languages ​​(7 languages), Matacoan languages ​​(4 to 7 languages), Mascoan languages ​​(4), Samuk and Charruan families and 2 isolates are common. According to some assumptions, they form a single macrofamily.

In the very south of South America (southern Chile and Argentina), the Huarpeian family, 5 isolates (Araucanian, Alakaluf, Yamana, Chono and Puelche) are represented.

As a result of the interaction between unrelated Indian languages, as well as between the languages ​​​​of Indians and Europeans, a number of contact languages ​​\u200b\u200bhave arisen in America. For example, in the 17th century, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, a Basque-Algonquian pidgin was formed, which was used by the Mikmaq Indians (see Algonquins) and Basque fishermen crossing the Atlantic. In the 19th century, on the basis of the Chinook language on the Northwest coast of North America (from Oregon to Alaska), the so-called Chinook jargon was widely used, which was used by both Indians of different tribes and Europeans. In the 1st half of the 19th century, a mixed Michif language arose (and now exists in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and North Dakota), which combines the nominal grammar of the French language and the verbal grammar of the Algonquian Cree language. Among the Indians of the prairies (who spoke Sioux, Algonquian and other languages), a sign language was common, which was used in interethnic communication.

The prevailing opinion is that the prehistoric settlement of America by man came from Siberia and the Pacific region through Beringia - the zone of the modern Bering Strait. The question of the chronology of the settlement of America is debatable (see Indians). From a linguistic point of view, the hypothesis that the earliest human penetration into America occurred 12,000 years ago seems unlikely. To explain the great genealogical diversity of the Indian languages, much earlier dates for the settlement of the Americas must be postulated, as well as the possibility of numerous waves of migration from Asia.

Given the genealogical diversity of Native American languages, few generalizations can be made about their structural features. Polysynthesism is usually cited as the constitutive feature of the American language type. Many meanings, often expressed in the languages ​​of the world as part of names and auxiliary parts of speech, in polysynthetic Indian languages ​​are expressed as part of a verb. Long verbal forms appear, containing many morphemes, and other components of the sentence are not as obligatory as in European-type languages ​​(F. Boas spoke about the “sentence-word” in North American languages). For example, the structure of the verb form yabanaumawildjigummaha’nigi ‘let us, each [of us], really move west across the stream’ (example of E. Sapir) from Californian Yana is as follows: wa’ several people move’ -banauma- ‘everything’ -wil- ‘through’ -dji- ‘to the west’ -gumma- ‘really’ -ha’- ‘let’ -nigi ‘we’. The morpheme analysis of the word ionsahahnekôntsienhte’ from the Mohawk Iroquoian language, meaning ‘he scooped up water again’ (M. Mitun’s example), is as follows: i- ‘through’ -ons- ‘again’ -a (past tense) -ha- ‘he’ -hnek- ‘liquid’ -ôntsien- ‘get water’ -ht- (causative) -e’ (point action). Most of the largest language families in North America and Mesoamerica have a pronounced tendency towards polysyntheism: Na-de-ne, Algonquian, Iroquois, Siouan, Caddoan, Mayan, and others. Some other families, especially in the western and southern parts of the continent, are characterized by moderate synthetism. Polysyntheticism is also characteristic of many South American languages. One of the main polysynthetic features characteristic of Indian languages ​​is the presence of pronominal indicators in the verb; for example, -nigi 'we' in yana and -ha- 'he' in mohawk. This phenomenon can also be considered as the so-called vertex marking - the designation of the relationship between the predicate and its arguments at the vertex, that is, in the verb. Many Indian languages ​​are characterized by the incorporation into the verb not only of pronominal morphemes, but also of nominal roots, especially those corresponding to the semantic roles of patient, instrument, and place.

On the material of the Indian languages, the active construction of the sentence was discovered for the first time. It is characteristic of such families as the Pomoan, Siouan, Caddoan, Iroquoian, Muscogean, Keresian, and others in North America, and of the Tupian languages ​​in South America. The concept of languages ​​of the active system is largely built on these Indian languages.

G. A. Klimova.

The data of Indian languages ​​significantly influenced the development of word order typology. In studies of basic word order, facts from South American languages ​​are often cited to illustrate rare orders. Thus, in the Caribbean language of Khishkaryana, according to D. Derbyshire (USA), the basic order “object + predicate + subject” is presented, which is very rare in the languages ​​of the world. The material of the Indian languages ​​also played an important role in the development of the typology of the pragmatic word order. For example, R. Tomlin and R. Rhodes (USA) found that in Algonquian Ojibwa the most neutral order, as opposed to that which is usual for European languages, is the following of thematic information after non-thematic (see Actual division of the sentence).

In a number of Indian languages, there is a contrast between proximate (near) and obviative (distant) 3 persons. The best-known system of this type is in the Algonquian languages. Nominal phrases are explicitly marked as referring to a proximal or obviative person; the proximal is usually a well-known or close to the speaker person. On the basis of the difference between two 3rd persons in a number of Indian languages, the grammatical category of the inverse is built. So, in the Algonquian languages, there is a personal hierarchy: 1st, 2nd person > 3rd proximal person > 3rd obviative person. If in a transitive sentence the agent is higher than the patient in this hierarchy, then the verb is marked as a direct form, and if the agent is lower than the patient, then the verb is marked as inverse.

Before the Spanish conquest, a number of Indian peoples had their own writing systems: the Aztecs used pictography (see Aztec script); The Maya had a highly developed logosyllabic system derived from the earlier writings of Mesoamerica, the only fully functional writing known to be unrelated in origin to the writings of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (see Maya writing). In the 1st quarter of the 19th century, the Cherokee Indian, known as Sequoyah, invented an original syllabic writing system for his language, some of the characters of which outwardly resemble the letters of the Latin alphabet. In the middle of the 19th century, the American missionary J. Evans invented an original syllabary for the Cree language, which was later applied to other languages ​​​​of the region (Algonquian, Athabaskan and Eskimo) and is still partially used (see Canadian syllabary). The writing systems for the vast majority of Indian languages ​​are based on the Latin alphabet. In some cases, these systems are used in practical orthography, but for most Indian languages ​​- only for scientific purposes.

The first evidence of Europeans about the Indian languages ​​of North and South America began to appear immediately after the start of colonization. European travelers, starting with H. Columbus, made small lists of words. One of the interesting early publications is a dictionary of the Iroquois language from the St. Lawrence River, compiled with the help of Indians captured by J. Cartier and brought to France; it is assumed that F. Rabelais took part in the creation of the dictionary (published in 1545). Missionaries played an important role in the study of Indian languages; for example, the Spanish Jesuit Domingo Agustín Vaes described the Guale language in the 1560s, which was common on the coast of Georgia and subsequently disappeared. The missionary tradition of studying Indian languages ​​is also important for modern Indian studies (activities of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the Americas). Public figures were also interested in Indian languages. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, T. Jefferson organized the work of compiling dictionaries of various languages, partly on the advice of the Russian Empress Catherine II. The actual linguistic study of North American languages ​​began in the 19th century. In 1838, P. S. Duponceau (USA) drew attention to the typological similarity of many of them - namely, to their polysyntheticism. K. W. von Humboldt studied a number of Indian languages, his grammar is most widely known in Nahuatl. The work of JW Powell played a major role in the cataloging and documentation of Indian languages. A qualitatively new stage is associated with the activities of F. Boas, who at the end of the 19th - the first half of the 20th century studied and described dozens of Indian languages ​​of different families, laid the American anthropological and linguistic tradition based on the recording and study of texts, and trained a number of well-known Americanist linguists (A. Kroeber, L. Frachtenberg, A. Finney, etc.). Boas' student E. Sapir is the founder of the scientific study of many language families in North America, both synchronous-structural and comparative-historical. He trained linguists who made a great contribution to the study of Indian languages ​​(B. Whorf, M. Swadesh, H. Hoyer, M. Haas, C. F. Woeglin, and many others). American and Canadian linguists and scientists from other countries are studying Indian languages. The languages ​​of Mesoamerica and South America are less documented than those of North America. This is partly due to the absence of a tradition of studying indigenous languages ​​in Latin American linguistics. Only individual South American linguists (for example, A. Rodriguez in Brazil) were engaged in the study of Indian languages ​​in the 20th century. However, in modern science, this situation is gradually changing for the better. Researchers of Indian languages ​​are united in a professional association - the Society for the Study of Native Languages ​​of America.

An important trace in the study of Indian languages ​​was left during the time of Russian America by Russian travelers and scientists [N. P. Rezanov, L. F. Radlov, F. P. Wrangel, L. A. Zagoskin, I. E. Veniaminov (Innokenty]), P. S. Kostromitinov and others. I.

The authors of the first genealogical classifications of Indian languages ​​are the American researchers A. Gallaten (1848) and D. H. Trumbull (1876). A truly comprehensive and highly influential classification of 1891 is that of D. W. Powell and his collaborators in the Bureau of American Ethnology. It identifies 58 language families in North America, many of which have retained their status in the modern classification. In 1891, another important classification appeared, which belongs to D. Brinton (USA); it introduces a number of important terms (especially the "Uto-Aztec family"). In addition, it included the languages ​​of not only North but also South America. More recent classifications of North American languages ​​have been based on Powell's, while South American languages ​​have been based on Brinton's.

After the publication of Powell's classification, attempts began to reduce the number of North American families. A. Kroeber and R. Dixon radically reduced the number of families in California and, in particular, postulated the associations of “hawk” and “penuti”. The reductionist tendency of the early 20th century was most clearly manifested in the well-known classification of E. Sapir (1921, 1929), in which the languages ​​of North America were combined into 6 macrofamilies: Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian-Wakash, Na-Dene, Penutian, Hokan-Siouan and Astec-Tanoan. Sapir considered his classification as a preliminary hypothesis, but later it was absolutized and reproduced many times without proper reservations. As a result, researchers have the erroneous impression that the Algonquian-Wakashian, Hokan-Siouan associations are established language families. In fact, in the 1920s, none of the Sapir associations had adequate work in the field of comparative studies and reconstruction. The reality of the Eskimo-Aleut family was later confirmed by such work, and the remaining 5 Sepir macrofamilies were revised or generally rejected by most specialists. Sapir's classification, like a number of later hypotheses about distant kinship, has only historical significance.

Since the 1960s, conservative classifications have dominated, including only reliably proven language families. The book Indigenous Languages ​​of America (eds. L. Campbell and M. Mitun, USA; 1979) provides a list of 62 language families (including some families of Mesoamerica) between which there is no reliable relationship. About half of them are genealogically isolated single languages. The 1979 concept is based on a qualitatively new level of knowledge about most North American languages: in the 1960s and 1970s, detailed comparative historical work was carried out on all nuclear families of North America, and the documentation of languages ​​has increased significantly. In the 17th volume (“Languages”) of the fundamental “Handbook of North American Indians” (editor I. Goddard, 1996), a “consensus classification” is published, which, with minor changes, repeats the 1979 classification and also includes 62 language families.

The first detailed classification of South American languages ​​was proposed in 1935 by the Czech linguist C. Loukotka. Includes 113 language families. In the future, a lot of work on the classification of the languages ​​of the Amazon was carried out by A. Rodriguez. One of the most modern classifications belongs to T. Kaufman (USA; 1990, 1994); it contains 118 families, of which 64 are isolate languages. According to the classification of L. Campbell (1997), there are 145 language families in South America.

J. Greenberg proposed in 1987 to unite all Indian languages, except for Na-Dene, into a single macrofamily - the so-called Amerindian. However, the vast majority of experts were skeptical about this hypothesis and the methodology of "mass comparison" of languages ​​behind it. Therefore, the term "Amerindian languages" is not recommended for use.

Lit .: Klimov G. A. Typology of the languages ​​of the active system. M., 1977; The languages ​​of Native America. Historical and comparative assessment / Eds. Campbell L., Mithun M. Austin, 1979; Suärez J. A. The Mesoamerican Indian languages. Camb., 1983; Kaufman T. Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more // Amazonian linguistics: Studies in Lowland South American languages ​​/ Ed. Payne D. Austin, 1990; idem. The native languages ​​of South America // Atlas of the world's languages ​​/ Eds. Mosley C., Asher R. E. L., 1994; Handbook of North American Indians. Wash., 1996. Vol. 17: Languages ​​/ Ed. Goddard I.; Campbell L. American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. N.Y.; Oxf., 1997; The Amazonian languages ​​/ Eds. Dixon R. M. W., Aikhenvald A. Y. Camb., 1997; Mithun M. The languages ​​of Native North America. Camb., 1999; Adelaar W. F. H., Muysken R. C. The languages ​​of the Andes. Camb., 2004.

(cm . AZTEC LANGUAGES).The Uto-Aztecan languages ​​occupy the entire Great Basin of the United States and large areas in the northwest and in the center of Mexico. The Comanche language is spoken in the south of the prairie area. Numerous external links of the Uto-Aztecan languages ​​proposed in the literature are unreliable.

The last two families considered are partly located in Mexico. Next, we move on to families that are represented exclusively in Mesoamerica.

Otomangean The (Otomanguean) family includes many dozens of languages ​​and is distributed mainly in central Mexico. The seven groups within the Otomanguean family are Amusgo, Chiapyanek-Mange, Chinanteco, Mixteco, Otomi-Pame, Popolok and Zapotec.Totonac (Totonacan) family distributed in east-central Mexico and includes two branches totonac and tepehua. The Totonac family includes about a dozen languages.mihe-soke family (Mixe-Zoque) is common in southern Mexico and includes about two dozen languages. The two main branches of this family are mihe and soke.Mayan family (Mayan) The largest family in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. There are currently between 50 and 80 Mayan languages.Cm . MAYAN LANGUAGES.Misumalpanskaya (Misumalpan) family has four languages ​​located in the territory of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Perhaps this family is genetically related to the Chibchan (see below ). Chibchanskaya The (Chibchan) language family is transitional between the languages ​​of Mesoamerica and South America. Related languages ​​are spoken in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia. The Chibchan family includes 24 languages.

Further considered families are already actually South American, although some of them have peripheral representatives in Central America.

Arawak (Arawakan), or Maipurean, the family is distributed throughout almost all of South America, in a number of Central American countries up to Guatemala and all the islands of the Caribbean, including Cuba. The center of gravity of this family, however, falls on the western Amazon. The Arawakan family consists of five main branches: central, eastern, northern (including the Caribbean, Inland, and Wapishana groups), southern (including the Bolivia-Paran, Campa, and Purus groups), and western.Ká ribskaya(Ka riban) the main family of the north of South America. (We emphasize that the Caribbean group (Caribbean) mentioned in the previous paragraph does not belong to this family, but to the Arawak. Such homonymy arose due to the fact that toá Rib peoples from the mainland conquered the Arawak peoples of the islands and in some cases transferred their self-name to them. TOá The Rib family includes 43 languages.

In the western Amazon (about the same place as the Arawak family) are languages

tucanoan (Tuka noan) families. This family includes 14 languages.

The Andean region contains languages

Quechuan(Quechuan) and Aymaran (Aymaran) families. The great languages ​​of South America, Quechua and Aymara, belong to these families. The Quechuan family includes several Quechua languages, which are called dialects in other terminology.(cm. QUECHUA).Aymaran family, or Khaki (Jaquí ), consists of two languages, one of which is Aymará (cm. AYMAR Á ).Many experts suggest that these two families are related and form the Kechumara macrofamily, other linguists explain the similarity with borrowings.

Located in the southern foothills of the Andes

Panoan (Panoan) family. It is divided into eight branches, named on a geographical basis (eastern, north-central, etc.), and includes 28 languages.

There is a family in eastern Brazil

same (Je), which includes 13 languages. There is a hypothesis that languagessame together with 12 more small families (from 1 to 4 languages ​​each) form a macrofamilymacro same. TO macro same include, in particular, the Chiquitano language, the Bororoan family, the Mashakali family, the Karazh languagesá and etc.

Along the periphery of the range, macro-same, i.e. virtually throughout Brazil and surrounding areas distributed

tupi(Tup ian ) macrofamily. It includes about 37 languages. The Tupian macrofamily includes the core Tupi-Guarani family, which consists of eight branches: Guaranian, Guarayu, Tupi proper, Tapirapé, Kayabi, Parintintin, Camayura, and Tucuñape. The Guaranian branch includes, in particular, one of the great South American languages ​​\u200b\u200b Paraguayan Guarani(cm. GUARANI).In addition to the Tupi-Guarani languages, eight more separate languages ​​​​are included in the Tupi association (their genetic status has not been finally established).Sociolinguistic information. American Indian languages ​​are extremely diverse in their sociolinguistic characteristics. The current state of the Indian languages ​​developed under the conditions of European colonization and subsequent existence as languages ​​of ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, in the present state, reflexes of the social and demographic situation that took place in the pre-colonial period are clearly visible. There are many individual differences in the modern sociolinguistic status of Indian languages, but there are features common to entire areas. In this sense, it is convenient to consider North America, Mesoamerica and South America each separately.

Despite the high linguistic genetic density of North America, population density in the pre-contact period was low. Most estimates of the Indian population prior to colonization are in the region of 1 million. Indian tribes, as a rule, did not number more than a few thousand people. This situation has been preserved to the present day: the Indians are a very small minority in the USA and Canada. However, there are several tribes, the number of which is measured in tens of thousands, Navajo, Dakota, Cree, Ojibwa, Cherokee. Many other tribes within 18

– 20th century completely disappeared (as a result of genocide, epidemics, assimilation) or survived as ethnic groups, but lost their language. According to the data of A. Goddard (based, in turn, on the information of M. Krauss, B. Grimes and others), 46 Indian and Eskimo-Aleut languages ​​have survived in North America, which continue to be assimilated by a sufficiently large number of children as native ones. In addition, there are 91 languages ​​spoken by a fairly large number of adults and 72 languages ​​spoken only by a few older people. About 120 more languages ​​that were somehow registered have disappeared. Almost all North American Indians speak English (or French or Spanish). In the last one or two decades, in a number of places in the United States and Canada, Indians and linguists have made vigorous efforts to revive indigenous languages.

The densely populated empires of the Maya and Aztecs were destroyed by the conquistadors, but the descendants of these empires number in the hundreds of thousands. These are the Masawa languages ​​(250-400 thousand, Otomanguean family, Mexico), East Huastec Nahuatl (more than 400 thousand, Uto-Aztecan family, Mexico), Mayan Kekchi languages ​​(280 thousand, Guatemala), West Central Quiche (more than 350 thousand, Guatemala), Yucatec (500 thousand, Mexico). The average number of Mesoamerican speakers is an order of magnitude higher than in North America.

In South America, the linguistic situation is extremely polarized. On the one hand, the vast majority of languages ​​have a very small number of speakers a few thousand, hundreds or even tens of people. Many languages ​​have disappeared, and this process is not slowing down. So, in most of the largest language families, from a quarter to a half of the languages ​​\u200b\u200bis already extinct. However, the population speaking indigenous languages ​​is estimated at between 11 and 15 million people. This is due to the fact that several South American languages ​​became inter-ethnic for entire groups of Indian tribes, and subsequently as a means of self-identification of Indians (regardless of their specific ethnic origin) or even entire countries. As a result, in a number of states, Indian languages ​​acquired official status.

(cm. QUECHUA; AYMARA; GUARANI).Typological features. With all the genetic diversity of the American languages, it is obvious that very few generalizations can be made about the structural features of these languages. Most often, as a constitutive feature of the "American" language type,polysynthetism , i.e. a large number of morphemes per word on average (compared to the interlingual "standard"). Polysynthetism is not a characteristic of any words, but only of verbs. The essence of this grammatical phenomenon lies in the fact that many meanings, often expressed in the languages ​​of the world as part of names and functional parts of speech, are expressed in polysynthetic languages ​​as part of a verb. The result is long verb forms containing many morphemes, and other sentence components are not as obligatory as in European-type languages ​​(Boas spoke of a "sentence-word" in North American languages). Sapir gave the following example of a verb form from the Californian Yana language (Sapir 1929/Sapir 1993: 414): yabanaumawildjigummaha"nigi "may we, each [of us], actually move westward across the stream." The structure of this form is: (really); ha "- (let); nigi (we). In the Iroquoian Mohawk language, the word ionsahahneküntsienhte" means "he scooped up water again" (an example from the work of M. Mitun).ó ntsien- (get water); ht- (causative); e" (dottedness).

Most of the largest language families in North America have a pronounced tendency to polysyntheticism - Na-Dene, Algonquian, Iroquois, Siouan, Caddoan, Mayan. Some other families, especially in the western and southern parts of the continent, are closer to the typological average and are characterized by moderate synthetism. Polysyntheticism is also characteristic of many South American languages.

One of the main aspects of polysynthetism is the presence of indicators of arguments in the verb; such is the morpheme -nigi "we" in yana and ha- "he" in mohawk. These indicators encode not only the internal features of the arguments themselves (person, number, gender), but also their role in predication (agent, patient, etc.). Thus, role meanings, which in languages ​​like Russian are expressed as cases in the composition of names, in polysynthetic languages ​​are expressed in the composition of the verb. J. Nichols formulated an important typological opposition of vertex/dependency marking: if in a language like Russian, role relations are marked on dependent elements (names), then in a language like Mohawk on the vertex element (verb). Argument indicators in a verb are traditionally interpreted in American studies as pronouns incorporated into the verb. To describe this phenomenon, Jelinek proposed the concept of “pronominal arguments”: in languages ​​of this type, the true arguments of a verb are not independent nominal word forms, but related pronominal morphemes in the composition of the verb. Nominal word forms in this case are considered as "applications" (adjuncts) to pronominal arguments. Many Indian languages ​​are characterized by the incorporation into the verb not only of pronominal morphemes, but also of nominal roots, especially corresponding to the semantic roles of patient and place.

On the material of the Indian languages, the active construction of the sentence was discovered for the first time. Activity alternative to ergativity and accusativity

(cm . TYPOLOGY LINGUISTIC).In the active construction, both the agent and the patient are encoded regardless of the transitivity of the verb. The active model is typical, in particular, for such language families as Pomoan, Siouan, Caddoan, Iroquoian, Muscogean, Keres, etc. in North America, and for the Tupian languages ​​in South America. The concept of languages ​​of the active system, which belongs to G.A. Klimov, is largely built on the data of Indian languages.

Indian languages ​​have significantly influenced the development of word order typology. In studies of basic word order, data from South American languages ​​are constantly cited to illustrate rare orders. So, in to

á In the Rib language of Khishkaryana, according to the description of D. Derbyshire, the basic order is “object predicate subject” (very rare in the languages ​​of the world). The material of the Indian languages ​​also played an important role in the development of the typology of the pragmatic word order. For example, R. Tomlin and R. Rhodes found that in the Algonquian language Ojibwa, the most neutral order is the opposite of that which is usual for European languages: thematic information follows the non-thematic one. M. Mitun, relying on the material of polysynthetic languages ​​with pronominal arguments, suggested not to consider the basic order as a universally applicable characteristic; indeed, if noun phrases are only applications to pronominal arguments, then their order should hardly be considered an important characteristic of the language.

Another feature of a number of Indian languages ​​is the opposition between proximative (near) and obviative (distant) third person. The best-known system of this type is found in the Algonquian languages. Nominal phrases are explicitly marked as referring to a proximal or obviative person; this choice is made on discursive grounds the proximative is usually a person known or close to the speaker. Further, on the basis of the difference between two third persons in a number of Indian languages, the grammatical category of the inverse is built. So, in the Algonquian languages, there is a personal hierarchy: 1st, 2nd person > 3rd proximal person > 3rd obviative person. In transitive predications, the agent may be higher than the patient in this hierarchy, and then the verb is marked as a direct form, and if the agent is lower than the patient, then the verb is marked as inverse.

Andrey Kibrik LITERATURE Berezkin Yu.E., Borodatova A.A., Istomin A.A., Kibrik A.A.Indian languages . In: American Ethnology. Study guide (in press)
Klimov G.A. Typology of active languages . M., 1977

There are two main points of view. According to the first (the so-called "short chronology"), people came to America about 14-16 thousand years ago At that time, the sea level was 130 meters lower than today, in addition, in winter it was not difficult to cross the strait on ice on foot.. According to the second, people settled the New World much earlier, from 50 to 20 thousand years ago (“long chronology”). The answer to the question "How?" much more certain: the ancient ancestors of the Indians came from Siberia through the Bering Strait, and then went south - either along the western coast of America, or along the central part of the mainland through the ice-free space between the Laurentian ice sheet and the glaciers of the Coast Ranges in Canada. However, regardless of how the first inhabitants of America moved, traces of their early presence were either deep under water due to rising sea levels (if they walked along the Pacific coast) or destroyed by the actions of glaciers (if people walked along the central part of the continent). Therefore, the earliest archaeological finds are not found in Beringia. Beringia- a biogeographic region connecting Northeast Asia and the northwestern part of North America., and much to the south - for example, in Texas, in the north of Mexico, in the south of Chile.

2. Were the Indians in the East of the USA different from the Indians in the West?

Timucua leader. Engraving by Théodore de Bry after a drawing by Jacques Le Moine. 1591

There are about ten cultural types of North American Indians Arctic (Eskimo, Aleut), Subarctic, California (Chumash, Washo), US Northeast (Woodland), Great Basin, Plateau, Northwest Coast, Great Plains, Southeast US, Southwest US.. So, the Indians who inhabited California (for example, the Miwok or Klamath) were hunters, fishermen and gatherers. The Shoshone, Zuni, and Hopi peoples of the southwestern United States belong to the so-called Pueblo cultures: they were farmers and grew corn, beans, and pumpkins. Much less is known about the Indians of the eastern United States, and especially the southeast, since most of the Indian tribes died out with the advent of Europeans. For example, until the 18th century, the Timucua people lived in Florida, distinguished by the wealth of tattoos. The life of these people is recorded in the drawings of Jacques Le Moine, who visited Florida in 1564-1565 and became the first European artist to depict Native Americans.

3. Where and how did the Indians live

Apache wigwam. Photograph by Noah Hamilton Rose. Arizona, 1880Denver Public Library/Wikimedia Commons

Mud houses in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Around 1900 Library of Congress

In wigwams - stationary dwellings made of branches and animal skins in the shape of a dome - lived the Indians of the forest zone in the north and northeast of America, while the Pueblo Indians traditionally built adobe houses. The word "wigwam" comes from one of the Algonquian languages. Algonquian languages- a group of Algic languages, one of the largest language families. Algonquian languages ​​are spoken by about 190 thousand people in the east and in the central part of Canada, as well as on the northeast coast of the United States, in particular the Cree and Ojibwe Indians. and in translation means something like "house". Wigwams were built from branches that were tied together, forming a structure that was covered with bark or skins on top. An interesting variant of this Indian dwelling is the so-called long houses in which the Iroquois lived. Iroquois- a group of tribes with a total number of about 120 thousand people living in the USA and Canada.. They were made of wood, and their length could exceed 20 meters: several families lived in one such house at once, whose members were relatives to each other.

Many Indian tribes, such as the Ojibwe, had a special steam bath - the so-called "sweating wigwam". It was a separate building, as you might guess, for washing. However, the Indians did not bathe too often - as a rule, several times a month - and used the steam bath not so much to become cleaner, but as a remedy. It was believed that the bath helps with illnesses, but if you feel good, you can do without washing.

4. What did they eat

Man and woman eating. Engraving by Theodore de Bry after a drawing by John White. 1590

Sowing maize or beans. Engraving by Théodore de Bry after a drawing by Jacques Le Moine. 1591Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt / book-graphics.blogspot.com

Smoking meat and fish. Engraving by Théodore de Bry after a drawing by Jacques Le Moine. 1591Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt / book-graphics.blogspot.com

The diet of the Indians of North America was quite diverse and differed greatly depending on the tribe. Thus, the Tlingits, who lived on the coast of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, mainly ate fish and seal meat. The Pueblo farmers ate both corn dishes and the meat of hunted animals. And the main food of the Indians of California was acorn porridge. To prepare it, it was necessary to collect acorns, dry, peel and grind. Then the acorns were put in a basket and boiled on hot stones. The resulting dish resembled a cross between soup and porridge. Eat it with spoons or just with your hands. The Navajo Indians made bread from corn, and its recipe has been preserved:

“To make bread, you will need twelve ears of corn with leaves. First you need to peel the cobs and grind the grains with a grain grater. Then wrap the resulting mass in corn leaves. Dig a hole in the ground large enough to fit the bundles. Light a fire in the pit. When the earth warms up properly, take out the coals and put bundles in the hole. Cover them, and start a fire from above. The bread is baked for about an hour.

5. Could a non-Indian lead a tribe

Governor Solomon Bibo (second from left). 1883 Palace of the Governors Photo Archive / New Mexico Digital Collections

From 1885 to 1889, Solomon Bibo, a Jew, served as governor of the Acoma Pueblo Indians, with whom he traded from the mid-1870s. Bibo was married to an Acoma woman. True, this is the only known case when a pueblo was led by a non-Indian.

6. Who is the Kennewick Man

In 1996, the remains of one of the ancient inhabitants of North America were found near the small town of Kennewick in the state of Washington. That's what they called him - Kennewick Man. Outwardly, he was very different from modern American Indians: he was very tall, wore a beard and rather resembled modern Ainu Ainu- the ancient inhabitants of the Japanese islands.. The researchers suggested that the skeleton belonged to a European who lived in these places in the 19th century. However, radiocarbon analysis showed that the owner of the skeleton lived 9300 years ago.

Reconstruction of the appearance of the Kennewick man Brittney Tatchell / Smithsonian Institution

The skeleton is now housed at the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle, and the modern Washington Indians regularly demand that the remains be handed over to them for Indian burial. However, there is no reason to believe that the Kennewick man during his lifetime belonged to any of these tribes or their ancestors.

7. What the Indians thought about the moon

Indian mythology is very diverse: its heroes are often animals, such as a coyote, a beaver or a raven, or celestial bodies - the stars, the sun and the moon. For example, members of the Californian Wintu tribe believed that the moon owed its appearance to a bear who tried to bite it, and the Iroquois claimed that there was an old woman weaving linen on the moon (the unfortunate woman was sent there because she could not predict when the world would end).

8. When the Indians got the bow and arrow

Virginia Indians. The scene of the hunt. Engraving by Theodore de Bry after a drawing by John White. 1590 North Carolina Collection/UNC Libraries

Today, Indians of various North American tribes are often depicted holding or shooting bows. It wasn't always like that. The fact that the first inhabitants of North America hunted with a bow is unknown to historians. But there is evidence that they used a variety of spears. The first finds of arrowheads date back to about the ninth millennium BC. They were made on the territory of modern Alaska - only then the technology gradually penetrated into other parts of the continent. By the middle of the third millennium BC, the bow appears on the territory of modern Canada, and at the beginning of our era it comes to the territory of the Great Plains and California. In the southwestern United States, bows and arrows appeared even later - in the middle of the first millennium of our era.

9. What languages ​​do the Indians speak?

Portrait of Sequoia, creator of the Cherokee Indian syllabary. Painting by Henry Inman. Around 1830 National Portrait Gallery, Washington / Wikimedia Commons

Today, the Indians of North America speak approximately 270 different languages, which belong to 29 language families, and 27 isolate languages, that is, isolated languages ​​that do not belong to any large family, but form their own. When the first Europeans came to America, there were many more Indian languages, but many tribes died out or lost their language. Most of the Indian languages ​​have been preserved in California: 74 languages ​​are spoken there, belonging to 18 language families. Among the most common North American languages ​​are Navajo (about 180 thousand Indians speak it), Cree (about 117 thousand) and Ojibwe (about 100 thousand). Most Indian languages ​​now use the Latin alphabet, although the Cherokee use the original syllabary developed in the early 19th century. Most Indian languages ​​may disappear - after all, they are spoken by less than 30% of ethnic Indians.

10. How modern Indians live

Today, most of the descendants of the Indians of the United States and Canada live in much the same way as the descendants of Europeans. Only a third of them are occupied by reservations - autonomous Indian territories that make up about two percent of the US area. Modern Indians enjoy a number of benefits, and in order to receive them, you need to prove your Indian origin. It is enough that your ancestor was mentioned in the census of the early XX century or have a certain percentage of Indian blood.

Tribes determine in different ways whether a person belongs to them. For example, the Pueblo Isleta consider their own only one who has at least one parent was a member of the tribe and a full-blooded Indian. But the Oklahoma Iowa tribe is more liberal: to become a member, you need to have only 1/16 of Indian blood. At the same time, neither knowledge of the language, nor adherence to Indian traditions does not matter.

See also materials about the Indians of Central and South America in the course "".

On the pages of the Vamvigvam store, we talked about all the houses of the Indians and other nomadic tribes - wigwams, tipis, yarangas, etc.
It is time to learn more about the residents of these dwellings themselves.

Indians is a common name given to the indigenous population of North America. The only exceptions are the Aleuts and Eskimos. The emergence of this name originates in the misconception of the first visitors from Europe, such as Christopher Columbus and others. They believed that the continent they had discovered was India, not America.

According to their anthropological type, the Indians belong to the Americanoid race. At the moment, the number of Indians on both American continents already exceeds 75 million people, taking into account those Indians who have lost their belonging to any tribe. It is worth recalling that only in the 60s of the last century this figure was 30 million. Now there are approximately 1000 different Indian tribes and peoples, and this number, despite the general growth of the Indian population, has decreased: at the end XV centuries, about 2200 different nationalities, tribes and species were distinguished.

According to the data of numerous studies that have been conducted on this topic, the ancestors of the Eskimos and Indians came to American soil from Asia and Altai. In ancient times, on the site of the Bering Strait, there was the Bering Bridge, which was a fairly wide isthmus that allowed free migration between continents. The Indians settled and settled on the new land for many thousands of years. The similarity between the Indian tribes living in America, as well as the Chukchi and other peoples who live on the territory of Eurasia, is quite noticeable, and this is expressed not only in lifestyle, but also in many other ways. For example, scientists were able to establish that the DNA of the indigenous people of Altai and the Indians living on a completely different continent are somewhat similar due to the presence of unique mutations in them.

Before colonization began on the territory of America, most of the Indians lived in tribes dominated by the communal-tribal system. In some tribes there was a matriarchy, and in some - a patriarchy, but the system was preserved. At that time, only in North America there were 400 tribes that spoke their own unique languages ​​​​and dialects and did not have any written language. In 1825, thanks to its leader, Sequoyah, a syllabary alphabet was created in the Cherokee tribe, and two years later the first newspaper of the tribe appeared, which was called the Cherokee Phoenix.

However, not all tribes were so educated: the steppe Indians used pictographic writing. Also in use was inter-tribal jargon, which was used for trade: it was called "mobile". Sign language was also used by the Indians. Wampums, which are beads made from shells of mollusks, acted as money.