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Aboriginal

Specialty Definition: Aborigine

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The term aborigine refers to the original inhabitants of a country colonised by some other more technologically-advanced cultural grouping (see indigenous people). However, the term is not appreciated by some people, who prefer the expression 'Aboriginal people'. Many Aboriginal races have been the object of Genocide

In common usage (although this may be seen as derogatory), this term refers specifically to the original inhabitants of Australia or ofTaiwan. 'Aboriginal' however can be used as a term to refer to any original or first nation.

See also: Aborigines, Australian Aborigine, Taiwanese aborigine

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Aborigine."

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Australian Aborigine

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. Their ancestors probably arrived in Australia just over 50,000 years ago, although the date remains uncertain. Some researchers put the date of arrival at close to 100,000 years ago, but the case for very early occupation presently rests on a single archeological site of uncertain date.

At the time of first contact with the European colonists in the late 18th century, most Aboriginals were hunter-gatherers with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is at once the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of dreaming. (Also see Aboriginal mythology).

There were a great many different Aboriginal groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure, and language (approximately 200 different languages at the time of European contact). These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time. Lifestyles varied a great deal, and the sterotyped image of a proud and naked hunter standing one-legged in the red sand of the central Australian desert cannot be applied across the board. In present-day Victoria, for example, there were two separate communities with an economy based on fish-farming in complex and extensive irrigated pond systems (one on the Murray River in the state's north, the other in the south-west near Hamilton), and trade with other groups from as far away as the Melbourne area.

The Aboriginal population was decimated by British colonization which began in 1788. A combination of disease, loss of land (and thus food resources) and outright murder reduced the Aboriginal population by an estimated 90% during the 19th Century and early 20th Century. (See Genocide). A wave of massacres and resistance followed the frontier. The last massacre was at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928. Poisoning of food and water has been recorded on several different occasions.

The number of violent deaths at the hands of whites is still the subject of a vigorous and politically-loaded debate, with some figures—notably Prime Minister John Howard—rejecting what Howard terms "the black-armband" view of Australian history. Figures of around 10,000 have been advanced by historians such as Henry Reynolds. Historian Keith Windschuttle claims such numbers are not backed up by documentary evidence, finding evidence existing only for a much smaller number. Reynolds attacks Windschuttle's interpretation of the existing evidence, points out that documented proof that Windschuttle requires is unlikely to be available, and questions Windschuttle's rejection of other forms of evidence such as oral history.

Despite the prominence of the direct violence debate, loss of land was probably more significant as a killer, and there is no doubt that by far the major factor in the decline of Australia's Aboriginal population was disease: in particular, chickenpox, smallpox, influenza, venereal diseases, and measles spread in waves throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Aboriginal people had no understanding of European diseases, and very little of the genetic resistance that Europeans had evolved over the centuries. It is estimated that about 90% of the Aboriginal population decline was the result of disease spreading in advance of the European colonists. As always with infectious diseases, the worst-hit communities were the ones with the greatest population densities where disease could spread more readily. Entire communities in the moderately fertile southern part of the continent simply vanished without trace, often before European settlers arrived or recorded their existence. The large fish-farming economy in south-west Victoria, for example, was entirely unknown to science until the turn of the 21st century, when investigations by a team of archeologists working with and guided by surviving members of a local Aboriginal community began to unearth the foundations of houses and rediscover the irrigation system.

In spite of the decline in their numbers throughout the 19th century, Aboriginal men, women and children became a very important source of labour to the large sheep and cattle stations (i.e. ranches) which came to dominate northern Australia. They were also employed in other northern industries, such as pearling. Aborigines in northern Australia were often forced to work and the term slavery has been used in regard to their employment. They were usually paid only in food and other basic items. This labour system lasted until the pastoral industries began to decline in the late 20th century.

During the first half of the 20th century, native welfare boards were established in the various states. These instituted a policy of separating children from their parents based upon racial stereotyping. Pale-skinned children were forcibly removed, and Aboriginal parents often darkened up their children to keep them. This aspect of Aboriginal history is also open to considerable debate. See Stolen Generation.

Many Aborigines now live in towns and cities around Australia, but a substantial number live in settlements (often located on the site of former church missions) in what are often remote areas of rural Australia. The health and economic difficulties facing both groups are substantial (for instance, life expectancy of Aboriginal people is often 20 years shorter than the wider Australian population) and the root causes and solutions have been, again, contentious political issues.

Prominent Aborgines

Aboriginal people have succeeded in Australian life through excelling at sport, especially Australian Rules football. For example:

• Evonne Goolagong, tennis star who won seven Grand Slam titles.
• Doug Nicholls, a Yorta Yorta man and football star, was later a respected clergyman and the first Aboriginal governor of an Australian state
• Graham Farmer, AKA "Polly" Farmer, a Noongar man regarded by many as the greatest ever player of Australian Rules football.
• Cathy Freeman, Olympic athlete.
• Michael Long and Nicky Winmar, footballers who publicly challenged racism in Australian Rules football.
• Gavin Wanganeen and Adam Goodes, winners of the Brownlow Medal, Australian Rules Football's highest individual honour.
• Patrick Johnson, athlete; first man not of West African ancestry to break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters. White father and Aboriginal mother.

Prominent Aboriginal performing artists and entertainers include:

• David Gulpilil film and television actor
• Mandawuy Yunupingu from the rock band Yothu Yindi
• Ernie Dingo, an actor and television presenter

The number of Aboriginal people who have achieved prominence outside the areas of sport and entertainment is still small. Some examples include:

• John Ah Kit, Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
• Neville Bonner, first Aboriginal member of the Australian Parliament
• Ernie Bridge, former Cabinet Minister in Western Australia
• Linda Burnley, member of the New South Wales Parliament
• Carol Martin, member of the Western Australian Parliament
• Pat O'Shane, New South Wales magistrate
• Charles Perkins, the first Aboriginal university graduate and later a senior public servant
• Aden Ridgeway, Australian Democrats Senator for New South Wales

A note on nomenclature

The Aboriginal people had no name for themselves as a people before their encounter with Europeans in the 18th century, since they had never had to think of themselves in relation to other peoples. The word aboriginal, in use in English since the 17th century to mean "first or earliest known, indigenous", was used in Australia as early as 1789: it was soon capitalised and became the standard name for the indigenous Australians.

Strictly speaking "Aboriginal" is an adjective and "Aborigine" is a noun. It is therefore correct to refer either to "the Aboriginal Australians" or to "the Australian Aborigines," but not to "the Australian Aboriginals". This latter usage is, however, very common. This is partly because Aboriginal people increasingly dislike being called "Aborigines". (Note that the once-common abbreviation "Abo" is now considered most offensive.) Today the preferred usages are "Aboriginal people" (as in, "This is what Aboriginal people want") or "indigenous Australians".

A generally acceptable indigenous name for most of the Aboriginal people in New South Wales and Victoria is the term Koori or Koorie. Aboriginal groups in other parts of Australia have their own names, such as Murri in southern Queensland, Noongar (or Nyungah) in southern Western Australia, Nunga in South Australia and Palawa in Tasmania. These names are not "tribal" but refer to the languages formerly spoken by many groups over large areas.

See also: List of Australian Aboriginal tribes, Music of Australia, American Aborigines, Aboriginal art

External links

• Norman B. Tindal's Catalog of Aboriginal Tribes
• Bibliography for Aboriginal Studies

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Australian Aborigine."

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Indigenous people

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Indigenous people is a term applied to what explorers and anthropologists, especially from Europe, used to call "primitive tribes". The latter term has fallen into disfavor as being demeaning and, according to anthropologists, inaccurate (see tribe, cultural evolution). Generally, the term refers to the people living in an area prior to European colonization, and to their descendants. It may also apply to people living in an area prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not belong to the dominant nation of a nation-state.

By the 17th century, indigenous peoples were commonly labeled "uncivilized". Critics of civilization, such as J.J. Rousseau, considered them to be "noble savages"; proponents of civilization, like T. Hobbes, considered them merely savages. Such proponents of civilization believed themselves to have a duty to civilize and modernize them.

After World War I, however, many Europeans came to doubt the value of civilization. At the same time, the anti-colonial movement, and advocates of indigenous peoples, argued that words such as "civilized" and "savage" were products and tools of colonialism, and argued that colonialism itself was savagely destructive.

In the mid 20th century, Europeans began to recognize that indigenous and tribal peoples should have the right to decide for themselves what should happen to their ancient cultures and their ancestral lands.

Various organizations are devoted to the preservation or study of tribes, such as Survival International. Anthropologists generally try not to interfere with tribal life, but usually do not interfere with attempts by government or business to relocate or "civilize" them.

The United Nations defines indigenous peoples as follows:

"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them."

Advocates of the concept of indigenous peoples argue that, despite the diversity of indigenous peoples, they share common problems and issues in dealing with the prevailing, or invading, society. They are generally concerned that the cultures of indigenous peoples are being lost and that indigenous peoples suffer both discrimination and pressure to assimilate into their surrounding societies. This is borne out by the fact that the lands and cultures of nearly all of the peoples listed at the end of this article are under threat. Notable exceptions are the Sakha and Komi peoples (two of the Northern Indigenous Peoples of Siberia), who now control their own autonomous republics within the Russian state. It is also sometimes argued that it is important for the human species as a whole to preserve a wide range of cultural diversity as possible, and that the protection of indigenous cultures is vital to this enterprise.

Several criticisms of the concept of indigenous peoples are:

• In many cases, such as with some Native American tribes, some people claim that the people termed indigenous arrived in an area after the people termed non-indigenous.
• Peoples have invaded or colonised each other's lands since before recorded history and so the division into indigenous and non-indigenous is a matter of judgement. Even in recent centuries there are difficulties: for example, are the Zulu people indigenous to South Africa?
• Lumping indigenous peoples into one group ignores the vast amounts of diversity among them and at the same time imposes a uniform identity on them, which may not be historically accurate.

Some feel that those who argue that indigenous people should have the right of self-determination often are simply replacing the stereotype of the barbaric savage with another stereotype, that of the noble savage possessing mystic truths and at peace with nature, and that this second stereotype ignores some of the real issues of indigenous peoples such as economic development.

However, advocates of rights for indigenous peoples consider these arguments to be specious; if a tribe has lived self-sufficiently in an area for many centuries, why should "economic development" suddenly now be an issue when it never has been before? They argue that these arguments are usually put forward by industrialists (normally oil, mining or logging companies) who want to exploit the land for economic gain, or by governments who consider the indigenous population to be inferior and to be an obstruction to their plans for development.

An example of this occurred in 2002 when the Government of Botswana expelled all the Kalahari Bushmen from the lands they had lived off for at least twenty thousand years. Government ministers described the Bushmen as "stone age creatures" and likened their forced eviction to a cull of elephants. These events passed almost without comment in the world's media, at a time when the eviction of a number of white people from land in nearby Zimbabwe was headline news.

In response, many have pointed out that in many cases the indigenous people often haven't been living self-sufficiently in an area for centuries, and that economic development was not an issue before because it was not an option. They point out that when given a choice, indigenous people themselves often want economic development, and that this has indeed caused conflicts with environmental groups when indigenous peoples have been given title to land and then proceed to develop just like non-indigenous people. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that indigenous people are not necessarily any more self-sufficient or in tune with nature, and that indigenous peoples have themselves created environmental disasters such as Easter Island, Maya, or the disappearance of North American megafauna.

For some people (e.g. indigenous communities from India, Brasil, and Malaysia and some NGOs, such as GRAIN, ETC and Third World Network), indigenous people may be victims of biopiracy when they are submitted to unauthorised use of their biological resources, of their traditional knowledge on these biological resources, of unequal share of benefits between them and a patent holder. A controversial case of biopiracy was reported on human genes of a tribal community reported to be resistant to malaria and leprosy.

List of some indigenous peoples of the world:

• Ainu (Japan, Sakhalin Island, Russia)
• Australian Aborigines (Australia)
• Awá (Eastern Amazon rainforest, Brazil)
• Ayoreo (The Chaco, Paraguay/Bolivia)
• Basques (Northern Spain and Southern France)
• Bushmen (Kalahari Desert, Botswana/Namibia)
• Celts (United Kingdom{Scotland, Wales, Cornwall}/Ireland/Isle of Man/Brittany)
• Enxet, (Paraguay)
• Frisians (Netherlands, Germany)
• Hawaiians (Hawaii, United States)
• Innu (Labrador/Quebec, Canada)
• Inuit (Russia/Alaska/Canada/Greenland)
• Jarawa (Andaman Islands, India)
• Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania)
• Makuxi, (Brazil/Guyana)
• Maori (New Zealand)
• Moriori (Chatham Islands)
• Native Americans (United States of America/Canada)
• Northern Indigenous Peoples 30 distinct tribes, each with their own language and culture (Siberia, Russia)
• Nuba (Sudan)
• Ogiek (Kenya)
• Papuans at least 250 distinct tribes, each with their own language and culture (Papua New Guinea/Irian Jaya, Indonesia)
• Penan (Sarawak, Malaysia)
• Pygmy peoples (Central and Western Africa)
• Saami (Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Siberia).
• Tibetans (Central Asia)
• Guarani and other Tupi peoples (Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina)
• Taiwanese aborigines (East Asia)
• Tasmanian aborigines, Tasmania
• Wends (Germany, Poland)
• Yanomami (Amazon rainforest, Brazil/Venezuela)
• Yora (Amazon rainforest, South-East Peru)
• Wichí (the Chaco, Argentina/Bolivia)
• For a further list
• For a list in Europe

Some international organisations that work for the rights of indigenous peoples:

• Survival International
• Indigenous Dialogues

References

• United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, from Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, J. Martinez Cobo, United Nations Special Rapporteur (1987)

External links

• http://www.unesco.org/culture/indigenous/
• http://www.hri.ca/racism/Submitted/Author/IITC.htm
• http://www.survival-international.org/bushmanuab0208.htm

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Indigenous people."

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Native American

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Native Americans (American Indians, Amerindians, or Red Indians) are indigenous peoples, who lived in the Americas prior to the European colonization; some of these ethnic groups still exist. The name "Indians" was bestowed by Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly believed that the places he found them were among the islands to the southeast of Asia known to Europeans as the Indies. (See further discussion below).

Canadians now generally use the term First Nations to refer to Native Americans. In Alaska, because of legal use in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) and because of the presence of the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples, the term Alaskan Native predominates. (See further discussion below.)

Native Americans officially make up the majority of the population in Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala and are significant in most other former Spanish colonies, with the exception of Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

History

The Native Americans are widely believed to have come to the Americas via the prehistoric Bering Land Bridge. However, this is not the only theory. Some archaeologists believe that the migration consisted of seafaring tribes that moved along the coast, avoiding mountainous inland terrain and highly variable terrestrial ecosystems. Other researchers have postulated an original settlement by skilled navigators from Oceania, though these American Aborigine people are believed to be nearly extinct. Yet another theory claims an early crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by people originating in Europe. Many native peoples do not believe the migration theory at all. The creation stories of many tribes place the people in North America from the beginning of time. Mormon tradition holds that some Native Americans are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.

Based on anthropological evidence, at least three distinct migrations from Siberia occurred. The first wave of migration came into a land populated by the large mammals of the late Pleistocene epoch, including mammoths, horses, giant sloths, and wooly rhinoceroses. The Clovis culture provides one example of such immigrants. Later the Folsom culture developed, based on the hunting of bison.

The second immigration wave comprised the Athabascan people, including the ancestors of the Apachess and Navajos; the third wave consisted of the Inuits, the Yupiks, and the Aleuts, who may have come by sea over the Bering Strait. The Athabascan peoples generally lived in Alaska and western Canada but some Athabascans migrated south as far as California and the American Southwest, and became the ancestors of tribes now there.

The descendants of the third wave are so ethnically distinct from the remainder of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas that they are not usually included in the terms "American Indian" or "First Nations".

In recent years, anthropological evidence of migration has been supplemented by studies based on molecular genetics. The provisional results from this field suggest that four distinct migrations from Asia occurred; and, most surprisingly, provide evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous human migration from Europe. This suggests that the migrant population, living in Europe at the time of the most recent ice age, adopted a life-style resembling that lived by Inuits and Yupiks in recent centuries.

In the Mississippi valley of the United States, in Mexico and Central America, and in the Andes of South America Native American civilizations arose with farming cultures and city-states.

See archeology of the Americas.

The Arrival of Europeans

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 decimated, 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 Columbus, the 250,000 Arawaks of Haiti, were violently enslaved. Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was totally extinct before 1650. Over the next 400 years, the experiences of other Native Americans with Europeans would not always amount to genocide, but they would typically be disastrous for the Native Americans.

In the 15th century Spaniardss and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped their owners 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 died out at the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse, however, had a profound impact on Native American cultures 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 to more easily capture game.

Europeans also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Sometimes they did this intentionally, but often it was unintentional. Ailments such as chicken pox and measles, though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to Native Americans. More deadly diseases such as smallpox were especially deadly to Native American populations. It is difficult to estimate the percentage of the total Native American population killed by these diseases, since waves of disease oftentimes preceded White scouts and often destroyed entire villages. Some historians have argued that more than 80% of some Indian populations may have died due to European-derived diseases. [See Jeffrey Amherst]

The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans took place in New Hampshire colony on February 20, 1725, though it is thought that Indians learned scalping from Americans who, at times, collected them for bounties.

Four Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy sided with the British and the Tories of the American Revolutionary War. The colonists were especially outraged at the Wyoming Massacre and the Cherry Valley Massacre, which occurred in 1788. In 1799 Congress sent Major General John Sullivan on what has become known as the Sullivan Expedition to neutralize the Iroquois threat to the American side. The two allied nations were rewarded, at least temporarily by keeping title to their lands after the Revolution. The title was later purchased very cheaply by Massachussets and sold off in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and the Holland Purchase, after which by treaty, it became a part of New York State. The tribes were moved to reservations or sent westward. Part of the Cayuga Nation was granted a reservation in British Canada See also History of New York.

In the 19th century the United States forced Native Americans onto marginal lands in areas farther and farther west as white settlement of the young nation expanded in that direction. Numerous Indian Wars broke out between US forces and many different tribes. Authorities drafted countless treaties during this period and then later nullified them for various reasons. Well-known battles include the untypical 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 Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This spelled the end of the Prairie Culture that developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.

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 boarding schoolss. The experience in the boarding schools which existed from 1875 to 1928 was difficult for Indian children who were forbidden to speak their native languages and in numerous other ways forced to adopt white cultural practices.

Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, the outlawing of native languages and culture, forced sterilizations, termination policies of the 50's and 60's, and (especially) slavery have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and ultimately physical health. Contemporary problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, and diabetes: see New World Syndrome.

Classification

Ethnographers commonly classify the native peoples of the United States into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits. The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location. See the individual article on each tribe for a history of their movements. The regions are:

• Alaska Native (incomplete)
  • Ahtna
  • Carrier
  • Chilcotin
  • Haida
  • Holikachuk
  • Ingalik
  • Kolchan
  • Koyukon
  • Nahanni
  • Nishka
  • Sekani
  • Tagish
  • Tahltan
  • Tanana
  • Tanaina
  • Tlingit
  • Tsetsaut
  • Tsimishian
  • Tutchone

• Arctic
  • Aleut
  • Inuit
  • Yupik

• West coast
  • Achomawai California
  • Atsugewi California
  • Chukchansi California
  • Chumash California
  • Costanoan California
  • Esselen California
  • Hupa California
  • Kato
  • Klamath California, Oregon
  • Kumeyaay-Digueño California
  • Luiseño California
  • Maidu California
  • Me-wuk California
  • Mission Indians California
  • Miwok California
  • Modoc Oklahoma [originally from California/Oregon]
  • Mohave (Mojave) California
  • Mono California
  • Nomlaki California
  • Pit River Indians California
  • Pomo California
  • Shasta California
  • Tache California
  • Tachi California
  • Tolowa California
  • Tongva California
  • Wailaki California
  • Wintun California
  • Wiyot California
  • Yocha Dehe California
  • Yokut California
  • Yuki
  • Yurok California

• Eastern Woodlands
  • Abenaki (Wabenaki) Vermont
  • Accohannock Maryland
  • Algonquian lower Saint Lawrence River
  • Beothuk formerly Newfoundland, no longer exist
  • Delaware Oklahoma [originally near Delaware]
  • Huron north and east of Lake Ontario
  • Iroquois New York
    • Cayuga
    • Mohawk
    • Oneida
    • Onondaga
    • Seneca
    • Tuscarora
  • Lenni-Lenape New Jersey
  • Maliseet Maine and New Brunswick, Canada
  • Mashantucket Pequots Connecticut
  • Mi'kmaq Maine and Atlantic Canada
  • Mingo Pennsylvania, Ohio
  • Mohican (Mohegan) Connecticut
  • Montaukett New York
  • Narragansett Rhode Island
  • Nipmuc Massachusetts
  • Paugusset Connecticut
  • Passamaquoddy Maine
  • Penobscot Maine
  • Poospatuck New York
  • Powhatan Virginia
  • Ramapough Mountain Indians New Jersey
  • Hopewell Ohio and Black River region
  • Shawnee Ohio, Pennsylvania [most ended up in Oklahoma]
  • Shinnecock New York
  • Wampanoag Massachusetts

• Great Basin
  • Cayuse Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
  • Cupeño
  • Diegueño
  • Paiute California, Nevada, Oregon [Burns-Paiute], Arizona [Kaibab]
  • Shoshone (Shoshoni) Nevada, Wyoming, California
  • Umatilla Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
  • Walla Walla Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
  • Wasco Oregon [Confederated Tribes: [Warm Springs (Paiute, Wasco, Walla Walla) ]
  • Washoe Nevada, California

• Northwest Coast
  • Chehalis Washington
  • Chimacum Washington (extinct)
  • Chinookan Washington, Oregon
  • Coos Oregon
  • Coquille Oregon
  • Cowlitz Washington
  • Duwamish Washington
  • Hoh Washington
  • Klallam Washington
    • Klallam (Lower Elwha)
    • S'Klallam (Jamestown)
    • S'Klallam (Port Gamble)
  • Lummi Washington
  • Makah Washington
  • Muckleshoot Washington
  • Nooksack Washington
  • Nisqually Washington
  • Puyallup Washington
  • Quileute Washington
  • Quinault Washington
  • Sauk-Suiattle Washington
  • Shoalwater Bay Tribe Washington
  • Siletz Oregon
  • Siuslaw Oregon
  • Skokomish Washington
  • Squaxin Island Tribe Washington
  • Spokane Washington
  • Stillaguamish Washington
  • Suquamish Washington
  • Swinomish Washington
  • Tulalip Washington
  • Umpqua Oregon
  • Upper Skagit Washington

• Plains - Prairies
  • Alabama-Coushatta Texas
  • Arapaho Wyoming, Oklahoma
  • Arikara North Dakota
  • Assiniboine Montana [Ft. Peck Indian Reservation: Assiniboine and Lakota (Sioux) ]
  • Atsina
  • Brule
  • Caddo Oklahoma
  • Cheyenne Montana, South Dakota; Oklahoma
  • Chickasaw Oklahoma
  • Chipewyan
  • Comanche Oklahoma
  • Cree
  • Dakota
  • Drews Tribal Posse Wisconsin
  • Hidatsa North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara]
  • Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Wisconsin; Oklahoma
  • Huron Potawatomi (Nottowaseppi) Michigan
  • Illinois (Illiniwek) Illinois
  • Iowa (Ioway) Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma
  • Kaw (Kansa) Oklahoma
  • Kickapoo Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
  • Kiowa Oklahoma
  • Lakota (Sioux) South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska
  • Mandan North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara]
  • Mascouten
  • Menominee Wisconsin
  • Miami Indiana; Oklahoma
  • Oglala
  • Omaha Nebraska
  • Ojibwe (Chippewa, Anishaabe) Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana)
    • Mississaugas
  • Osage Oklahoma
  • Otoe-Missouria Oklahoma
  • Ottawa Michigan; Oklahoma
  • Pawnee Oklahoma
  • Peoria Oklahoma
  • Piegan
  • Ponca Nebraska, Oklahoma
  • Potawatomi Oklahoma, Wisconsin
  • Quapaw Oklahoma
  • Sarsi
  • Sauk (Sac and Fox) originally Great Lakes now Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa
  • Siksika
  • Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota) Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota)
  • Teton
  • Tonkawa Oklahoma
  • Wichita Oklahoma [Affiliated Tribes - Wichita, Waco, Tawakoni, Keechi]
  • Wyandot Ontario, Michigan

• Rocky Mountains
  • Blackfeet Montana
  • Chippewa Cree Montana
  • Coeur d'Alene Idaho
  • Colville Washington
  • Crow (Absaroka or Apsáalooke) Montana, South Dakota
  • Goshute Utah
  • Gros Ventre Montana
  • Kalispel Washington
  • Klikitat Washington
  • Kootenai Idaho
  • Nez Perce Idaho
  • Salish Montana, Washington [Okanagan]
  • Spokane Washington
  • Ute Utah, Colorado
  • Yakama Washington

• Southeast
  • Catawba South Carolina
  • Cherokee North Carolina; Oklahoma
  • Chickahominy Virginia
  • Chitimacha Louisiana
  • Choctaw Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama; Oklahoma
  • Creek Alabama; Oklahoma
  • Coushatta Louisiana
  • Coharie North Carolina
  • Haliwa-Saponi North Carolina
  • Houma Louisiana
  • Lumbee North Carolina
  • Mattaponi Virginia
  • Meherrin North Carolina
  • Miccosukee Florida
  • Monacan Virginia
  • Nansemond Virginia
  • Pamunkey Virginia
  • Pee Dee South Carolina
  • Rappahannock Virginia
  • Seminole Florida; Oklahoma
  • Timucua (Utina) Florida
  • Topachula Florida
  • Tunica-Biloxi Louisiana
  • Waccamaw North Carolina, South Carolina
• Southwest
  • Acoma
  • Ak Chin Arizona
  • Apache Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma
  • Cahuila (Cahuilla) California
  • Chemehuevi California
  • Cochiti
  • Cocopah Arizona
  • Havasupai Arizona
  • Hohokam Arizona
  • Hopi Arizona
  • Hualapai Arizona
  • Isleta
  • Jemez
  • Keresan
  • Laguna
  • Maricopa
  • Mohave
  • Navaho Arizona, New Mexico
  • Pima Arizona
  • Pueblo people New Mexico
  • Qahatika
  • Quechan Arizona
  • Taos
  • Tewa
  • Tigua
  • Tohono O'odham (Pagago) Arizona
  • White Mountain Apache
  • Yavapai Arizona
  • Yuma
  • Zuni
• Subarctic
  • Atikamekw
  • Cree
  • Innu
  • Yupik

Indians of Central and South America are generally classified by language, environment, and cultural similarities. The preferred term in Latin America is "Indigenous peoples."

• Caribbean
  • Arawak
  • Carib
  • Ciboney
  • Kuna
• Mesoamerican
  • Aztec
  • Huastec
  • Lenca
  • Maya
    • Mam
    • Quiché
  • Mixtec
  • Olmec
  • Tarascan
  • Teotihuacan
  • Toltec
  • Totonac
  • Zapotec
• Andean
  • Quechua
  • Aymara
  • Diaguita
  • Atacameño
• Sub-Andean
  • Panoan
  • Jivaroan
• Western Amazon
  • Tukanoan
• Central Amazon
  • Arawak
  • Tupian
• Eastern and Southern Amazon
  • Ge
  • Tupian
    • Guarani Paraguay
• Southern Cone
  • Araucanian (Mapuche)
  • Puelche
  • Tehuelche
  • Yamana
  • Kaweshkar
  • Selknam

Languages

For a general discussion, see Language families and languages

• Algonquian
• Athabascan
• Mobilian
• Taíno language (Arawak)
• Uto-Aztecan
• Chibchan
• Languages of the Pueblo: Keres, Towa, Tewa
• See http://users.cybercity.dk/~nmb3879/indian0.html

See also: Native American mythology

External Resources

• http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/cultural/newworld/index.shtml
• http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/
• http://www.dickshovel.com/trbindex.html (List of North American Tribes)
• http://www.indianlife.org/reserves/ (Canadian reserves)
• statcan.ca (Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile)

Further Reading

• Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide, Edited by Veronica E. Tiller, Forward by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Council Publications, Denver, Colorado, 1992, Trade Paperback, 402 pages, ISBN 0-9632580-0-1
• Arlene B. Hirschfelder, Mary Gloyne Byler, and Michael Dorris, Guide to research on North American Indians, American Library Association, 1983, (ISBN 0838903533)
• Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History, Roger L. Nicholes, University of Nebraska Press, 1998, Trade Paperback, 393 pages, ISBN 0-8032-8377-6
• David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, University Press of Kansas, 1975, hardcover, ISBN 0-7006-0735-8, trade paperback, ISBN 0-7006-0838-9

See European colonization of the Americas, Indian Territory, The Indian Trade, Indian Massacres, and Indian Removal.

What name best identifies this group of people?

The term "Native American" originated with anthropologists who preferred it to the former appelations of "Indian" or "American Indian", which they considered inaccurate, as these terms bear no relationship to the actual origins of Aboriginal Americans (or American Aborigines), and were born of the misapprehension on the part of Christopher Columbus, arriving at islands off the east coast of the North American continent, that he had reached the East Indies. The words "Indian" and "American Indian" continue in widespread use in North America, even amongst Native Americans themselves, many of whom do not feel offended by the terms.[1] But the appropriateness of this usage has become controversial since the late 20th century; many feel that the term "Indian" is undesirable as it is symbolic of the domination of these peoples by the European colonists. Others, in turn, resent criticism of their traditional way of speaking. "Red Indian" is a common British term, useful in differentiating this group from a distinct group of people referred to as East Indians. In the French language, the term Amérindien has been coined.

One minority view has advocated the name "Asiatic Americans" as a more accurate term because of the popular theory that such peoples migrated to the Americas from Asia across an ice bridge covering the Bering Straits some 20,000 years ago. Competent fossil evidence supports the case for such a migration. However, this term is considered offensive by many American Indians because most native religions state that American Indians have been in the Western Hemisphere since the dawn of time. Furthermore, the strong tradition among archaeologists and anthropologists, is to indicate the geographic origins of a people as relating to the region where researchers first encountered them or their remains.

One difficulty with the term "Native American" as a substitute for "American Indian" lies in the fact that there exist several groups of people indisputably indigenous to the Americas, but who fall outside the classification of "American Indians", for example the Innu people of the Labrador/Quebec peninsula and the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples of the far north of the continent. Another argument is that any person born in America is native to it.

Another difficulty is that many Native American groups migrated (or were displaced) to their current locations after the start of European colonization, and therefore it can be argued that they have no more "native" ties to their current locations than do the Europeans. However, as they were moving within America, they remained native to the America.

Generally, peoples wish that others use the name they give themselves.

See also List of Native Americans, First Nations of Canada, Native American fighting styles

External Links:

• Center for World Indigenous Studies
• Native Languages of the Americas
  

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Native American."

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Taiwanese aborigine

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

zh-tw:台灣原住民 zh-cn:高山族

Taiwanese aborigines or aborginal (原住民, in pinyin: yuánzhùmín, literal meaning: "Original Inhabitant(s)") are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. They are a group of Austronesian people, who are descended from the inhabitants of Taiwan who lived on the island before Han immigration in the 1600s.

Today, most tribes that the Republic of China (ROC) recognizes are concentrated in the highland mountains of Taiwan and speak a linguistic grouping of archaic Formosan languages, which belong to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family.

The People's Republic of China recognizes the Gaoshan as one of its official 56 ethnic groups.

List of tribes

Taiwanese aborigines recognized by the ROC government include the following tribes:

• Amis ('Amis; Pangcah)
• Atayal (Tayal, Tayan)
  • Atayal (proper)
  • Sediq
  • Truku (Taroko)
• Bunun
• Paiwan
• Puyuma
• Rukai
• Saisiyat (Saisiat)
• Tsou (Cou)
  • Northern Tsou
  • Southern Tsou
• Thao
• Yami (Tao)
• Kavalan

The Amis, Kavalan and Tsou are sometimes regarded as "lowland" tribes.

Non-recognized tribes include:

• Arikun
• Babuza
• Basay
• Hoanya
• Ketagalan
• Lloa
• Luilang
• Pazeh (Pazih)
• Popora
• Qaugaut
• Siraya
• Taokas
• Trobiawan

History of Aboriginal Tribes

Taiwan is recognized by many linguists and scholars as the original land of the Austronesian language. It is believed the Austronesian language and culture originated on Taiwan roughly 6000 years ago due to a lengthy split from its root in southern Asia. Linguistic evidence shows a greater diversity of language on Taiwan than other Austronesian speaking areas. Linguists note earlier linguistic separations, mark the earliest settlements. According to the R.O.C. government there are 11 tribes on Taiwan which are eligible to receive tribal status, but records indicate there may be as many as 26 linguistic groups and the Babuza, Popora, Hoanya, Siraya, Taokas and Pazeh tribes were included in Japanese field studies through 1945.

The Dutch supply the earliest record of aboriginal life on Taiwan. The Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) included details of their encounters with the tribes on the western plain as well as tribes from the south and southeast.

Plains Tribes

The aborigines of the plains mainly lived in stationary village sites surrounded by defensive walls of bamboo. The village sites in southern Taiwan were more populated than other locations, some villages supported a population of 1500 people, surrounded by smaller satellite villages. Siraya villages were constructed of dwellings made of thatch and bamboo, raised 2 meters from the ground on stilts, with eash household having a barn for livestock. A watchtower was located in the village to lookout for headhunting parties from the highland tribes. The concept of property was communal, with a series of concentric rings around each village. The innermost ring was used as a garden and orchard site that followed a fallowing cycle around the ring. The second ring was used to cultivate plants and material for the exclusive use of the tribe. The third ring was for exclusive hunting and deer fields for tribal use. The concept of the plains village figured prominently in the later Qing administration of Taiwan. The plains people hunted herds of spotted deer and muntjak as well as conducted light farming of millet. Sugar and rice was grown as well, but mostly for use as wine.

Many of the plains tribes were matriarchal/matrilineal societies. Men married into a woman's family after a courtship period where the woman was free to reject as many men as she wished before marriage. Until the arrival of the Dutch Reform Church, couples entered into marriage in their mid 30s when they would be less able to do more dexterous labor. Almost all tribes in Taiwan have a sexual division of labor. Women do the sewing, cooking and farming, while the men hunt and prepare to take heads. Early European accounts often cite the men for being lazy without considering the essential benefit of the division of labor. Women were often found in the office of Priestess or medium to the gods.

The Dutch Period

When the Dutch arrived in 1624 at Tayowan Harbor, they found thousands of aborigines inhabiting the immediate vicinity. The Dutch quickly allied themselves with the villages of Saccam (Tainan) Soulang () Sinkan (Shin Shi). After meeting initial resistance from Mattow (Madou) and Bakloan, when the villagers killed a group of Dutch officers, the Dutch began a set of punitive measures in 1633 to ally the western tribes and begin their colonization efforts, tribes which had once been at war were soon united. The Dutch gave each village a black velvet cape, a silver tipped staff and a flag representing the Prince of Orange to prove allegiance to the VOC. In turn the aborigines presented the Dutch with potted palms to show submission. The Dutch erected schools and churches. The reverends Georgius Candidius and Robertus Junius both learned the local languages to begin teaching the aborigines to read their own language in Romanized script. The Dutch Romanization survived through the 18th century, now only fragments survive in documents and stone stalae markers.

The Dutch were also in search of gold and endeavored the Puyuma people to lead them to the source of the island's gold. The Puyuma led the Dutch 80Km to the Kavalan Plain where trace amounts of the mineral could be panned from streambeds. This account in confirmed by both Dutch accounts and Puyuma oral tradition.

The Dutch employed the plains aborigines to procure deerskins for use in the triangular trade between the company, China and Japan. It was the deer trade that brought the first Chinese traders to aboriginal villages. The demand for deer greatly diminished the deer stocks and as early as 1642 there was a notable drop in deer herds. The drop had a heavy impact on aboriginal society as many aborigines had to take up farming to counter the economic impact of their vital food source.

The Dutch period ended with the arrival of Ming loyalist, Zheng Cheng-gong (Koxinga), but their impact was deeply ingrained in aboriginal society. 19th and 20th century European explorers write of being welcomed as kin by the aborigines who thought they were the Dutch who had promised to return.

Qing Rule

The Qing government allowed limited Chinese settlement to Taiwan and recognized the plains tribes claims to deer fields and tribal land. The Qing hoped to turn the plains tribes into loyal subjects. The Qing authorities adopted the head and corvee taxes on the aborigines, which made the plains aborigines directly responsible for payment to the authorities. To validate their tax policy, Qing officials designated Taiwan's aborigines based on their ability to pay taxes to the Qing. Those tribes, which submitted to pay taxes were classified as 'Sek Huan', which literally means 'cooked barbarian'. The tribes, which had not submitted were classified as 'Se Huan', or 'raw barbarian'. Later, the two groups were simply distinguished as 'Ping Pu/ Pepo' ( Plains) and 'Gao Shan/Ge Sen' (High Mountain) tribes. The distinction had very little to do with actual similarities or differences as some of the Gao shan tribes lived on the plains as is the case with the Amis tribe. Aborigines as an ethnic group were classically referred to as 'Huan a', simply meaning 'barbarian', the same as the classification bestowed on westerners.

Contrary to the popular misconception that the Ping pu tribes, under pressure from Han immigrants, fled to the mountains becoming Gao Shan tribes, the documented facts show that the majority of plains people remained on the plain and are currently residing on their traditional lands. Large areas of the western plain were subject to large land rents ' Huan De Zu' (Barbarian Big Rent), which desisted following the Japanese occupation. The large tracts of deer field, guaranteed by the Qing, was owned by the tribes and their individual members. The tribes would commonly offer Han farmenrs a permanent rent of the top soil, which was called 'two lords to a field' (Yi tian liang zu). Wealthier Han, commonly military leaders, were allowed large rent status of 'government wasteland'. Large rent holders were required to pay taxes of 6-8 shi for every jia . Often the Han and aborigines found creative means to solve their land and tax troubles. The An li tribe in, under the guidance of their official interperator Zhang Da-jing, an ethnic Hakka who had taken seven aborigine brides, the An li tribe transferred ownership of six pieces of land to Han farmers in exchange for the Han's expertise in building irrigation systems for farming. The plains tribes were often cheated out of land or pressured to sell, some moved, but most remained and changed their names to Chinese names. One account of this 'identity shift' occurs in the area called Rujryck by the Dutch, now part of Taipei city. A document from the seventh year of the Qianlong Emperor, and signed by the village heads states, "We originally had no surnames, please bestow on us the Han surnames, Pan, Chen, Li, Wang, Tan"etc. Taking a Han name was a necessary step in instilling Confucian values in the aborigines. In the Confucian Qing state, Confucian values were necessary to be recognized as a human 'ren'. A surname would allow the Aborigines to worship their ancestors, pray to gods and conduct in the practices of filial piety. Often, the large groups of immigrant men would unite under a common surname to form a brotherhood. Brotherhoods were used was a form of defense as each sworn brother was bound by an oath of blood to run to the aid of a brother in need. The brotherhood groups would connect their names to a family tree, in essence manufacturing a genealogy based on names rather than blood and taking the place of the kinship organizations commonly found in China. The practice was so wide spread, today's family books are largely unreliable. Many plains aborigines joined kinship groups to gain protection from the group as a type of insurance policy and through these groups they took on a Han identity with a Chinese lineage.

The undocumented 'displacement scenario', which claims Taiwan's aborigines immigrated to the mountains becoming 'Gao shan zu', has been exasperated by the migrations of plains tribes during the beginning of the 19th century. The Gao Shan people have been adapted for over one thousand years to high mountain living as projected through their material culture, hunting culture, oral tradition and physical build. The plains subgroups that had resisted becoming farmers like their Han tenants decided to move to areas away from Han interference. In 1804, a group of approximately 1000 plains aborigines moved over the central mountain range to southern Iilan, near present day Luo dong. These groups were mainly drawn from the more disadvantaged families in 30 villages of Changhua and Tanshui counties. A second migration to the Puli basin in 1823 suggests the participants were merely unsettled families and subgroups based on the fact that the migrations resulted in place names in both Iilan and Puli matching the names of their places of origin. By the early 20th century, large tracts were still owned and maintained by the members of the tribes resulting in the Japanese buying up the large pieces for use as airfields, garbage dumps and industrial zones Before the 1600's, the aborigines lived throughout the island, but those in the western coastal plains have acculturated to mainstream Taiwanese culture and intermarriage with the Han Chinese immigrants has confused descriptions of tribes and the ethnic composition of Taiwan. Taiwan Nationalist groups hope to take advantage of the new findings, which shows an island less ethnic Chinese and more multiethnic. Chinese nationalists do not feel ethnicity is an issue in adopting a Chinese identity.

Highland Tribes

Little was known about Taiwan's highland aborigines until European and American explorers and missionaries began seeking out the mountain tribes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The lack of data primarily is due to the Chinese quarantine on the area east of the border that ran along the eastern edge of the western plain. Chinese contact with the mountain tribes was usually in the vocation of camphor extraction, a chemical derived from camphor trees used in herbal medicine and mothballs. The meetings often ended in the Chinese losing his head. Plains aborigines were often employed as interpreters to trade goods between Chinese merchants and highlands aborigines. The aborigines traded cloth, pelts and meat for iron and matchlock rifles. Iron was a necessary material for the fabrication of hunting knives, long, curved sabers used for decapitating enemies.

The earliest fieldwork on the highland cultures began in 1897, by Japanese anthropologist, Ino Kanori who later teamed up with his friend Torii Ryuzo. The work published by both men laid the cornerstones for modern anthropological studies on Taiwan. Ino argued in support of Aboriginal rights, supporting the idea that they were not intellectually inferior in any way, contrary to Chinese sources, though Ino also wrote that understanding the aborigines would make them easier to govern under colonial control. The early Japanese research resulted in the creation of eight tribes of Taiwanese aborigines, Atayal, Bunun, Saisiat, Tsou, Paiwan, Puyuma, Ami and Pepo (Plains). His original findings were accepted by Governor, Viscount Kodama. Later research has found major errors in his classifications as Atayal means 'I/me' and the Yami actually call themselves 'Tao', as 'yami' in he Tao language means 'we/us'. The Paiwan were originally called Ruval and Batsul, a term they also applied to the Rukai. The Puyuma are named after the town of Beinan rather than an actual tribal name. Although the Pepo were recognized, they were not preserved, while Pong So No Daoo (Orchid Island/Lanyu), home of the Tao, was entirely sealed from outsiders for the exclusive use, until the 1930s, of scientists and anthropologists.

Little changed for the highland groups until the Japanese occupation in 1895. When the Japanese arrived in Taiwan they had grand plans to turn Taiwan into their showcase colony, a model for further colonial ambitions. In order to exploit the wealth of natural resources the Japanese had to classify the aboriginal groups and contain the aborigines to reservations. Aborigines were barred from interaction with people on the plains and were forced to wear aboriginal clothing and practice aboriginal customs to preserve their identity of a tripe that could be contained and barred from land claims. The early campaigns to gain aboriginal submission was often very brutal, with the Taroko tribe sustaining continued bombardment from naval ships and airplanes dropping mustard gas. Beginning in 1910, the Japanese sought to incorporate the aborigines into the Japanese identity. They erected schools in high mountain villages maintained by a police officer/headmaster. The schools taught math, ethics, Japanese, and vocational studies. The administrative designation of aborigine became a hereditary designation under the Japanese, complicating matters of cultural affiliation.

By 1940, 71% of aborigine children were attending school and Japanese customs were replacing aboriginal tradition. The term 'Takasago zoku' (Formosan Race) replaced 'hwan a' (savage) as the popular term used for aborigines. The Japanese had invested much time and money to eliminate traditions they found unsavory. These traditions included tattooing, infanticide and headhunting.

Headhunting

The highland tribes are notorious for their skill in headhunting, which is often unfairly viewed as savage and barbaric, without any consideration for the socio-contextual value headhunting played in many societies on Taiwan. In Taiwan, headhunting was a symbol of bravery and valor. Often the heads were invited to join the tribe as members to watch over the tribe and keep them safe. The inhabitants of Taiwan accepted the rules of headhunting as a calculated risk of tribal life. The heads were boiled and left to dry, often hanging from trees or head shelves. A party returning with a head was cause for celebration and rejoicing as it would bring good luck. The Bunun people would often take prisoners and enscribe prayers or messages to their dead on arrows, then, shoot their prisoner with the hope their prayers would be carried to the dead. Chinese settlers were often the victims of headhunting raids as they were considered by the aborigines to be liars and enemies. A headhunting raid would often strike in the field or by catching a house on fire and decapitating the inhabitants as they fled the house. It was also customary to raise the victim's children as full members of the tribe. The last groups to practice headhunting were the Paiwan, Bunun and Atayal groups. Japanese suppression ended the practice by 1930, but there are still some very old people who remember the practice.

Tribal life under the Japanese changed rapidly as many of the traditional structures were replaced by a military power. Aborigines who wished to improve their status looked to education rather than headhunting as the new form of power. The aborigines who learned to work with the Japanese and follow their customs would be better suited to lead villages. By the end of WWII, aborigines whose fathers had been killed in pacification campaigns were volunteering to die for the Emperor of Japan. Many older aborigines feel a strong identification with the Japanese.

Aborigines under the Nationalists

When the Nationalist Chinese government arrived on Taiwan, they feared the poverty stricken mountain regions might be a haven for future communist sympathizers. The KMT associated the aborigines with Japanese rule and thus had the aborigines recast as 'shan bao' or mountain compatriots. In 1946, the Japanese village schools were replaced by ideology centers of the KMT. Documents from the Education Office show a curriculum steeped in propaganda with an emphasis on Chinese language, history and citizenship. A government report on mountain areas from 1953 reports its aims starting in 1953 being chiefly, promoting Mandarin to strengthen a national outlook and create good customs. This was included in the 'Shandi Ping di hua' policy to "make the mountains like the plains". The lack of teachers during the first few years of KMT rule created huge gaps in aboriginal education as few Chinese teachers lived in Taiwan and even fewer wanted to teach in the mountains. Much of the burden of educating the aborigines was undertaken by unqualified teachers who could speak mandarin and teach basic ideology.

In 1951 a major campaign was launched to change the customs of the aborigines to act like Han Chinese. At the same time aborigines who had joined the Japanese military were conscripted to fight the bloody battles for possession of Kinmen and Matsu, the two islands under R.O.C. administration that lie closest to the coast of Mainland China. Retreating KMT soldiers from mainland China often married aboriginal women who were from poorer areas and could be easily bought as wives. The official policy on aboriginal identity had been a 1.1 ratio, leaving any intermarriage resulting in a Chinese child. Later the policy was adjusted to the ethnic status of the father determining the status of the child.

The field of aboriginal studies had been nearly eliminated from Taiwan's education curriculum, favoring the exemplification of all things Chinese to help validate the KMT on Taiwan. The result has been the loss of several languages and a perpetuation of shame for being an aborigine. Very few Taiwanese are willing to entertain the idea of having aboriginal genes although modern studies show a high degree of intermixing. In a 1994 study, 71% of families would object to their daughter marrying an aboriginal man.

Since the mid-1990s the R.O.C. government has taken steps to raise aboriginal awareness and expand aboriginal rights, as part of the Taiwanese localization movement. Aborigines play a significant role in schemes of local education and the environment with talk of autonomous regions and mandatory offerings of aboriginal language. Since 1998, school children were finally allowed to learn about the plains people based more on facts than ideology. The government had also spent considerable funds on museums and culture centers focusing on plains tribes and Taiwan's aboriginal heritage. As more research is conducted, the cloudier the situation becomes. Lee Teng hui famously submitted to a blood test which revealed aboriginal genes among Hakka and Fujianese.

Supporters of Taiwanese independence see the interest in aboriginal affairs gradual move towards nation building and the creation of an alternative to a Chinese identity. For their part, supporters of Chinese reunification do not in generally object to the interest in aboriginal affairs and argue that this illustrates the broadness and diversity of the Chinese identity and point out that this interest in indigineous peoples parallels a similar interest in Mainland China as part of the Xungen movement.

Modern Aborigines

Aborigines, according to the government's current standard for recognition, make up less 2% of the total population of Taiwan, yet by 1994 34% of the entire aboriginal population had relocated to the cities. The economic boom Taiwan experienced between during the last quarter of the 20th century resulted in drawing large numbers of aborigines out of their villages and into the urban workforce. Construction jobs were generally available for aborigines, who could not receive satisfactory educations on their reservations and lacked other marketable skills. The aborigines quickly formed bonds with other tribes as they all had similar political motives to protect their collective needs as part of the labor force. The aborigines became the most skilled iron workers and construction teams on the island often selected to work on the most difficult projects. The result was a mass exodus of tribal members from their traditional lands and the cultural alienation of young people in the villages, who could not learn their languages or customs while employed. Often, young aborigines in the cities fell into gangs aligned with the construction trade. The aboriginal cultures in Taiwan faced a massive crisis. Recent laws governing the employment of laborers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines had eroded aboriginal opportunities in the labor force. Other groups of aborigines have turned to tourism to economically compete in the local economy. Due to the close proximity of aboriginal land to the mountains, many tribes have hoped to cash in on hot spring ventures and hotels, where they offer singing and dancing to add to the ambiance. Critics often call the ventures exploitative or pandering to the aboriginal stereotypes.

The aborigines in Taiwan have also come to symbolize ecological awareness on the island as many of the environmental issues are spearheaded by aborigines who have classically been victims of government sanctioned pollution schemes. The highest profile case is the nuclear waste storage facility on Orchid Island. Orchid Island is a small, tropical island 60km off the southeast coast of Taiwan. The inhabitants are the 4000 members of the Tao tribe who have subsisted from fishing and taro farming on the island for over 1000 years. In the 1970's the island was designated as a possible site to store low and medium grade nuclear waste. The island, although populated, was selected on the grounds that it would be cheaper to build the necessary infrastructure for storage and that the population would not cause trouble. The Tao tribe claims KMT officials offered to build them a cannery for surplus fish and resent the 98,000 barrels of nuclear waste stored on their island, 100 meters from the Immorod fishing fields. The Tao have since stood at the forefront of the anti-nuclear movement and launched several exorcisms and protests to remove the waste they claim has resulted in deaths and sickness. The lease on the land has expired and an alternative site has yet to be selected. The county commissioner of Taitung County has offered to store the waste in Taimali (Timmuri), on the Puyuma reservation, but the idea has not been accepted by local residents.

There is currently a movement by the aborigines to return to their traditional sites and find ways to remain on their lands, continue their culture and speak their languages while earning a living. Eco-tourism, sewing and selling tribal carvings, jewelry and music has become the new aboriginal economy. The central government has taken steps to allow romanized spellings of aboriginal names on official documents, offsetting the long held policy of forcing a Chinese name on an aborigine. A relaxed policy on identification now allows a child to choose their official designation if they are born to mixed aboriginal/han parents.

Politically, Taiwanese aborigines tend to vote for the Kuomintang. Although this may seem surprising in light of the focus on the pan-green coalition on promoting aboriginal culture, this voting pattern can be explained on economic grounds. Aboriginal areas tend to be poor and are dependent on patronage networks established by the Kuomintang. One curious feature of Taiwanese electoral ballots is that candidates for the aboriginal seats running for the pan-blue coalition generally use sinified names while candidates for those seats running for the pan-green coalition tend to use original aboriginal names.

See also

• Taiwanese language (non-aboriginal)
• History of Taiwan

External links

• Introduction to the 10 tribes of Taiwanese indigenous peoples
• Council of Indigenous Peoples (Taiwan)
• Academia Sinica: Formosan Languages
• an overview of the tribes

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Taiwanese aborigine."

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Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Tobol'sk kremlin, Archbishop's Residence (1773-75), interior, museum hall, with display of aboriginal yurt (tent). Since 1925, the main site of the Tobol'sk Regional History Museum, Tobol'sk, Russia. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.		Highly probable mistake at the forthcoming Paris Exhibition, (where it is understood the aboriginal element is to be largely represented) / JG (?). Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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"Aboriginal rock art 2" by L L Commentary: "Aboriginal rock art, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia."

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