Changeling - Players Guide.pdf

The Zuni were some'of the first pueblo-dwellers to suffer
from Spanish greed. The walls of their adobe houses looked
like gold to Spanish explorers, prompting a-report to the
Spanish viceroy that the "fabled Seven Cities of Cibola,
whose streets were paved with gold," had been found. As a
result,-Coronado and his armed adventurers plundered the
pueblo. The Zuni fled to the top of an inaccessible mesa where
they built a single, defensible village. They live there still.
Other Southwestern tribes include the Mojave, Tewa,
Tiwa and Yuma.
Far West
You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as
that any man who was born free should be contented penned
up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.
— Chief Joseph, speech before cabinet members, Congressmen
and diplomats, 1879.
The Far West tribes are those of Montana, Oregon,
Washington, Colorado, California and Utah. They have
varied cultures, but are not usually numbered among either
the Plains tribes or those who lived along the coast of the
Pacific Northwest. Among them are the Flatheads, Miwok,
Modoc, Utes and Nez Perces.
The Flatheads were a Salishan tribe in Montana who
adopted Plains Indian culture with the arrival of the horse,
and traded beaver and bison skins. Plains tribes gave them
their unusual name to distinguish them from other Salishan
tribes who did practice ritual forehead flattening.
The Miwok were a central Califomian tribe who ate nuts,
fished, and hunted deer and rabbits. They lived in conical houses
made of poles. Women worked together with communal grinding
stones. Before the Gold Rush, the Miwok were a prosperous
tribe with a rich culture. Today they are practically extinct.
The Modoc lived in southwestern Oregon. They are most
remembered for their fierce resistance to being forced onto
reservations. The Modoc took shelter in the Lava Beds, where
they defended themselves against thousands of soldiers who
bombarded them with cannon-fire. Eventually, part of the tribe
was removed to Oklahoma with the rest left in Oregon.
The Nez Perces, which means "pierced noses," customarily
wore a piece of dentalium shell through their septums.
They were semi-nomadic and best known for their trading
skills, bravery and generosity. The fine basketweaving of
their women and their breeding of Appaloosa horses brought
them fame as well. Consistently friendly to Europeans, they
lived in communal houses containing several families. Unjustly
driven from their lands, they fought fiercely under their
great leader Chief Joseph. They now live in Idaho.
The Utes were from Colorado and eastern Utah, and
shared many cultural traits with the more northern Plains tribes.
Mormon settlers and mining interests forced them off much of
their ancestral lands. Generally friendly to Europeans, they now
raise cattle and live on reservations in Colorado and Utah.
Far North and
Pacific Northwest
In the month of Beaver
I watch the night sky,
Thinking this was the time of year
We made ts'eekkaayah.
Memories stretch and pull around me —
Bark drying on a new canoe.
— Mary TallMountain, "Ts'eekkaayah (Spring Camp)"
The people of this region are either coastal dwellers or
natives of the frozen north. Those who reside along the
Pacific Coast are usually referred to as the tribes of the Pacific
Northwest, while the Aleuts and Inuits are usually called
Eskimos. All these tribes derive much of their livelihood from
fishing and hunting, and must cope with the long, cold
winters of the north.
The Far Northern Tribes
The Aleuts are a branch of the Inuit who live mostly on
the Aleutian Islands. The name came from Russian traders;
their own name for themselves is unangan ("the people").
They were adept at hunting and harvesting sea resources from
their skin-covered kayaks. They suffered greatly from exploitation
at the hands of Russian traders who came to the islands
in the mid-18th century.
The Inuit are more familiarly called Eskimo ("those who
eat their food raw") They are big game hunters, preying
mostly on seal, walrus, caribou and polar bear. On land they
use dog sleds, while on water they use kayaks and umiaks.
Whenever they must, they still build igloos. The Inuit are
found throughout the Arctic, Alaska and Northern Canada.
Plans are underway to make a great portion of Northeastern
Canada (including Hudson Bay) a homeland for the Inuit.
The Pacific Coastal Tribes
The Chinook live in Washington state. Their trade
jargon became the common language used throughout the
Northwest, and many interior tribes came to trade furs,
mountain-sheep horn and war captives for salmon, shells and
other goods. The words potlatch and hootch are derived from
their language. Incursions by the European trade companies
broke their trade monopoly by introducing diseases that
decimated the tribe.
The Haida live on Queen Charlotte Island off the coast
of British Columbia. Once hunters of whales and sea otters,
they traveled in huge canoes hollowed out of single enormous
cedar trees. Known for their totem poles, masks and decorations
on their wooden houses, contact with Europeans was
devastating to the Haida as they fell victim to smallpox and
venereal disease.