Native American Encyclopedia Bonepickers To Comanchero
4 bonepickers Bonepickers played a role in Choctaw funeral practices When a tribe member died the Choctaw placed the wrapped body on a raised platform After several weeks a bonepicker arrived to clean the bones place them in a box and set fire to the other remains and the platform The bonepicker finished the ritual by bringing the box to the village bone house When enough boxes were collected the people made a burial mound for them It may be that this part of the ritual came from their possible early ancestors the Mound Builders of the southeastern United States Though bonepickers were unique to the Choctaw culture Plains Indians did use funeral platforms in their burial practices Bonneville Benjamin 1796-1878 served as an expedition leader trailblazer and spy for the U S Army in the West In 1832 Bonneville and 110 men began their journey to the northern Rocky Mountains He used his role as a trapper to gather information about the land and tribes he met He mapped his route parts of which became the Oregon Trail He provided information on the British and their fur trading partnerships with tribes His reports helped guide western settlement Later in New Mexico Territory he led the first U S Army soldiers to fight against Apache tribes Bonnin Gertrude Simmons 1876-1938 an author speaker and teacher helped write the first Native American grand opera The Sun Dance She wrote books and short stories about Native American legends under the name Zitkala-Sa meaning Red Bird As a young woman she taught at Carlisle School Her life experience as the daughter of a Yankton Nakota Sioux mother and nonnative father helped her build cultural bridges between Native Americans and mainstream America Booger masks worn by Cherokee men in the Booger Dance represents enemies fears or evil spirits By making fun of them the Booger Dance makes these enemies seem less powerful In the past the Cherokee made the mask faces from large gourds hornet nests or wood then decorated them with smaller gourds seedpods carved wood or bones The Booger Dances usually occur in fall or winter
Bosque Redondo 5 Meet Daniel Boone Boone Daniel 1734-1820 explored and helped settle lands in today’s Kentucky called kentake by native peoples meaning meadowland Using a native trail he made hunting trips through the Appalachian Mountains to Kentucky in Cherokee and Shawnee territories In time other pioneers used the trail and named it Wilderness Road In 1773 Boone and his family started the settlement of Boonesboro Kentucky When the Shawnee captured Boone in 1778 they adopted him and he lived with them for several months He also helped defend other settlers against attacks by native peoples Interesting Fact Adoption of captured enemies commonly occurred in many tribes Survival often depended on having enough tribal members to do the necessary work of the community It served as a way for them to replace tribe members who had died Tribes adopted not just settlers but members of other tribes too Bosque Redondo became home to nearly 9,000 Navajo in 1864 at the end of the Navajo War The U S Army marched Navajo survivors to Bosque Redondo Reservation in southeastern New Mexico from their homeland 300 miles 480 kilometers to the northwest Over 200 people died on the difficult march called the Long Walk of the Navajo Bosque Redondo had bad water poor soil few animals for hunting and suffered Kiowa and Comanche raids The soldiers at nearby Fort Sumner mistreated the Navajo and smallpox and other diseases killed thousands A new treaty in 1868 allowed the Navajo to return to their homeland The United States forced the Navajo people to abandon their homeland and walk 300 miles 480 kilometers to a reservation See also Trail of Tears
6 Boudinot Elias Boudinot Elias 1802-1839 Cherokee brother of Stand Watie lived in Georgia and supported Cherokee assimilation Called Gallegina or Buck Watie in his early life he later took the name of the nonnative man who paid for his education Boudinot worked as the editor of the first native American newspaper the Cherokee Phoenix When Georgians pressured the Cherokee to move Boudinot and three others signed the Treaty of New Echota This was against the wishes of Chief John Ross and most of the Cherokee Nation The treaty signed away their eastern lands for lands in Indian Territory For this act of disloyalty unknown Cherokees killed Boudinot and two of the other signers in Indian Territory See also New Echota Treaty and Watie Stand Bourke John G 1846-1896 served in the U S Army under General George Crook in the West He learned to speak Apache and studied the tribes he words to know assimilation uh-sihm-uh-LAY-shun the act of becoming like the dominant group or culture including its values and way of life disloyalty dihs-LOY-uhl-tee lack of true and dependable faith and support shafts SHAFTS arrow bodies not including the arrowhead sinew SIH-nyoo strong fiber or tendon that secures muscle to bone met in his work He wrote reports that helped the army during peace talks and other dealings with Native Americans He later wrote about his experiences in several books including An Apache Campaign and On the Border with Crook Use of traditional bows and arrows declined after better guns came out in the mid-1800s Bow and arrow served as the main hunting and fighting weapon of Native American cultures for centuries Tribes made their bows and arrows out of materials found in their homeland Woodland tribes made their bows from strong flexible wood Alaskan tribes used driftwood strengthened with a sinew wrap or backing The Inuit used whale ribs Arrows had wood cane or reed shafts with arrowheads made of flint copper obsidian shell horn bone antler or wood The Inuit and others fastened feathers on the ends of their arrows Feathers gave the arrow a spin during flight
Braddock Edward 7 Bozeman Trail abandon all forts in the area and return the land to the Lakota Though the trail reopened in the 1870s after the Black Hills War railroads replaced its use See also Red Cloud Billy Bowlegs continued Seminole resistance after Creek and Seminole leader Osceola died in 1838 Bowlegs Billy about 1810-1864 also called Halpatter Micco or Holata Micco meaning Alligator Chief led Seminole forces during the Second and Third Seminole Wars He and his warriors operated out of the deep swamps where the U S Army had trouble moving its heavy weaponry By 1858 years of warfare disease and starvation convinced the remaining Seminoles to end the fighting Bowlegs demanded and received cash for war damages to Seminole land See also Seminole Wars Bozeman Trail linked Fort Laramie Kansas to the Montana gold fields It provided the quickest route for settlers and miners but cut through tribal hunting grounds To stop trail use by nonnatives the Lakota fought the U S Army during Red Cloud’s War In 1868’s Treaty of Fort Laramie the U S agreed to shut down the The Bozeman Trail shown in yellow cut through the last and best hunting area in the Northern Plains Tribes fought it fiercely Braddock Edward 1695-1755 led British troops in one disastrous battle against the French and their native allies in the French and Indian War Colonists including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully tried to give him tips on wilderness warfare When he set off to take Fort Duquesne he did not use native scouts did not have local support and took too much equipment French forces ambushed Braddock’s men killing 997 out of 1,459 Braddock died of his wounds
