The large tribe/nation of the Catawba were in NC and surrounding area. About 70,000 I think, not sure at their height. Seems the Catawba may have spoken a Siouan language, not sure.

The mighty Chippewa, allies of the French more or less, in northern Michigan and surrounding areas of Canada. They could field about 5,000 or so warriors, and pushed the Lakota-Dakota-Nakota (Sioux) out of Northern Michigan inot Wisconsin, Minnesota (sp?), and the Great Plains. 'Sioux' comes from the end of a long and derisive Chippewa word for the Lakota meaning 'evil snakes' or something like that. There were at least 5 main tribes of Sioux, and at least 2 lesser tribes, making a very large group of people. A more general and erroneous term applied to all the Sioux seems to be Lakota rather than Dakota, although as previously mentioned, they were the Dakota-Lakota-Nakota people. Same problems with European tribes and nations. Take the helvetti and Belgae, were they Gauls or Germans or a mixture of both peoples??

Then there were the Northern and Southern Cheyene, friends of and I believe related to the Sioux, and very powerful.

The Northern and Southern Arapaho seem to be related to the Sioux and Cheyenne and were usually allies and friends with them, although the Arapaho and Cheyenne did have a war or two.

Then Kiowa in the southest Wyoming and Nebraska etc. area were also powerful and feared, a bit wild I guess. Don't know if the Oklahoma were a subgroup of the Kiowa, but I believe the Kiowa were basically northern Apache or related to the Apache and some were known as Kiowa-Apache.

Ojibwa would include the Pottowatomi (sp?). One is a subgroup of the other but I forget which is which, and the languages are very, very, similar. many of these people live in the Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, Canada area, there is a large reservation, Walpole (sp?, must look at a map) Island at the northern end of Lake St. Clair.

The Chickasaw were kin of the Choctaw I do believe, and both were powerful. Both may be related to the Creek, but off-hand I don't know for sure.

The Natchez and their 'Sun King' were a large group in the area of Natchez, Mississippi etc. of course.

The Blackfeet (Siksika) were VERY feared, and fought a lot of other people. They are also in Montana and Wyoming, not just southern Canada. An old friend of mine, Jacobi, was a Blackfoot. The Bllod and Pigean, neighbors of the Blackfeet may be related. The Blackfeet were generally on better terms with the British, as it was an incident with a band of Blackfeet trying to swipe horses from the Lewis and Clark Expedition in which a Blackfoot warrior was killed, that soured relations with the USA. Presently there is a large Blackfoot reservation in Montana I do believe.

The Crow were also a good sized gourp in the middle Great Plains near the Sioux and Cheyene with whom they did war with if I am not mistaken. Don't know off-hand if the Crow are related to the Blackfeet. The Crow were in sountern and central Montana etc.

Then the Assinoboine, Plains Ojibwa, Gros Ventre, and variuos Cree north of the Crow in northern Montana and Canada, and the Nez-Perce, Cayuse, and Palouse of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The Mandan and Hidatsa were were in North Dakota originally.

Then there were the Shawnee, Pawnee, Ponca, Omaha, Ioway, Missouria, Illinois, Otoe, Kaw, Osage, Caddo, Quapaw, Wichita, Kichai, Tonkawa, Tawakoni, etc. stretching from South Dakota down through eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and eastward through Arkansas, Missouri and Illionis.
The Arikara may have been of the Missouria, and they were in northern South Dakota and warred with the Sioux and seem to have been friends and/or related to the Mandan and Hidatsa.

Shoshone were originally in Wyoming and Colorado.

The Ute and Navajo were not all that peaceful either and were quite strong.

A good book is 'Atlas of the North American Indian, Revised Edition', by Carl Waldman, 1985, 2000, ISBN 0-8160-3974-7 for Hardcover.

A large and varied group of people to deal with, and sometimes using language grouping may help to organize things, but this too would be ahistorical at times as peoples withing one language grouping did fight each other as we all know.

Time for a nice, cool chocolate malt now methinks. Maybe a buffalo hamburger, good meat it is, leaner than venison.

Chris