Семинолы, Native Americans of the Muskogean language family and of the Southeast culture area. Most now live in Oklahoma and southern Florida. The Seminole developed in the 18th century from members of the Creek Confederacy, mostly Creeks and Hitchiti, who raided and eventually set-tled in Florida, which was then Spanish territory. Joined by other refugee Native Americans and es-caped black slaves, they were cut off from the Creek Confederacy when the United States-Florida border was settled. Most spoke Muskogee, or Creek; those speaking Hitchiti, a related Muskogean language, are known as the Hitchiti-Mikasuki Seminole. Historical Seminole culture resembled that of the Creek people.

After the United States acquired Florida in 1819, the territorial governor (and later US presi-dent), Andrew Jackson, initiated a vigorous policy of removal of the Native Americans in order to open up the land for European American settlers. Seminole resistance was fierce, and the Seminole wars were among the most costly of the US Indian wars. After the capture of their leader Osceola in 1837 and the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842, several thousand Seminole were forced to go west to Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). At the end of the Third Seminole War in 1858, about 250 more were sent west. The rest were able to remain, and their descendants signed a peace treaty with the United States in 1935. In 1962 the Mikasuki acquired title to their lands in the Everglades.

The Florida Seminole have five reservations. They farm, hunt, and fish, and some run tourism-related businesses. Many still live in thatched, open-sided houses on stilts (chickees) and wear patch-work and appliquй clothing. The Seminole in Oklahoma were given a smaller reservation after the American Civil War. In the late 19th century they yielded to pressure to divide their traditional lands into individual allotments and cede the surplus to the United States; this land was opened to settlers in 1889. Many Seminole were Baptists, but both the Florida and Oklahoma groups retained traditional Muskogean observances.

Шауни (народ), Native Americans of the Algonquian language family and of the Eastern Woodlands culture area. In about 1700 they lived in present-day Ohio but were driven out by the Iroquois. Some migrated to Florida, and, by 1800, had reached Texas. Most, however, went to what is now Georgia and South Carolina. Part of this group, known as the Eastern Shawnee, then moved to Pennsylvania with the Delaware people. The others settled in Tennessee. Both subgroups were pushed back to Ohio by other peoples between 1730 and 1750; American expansion forced some into Indiana by 1795. The Shawnee first supported the French against the British, and, later, the British against the Americans. After 1805 the Shawnee leader Tecumseh organized a movement of several Native American peoples to resist European American expansion. In the 1830s, under pressure by the Iroquois and the European Americans, they moved again. The Eastern Shawnee settled in Oklahoma. The other Ohio group moved first to a Kansas reservation and later to Oklahoma where they live among the Cherokee. The Texas group, known as the Absentee Shawnee, was pushed north into Oklahoma in the mid-19th century. Today, people claiming Absentee Shawnee ancestry live mostly in central Oklahoma and have a separate government from that of the Eastern and Cherokee Shawnee.

The early Shawnee had an Eastern Woodland culture. In summer, they lived in bark-covered houses in villages while the women farmed and the men hunted, and in winter they split up into small hunting camps. The Shawnee belonged to patrilineal clans and lineages. Today they farm, ranch, and do various other sorts of work. Some are Protestants, but many adhere to traditional religions.

Шиннекок, Native Americans of the Algonquian language family and of the Eastern Woodlands culture area. They were native to Long Island, New York. After 1788 many Shinnecock formed the Brotherton band with neighbouring Algonquin peoples and settled in present-day Oneida County, New York. In 1833 they moved to Wisconsin, where they became integrated into the local population. A small number of Shinnecock remained on Long Island, however.

Шошоны, Native Americans of the Uto-Aztecan language family and of the Plains culture area. The Shoshone formerly lived in the mountainous lands of western Wyoming and Montana, central and southern Idaho, and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Oregon. In common with their neighbours, the Bannock and the Paiute, the Shoshone are often designated the Snake people. Many of the Shoshone live on reservations in Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada.

Симшиан, group of Native Americans of the Tsimshian language family and of the North-west Pacific Coast culture area. Fishers in summer and hunters in winter, they originally lived in the vicinity of the Skeena and Nass rivers in northern British Columbia.

The Tsimshian were first exposed to European-American culture in 1862, when British missionaries erected an Anglican mission at Metlakatla, eventually converting the Tsimshian to Christianity; in the process much of their original way of life perished.

The Tsimshian lived in one-storey wooden buildings consisting of a large room surrounding a fireplace with a sleeping platform built around the inner walls. A house was inhabited by 30 to 40 members of the same clan. Kinship was matrilineal (traced through the female line of descent), and society was stratified into chiefs, nobles, and commoners. The Tsimshian were skilled carvers of memorial totem poles. Today, most Tsimshian live on reservations in British Columbia and Alaska.