490 



GENS GERMAN INFLUENCE 



[b. a. e. 



1598.— Onate (1598) in Doc. Inecl., xvi, 

 114, 1871. 

 ■Xenopue.— Ibid., 123. 



Gens. See Cldii and Gens. 



Gens de la Sapiniere ( French : ' people of 

 the fir tree' ) . A numerous tribe formerly 

 living N. N. w. of L. Superior and trading 

 •with the English on Hudson bay. Du 

 Lhut, in 1684, endeavored to draw their 

 trade to the French. They were distinct 

 from the Cree, Chippewa, and Assini- 

 boin, and may have been a part of the 

 Maskegon. — La Chesnaye (1697) in Mar- 

 gry, Dec, vi, 7, 1886. 



Gens de Paise (corruption of French 

 Gens du Pais, 'people of the land'; or of 

 Gens du Panse, 'band of the paunch). 

 Given as a band of Sioux at the Mandan 

 subagencv, N. Dak., in 1832 (Ex. Doc. 

 90, 22d Cong., 1st sess., 63, 1832), but 

 probably intended for the Hidatsa, q. v. 



Gens de Pied ( French : ' foot people ' ) . 

 A former ))and of Assiniboin in 33 lodges 

 w. of Eagle hills, Assiniboia, Canada. — 

 Henrv (1808) in Coues, New Light, ii, 

 491, 1897. 

 Toot Assiniboines. — Ibid., 523. 



Gens des Lacs (French: 'people of the 

 lakes'). One of the 5 tribes into 

 which Badin (Ann. de la Prop, de la 

 Foi, IV, 536, 1843) in 1830 divided the 

 Sioux nation. What people he includes 

 has not been ascertained, possibly only 

 the Mdewakanton. Frichard (Phys. 

 Hist. Mankind, v, 140, 1847) uses the 

 term Gens du Lac as equivalent to Peo- 

 l^le of the Leaves, and includes the 4 

 most easterly Dakota tribes, not only 

 the Mdewakanton (the true Gens des 

 Lacs), but the Wahpeton (Leaf villages), 

 Wahpekute ( Leaf -shooters ) , and Sisseton. 



Gens du Large (French: 'wandering 

 people'). One of the two divisions 

 of the Dakota, as given by Long (Ex- 

 ped. St Peters r., i, 380, 1824), com- 

 prising the following tribes: Kahra (a 

 Sisseton band), Miakechakesa (Sisseton), 

 Tetoans (Teton), Wahkpakota (Wahpe- 

 kute), Wahkpatoan (Wahpeton), Yank- 

 toanan (Yanktonai), Yanktoan (Yank- 

 ton). It em))races all the group except 

 the Mdewakanton, his Gens du Lac. 



Dacota errans.— Balbi, Atla.s Ethnog., 55, 1826. 

 Roving Dakotas. — Long, op. cit., I, 380. 



Gentaienton ('meadows lying to- 

 gether.' — Hewitt). One of the chief vil- 

 lages of the Erie, q. v. Its location is 

 not known, but the name indicates that it 

 was on a plain. 



Gentagega. — Jes. Rul., Thwaites ed., lviii, 75, 1899. 

 Gentaguetehronnons. — Ibid., XLU, 197, 1899. Gen- 

 taienton. — Ibid., LXI, 195, 1900. Kentaienton. — 

 Shea, note in Charlevoix, New France, ii, 266, 

 1866. 



Gergecensens. A subdivision of the so- 

 called Thamien group of the Costanoan 

 Indians of California. 



Gergecensens. — Taylor in Cal. Farmer, June 22, 

 I860. Gerguensens. — Ibid. Gerzuensens. — Ban- 

 croft, Nat. Races, l, 452, 1874. 



German influence. German influence 

 on the aborigines x. of Mexico has 

 made itself felt in three i^articular re- 

 gions — among the Eskimo of Labrador 

 and Greenland; among the Delawares, 

 Mahican, and some of the Irocjuois in 

 Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario; 

 and among the Cherokee of South Caro- 

 lina. In those regions Moravian mission- 

 aries have endeavored to convert the 

 natives with considerable success. The 

 Moravian missions in Greenland began in 

 1721 under Egede. The station of Ny 

 Herrnhut dates from 1734. From the 

 account given by Thompson (Moravian 

 Missions, 211, 1890) the native Christians 

 in Greenland number some 1,500, and 

 their customs and habits have been much 

 changed for the better, especially where 

 the influence of whalers and traders has 

 not been too strong. The Moravian 

 efforts in Labrador began at Hopedale in 

 1752 under Ehrhardt, but the first suc- 

 cessful establishment was made in 1771. 

 The general result has been to modify 

 considerably the dress, implements, hab- 

 its, and beliefs of the natives, and particu- 

 lar) y their sexual morality (Delabarre in 

 Bull. Geog. Soc. Phila., 145-151, 1902). 

 The disappearance of the Eskimo pirates, 

 W'ho once infested the straits of Belleisle, 

 and the general improvement of Arctic 

 navigation have been brought about 

 through the change in Eskimo life and 

 character. Turner observed that some of 

 the Eskimo children of the Labrador 

 missions use the German words for num- 

 bers up to 10 in their counting-out games, 

 having caught them from the mission- 

 aries. Much of W'hat the Moravians have 

 accomplished in Greenland has been done 

 in spite of the Danish authorities rather 

 than with their cooperation. Moravian 

 missionaries in the 18th century and the 

 early years of the 19th, labored among 

 the Mahican of e. New York (Ranch 

 having begun the work in 1740), among 

 the Delawares and other tribes of Penn- 

 sylvania, Zeisberger being "the apostle 

 of the Delawares," and among the Iro- 

 quois in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, 

 and Canada (Thompson, op. cit., 267-341 ). 

 They exercised restraint on the Indians 

 during the French-English and Revolu- 

 tionary wars, when their converts gener- 

 ally were illtreated by all sorts of white 

 men. According to Thompson (p. 276) 

 the Moravian mission of 1735 to Georgia 

 was the first company from any quarter 

 that reached the shores of America with 

 the express and leading object of evangel- 

 izing natives. Their labors began among 

 the Creeks. Moravian missions were 

 established also among the Cherokee 

 (Mooney in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 83, 

 1900). According to some the father of 

 Sequoya, the inventor of the Cherokee 



