Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mahican

(Encyclopedia)Mahican məhēˈkən [key], confederacy of Native North Americans of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Mahican were of the Eastern ...

Maori

(Encyclopedia)Maori mäˈōrē [key], people of New Zealand and the Cook Islands, believed to have migrated in early times from other islands of Polynesia. Maori tradition asserts that seven canoes brought their an...

Kootenai, indigenous group of North America

(Encyclopedia)Kootenai ko͞otˈənāˌ [key], group of Native North Americans who in the 18th cent. occupied the so-called Kootenai country (i.e., N Montana, N Idaho, and SE British Columbia). Their language is tho...

Krasnodar Territory

(Encyclopedia)Krasnodar Territory, administrative division (1995 pop. 5,004,200), 32,317 sq mi (83,701 sq km), SE European Russia, extending E from the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea into the Kuban steppe and stradd...

Khoikhoi

(Encyclopedia)Khoikhoi koiˈkoiˌ [key], people numbering about 55,000 mainly in Namibia and in W South Africa. The Khoikhoi have been called Hottentots by whites in South Africa. In language and in physical type t...

Hidatsa

(Encyclopedia)Hidatsa hēdätˈsä [key], Native North Americans, also known as the Minitari and the Gros Ventre. Their language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native America...

Goa

(Encyclopedia)Goa gōˈə [key], state (2001 provisional pop. 1,343,998), c.1,430 sq mi (3,700 sq km), W India, on the Malabar coast. A former Portuguese colony and Indian union territory, Goa became a state in 198...

Ebla

(Encyclopedia)Ebla ĕbˈlə, ēˈblə [key], an ancient city located in N Syria 34 mi (55 km) S of Aleppo. First excavated in 1964, the ruins of the city were discovered in 1973 by an Italian archaeological expedit...

Pentecost

(Encyclopedia)Pentecost pĕnˈtəkôst [key] [Gr.,=fiftieth], important Jewish and Christian feast. The Jewish feast of Pentecost, in Hebrew Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, arose...

Northern Cape

(Encyclopedia)Northern Cape, province (2011 pop. 1,145,861), 144,015 sq mi (372,889 sq km), NW South Africa. In 1994, under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, Northern Cape was created from the northern po...