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Native American music

(Encyclopedia)Native American music. The music of Native North Americans is primarily a vocal art, usually choral, although some nations favor solo singing. Native American music is entirely melodic; there is no ha...

Native American Church

(Encyclopedia)Native American Church, Native American religious group whose beliefs blend fundamentalist Christian elements with pan–Native American moral principles. The movement began among the Kiowa about 1890...

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(Encyclopedia)Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), civil-rights organization founded in 1957 by Martin Luther King, Jr., and headed by him until his assassination in 1968. Composed largely of African-Am...

Central American Federation

(Encyclopedia)Central American Federation or Central American Union, political confederation (1825–38) of the republics of Central America—Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. United under ...

American Fur Company

(Encyclopedia)American Fur Company, chartered by John Jacob Astor (1763–1848) in 1808 to compete with the great fur-trading companies in Canada—the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Astor's most ...

American water spaniel

(Encyclopedia)American water spaniel, breed of medium-sized sporting dog developed in the American Midwest. It stands about 17 in. (43.2 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 30 and 40 lb (13.6–18.1 kg). It...

Dawson, Sir John William

(Encyclopedia)Dawson, Sir John William, 1820–99, Canadian geologist and educator, b. Pictou, N.S., studied at the Univ. of Edinburgh. After serving (1850–55) as superintendent of education in Nova Scotia, he wa...

Native American languages

(Encyclopedia)Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arriv...

Ratzel, Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Ratzel, Friedrich frēˈdrĭkh rätˈsəl [key], 1844–1904, German geographer. He traveled as a journalist in Europe (1869) and in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States (1872–75). Thereafter he devo...

naturalism, in art

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in art, a tendency toward strict adherence to the physical appearance of nature and rejection of ideal forms. Artists as diverse as Velázquez, J. F. Millet, and Monet, have followed natur...