SOCIAL STUDIES FACT CARDS
NORTHEAST INDIANS
Copyright © by Toucan Valley Publications, Inc. | Source Citation


NORTHEAST INDIANS DATABASE
Number of Cards
32
Card Description
One card each on 32 Northeast Indian groups

NORTHEAST INDIANS
An Introduction

NORTHEAST INDIANS

The Native American tribes of the eastern
United States played an important role in the history of this country. The Indians of the eastern tribes were the first to greet the European newcomers. They introduced European settlers to the Indian way of life and helped them survive the long, cold winters. They offered them food and showed them where to find supplies to build houses. But many of the settlers ultimately turned against the Indians, and by the end of the 18th century most of the eastern tribes had been forced to move west to other parts of the country. Other tribes were wiped out by diseases brought from Europe by the settlers. 

Northeast Indians Fact Cards

The information given in the Northeast Indians Fact Cards has been gathered from various sources to provide an accurate account of the everyday lives of Indians before the arrival of the European settlers and the Indian displacement that followed. All of the facts in these cards are meant to be representative of Indian life as it was in the years between 1600-1750. 

Selection of Tribes

The groups covered in Northeast Indians Fact Cards are those in the eastern half of the geographical area identified by historians as the Northeast Culture Area. This includes the area east of Ohio to the Atlantic Ocean, and from Maine south to the coastal sections of Virginia and northern North Carolina. Northeast Indians Fact Cards covers the major known tribes of the area. There were other smaller or lesser-known groups about whom little specific information has survived.  

Most of the tribes included in this set still have some presence in the United States today, although in most cases their numbers are considerably smaller than they were three centuries ago.  

The Northeast Indians can be divided into two groups: the Algonquian Indians of the east coast and eastern woodlands, and the Iroquois-speaking tribes of upper New York State and eastern Pennsylvania.  

Algonquian

The Algonquian Indian tribes spoke various dialects of the Algonquian language. They tended to live in wigwams, and the level of organization within each tribe varied depending on the tribe, but was generally loose. Corn was the major crop for most Algonquian tribes. Cultural habits of the Algonquian tribes changed depending on their location. Algonquian tribes of the north, such as the Micmac and the Passamaquoddy of Maine, lived in areas full of moose and caribou and birch trees. Because of this, they were dependent on hunting for food and on using the bark of birch trees to make tools and canoes. The tribes of Virginia, on the other hand, lived in a region with a mild climate and plenty of land for growing crops. The southern tribes were more dependent on agriculture than hunting, and they used different trees and bark for making their tools. Tribes on the coast ate more seafood than those that were inland. And so on. The differences between tribal cultures can almost always be linked to differences in their environments. It is no wonder, then, that Indians had such a deep reverence for nature and its powers. 

Iroquois

Iroquoian Indian tribes all spoke dialects of the Iroquois language. Iroquoian tribes were distinctive in that they lived together in longhouses. Several related families could live together in one longhouse, and so they were sometimes known as the People of the Longhouse.  

The Iroquois tribes also tended to have a very high level of organization, and they were known to be great warriors. In fact, they fought with each other and with the Algonquian tribes so often that sometime around the year 1600 (historians are not exactly sure when) five of the seven Iroquoian tribes listed in these Fact Cards decided to band together. The five tribes -- the Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, and Mohawk -- became known as the League of the Iroquois. When they joined together, the fighting stopped, and because of this the League is sometimes referred to as the Great Peace. The League of the Iroquois became one of the most well organized and powerful bands of Indians in all of northeast America. The League still exists today in parts of New York and Canada.  

The League of the Iroquois was so successful in governing its people that the founding fathers of the United States based the Constitution of the United States on principles of government that were very similar to those of the League. The other Iroquoian tribes, the Tuscarora and Susquehannock, shared the language of the League and some of their customs, but during the period covered in these cards, neither of them were members of the League. In 1722, however, the Tuscarora were displaced by hostile settlers and moved north to become a part of the League. 

Principles

Despite their differences, the Algonquians and Iroquois shared three fundamental ideas. (1) They believed that decisions made by a group of people must come from the consensus of everyone in that group. (2) They believed in sharing. In times of want, no one ever went hungry. The well-being of the group was more important than the satisfaction of just a few. (3) They believed that man was a part of nature, not outside of it.  

As you are reading the Northeast Indian Fact Cards, remember that just because the way of life of the Indians you read about here has disappeared, that does not mean the Indians themselves are gone.  Many are doctors, lawyers, teachers, and politicians, and have lives that are similar to your own. Although the ancient way of Indian life is gone forever, the lessons we can learn from reading about those lives are still very much alive. 

Sources

Most of the information in the Northeast Indians Fact Cards comes from the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1978. Secondary sources were A Concise Dictionary of Indian Tribes of North American, by Barbara Leitch and Keith Irvine, Reference Publications, 1997 and Algonquians of the East Coast, by the editors of Time-Life Books, 1995.


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