Algonquian Groups

The following data is extracted from Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi .

When that part of America which extends westward from the Atlantic to the Mississippi was discovered by Europeans it was occupied by numerous tribes, speaking distinct languages, with many dialects. And as the habitations and other structures erected by the widely scattered tribes differed in form, size, and the material of which they were constructed, and presented many interesting characteristics, so did the cemeteries and forms of burial vary in distant parts of the country. In New England and the lower Hudson Valley were tribes belonging to the Algonquian family, many of which were often mentioned in the early records of the colonies. Their small villages, a cluster of mat or bark covered wigwams, frequently grouped within an encircling palisade, lay scattered along the coast, and inland up the valleys of many streams. They cultivated fields of corn and raised other vegetal products, and during certain seasons of the year collected vast quantities of oysters and clams to serve as food, as attested by the great accumulations of shells now encountered along the coast. Others of this linguistic group dominated the coast as far south as s the central portion of the present State of North Carolina, thus including the people discovered by the English expeditions sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 and subsequent years, and the group of tribes which formed the Powhatan confederacy, so famed in the early history of Virginia. Like all tribes then living near the sea, they visited the coast for the purpose of gathering oysters and other mollusks, and to take fish in their weirs. During other seasons they would leave their villages and enter the virgin forests to hunt, thus securing both food and peltry, the latter to be used in making garments and various necessary articles. Westward, beyond the mountains and the Ohio, were many Algonquian tribes, the best known being the Miami, the Sauk and Fox, the several tribes which constituted the loosely formed Illinois confederacy, the Menominee and scattered Ojibway of the north, and southward in the valley of the Ohio and elsewhere the widely dispersed Shawnee. While the Algonquian tribes of the East were sedentary, and continued to occupy their ancient sites For many years after first becoming known to Europeans, the majority of the western members of this great linguistic Family were ever moving from place to place. This movement, however, may have begun only after certain of their enemies had secured firearms from the Dutch and French traders in the early years of the seventeenth century. The habitations and other structures reared by all the Algonquian tribes were quite similar in form and size.

Source: Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi

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