The History of the Algonkin Indians

The whole of the north Atlantic coast, between Cape Fear and Cape Hatteras, was occupied at the discovery by the Algonkin stock. Their northern limit reached far into Labrador, where they were in immediate contact with the Eskimos, and along the southern shores of Hudson Bay, and its western littoral as far north as Churchill river. In this vicinity lived the Crees, one of the most important tribes, who retained the language of the stock in its purest form. West of them were the Ottawas and Chipeways, closely allied in dialect, and owners of most of the shores of lakes Michigan and Superior. Beyond these again, and separated from them by tribes of Dakota stock, were the Blackfeet, whose lands extended to the very summit of the Rockies. South of the St. Lawrence were the Abnakis or Eastlanders, under which general name were included the Micmacs, Echemins and others. The whole of the area of New England was occupied by Algonkins, whose near relatives were the Mohegans of the lower Hudson. These were in place and dialect near to the Lenâpés of the Delaware valley, and to the vagrant
Shawnees; while the Nanticokes of Maryland, the Powhatans of Virginia and the Pampticokes of the Carolinas diverged more and more from the purity of the original language.

These and many other tribes scattered over this vast area were related, all speaking dialects manifestly from the same source. Where their ancient home was situated has been the subject of careful investigations, the result of which may be said to be that traditions, archæology and linguistic analysis combine to point to the north and the east, in other words, to some spot north of the St. Lawrence and east of Lake Ontario, as the original home of the stock.

The Algonkins may be taken as typical specimens of the American race. They are fully up to the average stature of the best developed European nations, muscular and symmetrical. The distinguished anthropologist Quetelet measured with great care six members of the Chipeway tribe, and pronounced them as equaling in all physical points the best specimens of the Belgian Their skulls are generally dolichocephalic, but not uniformly so. We have in the collection of the Academy seventy-seven Algonkin crania, of which fifty-three are dolichocephalic, fourteen mesocephalic, and ten brachycephali The eyes are horizontal, the nose thin and prominent, the
malar bones well marked, the lips thin. The color is a coppery brown, the hair black and straight, though I have seen a slight waviness in some who claim purity of blood. The hands and feet are small, the voice rich and strong. Physical endurance is very great, and under favorable circumstances the longevity is fully up to that of any other race.

The totemic system prevailed among the Algonkin tribes, with descent in the female line; but we do not find among them the same communal life as among the Iroquois. Only rarely do we encounter the “long house,” occupied by a number of kindred families. Among the Lenâpés, for example, this was entirely unknown, each married couple having its own residence. The gens was governed by a chief, who was in some cases selected by the heads of the other gentes. The tribe had as permanent ruler a “peace chief,” selected from a particular gens, also by the heads of the other gentes. His authority was not absolute, and, as usual, did not extend to any matter concerning the particular interests of any one gens. When war broke out, the peace chief had no concern in it, the campaign being placed in charge of a “war chief,” who had acquired a right to the position by his prominent prowess and skill.

While the Mohegans built large communal houses, the Lenâpés and most of the eastern Algonkins constructed small wattled huts with rounded tops, thatched with the leaves of the Indian corn or with
sweet flags. These were built in groups and surrounded with palisades of stakes driven into the ground. In summer, light brush tents took the place of these. Agriculture was by no means neglected. The early explorers frequently refer to large fields of maize, squash and tobacco under cultivation by the natives. The manufacture of pottery was widespread, although it was heavy and coarse. Mats woven of bark and rushes, deer skins dressed with skill, feather garments, and utensils of wood and stone, are mentioned by the early voyagers. Copper was dug from veins in New Jersey and elsewhere and hammered into ornaments, arrowheads, knives and chisels. It was, however, treated as a stone, and the process of smelting it was unknown. The arrow and spear heads were preferably of quartz, jasper and chert, while the stone axes were of diorite, hard sandstone, and similar tough and close-grained materi. An extensive commerce in these and similar articles was carried on with very distant points. The red pipe-stone was brought to the Atlantic coast from the Coteau des Prairies, and even the black slate highly ornamented pipes of the Haidah on Vancouver Island have been exhumed from graves of Lenâpé Indians.

Nowhere else north of Mexico was the system of picture writing developed so far as among the Algonkins, especially by the Lenâpés and the Chipeways. It had passed from the representative to the symbolic stage, and was extensively employed to preserve the national history and the rites of the secret societies.
The figures were scratched or painted on pieces of bark or slabs of wood, and as the color of the paint was red, these were sometimes called “red sticks.” One such, the curious Walum Olum, or “Red Score,” of the Lenâpés, containing the traditional history of the tribe, I was fortunate enough to rescue from oblivion, and have published it with a translation The contents of others relating to the history of the Chipeways (Ojibways) have also been partly preserved.

The religion of all the Algonkin tribes presented a distinct similarity. It was based on the worship of Light, especially in its concrete manifestations, as the sun and fire; of the Four Winds, as typical of the cardinal points, and as the rain bringers; and of the Totemic Animal. Their myths were numerous, the central figure being the national hero-god Manibozho or Michabo, often identified with the rabbit, apparently from a similarity in the words. He was the beneficent sage who taught them laws and arts, who gave them the maize and tobacco, and who on his departure promised to return and inaugurate the Golden Age. In other myths he is spoken of as the creator of the visible world and the first father of the race. Along with the rites in his worship were others directed to the Spirits of the Winds, who bring about the change of seasons, and to local divinities.

The dead as a rule were buried, each gens having its own cemetery. Some tribes preserved the bones with scrupulous care, while in Virginia the bodies of persons of importance were dried and deposited in houses set apart for the purpose.

The tribe that wandered the furthest from the primitive home of the stock were the Blackfeet, or Sisika, which word has this signification. It is derived from their earlier habitat in the valley of the Red river of the north, where the soil was dark and blackened their moccasins. Their bands include the Blood or Kenai and the Piegan Indians. Half a century ago they were at the head of a confederacy which embraced these and also the Sarcee (Tinné) and the Atsina (Caddo) nations, and numbered about thirty thousand souls. They have an interesting mythology and an unusual knowledge of the constellatio

The Lenâpés were an interesting tribe who occupied the valley of the Delaware river and the area of the present State of New Jersey. For some not very clear reason they were looked upon by the other members of the stock as of the most direct lineage, and were referred to as “grandfather.” Their dialect, which has been preserved by the Moravian Missionaries, is harmonious in sound, but has varied markedly from the purity of the Cree It has lost, for instance, the peculiar vowel change which throws the verb fro
the definite to the indefinite form. The mythology of the Lenâpés, which has been preserved in fragments, presents the outlines common to the stock.