About The Algonkins (Algonquin) Indians with PIcs and Images

ALGONKINS.

Algonkin or Algonquin Woman

Early in the seventeenth century, the Algonkins were the largest family of North American Indians within the present limits of the United States, extending from Newfoundland to the Mississippi, and from the waters of the Ohio to Hudson's Bay and Lake Winnipeg. Northeast and northwest of them were the Eskimos and the Athabascas; the Dakotas bounded them on the west, and the Mobilian tribes, Catawbas, Natchez, &c., on the south. Within this region also dwelt the Iroquois and many detached tribes from other families. All the tribes of the Algonkins were nomadic, shifting from place to place as the fishing and hunting upon which they depended required. There has been some difficulty in properly locating the tribe from which the family has taken its name, but it is generally believed they lived on the Ottawa River, in Canada, where they were nearly exterminated by their enemies, the Iroquois. The only remnant of the tribe at this time is at the Lake of the Two Mountains.

Algonquin or Algonkin wigwam house

Of the large number of tribes forming this family, many are now extinct, others so reduced and merged into neighboring tribes as to be lost, while nearly all of the rest have been removed far from their original hunting-grounds. The Lenni Lenape, from the Delaware, are now leading a civilized life far out on the great plains west of the Missouri, and with them are the Shawnees from the south and the once powerful Pottawatamies, Ottawas, and Miamis from the Ohio Valley. Of the many nations forming this great family, we have a very full representation in the following catalogue, about equally divided between the wild hunters and the civilized agriculturists.

                                                                  Algonquin (Algonkin) Warrior

                                                         Algonkin (Algonquin) Male Indian

                                                                Algonquin Food and Culture

                                                    Algonquin Indian Woman and Girl

                                                                         Photo of an Algonquin Village

Algonquian Area and Principal Tribes and Language

Algonquin Tribes and Area List

The area formerly occupied by the Algonquian family was more extensive than that of any other linguistic stock in North America, their territory reaching from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and from Churchill River of Hudson Bay as far south at least as Pamlico Sound of North Carolina. In the eastern part of this territory was an area occupied by Iroquoian tribes, surrounded on almost all sides by their Algonquian neighbors. On the south the Algonquian tribes were bordered by those of Iroquoian and Siouan (Catawba) stock, on the southwest and west by the Muskhogean and Siouan tribes, and on the northwest by the Kitunahan and the great Athapascan families, while along the coast of Labrador and the eastern shore of Hudson Bay they came in contact with the Eskimo, who were gradually retreating before them to the north. In Newfoundland they encountered the Beothukan family, consisting of but a single tribe. A portion of the Shawnee at some early period had separated from the main body of the tribe in central Tennessee and pushed their way down to the Savannah River in South Carolina, where, known as Savannahs, they carried on destructive wars with the surrounding tribes until about the beginning of the eighteenth century they were finally driven out and joined the Delaware in the north. Soon afterwards the rest of the tribe was expelled by the Cherokee and Chicasa, who thenceforward claimed all the country stretching north to the Ohio River.

48The Cheyenne and Arapaho, two allied tribes of this stock, had become separated from their kindred on the north and had forced their way through hostile tribes across the Missouri to the Black Hills country of South Dakota, and more recently into Wyoming and Colorado, thus forming the advance guard of the Algonquian stock in that direction, having the Siouan tribes behind them and those of the Shoshonean family in front.

PRINCIPAL ALGONQUINIAN TRIBES.

Abnaki. Algonquin. Arapaho. Cheyenne. Conoy. Cree. Delaware. Fox. Illinois. Kickapoo. Mahican. Massachuset.

Menominee. Miami. Micmac. Mohegan. Montagnais. Montauk. Munsee. Nanticoke. Narraganset. Nauset. Nipmuc. Ojibwa.

Ottawa. Pamlico. Pennacook. Pequot. Piankishaw. Pottawotomi. Powhatan. Sac. Shawnee. Siksika. Wampanoag. Wappinger.

Population.—The present number of the Algonquian stock is about 95,600, of whom about 60,000 are in Canada and the remainder in the United States. Below is given the population of the tribes officially recognized, compiled chiefly from the United States Indian Commissioner’s report for 1889 and the Canadian Indian report for 1888. It is impossible to give exact figures, owing to the fact that in many instances two or more tribes are enumerated together, while many individuals are living with other tribes or amongst the whites:

Abnaki:
“Oldtown Indians,” Maine	410
Passamaquoddy Indians, Maine	215?
Abenakis of St. Francis and Bécancour, Quebec	369
“Amalecites” of Témiscouata and Viger, Quebec	198
“Amalecites” of Madawaska, etc., New Brunswick	683
		1,874?
Algonquin:
Of Renfrew, Golden Lake and Carleton, Ontario	797
With Iroquois (total 131) at Gibson, Ontario	31?
With Iroquois at Lake of Two Mountains, Quebec	30
Quebec Province	3,909
		4,767?
Arapaho:
Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory	1,272
Shoshone Agency, Wyoming (Northern Arapaho)	885
Carlisle school, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence school, Kansas	55
		2,212
49Cheyenne:
Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota (Northern Cheyenne)	517
Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory	2,091
Carlisle school, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence school, Kansas	153
Tongue River Agency, Montana (Northern Cheyenne)	865
		3,626
Cree:
With Salteau in Manitoba, etc., British America (treaties Nos. 1, 2, and 5: total, 6,066)	3,066?
Plain and Wood Cree, treaty No. 6, Manitoba, etc.	5,790
Cree (with Salteau, etc.), treaty No. 4, Manitoba, etc.	8,530
		17,386?
Delaware, etc.:
Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita Agency, Indian Territory	95
Incorporated with Cherokee, Indian Territory	1,000?
Delaware with the Seneca in New York	3
Hampton and Lawrence schools	3
Muncie in New York, principally with Onondaga and Seneca	36
Munsee with Stockbridge (total 133), Green Bay Agency, Wis.	23?
Munsee with Chippewa at Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas (total 75)	37?
Munsee with Chippewa on the Thames, Ontario	131
“Moravians” of the Thames, Ontario	288
Delaware with Six Nations on Grand River, Ontario	134
		1,750?
Kickapoo:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	325
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	237
In Mexico	200?
		762?
Menominee:
Green Bay Agency, Wisconsin	1,311
Carlisle school	1
		1,312
Miami:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	67
Indiana, no agency	300?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	7
		374?
Micmac:
Restigouche, Maria, and Gaspé, Quebec	732
In Nova Scotia	2,145
New Brunswick	912
Prince Edward Island	319
		4,108
Misisauga:
Alnwick, New Credit, etc., Ontario		774
Monsoni, Maskegon, etc.:
Eastern Rupert’s Land, British America		4,016
Montagnais:
Betsiamits, Lake St. John, Grand Romaine, etc., Quebec	1,607
Seven Islands, Quebec	312
		1,919
Nascapee:
Lower St. Lawrence, Quebec		2,860
50Ojibwa:
White Earth Agency, Minnesota	6,263
La Pointe Agency, Wisconsin	4,778
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (about one-third of 5,563 Ottawa and Chippewa)	1,854?
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (Chippewa alone)	1,351
Devil’s Lake Agency, North Dakota (Turtle Mountain Chippewa)	1,340
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas (one-half of 75 Chippewa and Muncie)	38?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	15
“Ojibbewas” of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, Ontario	5,201
“Chippewas” of Sarnia, etc., Ontario	1,956
“Chippewas” with Munsees on Thames, Ontario	454
“Chippewas” with Pottawatomies on Walpole Island, Ontario	658
“Ojibbewas” with Ottawas (total 1,856) on Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands, Ontario	928?
“Salteaux” of treaty Nos. 3 and 4, etc., Manitoba, etc.	4,092
“Chippewas” with Crees in Manitoba, etc., treaties Nos. 1, 2, and 5 (total Chippewa and Cree, 6,066)	3,000?
		31,928?
Ottawa:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	137
Mackinac Agency, Michigan (5,563 Ottawa and Chippewa)	3,709?
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	20
With “Ojibbewas” on Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands, Ontario	928
		4,794?
Peoria, etc.:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	160
Lawrence and Carlisle schools	5
		165
Pottawatomie:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	480
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	462
Mackinac Agency, Michigan	77
Prairie band, Wisconsin	280
Carlisle, Lawrence and Hampton schools	117
With Chippewa on Walpole Island, Ontario	166
		1,582
Sac and Fox:
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	515
Sac and Fox Agency, Iowa	381
Pottawatomie and Great Nemaha Agency, Kansas	77
Lawrence, Hampton, and Carlisle schools	8
		981
Shawnee:
Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory	79
Sac and Fox Agency, Indian Territory	640
Incorporated with Cherokee, Indian Territory	800?
Lawrence, Carlisle, and Hampton schools	40
		1,559?
Siksika:
Blackfoot Agency, Montana. (Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan)	1,811
Blackfoot reserves in Alberta, British America (with Sarcee and Assiniboine)	4,932
		6,743
51Stockbridge (Mahican):
Green Bay Agency, Wisconsin	110
In New York (with Tuscarora and Seneca)	7
Carlisle school	4
		121

About the Blackfoot Indian Tribe

About the Blackfoot Indian Tribe

Algonquin tribes occupied the Atlantic seacoast from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick south to Virginia, and stretched west as far, at places, as the Rocky Mountains. They also occupied a large area in the interior of British America north of the Great Lakes. Brinton names more than thirty tribes of this great group. Among the best known of these were the Lenape (Delawares), Blackfeet, Ojibwas, and Crees.

It was chiefly Algonkin tribes with whom the first white settlers met. The Indians who supplied the Pilgrims with corn in that first dreadful winter were Algonquins; so were Powhatan and Pocahontas, King Philip and Massasoit. Of course whites came into contact with the Iroquois in New York, and with the Cherokees, the Creeks, and their kin in the south, but much the larger part of their early Indian acquaintance was Algonquin.

There are a number of borrowed Indian words in our English language of today. Wigwam, wampum, squaw, papoose, moccasin, are examples. These have been taken from the Indian languages into our own, and most of them—all of those mentioned—are Algonkin. They soon became common to English speakers, and
 were carried by them everywhere they went. All the western tribes had their own names for all these objects, but we have forced these upon them, and to-day we may hear Utes speak of wigwams and Navajo talk about squaws or moccasins.

We shall speak of two Algonquin tribes. One—the Lenape—is eastern; the other—the Blackfeet—is western. The former are woodland, the latter Plains Indians. The Lenape lived in settled villages, and had a good deal of agriculture; they were also hunters, fishermen, and warriors. Their houses were like those of their Iroquois neighbors, but each family had its own. They were huts of poles and interwoven branches with a thatching of corn leaves, the stalk of sweet-flag, or the bark of trees. Sometimes at the center of the village, surrounded by the houses, was a sort of hillock or mound from which the country around might be overlooked. The women made good garments of deerskin with skillful beadwork. In cooking they used soapstone vessels. For pounding corn they had mortars of wood, dug out of a section of a tree trunk, and long stone pestles.
In districts where the wild rice or zizania grew abundantly great quantities of it were gathered. The women in canoes paddled out among the plants, bent the heads over the edge of the canoe and beat out the grain. This was a food supply of no importance to the Lenape, but the Ojibwas and their neighbors used much of it.  There were three totems of the Lenape. Every man was either a wolf, turkey, or turtle. He had one of these three animals for his emblem, and was as fond of drawing or carving it as a boy among us is of writing his name. This emblem was signed to treaties, it was painted on the houses, it was carved on stones. But only those who were turtles drew their totem entire; usually the wolf or the turkey were represented only by one foot. Between a person and his totem there was a curious friendship, and it was believed that the animal was a sort of protector and friend of those who bore his name. All who had the same totem were blood-relations.

All Algonquins were accustomed to draw pictures to record events. The blankets of chiefs were decorated with such pictures. The Ojibwas were fond of writing birch-bark letters. One of the most interesting Indian records known is the Walam olum; this means the red score or red record. Probably it at first consisted of a lot of little sticks or boards with some quaint red pictures upon them. These were probably kept tied together into a little bundle. The original sticks have long been lost, but the one hundred and eighty-four pictures were copied and are still
preserved. They were intended to assist in remembering a long poetic legend in which the Algonquin ideas regarding the creation of the world and their tribal history were told.

At first everything was good. Animals and men lived in peace. Then a wicked serpent tried to drown the world. Only a few persons escaped to the back of a great turtle. Their great hero Nanabush helped them. The waters subsided. As the land where they now found themselves was cold, the people determined to move southward. The story of their quarrels and divisions on the journey is told, and also the way in which they seized their new home, destroying or driving out the original owners.

The song in which this story is told is long and full of old words difficult to understand. The Indians themselves must have had difficulty in remembering it. It was a great help to have these little sticks with the red pictures to remind them of its different parts.

Far to the west, close against the base of the Rocky Mountains, lived a famous Algonquin tribe—the Blackfeet. They were great buffalo hunters and warriors. We often think of Indians as being stern and morose, never smiling, never amused. Yet most tribes had sunny tempers like children. Mr. Grinnell, to show this side of Indian nature, describes a day in camp in the olden, happy time. Two parts of his description describe feasts and gambling. Feasts were in constant progress: sometimes one man would give three in a day; men who were favorites might go from feast to feast all day long. If a man wished to give a feast, he ordered the best food he had to be cooked. Then, going outside, he called out the list of invited guests: the name of each one was cried three times. At the close of his invitation he announced how many pipes would be smoked: usually three. When the guests came, each was given a dish, with his share of the food; no one might have a second help, but it was quite polite to carry away what was not eaten.

While the guests were feasting, the man of the house prepared a pipe and tobacco. After the eating was over, the pipe was lighted and passed from hand to hand, each person giving it to the one on his left. Meantime stories of hunting and war were narrated and jokes cracked. Only one man spoke at one time, the rest listening until he was through. Thus they whiled away the time until the last pipe was smoked out, when the host, knocking the ashes from the pipe, told them they might go.

All Indians are gamblers, and they have many gambling games. The Blackfeet played one which was something like the famous game of Chunkey, played among the Creeks. (S) A wheel about four inches in diameter with five spokes on which were beads of different colors, made of horn or bone, was used. It was rolled
 along upon a smooth piece of ground at the ends of which logs were laid to stop it. One player stood at each end of the course. After a player set the wheel to rolling, he hurled a dart after it. This was done just before the wheel reached the end of its journey. Points were counted according to the way in which the wheel and dart fell with reference to each other. Ten counts made the game. This game always attracted great crowds of spectators, who became greatly excited and bet heavily on the result.

At night about their camp-fires the Blackfeet delighted to tell their sacred stories, which they did not dare repeat in daylight. In telling a story of personal adventure, Indians, like white people, were often tempted to make it larger than it really was.

The Blackfeet and some other Indians had the following mode of getting at the truth. When a man told an improbable story some one handed a pipe to the medicine man, who painted the stem red and prayed over it, asking that the man's life might be long if his story were true, but cut short if the story were false. The pipe was then filled and lighted and given to the man. The medicine man said, as he handed it to him: “Accept this pipe, but remember that if you smoke, your story must be as sure as that there is a hole through this pipe and as straight as the hole through this stem. So your life shall be long and you shall survive; but if you have spoken falsely, your days are counted.” If he refused to smoke, as he surely would if he had not spoken true things, every one knew that he was a braggart and a liar.

Daniel Garrison Brinton.—Physician, anthropologist. Has written many books, mostly about American Indians. The Lenape and their Legends, in which the Walam olum is given in full, is a volume in his Library of Aboriginal American Literature.