Algonquin History
Algonquin tradition says that people who called themselves Algonquins first lived along the Atlantic Coast, in the north-eastern part of North America, north of the Iroquois and south of the Inuit (in modern Canada). Their language was related to the Cree and Blackfoot languages. By the 1400s AD, the Algonquins had moved a little to the west, along the St. Lawrence river.
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Algonquin people mainly hunted and gathered their food, traveling in small nomadic bands. In the short northern summer, they met in larger groups for fishing and religious ceremonies, like their relatives the Blackfoot further west. When fall came, they split up again into small bands and left for their own hunting territory, which was passed on from father to son.
The Algonquins lived too far north for farming, (it was too cold and dark), so they got corn and beans by trading with (and raiding) the Iroquois to their south. Algonquin traders used their canoes to travel long distances on the St. Lawrence River to trade with people as far away as the Cree on the Great Lakes.
To find out more about Algonquin history, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Algonquin people
after 1500 AD
Chinook people
Sioux people
Inuit people
Blackfoot people
Ute people
Pueblo people
Iroquois people
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