meat regularly supplemented the corn, beans, )JTUPSZ 0/-*/& Northeastern Peoples and squash the people planted. Deer hide was Student Skill Activity To learn MAIN Idea Most Eastern Woodlands peoples also used for clothing. how to create and spoke Algonquian or Iroquoian languages; com- modify a database, bined hunting, fishing, and farming; and lived in visit glencoe.com small villages. The Algonquian Peoples and complete the HISTORY AND YOU Can you think of an organiza- Most peoples in the Northeast belonged to skill activity. tion intended to stop conflict between nations one of two language groups: those who spoke today? Read on to learn about the origins and pur- Algonquian languages and those who pose of the Iroquois Confederacy. spoke Iroquoian languages. The Algonquian- speaking peoples included most of the groups living in the area known today as New England. When Europeans arrived, almost a million Among these peoples were the Wampanoag in square miles of woodlands lay east of the Massachusetts, the Narragansett in Rhode For an example of Native Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. Island, and the Pequot in Connecticut. Farther American storytelling, This landscape supported an amazing range of south, in what is today Virginia, lived the read the selections plant and animal life. Almost all the Eastern Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Powhatan on pages R64–R65 Woodlands peoples provided for themselves Confederacy. Native Americans in New in the American by combining hunting and fishing with farm- England and Virginia were among the first to Literature Library. ing. Deer were plentiful in the region, and deer encounter English settlers.
The Native Americans of the Northeast, c. 1600
The Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands estab- "55*,".&, . 1" " -*4 0+*#8" 44 & lished legal systems to safeguard the peace. ". &5 "-(0/26*/ "2 6 & 0 $ % &/ 4 % /*1*44*/( 3 / : 8 *" PRIMARY SOURCE " 0 - 6 &"45&3/ 5 2 4 0 "#&/",* “The Mohawk Lords [founded] the Great Peace and *3 it shall . . . be against the Great Binding Law to pass measures in the Confederate Council after the Mohawk )630/ 055"8" 1&56/ 8&45&3/ "#&/",*
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" be as follows: when the Mohawk and Seneca Lords have $ unanimously agreed upon a question, they shall report 8".1"/0"( 10$6.56$, /"33"("/4&5 /*"/5*$ their decision to the Cayuga and Oneida Lords who shall 1&2605 .0)&("/ deliberate upon the question and report a unanimous %&-"8"3& 46426& ¡/ decision to the Mohawk Lords. The Mohawk Lords will )"//0$, / then report . . . to the Firekeepers [the Onondaga], who 4)"8/&&
shall render a decision . . . in case of a disagreement by 1*4$"5"8": 8 & "5-"/5*$ the two bodies, or confirm the decisions of the two 4 bodies. . . . 4"10/* /"/5*$0,& 0$&"/ There shall be one War Chief for each Nation and their 108)"5"/ LJMPNFUFST duties shall be to carry messages for their Lords and to .0/"$"/ 565&-0 NJMFT take up the arms of war in case of emergency. They shall -BNCFSU"[JNVUIBM&RVBM"SFBQSPKFDUJPO *SPRVPJT$POGFEFSBDZ not participate in . . . the Confederate Council. ¡8 Whenever . . . a great emergency is presented before the Confederate Council [that] affects the entire body of the Five Nations . . . the Lords of the Confederacy must submit the matter to the decision of their people and the decision of the people shall affect the decision of the 1. Explaining How did the Iroquois Confederacy deal with Confederate Council.” an emergency? —from the Great Binding Law of the Five Nations 2. Drawing Conclusions Why do you think the Iroquois did not let the war chiefs take part in the Confederate Council?
10 Chapter 1 Colonizing America Other Algonquian peoples included the Delaware, who lived near the Delaware River in what is today eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and the Shawnee, who lived in the Ohio River Section 1 REVIEW valley. Words from the Algonquian language used in English today include succotash, hominy, moccasin, and papoose. Many peoples in the Northeast, including the Algonquians Vocabulary and the Iroquoians, practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. By cut- 1. Explain the significance of: Beringia, ting down parts of forests and burning the wood, they were left agricultural revolution, Mesoamerica, with nitrogen-rich ashes. They then worked the ashes into the Maya, Aztec, tribute, kiva, pueblo, soil, making it more fertile for a few years. After exhausting the Cahokia, Iroquois Confederacy. soil, the people of the village would move to a new location and burn down another section of forest for farming. Main Ideas Native Americans of the Northeast built several types of 2. Describing What route did humans take houses. Many villages had large rectangular longhouses with when they first came to North America? barrel-shaped roofs covered in bark. Other groups built wigwams. These dwellings were either conical or dome-shaped and were 3. Identifying What happened to change formed using bent poles covered with hides or bark. life for the peoples of the Great Plains? 4. Explaining Why did the Iroquoians form The Iroquois Confederacy a confederacy? Stretching west from the Hudson River across what is today Critical Thinking New York and southern Ontario and north to Georgian Bay lived 5. Big Ideas How did geography and cli- the Iroquoian-speaking peoples. They included the Huron, Neutral, mate affect the cultures and traditions of Erie, Wenro, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. Native American groups? All the Iroquoian peoples had similar cultures. They lived in long- houses in large towns, which they protected by building stockades. 6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizer Women were responsible for the planting and harvesting of crops to list North American regions and the while men hunted. The people lived in large kinship groups, or ways in which groups living in these extended families, headed by the elder women of each kinship regions obtained food. group. Up to 10 related families lived together in each longhouse. Iroquois women occupied positions of power and importance Region Methods of Getting Food in their communities. Although all 50 chiefs of the Iroquois ruling council were men, the women who headed the kinship groups selected them. Council members were appointed for life, but the 7. Analyzing Visuals Examine the map on women could remove an appointee if they disagreed with his page 10. Which groups are members of the actions. In this way, Iroquois women enjoyed considerable politi- Iroquis Confederacy? cal influence. War often erupted among the Iroquoians. In the late 1500s, Writing About History five of the nations in western New York—the Seneca, Cayuga, 8. Expository Writing Using library or Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk—formed an alliance to main- Internet resources, find more information tain peace and oppose their common enemy—the more powerful about the groups discussed in this section. Huron people, who lived across the Niagara River in what is now Use the information to create a database southwestern Ontario. This alliance was later called the Iroquois about these civilizations. Write a one-page Confederacy. Europeans called these five nations the Iroquois, report with your findings. even though other nations spoke Iroquoian as well. According to Iroquoian tradition, Dekanawidah, a shaman or tribal elder, and Hiawatha, a chief of the Mohawk, founded the confederacy. They were worried that war was tearing the five nations apart when the more powerful Huron people threatened them all. The five nations agreed to the Great Binding Law, an oral constitution that defined how the confederacy worked. )JTUPSZ 0/-*/& Study Central To review this section, go to Analyzing How did some Eastern Woodlands groups glencoe.com and click on Study Central. increase their crop yield?
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