N O R T H W E S T P ARCTI C S U B A R C T I C C O A S T C A L I F O R N I A L A T E A U G R E A T B A SIN ST E W H T U O S P L A I N S T S A E T H S NORT A E H SOUT NORTHEAST REGION OF NORTH AMERICA CULTURAL REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Plateau Northwest Coast California Plains Southeast Southwest Great Basin Northeast Subarctic Arctic Other Cultural area border International border State province border
INTRODUCTION S ky Woman tumbled through a hole in the sky An endless sea lay below her Animals in the water watched Sky Woman fall Then a huge turtle came to the surface Sky Woman landed safely on the turtle’s shell The animals decided to make a world for Sky Woman to live on A duck dove into the water to bring up mud He died A small fish dove next but he also died Finally a muskrat took his turn He brought up mud and smeared it on the turtle’s back From the mud the world grew The Seneca SEN-uh-kah Indians have long told this story of how the world was created It is one of many very old stories of the American Indians of the Northeast The Northeast includes much of the present-day eastern United States and parts of southeastern Canada Many scholars believe people first settled in North America about twenty thousand years ago These people may have crossed a land bridge from Asia They were the ancestors of modern American Indians including the native peoples of the Northeast However Northeast Indians tell different stories about their beginnings such as the story of Sky Woman These stories have been passed down through many generations 5
PEOPLES OF THE NORTHEAST The Northeast region was the original home of many American Indian nations This map shows the areas where some of them lived before Europeans arrived in the region Ojibwe Ojibwe Ojibwe Ojibwe n n Me Me Algonquin Algonquin Ottawa Ottawa e e e e omin omin k k n n u u h h o-C o-C H H Potawatomi Potawatomi Mesquakie Mesquakie MiamiMiami Illinois Illinois Micmac P P a a s s P P s s e e a a n n m m o o a a b b q q s s u u c c o o o o Abenaki Abenaki d d t t d y Wam Wampanoag Huron Huron k k w w a a a a a a g g h h eid eid o o a a d d M M a a n n n n a a g g O O o o c c u u n n e e y y O O n n a a e e C C S S Narragansett Narragansett ErieErie Susquehannock Susquehannock Lenape Lenape Powhatan Tuscarora CULTURAL AREAS Plains Southeast Northeast Subarctic Cultural area border International border State province border Many Nations Around 1500 Europeans began writing about the people they met on the coast of North America By then many separate American Indian nations existed in the Northeast Each nation had its own identity system of government and way of life But the nations of the Northeast also had much in common Northeast Indians speak languages from three different language families Algonquian al-GON-kee-an Iroquoian ear-oh-KWOY-ee-an and Siouan SOO-an Each language family includes many different but related languages Nations 66
that belong to the same language family share many cultural traits in addition to similar languages Algonquian-speaking peoples were spread throughout the region They got much of their food by farming They also fished hunted and gathered wild plants Algonquians lived in small bands and moved frequently The Menominee meh-NOM-uh nee and Potawatomi pah-toe-WAH-toe-mee lived along the Great Lakes The Algonquin al-GON-kin and the Ottawa AH tuh-wuh lived in present-day Canada The Abenaki AB-eh-na kee Lenape len-AHPE Wampanoag wam-puh-NO-ag and Narragansett nahr-ruh-GAN-sit made their homes in areas that later became New England states To the south members of the Powhatan POW-ah-tan or pow-HAH-tan Confederacy lived in present-day Virginia The Northeast region was rich in resources Many areas were covered in forests 7
