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The first people in your family to arrive in New York may have come from Europe, or perhaps they were brought here by force from Africa. Or maybe they traveled north from Central or South America, or all the way from Asia.
Alternatively, they may have been among the very first peoples to inhabit what would become New York State, long before anyone else. These are the peoples you will read about here. They lived in very different ways from you. Their lives are points on a continuum that began about 10,000 years ago. Very likely, they were the ancestors of tribes belonging to the two major Native American groups of the region. One was the Haudenosaunee, who spoke an Iroquoian language, and the other was those who spoke Algonquian.
◀▲ The Haudenosaunee were part of a five- and later six-member confederacy. A confederacy is a kind of partnership or alliance. Its purpose was to fight off attacks from outsiders. Each tribe had one vote, and all decisions had to be unanimous. These principles greatly influenced the founders of our country as they created our Constitution. In 1987, the U.S. Senate adopted the following resolution in recognition of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy:
The original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles, and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. . . . The confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself.
▲ You may have heard of Pocahontas, the Native American who helped the English settlers in the early 1600s. Pocahontas was a member of the Powhatan, an Algonquian-speaking people. As an Algonquian, she would have lived with extended family members, perhaps along a river. The Algonquians did not form a league or union. Instead, they lived in independent groups. Many Algonquian tribes had conflicts with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy over territory, water routes, and resources.
On the sides there is a kind of bench, four feet high, where they sleep in summer, in order to avoid the annoyance of the fleas, of which there are great numbers. In winter they sleep on the ground on mats near the fire, so as to be warmer than they would be on the platform. . . . In one of these cabins there may be 12 fires, and 24 families. It smokes excessively. . . . There is no window nor any opening, except that in the upper part of their cabins for the smoke to escape.
◀ In the Algonquian language, wigwam means “house.” These domed structures are where the Algonquian lived at certain times of the year. Wigwams could be taken apart and put together easily. Most were eight or so feet tall. They had a firepit at the center. The dome shape was fashioned by bending young tree trunks and then covering them with animal hide or bark.
▲ What’s your favorite vegetable? Is it corn? Or beans? Or squash? If so, you’re in good company. These were the main crops of the Haudenosaunee – the “three sisters,” as they were called. All three crops were planted in the same area. The reason for this was that cornstalks helped the beans by giving them a place to climb up. And bean plants helped the corn by giving the soil the nutrients it needed. The squash plants’ large leaves shaded the ground, helping to keep the soil moist.
If you’re partial to nuts, fruits, and wild rice, you might enjoy an Algonquian diet. During warm months, the Algonquian gathered foods like these. They grew corn, beans, and squash. They also fished and caught birds and gathered their eggs. In winter, they used spears and bows and arrows to hunt mostly deer, rabbits, and beaver. Many Algonquian lived near a river and traveled the waters in canoes made from birchbark. Most canoes were 15 to 20 feet long. Some were 100 feet long and could carry 20 paddlers. The canoes were lightweight and could easily be carried across land. ▶
◀ In Haudenosaunee culture, women were in charge of the land. They planted and tended the crops. They ran the longhouses. After a couple married, the man moved into the woman’s longhouse, and the children became part of the woman’s tribe, not the husband’s. Most importantly, when the chief of a tribe died, it was the women who decided who should take his place. The Algonquian culture was quite different. The men were head of the family. They made all the decisions for the tribe. When a couple married, the woman went to live with the man’s family.
REFLECTION
Reflect on how the Haudenosaunee and Algonquian lived. In what ways do you think each culture is similar to modern culture?
