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. The other was those who spoke Algonquian.
