Algonkian and Iroquois Cultures
Late Woodland-Owasco
Algonkian
Iroquois
Late Woodland peoples of the
Northeast
• Area immediately south of the Eastern
Subarctic
– New England, New York, "Huronia"
(southern Ontario and Quebec)
– Adjacent portions of the lower Saint
Lawrence
• This addresses "Iroquois Prehistory"
• The Late Woodland period in the
Northeast is a fairly confusing one,
depending upon the area you are most
interested in.
A.D. 1000-1350
• A significant cultural shift occurs
– In Upstate New York this is called the Owasco Phase
• Villages:
– By European contact (ca. 1500s-1600s) 2,000-5,000
people per village
– Villages may have as many as 200 longhouses!
– The Longhouse:
• Comes to replace the round house
• 27.5 to 61 meters long
• Increasing palisade defense characterizes communities
Owasco
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A culture that inhabited the New York state area prior to
the Iroquois.
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The earliest dates attached to Owasco sites date the culture to
approximately 1000-1300 A.D., which places them in the Oak Hill
Phase.
The name Owasco was derived from the area near a lake,
presently known as Owasco Lake, where they primarily
lived.
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They also tended not to have large villages, but rather camps
located either on higher ground or near alluvial fans and marshes
for hunting and fishing purposes.
They are known for their distinct pottery style, which was
designed in the cord-on-cord technique.
They were one of the earliest cultures in the New York area to
begin cultivating crops such as corn, beans and squash.
The Owasco also practiced hunting, fishing and the gathering of
wild vegetable foods.
Owasco artifacts
• Levanna points are projectile points
characteristic of the Owasco Culture
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/artifacts/levannapoint.html
Algonkian
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The other primary northeastern linguistic and
cultural group and were the traditional enemies
of the Iroquois.
The Algonkians live and lived in the woodlands
of northern and southern Canada.
This Indian culture settled this land area at about
1000 years BP.
The Algonkin groups lived in small towns
The Algonkians also used a large quantity of
wood, birch bark to make canoes and boxes, and
they covered bent saplings with the hides of
animals for shelter.
The Algonkian Tribes
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Beothuk
Mi’kmaq
Gaspe
Malecite
Montagnais
Naskapi
Ojibway
Odawa
Algonkin Language Family
Algonkin areas shown by
Subsistence
• Due to location there is a vast climate
difference between the seasons.
• Algonkian subsistance relied mostly on
hunting of large game. ie white tail deer,
moose, carabou, migrating waterfowl, bear,
beaver and fish
– They used the hides from these animals to make
their wardrobes, moccasins, and snow shoes.
• Although the winter brought hardship, it
made tracking of prey easier and more
successful.
• Hunting methods consisted of stalking the
animal while wielding a spear or bow.
Algonkin Hunting
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The Algonkians are best known as hunters who
make the best traps and snares.
The traps and snares came in many forms and
changed with the season.
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Although traps and snares were also used for smaller
game like foxes and rabits. A common trap was the
“LOG FALL”.
Snares were hidden strategically along runs and man
made trails.
Fishing and gathering augmented their diet as well.
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Fishing techniques included barriers built in the streams
to trap fish while the water passed through. Spear Fishing
was often done at night from birch bark canoes.
Trees Cut to Make Game Fence
Night Spear Fishing
Ojibway Weapons
Algonkian Technology
• The use of Bark was intricate in
Algonkian technology.
• As with any region with many rivers the
Birch Bark canoe was important for
hunting and transportation.
• Bark was also used for water vessels, the
outer shell of their dwellings, dishes,
spoons and a moose call made by
rolling the birch bark.
Clothing, artifacts
• Clothing tended to be made of the skins of
larger prey animals, like moose and deer,
Although in the winter things like gloves
and hats could be made from smaller pelts.
The hide from one moose is comparable to
the hide of 20 beavers.
• Stone was used for arrow heads, and club
heads, but not as important as in other
culture areas due to the reliance on birch
bark.
• Bone was also mildly used for such things as
needles.
Ojibway Birch Bark Canoe
Algonkian Awl for Stitching Birch
Bark
Beothuk Birch Bark water
Vessel
Iroquois
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The Iroquois were a confederacy of
eastern Woodland tribes that
existed between the Great Lakes
and the Atlantic seaboard and south
to the Carolinas.
The confederacy itself consisted of
six tribes -the Cayuga, Mohawk,
Onadaga, Oneida, Seneca, and the
Tuscarora.
Iroquois Language Family (in red)
http://www.civilisations.ca/aborig/stones/groups/iroq.htm
“People of the Long House”
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The Iroquois all spoke mutually intelligible
dialects of a single Iroquain language.
These tribes called themselves Haudenosaunee,
or "people of the long house" for the large
communal homes that they constructed.
There were also a large number of unaffiliated
Iroquoian tribes who were often at war with the
league members. Many of these later came under
league domination. Although defeated tribes were
never again allowed autonomy, they were often
adopted and incorporated into the victors' tribe.
Tribal organization was totemic and matrilineal
with interwoven political, religious and clan
affiliations both within and between tribes.
Reconstructed Longhouse
Lifeways
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The Iroquois-speaking tribes were
semisedentary, practiced agriculture, palisaded
their villages in time of need, and dwelt in
longhouses that lodged many families.
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Elm bark was used for sheathing these houses, for
making such containers as dishes and barrels, and for
building canoes.
A village band of several hundred persons was
the social and economic unit.
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Groups of men built houses, erected palisades, fished,
hunted, traveled, traded, gamed, defended the village
against attacks, and went on the warpath.
Subsistence
• Outside the towns, parties of women,
each directed by a matron, worked
fields of corn (maize), beans, and
squash.
• After harvest, family deer-hunting
parties ranged far into the forests to
camp, returning home at midwinter.
• Spring runs of fish drew families to
nearby streams and lake inlets.
Socio-political structure
• The longhouse family was the basic unit of Iroquois
society. Households, or blood lineages, were
projected into clans, clans into moieties (half
tribes), moieties into tribes or nations, and nations
into confederacies.
• Kinship and locality were the bases for political life.
• Each community had its council of adult males,
who guided the village chief or chiefs.
• The Iroquois were fond of meetings, spending
considerable time in council.
– Groupings for council were determined by locality, sex,
age, and the specific question at hand; and each had its
own protocol and devices for gaining consensus.
Matrilineal
• All had matrilineal social structures - the women owned all
property and determined kinship.
• The individual Iroquois tribes were divided into three
clans, turtle, bear, and wolf - each headed by the clan
mother.
• The Seneca were like the Huron tribes and had eight (the
five additional being the crane, snipe, hawk, beaver, and
deer).
• After marriage, a man moved into his wife's longhouse,
and their children became members of her clan.
Warfare
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Warfare was ingrained in Iroquois society, and
self-respect was dependent on achieving personal
glory.
War captives were often enslaved or adopted to
replace dead kinsmen and made up much of the
Iroquois population in the late 17th century.
Fierce warfare was common and finally prompted
the formation of the "Great Law of Peace"
resulting in the confederation, which was only
open to Iroquain speaking tribes.
This all occurred before European contact and
the principles of the accord may have contributed
to the ideals embodied in the Articles of
Confederation and the Constitution of the United
States.
Iroquois Origins
• Early Hypothesis-Parker (1916)migrated from southern areas (part of
Cherokee).
• Now accepted-(MacNeish 1956)developed in situ from late Woodland
cultures like the Point Peninsula and
Owasco.
IROQUOIS NATION
• Around 1390, today's State of New York became
the stronghold of five powerful Indian tribes.
• The Iroquois, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
and Cayugas joined together to form the great
Iroquois Nation.
• In 1715, the Tuscaroras were accepted into the
Iroquois Nation.
• The Iroquoian linguistic groups occupied a
continuous territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron,
and Erie, in present-day New York state and
Pennsylvania (U.S.) and southern Ontario and
Quebec (Canada).
Iroquois nations
• http://tuscaroras.com/pages/history/six
_nations.html
• http://www.sixnations.org/
Sources
• http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/archeol
o.htm
• http://www.uwec.edu/greider/Indigenou
s/woodlands/Tom/culture.htm
• http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVill
age/