Algonquins

Algonquins, one of the great divisions of the North American Indians, originally occupying nearly the whole region from the Churchill and Hudson Bay southwards to North Carolina, and stretching from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to Newfoundland. The term Algonquin is purely conventional in the sense now used by ethnologists. It is a contraction of Algomequin, i.e. "People of the other side," in contradistinction to the Iroquois, who held the south side of the Upper St. Lawrence, and who formed an important enclave within the Algonquin domain. The grouping is linguistic, that is, it comprises all those numerous tribes who speak varieties of a now extinct stock language, of which there appear to be five distinct branches: 1. Powhattam, spoken by all the Virginian tribes (Powhattans, Panticoes, Pamunkies, Rappahannocks, Accomacs, and others); 2, Abenaki, spoken by all the New York, New England, New Brunswick, Nova Scotian, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland tribes (Abenakis, Mikmaks, Bothuks, Etchemins, Penobscots, Passamaquoddies, Mohicans, Winnepesaukies, Narragansets, Pequods, Adirondaks, Manhattans, Sankikani, etc.); 3, Nipercinean spoken by all the Labrador, Laurentian, and Hudson Bay tribes (Montagnais, Nasquapi, Mistassini, Tadousacs, Chippeways or Ojibways, Ottowas, Mississaugies, Musconongs, and Kristeneaux or Krees); 4, Lennape, spoken by the Lenni-Lennape or Delaware tribes; 5, Illinois, spoken with great dialectic diversity by all the western tribes (Shawnees, Kikkapoos, Illinois, Miamis, Pottawattamies, Kaskasias, Mitchigamies, Peorias, Sacs, Foxes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Blackfeet). The Algonquins, and especially the western group, are typical redskins, tall, of coppery complexion, with long, lank black hair, aquiline nose, high cheek bones, massive jaws, and dolichocephalic head. Nearly all are now either extinct or removed to government reserves, the Blackfeet, some of the Krees and Montagnais, and one or two others alone still occupying part of their original territories.