40 



ALGONQUIAN FAMILY 



[b. a. e. 



was the power of the Iroquoian confed- 

 eracy, which by the beginning of the 

 17th century had developed a power 

 destined to make them the scourge of 

 the other Indian population from the 

 Atlantic to the Mississippi and from 

 Ottawa r. in Canada to the Tennessee. 

 After destroying the Huron and the Erie, 

 they turned their power chiefly against 

 the Algonquian tribes, and ere long Ohio 

 and Indiana were nearly deserted, only 

 a few villages of Miami remaining here 

 and there in the northern portion. The 

 region s. and w. they made a desert, 

 clearing of native inhal)itants the whole 

 country within 500 lii. of tlieir seats. 

 The Algonquian tribes fled before them 

 to the region of the upper lakes and the 

 banks of the Mississipi)i, and only when 

 the French had guaranteed them protec- 

 tion against their deadly foes did they 

 venture to turn back toward the e. 



The central Algonquians are tall, aver- 

 aging about 173 cm.; they have the typ- 

 ical Indian nose, heavy and prominent, 

 somewhat hooked in men, flatter in 

 women; their cheek bones are heavy; 

 the head among the tribes of the great 

 lakes is very large and almost brachyce- 

 phalic, but showing considerable varia- 

 tion; the face is very large. The type of 

 the Atlantic coast Algonquians can hardly 

 be determined from living individuals, as 

 no full-bloods survive, but skulls found 

 in old burial grounds show that they 

 were tall, their faces not quite so broad, 

 the heads much more elongate and re- 

 markably high, resembling in this respect 

 the Eskimo and suggesting the possibility 

 that on the New England coast there may 

 have been some mixture with that type. 

 The Cheyenne- and Arapaho are even 

 taller than the central Algonquians; their 

 faces are larger, their heads more elon- 

 gate. It is worthy of remark that in. the 

 region in which the mound builders' re- 

 mains are found, rounded heads pre- 

 vailed, and the present population of the 

 region are also more round-headed, jwr- 

 haps suggesting fusion of blood (Boas, 

 inf'n, 190o). See Anatomy, Pltysiologi/. 



The religious beliefs of the eastern Al- 

 gon(]uian tril)es were similar in their lead- 

 ing features. Their myths are numerous. 

 Theirdeities, or )nanifits, including objects 

 animate and inanimate, were many, but 

 the chief culture hero, he to whom the 

 creation and control of the world were 

 ascribed, was substantially the same in 

 character, although known by various 

 names, among different tribes. As Man- 

 ibozho, or Michabo, among the Chippewa 

 and other lake tribes, he was usually 

 identified as a fabulous great rabbit, 

 bearing some relation to the sun; and 

 this identifit-ation with the great rabbit 

 appears to have prevailed among other 



tribes, being found as far s. as Maryland. 

 Brinton (Hero Myths, 1882) believes 

 this mythological animal to have been 

 merely a symbol of light, adopted be- 

 cause of tlie similarity lietween the 

 Algonquian words for rabbit and light. 

 Among the Kiksika this cliief beneficent 

 deity was known as Napiw, among the 

 Abnaki as Ketchiniwesk, among the 

 New England tribes as Kiehtan, Woo- 

 nand, Cautantowit, etc. He it was who 

 created the world by magic power, peo- 

 pled it with game and the other ani- 

 mals, taught his favorite people the arts 

 of the chase, and gave them corn and 

 beans. But this deity was distinguished 

 more for his magical powers and his 

 ability to overcome opposition by trick- 

 ery, deception, and falsehood than for 

 benevolent qualities. The objects of 

 nature were deities to them, as the sun, 

 the moon, fire, trees, lakes, and the va- 

 rious animals. Respect was also paid to 

 the four cardinal |K)ints. There was a 

 general belief in a soul, shade, or immor- 

 tal spiritual nature not only in man but 

 in animals and all other things, and in 

 a spiritual abode to which this soul went 

 after the death of the body, and in which 

 the occupations and enjoyments were 

 supposed to be similar to those of this 

 life. Priests, or conjurers, called by the 

 whites medicine-men, played an impor- 

 tant part in their social, political, and 

 religious systems. They were supposed 

 to possess influence with spirits or other 

 agencies, which they could bring to their 

 aid in prying into the future, inflicting 

 or curing disease, etc. 



Among the tribes from s. New England 

 to Carolina, including especially the Mo- 

 hegan, Delawares, the people of the 

 Powhatan confederacy, and the Chippe- 

 wa, descent was reckoned in the female 

 line; among the Potawatomi, Abnaki, 

 Blackfeet, and probably most of the 

 northern tribes, in the male line. Within 

 recent times descent has been paternal 

 also among the Menominee, Sauk and 

 Fox, Illinois, Kickapoo, and Shawnee, 

 and, although it has been stated that it 

 was anciently maternal, there is no satis- 

 factory proof of this. The Cree, Arapaho, 

 and Cheyenne are without clans or gentes. 

 The gens or clan was usually governed by. 

 a chief, who in some cases was installed 

 by the heads of other clans or gentes. 

 The tribe also had its chief, usually se- 

 lected from a particular clan or gens, 

 though the manner of choosing a chief 

 and the authority vested in him varied 

 somewhat in the different tribes. This 

 was the peace chief, whose authority was 

 not absolute, and who had no part in 

 the declaration of war or in carrying it 

 on, the leader in the campaign being one 

 who had acquired a right to the posi- 



