BULL. 30] 



ALGONQUIAN FAMILY 



41 



tion by noted deeds and ski]l. In some 

 tribes the title of fiiief was hereditary, 

 and the distinction l)et\veen a peace chief 

 and a war chief was not observed. The 

 chief's powers among some tribes, as the 

 Miami, were greater than in others. The 

 government was directed in weighty mat- 

 ters by a council, consisting of the chiefs 

 of the clans or gentes of the tribe. It 

 was by their authority that tribal war 

 was undertaken, peace concluded, terri- 

 tory sold, etc. 



The Algonquian tribes were mainly 

 sedentary and agricultural, i:)robably the 

 only exceptions being those of the cold 

 regions of Canada and the Siksika of the 

 plains. The Chippewa did not formerly 

 cultivate the soil. Maize was the staple 

 Indian food product, but the tribes of 

 the region of the great lakes, particularly 

 the Menominee, made extensive use of 

 wild rice. The Powhatan tribes raised 

 enough maize to supply not only their 

 own wants but those of the Virginia 

 colonists for some years after the found- 

 ing of Jamestown, and the New England 

 colonists were more than once relieved 

 from hunger by corn raised by the na- 

 tives. In 1792 Wayne's army found a 

 continuous plantation along the entire 

 length of the Maumee from Ft Wayne 

 to L. Erie. Although depending chiefly 

 on hunting and fishing for subsistence, 

 the New P^ngland tribes cultivated large 

 quantities of maize, beans, pumpkins, 

 and tobacco. It is said they under- 

 stood the advantage of fertilizing, using 

 fish, shells, and ashes for this purpose. 

 The tools they used in preparing the 

 ground and in cultivatiim were usually 

 wooden spades or hoes, the latter Ijeing 

 made by fastening to a stick, as a handle, 

 a shell, the shoulder blade of an animal, or 

 a tortoise shell. It was from the Algon- 

 quian tril)es that the whites first learned 

 to make hominy, succotash, samp, mai)le 

 sugar, johnnycake, etc. CTOokin,in 1674, 

 thus descrilies the method of preparing 

 food among the Indians of Massacliusetts: 

 "Their food is generally boiled maize, 

 or Indian corn, mixed with kidney ))eans, 

 or sometimes without. Alo, they fre- 

 quently boil in this pottage fish and fiesh 

 of all sorts, either new taken or dried, 

 as shad, eels, alewives, or a kind of her- 

 ring, or any other sort of fish. But they 

 dry mostly those sorts before mentioned. 

 These they cut in pieces, bones and all, 

 and boil them in the aforesaid pottage. 

 I have wondered many times that they 

 were not in danger of being choked with 

 fish bones; but they are so dexterous in 

 separating the bones from the fish in 

 their eating thereof that they are in no 

 hazard. Also, they boil in this frumenty 

 all sorts of flesh they take in huntiug, 

 as venison, beaver, bear's flesh, moose, 



otters, raccoons, etc., cutting this flesh 

 in small pieces and boiling it as afore- 

 said. Also, they mix with the said pot- 

 tage several sorts of roots, as Jerusalem 

 artichokes, and groundnuts, and other 

 roots, and pompions, and squashes, and 

 also several sorts of nuts or masts, as oak 

 acorns, chestnuts, and walnuts; these 

 husked and dried and powdered, they 

 thicken their pottage therewith. Also, 

 sometimes, they beat their maize into 

 meal and sift it through a basket made for 

 that purpose. With this meal they make 

 bread, baking it in the ashes, covering the 

 dough with leaves. Sometimes they make 

 of their meal a small sort of cakes and boil 

 them. They make also a certain sort of 

 meal of parched maize. This meal they 

 call 'nokake.'" Their pots were made 

 of clay, somewhat egg-shaped; their 

 dishes, spoons, and ladles of wood; their 

 water pails of birch jjark, doubled up 

 so as to make them four-cornered, with 

 a handle. They also had baskets of va- 

 rious sizes in whit-h they placed their 

 provisions; these were made of rushes, 

 stalks, corn husks, grass, and bark, often 

 ornamented with colored figui'es of ani- 

 mals. Mats woven of bark and rushes, 

 dressed deerskins, feather garments, and 

 utensils of wood, stone, and horn are 

 mentioned by explorers. Fish were taken 

 with hooks, spears, and nets, in canoes 

 and along the shore, on the sea and in 

 the ponds and rivers. They captured 

 without much trouble all the smaller 

 kinds of fish, and, in their canoes, often 

 dragged sturgeon with nets stoutly made 

 of Canada hemp (De Forest, Hist. Inds. 

 Conn., 1853). Canoes used for fishing 

 were of two kinds — one of birch bark, 

 very light, but liable to overset; the other 

 made from the trunk of a large tree. 

 Their clothing was composed chiefly of 

 the skins of animals, tanned until soft 

 and pliable, and was sometimes orna- 

 mented with paint and beads made from 

 shells. Occasionally they decked them- 

 selves with mantles made of feathers 

 f)verlapping each other as on the back of 

 the fowl. The dress of the women con- 

 sisted usually of two articles, a leather 

 shirt, or undergarment, ornamented witli 

 fringe, and a skirt of the same material 

 fastened round the waist with a belt and 

 reaching nearly to the feet. The legs 

 were protected, especially in the winter, 

 with leggings, and the feet with mocca- 

 sins of soft dressed leather, often embroid- 

 ered with wampum. The men usually 

 covered the lower part of the body with 

 a breech-cloth, and often wore a skin 

 mantle thrown over one shoulder. The 

 women dressed their hair in a thick 

 heavy plait which fell down the neck, 

 and sometimes ornamented their heads 

 with bands decorated with wampum 



