THE INDIAN FAMILIES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 181 



the Saskatchewan, confining themselves throughout this 

 vast region to the prairies and plains. The Iroquois 

 must be regarded as a family nearly extinct,- they are 

 half civilized, and from intermixture with the whites, fast 

 losing in many of their settlements, all trace of pure 

 Indian blood. 



When the Jesuit missionaries penetrated into Canada 

 about the year 1615*, they found the country in pos- 

 session of two only of these families, the Algonquins and 

 the Iroquois. 



The great Algonquin family, whose hunting-grounds 

 then extended from the north west side of the valley of 

 the St. Lawrence to Hudson's Bay, is composed of 

 numerous nations speaking a common language, but em- 

 bracing many dialects. Among these are included the 

 Ojibways, the Crees, the Potawatamies, the Shawnees, the 

 Lenni-Lenape, the Delawares, the Ottawas, the Nippis- 

 sings, the Abenakis, the Amalacites, the Montagnais, the 

 SoJcasis, the Mistassins, and the Mohegans. 



The Algonquins f are generally wanderers, without 

 settled place of abode, living in the woods and subsisting 

 upon wild animals, fish, fruits, roots, and herbs. 



The Iroquois family embraced the Hurons, Erics, and 

 Mingo es or Iroquois. The Hurons or Wyandots speak a 

 language not understood by the Algonquin nations, but 

 allied to that of the Iroquois. They lived formerly in 

 stationary villages, and cultivated the soil, growing Indian 

 corn, pumpkins, &c. The country of the Hurons is now the 



* Le Pere Eecollet Joseph Le Caron, in 1615, ascended from Quebec to the 

 country of the Hurons. — Relations de quelques Missions des Peres de la 

 Compagnie de Jesus dans la Nouvelle France. 



f Algonquins, or Algoume quins, a word derived from Adirondack, or 

 Leaf-eaters, derisively applied to a tribe by the Iroquois, and corrupted by 

 the early French settlers into Algonquins.— Ibid. 



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