reverendannie.myfreeforum.org :: Great Lake Tribes

tarotgirl

The Great Lakes is a chain of inland lakes -- Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior -- stretching from New York to Minnesota. Because they comprise such a large waterway, they have played a vital role in the lives and histories of Indian peoples who have resided along their shores for millennia. Most Indian groups living in the Great Lakes region for the last five centuries are of the Algonkian language family. This includes such present-day Wisconsin tribes as the Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. Some tribes--such as the Stockbridge-Munsee and the Brothertown--are also Algonkian-speaking tribes who relocated from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes region in the nineteenth century. The Oneida who live near Green Bay belong to the Iroquois language group and the Ho-chunk of Wisconsin are one of the few Great Lakes tribes to speak a Siouan language.
Although there have been many differences in language and customs between different Indian tribes, Great Lakes Indian communities have had many things in common. They comprise a general culture called "Woodland" after its adaptation to North America's northeastern and southeastern woodlands. Woodland Indian societies have depended to a large degree on forest products for their survival, and Great Lakes Indians hunted, fished, gathered wild foods, and practiced agriculture for their subsistence. In many parts of the Great Lakes -- particularly northern Wisconsin -- Indians depended on wild rice as a dietary staple, while Indians in areas without wild rice generally cultivated corn. Where sugar maples grow, Great Lakes Indians established sugar-making camps in early spring and made sugar from tree sap.

Adapted from:
http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-21.html

This next site offers an extensive look at the native tribes living in the great lakes regions.

Indians, or Native Peoples, were the original inhabitants of North America and the Great Lakes region. In fact, Native Peoples inhabited the continent tens of thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from Europe and the Far East. By the 16th century, the Native Peoples of North America had evolved into widely different cultures. Notable tribes around the Great Lakes included people we now call the Chippewa, Fox, Huron, Iroquois, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Sioux.

Approximately 120 bands of Native Peoples have occupied the Great Lakes basin over the course of history. In the United States, Native Peoples are also referred to as American Indians or Native Americans. In Canada, tribes are called First Nations. In the Ontario region alone, more than 75 bands of First Nations are reported. A band is based on kinship and family affiliation. A nuclear family is part of a clan (cousins), a clan is part of a band (aunts, uncles, extended cousins), and a collection of bands make up a tribe. Tribes are traditionally highly organized, politically autonomous groups.

Taken In Part From:
http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/history/native/native_1.html

I really enjoyed this look into the native tribes of the lakes, I hope this helps others to come to an understanding of the culture better.... TG