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Native Groups

*Caption: The Beginnings of a Shelter

The Indians in the Eastern Woodland Culture lived east of the Plains Indians and as far east as the Atlantic Ocean. Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were called the Eastern Woodland Indians. Their food, shelter, clothing, weapons, and tools came from the forests around them. They lived in villages near a lake or stream. There were many tribes of the Eastern Woodland Indians and most of them spoke the Iroquoian or Algonquian language. The Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca were just a few of the tribes. They joined together to create a large league called the Iroquois.

The Iroquois were believed to be both savage as well as kind. The Mohawks were fierce people who tortured their captives. The Mohawks, especially the women, took great delight in burning the victim alive with torches and tearing out bits of the flesh with jagged pieces of seashell. The neighbours of the Iroquois were also said to be quite fierce. However, the Iroquois were also kind ; strangers were welcomed and food was always provided. When visiting an Iroquois home one was expected to taste the food offered and to say "Hi-ne-a-wah' , which means, " I thank you" . Visitors were given food, clothing and a place to sleep.

The Huron (also known as the Wyendat ) occupied an area of central Ontario between the southern end of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. They were bitter enemies of the Iroquois. The Huron were spiritual people who believed in a supreme deity. A religious ceremony unique to these people was the Feast of the Dead. This occurred once every decade. At the time the body of all people who had died over the last ten years were dug up and reburied in a communal burial plot. The Huron believed that this ceremony allowed the souls of the departed to enter into the spirit realm.

The laws of the Eastern Woodland people were strict; it was customary for a convicted murderer to be tied to the corpse of his victim and allowed to starve to death.

FOOD

The laws of the Eastern Woodland people were strict; it was customary for a convicted murderer to be tied to the corpse of his victim and allowed to starve to death.

FOOD

The eastern Woodland Hunters and Farmers had many uses for tree bark, especially birch bark. They boiled food in water-filled bark bowls by dropping heated stones into the water. Bark was used for all kinds of containers, including boxes, baskets, trays, dishes and spoons. Women sometimes bit designs on birch bark by making precise indentations with their teeth.

The women tended gardens where beans, corn, pumpkin, squash and tobacco were grown. Women also harvested these crops and prepared the food. Black pottery or wood and bark containers were used for cooking. They dried berries, corn, fish, meat and squash for the winter. The diet of deer meat was also supplemented by other game and shellfish.

Women pick choke cherries from the tall trees and gather them in their berry picking baskets, which are made of bark. The baskets are in the shape of a cone with the bottom snipped off. Because berries and cherries stained fingers and baskets, they used the baskets only for gathering berries. The women use the cherries in breads or in sauces, grind them up (pits and all) and dry them and form them into little cakes to use them in the winter months.

The women and children ground corn in to flour and by grinding it in large wooden motars with long heavy stone pestles. The motars are hollowed-out logs. They added dried and parched cornmeal to the many foods they eat. The men carried little bags of this dried corn powder on their trips, and it became their food supply for many days.

The Eastern Woodland Hunters and farmers ate many varieties of nuts. They included acorns, beech nuts, chestnust, hickory nuts and walnuts. They made flour from them for delicious nut breads, and ground them into powder to make a kind of nut butter from them. Below is a recipe for making Venision Stew, originated from the Eastern Woodlands people.

Venison Stew:

Ingeredients: Some wild onions, dried corn, maple sugar, venison.

To make: Add the ingredients to the pot, suspend pot over fire. Add water. It should fill the pot halfway. It will simmer slowly for hours. To the stew add some maple sugar. Use a long wooden paddle to stir the stew occasionally, and when it is finally cooked, serve the food.

The people of the Eastern Woodlands tapped maple trees for syrup and sugar cones. They used cattails for food and also for weaving mats. In the summer they built a cooking shelter but they usually cooked over an open fire. The Ojibway were hunters and farmers so they ate fruits and vegetables. Their main crop was squash, beans and corn otherwise known as the three sisters to the Iroquois who were the best farmers in the eastern woodlands. Some times if a village in the eastern woodlands were near a stream or river (which was common ) the people would hunt the fish in the water. The farmers had a garden around every village. Half of the eastern woodlands were hunters that hunted elk, deer, caribou and sometimes moose which was a rare treat. The other half were farmers that farmed cabbage, corn, beans, and squash. If their was no food they would eat their own slippers and chew on their clothing to stay alive.

CLOTHING

Most clothing was made of moose, deer and caribou skin. Garments worn by Woodland People were tunics and pants, moccasins and a breech cloth for the men. Women dressed in almost the same way, turning the tunic into a flowing gown by extending it to the knees or ankles.

In winter, robes of fur, usually woven of strips of rabbit skin, added extra warmth. Caps and mittens were made from the pelts of muskrat, beaver and other fur-bearing animals. Possibly borrowing from the coastal Inuit, some tribes fitted their tailored coats with hoods for winter use.

The Ojibway coloured their clothing with red, yellow, blue and green dyes derived from flowers, roots and berries. Beautifully patterned porcupine quill and moosehair embroidery decorated hunters' gloves and women's moccasins.

Smoke tanning was the process often used to preserve the hide. The women worked with a stone knife to cut the skins and a awl (a pointed tool for making holes) to punch the holes. Using a bone needle, they sewed the clothing with sinew taken from the back or legs of caribou, moose or deer.

SHELTER

The Iroquois Indians lived in wigwams and longhouses. Wigwams were made by bending young trees to form the round shape of the house. *see caption. Over this shape pieces of tree bark were overlapped to protect the villagers from bad weather. Over the bark a layer of thatch, or dried grass, was placed. A small hole from the top allowed smoke from the fires to escape. The beds were mats covered with hides.

Longhouses (the average)were long rectangular homes, eighteeen feet wide sixteen feet long, and eighteen feet high. Longhouses were made by building a frame from saplings. (young trees.) They were then covered with bark sewn together. There was a long hallway with rooms on both sides. the roof or ceiling was inlaid with bark and formed a bearrel shape. Sleeping platforms, covered with deerskin, lined each wall. There were also shelves for storing baskets, pots, and pelts. Related families would reside in these longhouses.

The Iroquois built log walls around their villages. The wall had only one opening. They could quickly close this opening if their enemies came near.

HUNTING

Hunters used spears as well as bows and arrows to shoot animals. A snare was a commonly used trap used to snare both large and small animals. It was a kind of noose made either of animal sinew or babiche, a rawhide throng that caught the animal by the neck or leg.

Hunters sometimes built fences along woodland trails travelled by moose or deer. Snares were hidden in complicated placed gaps in the fence. The Eastern Woodlands hunted caribou with snares suspended along both natural and artificial trails where animals had to pass. When their antlers became entangled, the caribou were easily killed with spears or arrows.

Habitat

The eastern woodland Indians lived around the southeast of Ontario and in some parts of Quebec. They lived in small villages and had a wooden fence made of poles that surrounded each village. These fences offered protection against sudden attacks from their enemies. Most of the tribes built their homes near lakes and rivers. They built permanent homes so they did not do a lot of traveling, unless there was a shortage of food in the area where they lived. The Iroquois consisted of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and the Seneca tribes.They were known as the "Five Civilized Tribes." The Iroquois lived in the Eastern part of the United States and some of Canada, what is now New York area. The land was covered with mountains of forests. It was so thick in places that the light from the sun could barely reach the ground. The land was very snowy in the winter with snow -covered mountains in the north and hot swamps in the south.

Customs

The Iroquois held six large festivals each year. The festivals lasted several days. The festivals were the New Year Festival in winter, the Maple Festival in spring, the Corn Planting Festival, the Strawberry Festival, the Green Corn Festival, and the Harvest Festival. These festivals were held to give thanks to the spirits for all that they had.

Very important to this culture was wampum. Wampum belts and necklaces were made from white and purple shells. Wampum was used as money between the white men and Indians, and also as a form of communication between tribes. Wampum belts would be made into pictures showing the reason it was made, and the history of their culture. All Indian 'messengers' carried wampum belts when travelling to other tribes.