Essay On Native American Life Before The Algonquians

Native American Life prior to the European Arrival Contrary to the Europeans’ thoughts upon their arrival, the native peoples living in the Americas had a thriving society. While conflicts and battles did arise, the Native Americans possessed characteristics ideal for their environment and which helped their society prosper. Using their natural resources, the American Indians established a culture that, in some ways, was far superior to the society of Europe. Social structure was a vital component to any Native American tribe. The Algonquians, for example, a group that inhabited the Northeastern portion of the continent, “lived in bands ranging from one to three hundred members”. Families lived together in wigwams “made of bent saplings covered with birch bark”. Not only did a husband, wife, and their family reside in these structures, but their married sons and their families lived there also. “Both the Iroquois and the Algonquians had strong tribal identities above and beyond the basic nuclear families.” Kinship ties established many tribe members’ positions in the society …show more content…
The Algonquians and the Hurons fought their enemies the Iroquois only to be defeated and driven from their territory. With this war alongside deadly epidemics of smallpox and measles, the Algonquian population began to diminish. The Iroquois were also involved in other conflicts. Two Iroquois reformers by the names of Dekanawidah and Hiawatha “responded to mounting conflict by proposing a political alliance of the Iroquois tribes”. They called this confederation the Iroquois League, uniting five (later six) Iroquois tribes to establish peace. Chiefs of the included tribes sat on a council with fifty elected members to create a central government which some scholars say became a model for the government of the United States. Women had an important role in the Iroquois society - a concept European culture had yet to