Chapter 4
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61
homes. Because most of our region was in
forest, these tribes also became known as
the
EasternWoodland Indians
.
Archeologists think there were four main
Native American peoples living in
Pennsylvania by 1600. Around this time,
they also think there were about 15,000
Native Americans living in our state. Later,
other tribes such as the Shawnee and
Nanticoke moved into Pennsylvania. Of
course, the tribes did not call their home
Pennsylvania! They simply lived in certain
regions of the state. Theywere givenEnglish
names according towhere they lived.
TheLenni Lenape tribes (Len-neeLe-nah-
pay) were located along theDelaware River.
Guess what name the first English settlers
gave them? Look in this paragraph for a
clue. If you guessed Delawares, you were
correct. They spoke the Algonquin lan-
guage. The second main tribe lived along
the Susquehanna River. They were called
theSusquehannocks and spoke the Iroquois
language. The thirdmain tribe lived along
the Monongahela River region and was so
named. However, no one knows what
language they spoke. The fourthmain tribe
was located near Lake Erie. This tribe was
called the Eries! They spoke the Iroquois
language. Now do you see why we studied
geography first? It is easier to locate these
places.
A fifthpowerful group of tribes, located in
New York State, was known as the Iroquois
League of Nations. The league was made up
of five different tribes. At first, they fought
many wars against each other. Then, two
chiefs convinced the tribes that they would
be stronger if they were to work together.
After they organized, their league of tribes
became much stronger. The tribes were the
Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
and the Senecas. These tribe names are now
commonwords inNew York State. By 1600,
they were beginning to spread south into
Pennsylvania. They began to defeat other
tribes whowouldnot join them.
How the Native
American Tribes
Were Organized
B
oth the Algonquin and Iroquois
tribes lived in small villages, or
clans
. Each clan was named after
an animal such as the turkey, wolf, and
turtle. The tribes respected these animals.
They thought the animals would protect
their clans.
Among the Algonquin tribes, a
council
of men was selected to run the clan. The
women of the clan chose each member of
the council. When the women felt they
made a bad choice, they also could remove
the member from the group, or council.
Several clans made up a tribe of Native
Americans. Among the members of the
ANative American hunter
teaches a young boy.
