Eastern Woodland Indian Culture

Below the Great Lakes

There were many similarities between the Eastern Woodland Indians who lived below the Great Lakes and their cousins who lived in the rocky forests of the Laurentian Shield. Nevertheless Eastern Woodland - Indian territory , the warmer climate and the more fertile soil in the southern latitudes allowed for advances in agriculture. Farming, even though it was very rudimentary, allowed a more sedentary culture to develop which required different social and political structures than the more northerly migrant hunting gathering activities.

Before European contact, the predominant language family in use above and below the Great Lakes was Algonquin, but there were large and powerful enclaves of Iroquoian speaking people and in the western parts of the territory the Dakoda language was prominent.

Diet in the Eastern Woodland Indian culture

Despite differences in language, 500 years ago there was a general pattern of existence that was common to many communities. Even in those areas south of the Great Lakes in which people had begun to farm, hunting was universal, and a diet of deer meat was supplemented with bear, moose, smaller game and fish. Coastline communities gathered shellfish. Everyone gathered seasonal berries and fruits. Also, everyone cooked in vessels made of wood and bark though the more southern communities had learned to make simple black clay pots. As time went by a region could be identified by the pottery it produced.

The Effects of Geography and Climate

But there were also major differences between the Eastern Woodland Indian culture that survived on the Laurentian Shield and the Woodland culture that developed below the Shield. The land below the Laurentian Shield had not been scraped bare by the force of glaciers during the last Ice Age. Top soil remained and the climate was more temperate. If you look at the map you'll be able to draw an imaginary line from Great Bear Lake in the Arctic Circle to the most easterly of the Great Lakes and up the St. Lawrence River to the ocean. Above that line is where the glaciers did there work.

An Agricultural Economy Versus a Subsistence Economy

A hunting gathering economy is a subsistence economy. Community members - even children - have to expend most of their energy to provide food, clothing and shelter to meet the needs of a small family based unit. A hunting gathering culture is also a mobile culture because the group must always be ready to pack up and follow the wild game. A mobile culture made of small self-supporting groups has a different social and political structure than a society that needs to stay in one place and tend to crops.

Although dates vary from place to place, the culture of the Eastern Woodland Indians living in the northeast transformed to an agricultural economy almost 3000 years ago. The change was not universal, it didn't happen overnight and there were many, many regional variations of the process. But, many communities came to rely on crops to provide a substantial portion of their diet. For the most part, those communities had to stay in one place and the result was that they developed new political systems. When many people live together in a relatively small space rules of conduct emerge that differ from the conventions of a culture that is composed of many small migrant groups. Leadership roles adapt. A small family group may only need a single strong head of household, but a community of many households may need a chief.

Dwellings ranged from wigwams to bark covered pallisades

Dome shaped wigwams (not tipis) made from bent saplings covered with bark and hides were prevalent, but not universal. The Iroquois, for example built long communal dwellings capable of housing more than a dozen families on raised sleeping platforms. The buildings were post and beam construction with the addition of bent sapling frames. The structures were often covered with sheets of tree bark arranged in such a way that smoke from open fires could escape through the roof. If bark wasn't available mats were woven from reeds and used as a reasonable substitute.

By 1000 BP large villages spanned the Mississippi and Missouris River valleys. This is an area that has become known for impressive burial mounds and other earthworks. An exceptional feature was the earthen temple mound which served as a raised platform on which the major community buildings were placed. They served as political and ceremonial centres.

Some communities contained large charnel houses which received the remains of the dead, but burials were more lifkely to be in large areas somewhat like today's cemeteries or in the earth floor of homes.

Transportation

Birchbark canoes were widely used by the Eastern Woodland Indians culture. Communities, even families, put their mark on the culture by preferring one design over another. It's believed that the birch bark canoes evolved from dugout canoes.