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Before the European colonisation of the Americas, peoples speaking Algonquian languages stretched from the east coast of North America all the way to the Rocky Mountains. This large family can be divided roughly into three major subfamilies:

• Plains Algonquian
  • Blackfoot
  • Cheyenne
  • Arapaho
• Central Algonquian
  • Cree also called Innu or Montagnais
  • Ojibwe, including Chippewa, Odawa (Ottawa) and AlgonquinThis article is about the Native American tribe. For other uses see: Algonquin (disambiguation The Algonquins or Algonkins are an aboriginal North American people speaking Algonquin, an Algonquian language. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely
  • PotawatomiThe Potawatomi (also spelled Pottawatomie or Pottawatomi are an Aboriginal American people of the upper Mississippi River region. The Potawatomi were part of a long term alliance with the Ottawa and Ojibwe, called the Council of Three Fires and which foug
  • Mesquakie also known as Sac and Fox
  • Shawnee
  • KickapooThe Kickapoo are Native American tribes. There are three recognized tribes remaining in the U. the Kickapoo of Kansas, the Kickapoo of Oklahoma, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. There is a further group in Coahuila, Mexico. Around 3,000 people
  • MiamiThe Miami are a Native American tribe originally found in Indiana and Ohio. The nation's traditional capital was Kekionga, which is located within the borders of the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. As of 2004, people who identify as Miami live in Okl
  • MenomineeThe Menominee language is an Algonquian language spoken on the Menominee (Menomini) Nation lands in Northern Wisconsin in the United States. Menominee is a highly endangered language, with only a handful of elderly speakers left. According to a 1997 repor
• Eastern Algonquian
  • Abenaki and Penobscot
  • Maliseet and Passamaquoddy
  • Mi'kmaq (Micmac)
  • Mohican, Mohegan, Narragansett, Montauk and Wampanoag
  • Delaware, Lenape, Unami , Munsee, Powhatan and Nanticoke

The group may also have included the extinct Beothuk language of Newfoundland, although evidence is scarce. Etchimin and the pre-colonial language of the Lumbees may also have been Algonquian languages, but in both cases documentary evidence is at best very weak.

The Algonquian language family is renowned for its complex morphology and sophisticated verb system. Statements that take many words to say in English can be expressed with a single "word". Ex: ( Menominee) enae:ni:hae:w "He is heard by higher powers" or ( Plains Cree ) kāstāhikoyahk "it frightens us." Languages in this family typically mark at least two distinct third persons, so that speakers can keep track of central characters in narrative. These languages have been famously studied in the structuralist tradition by Leonard Bloomfield and Edward Sapir among others. Many of these languages are extremely endangered today, while others have died completely.

Because Algonquian languages were some of the first that Europeans came in contact with in North America, the language family has given many words to English. Many eastern U.S. states have names of Algonquian origin ( Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin), as do many cities: Milwaukee, Chicago, et al. The capital of Canada is named after an Algonquian nation - the Odawa.

For information on the peoples speaking Algonquian languages, see Algonquian peoples.