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Algonquian Indians are one of the most populous and widespread North American Native groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds, and hundreds of thousands who still identify with various Algonquian peoples. This grouping consists of peoples that speak Algonquian languages.

Before European contact, most Algonquians lived by hunting and fishing, although quite a few supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans, squash, and (particularly among the Ojibwe) wild rice.

At the time of the first European settlements in North America, Algonquian tribes occupied what is now New England, New Jersey, southeastern New York, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, all of CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe east of the Rocky mountains , MinnesotaMinnesota ( In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: North Star State Other U. States Capital Saint Paul Largest City Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty Area Total Land Water % water Ranked 12th225,365 km²206,375 km²18,990 km²8. 4% Population Total ( 2000) D, WisconsinOne of the periods of glaciation was also termed the Wisconsin glaciation. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state of the United States, (54,314 square miles) and 18th greatest population (5,453,896 as of 2002). The state's name is an English version of a Fre, MichiganMichigan is a state in the United States. The name is derived from Lake Michigan, which in turn is believed to come from the Chippewa Indian word meicigama meaning "great water. Bounded by four of the Great Lakes, Michigan has the longest state shoreline, IllinoisIllinois is a state in the United States named after the Illiniwek Indian tribe, which used to live there. The capital of Illinois is Springfield and the U. postal abbreviation for the state is IL . Illinois is pronounced ill-len-NOY, or jokingly, ill-len, IndianaIndiana meaning the "Land of the Indians", is a state of the United States with its capital Indianapolis. postal abbreviation for the state is IN . A resident of Indiana is called a Hoosier. USS Indiana was named in honor of this state. History Indiana wa, and were occasionally present in KentuckyCommonwealth of Kentucky ( In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U. States Capital Frankfort Largest City Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Area Total Land Water % water Ranked 37th 104,749 km² 102,989 km² 1,760 km² 1. 7% Populatio. They were most concentrated in the New England region. The homeland of the Algonquian peoples is not known. At the time of the European arrival, the hegemonic IroquoisThe Iroquois Confederacy is a group of First Nations/ Native Americans. Based in upstate New York at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, they now occupy territory in Ontario, Quebec, and New York. The spiritual union of the nations began before Euro federation was regularly at war with their Algonquian neighbours, forcing them to settle in regions unoccupied by Iroquois.

Algonquian tribes of the New England area include Mohican, Pequot, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusett, and Penacock . The Abenaki tribe was located in Maine and eastern Quebec. These tribes practiced some agriculture. The Maliseet of Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick, and the Micmac tribes of the Canadian Maritime provinces lived primarily on fishing. Further north are the Betsiamites , Atikamekw, Algonkin and Montagnais ( Innu). The Beothuk people of Newfoundland are also believed to have been Algonquians, but they disappeared in the early 1800s and few records of their language or culture remain. In the west, Ojibwe, Chippewa and a variety of Cree groups lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan , Western Ontario and the Canadian Prairies.

The tribal names used to identify individual groups of Algonquian peoples and their languages are often misleading. Even today, intermarriage and tight intercommunity alliances are common across the Algonquian peoples. Their languages are also quite similar. Across Canada, Cree speaking people may be able to understand each other with little difficulty, and the Ojibwe language is close enough to the Western Cree languages to remain partially understandable. These divisions have often been imposed by European efforts to manage native peoples, and to give them a European-style political identity better suited to the colonisers' ends. Within these communities, identities were often more fungible.