Algonquian

Most populous and widely distributed of the Native North American linguistic stocks, originally comprising several hundred tribes who spoke nearly 50 related languages.

The Algonquian people occupied most of the Canadian region south of Hudson Bay between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean and, excluding certain territory held by Siouan and Iroquoian tribes, that section of what is now the United States extending northward from North Carolina and Tennessee.

Algonquian tribes inhabited various isolated areas to the south and west, including parts of what are now South Carolina, Iowa, Wyoming, and Montana.

The best-known Algonquian groups include the Algonquin, from which the stock takes its name, Amalecite, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Conoy, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Gros Ventre, Kickapoo, Massachuset, Miami, Mi'kmaq, Mohegan, Mahican, Montagnais, Musi, Narragansett, Naskapi, Nipmuc, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Pequot, Potawatomi, Sac (Sauk), Shawnee, Tête de Boule, and Wampanoag.

Some of the principal Algonquian confederacies were the Abenaki, Pennacook, and Illinois.

"Algonquian," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Algonquian/Anishnabek

The numerous bands that inhabited the area between the territories of the Montagnais and the Chippewas (or Ojibwas), and south of the present city of Ottawa, were called Algonkins by Champlain and other seventeenth-century writers. They and the Montagnais were allies of the French in their conflicts with the Iroquois.

(DCB Dictionary of Canadian Biography"," G. Brown"," ed.)

"Kishpin bontoyeg kidatsokanan, kiga onikemin kajibikinamagoyeg...
If we cease sharing our stories, our knowledge becomes lost."

Anishnabe O'datsokewin

The Anishnabek, known in the academic world as the Algonquin, never called themselves Algonquin. We, the People called ourselves Anishnabek and had names that specifically referred to where we came from. For example, Kitigan Zibi Anishnabek means Garden River People, and Kitiganik Anishnabek means Garden People.

Through generations, much has been taken from us. Today, we still encounter problems with the government and corporations cutting down our forests and taking our land. With technology and institutions overlapping our world, how we run our communities is affected. We forget where we come from, which in turn affects our stories. "Our brothers and sisters, the animals, are leaving us and there is a risk of losing our connection to them." Those of us who remember and follow our teachings will continue to survive through the stories, the ceremonies and our love for the land.

As spiritual people, it is in these stories and in our ceremonies that we have gathered strength, learned about ourselves and the connection we have to Ni-djodjomnan, Aki (Mother Earth). If we stop sharing our stories, our knowledge becomes lost.

Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, Canada
PHOTOS OF CMC ARTIFACTS: Richard Garner, Harry Foster

Algonquins

Language

The Algonquin language is at the base of the larger Algonquian linguistic group. As with the Ojibway and Cree languages, also of Algonquian stock, and Inuktitut, Algonquin is among those rare Native languages in North America with a very good chance of surviving and even progressing in the future. Today, more than 60% of the total Algonquin population in Quebec speak their language. The name Algonquin developed out of the terms used to speak about a certain method of fishing, and can be interpreted as meaning "from where we harpoon fish and eel."

Total Population

The population of the Algonquin Nation in Quebec is estimated at 7,980 people, with roughly 4,490 residents in one or the other of the nine Algonquin communities.

Territories

Recorded documents from the beginning of the European presence in North America indicate that the Algonquins use to live along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Historical circumstances led them to make their present-day home in the Abitibi-Timiskiming and Outaouais regions.

Communities

It is an understatement, but, as was the case for most aboriginal peoples, Algonquin society was greatly affected by the arrival of the Europeans on their ancestral lands. Part of the Algonquin response to this situation was to retreat farther and farther inland, to the less occupied areas of what were to become known as Quebec and Ontario.

The nine communities now established in southwestern Quebec include Abitibiwinni, Barriere Lake, Eagle Village (Kipawa), Kitcisakik, Kitigan Zibi, Lac-Simon, Long Point, Timiskaming, and Wolf Lake. There are also two communities in neighboring Ontario: Golden Lake and Wahgoshig.

(The links direct to the First Peoples-Native Trail Site)

Organizations

Each community has its own band council for the administration of local affairs. From 1980 to 1991, the Algonquin Council of Western Quebec represented the collective political interests of all the communities in the province. Two organizations have since grown out of this association, in order to handle the shared interests of specific communities. Abitibiwinni, Eagle Village (Kipawa), Kitigan Zibi, Lac-Simon and Long Point are part of the Council of the Anishinabeg Algonquin Nation. Three other communities, Barriere Lake, Timiskaming, and Wolf Lake are associated in the Algonquin Nation Programs and Services Secretariat. Kitcisakik, the only remaining nomadic people of any native community in Quebec, has a band council but is not part of either regrouping of the Algonquin Nation in Quebec. The Algonquin Development Association was created in 1991, to play a part in the economic improvement of certain communities. The Maticieeia Society has the same role in terms of cultural development and the promotion of the Algonquin language.

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