Algonquian peoples

It is not only a creature from myths and legends of the ancients.

The Algonquin Native Americans represent the most extensive and numerous North American groups, with hundreds of tribes speaking several related dialects of the language group Algonquian.

They lived in most of the Canadian territory below the Hudson Bay and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains.

Their rich mythology and their beliefs survived many generations, and so did the Wendigo, a monster and boogeyman.

So in 2007, there's this archaeologist named Nicholas Licchetti of the James River Institute, and he was assessing artifacts in North Carolina on this plantation.

And during that survey, they determined that this area was once a home to an indigenous group called the Algonquians.

And in a peripheral dig site labeled some site name, there were some artifacts that they unearthed.

It was a specific type of English pottery called borderware pottery.

Maybe there's more clues that we're missing around this, this whole situation.

Cause they were sort of thinking about two different, um, thoughts or ideas either it's a totally new colony like a really really early colony that we had no idea about which would also be super cool yeah or it could be the broken oak colony that has been missing for 450 years either way looks super interesting let's let's look into it And so they start going into the records and archives from that time to figure out, okay, is there any other information that we can pick up on? And the majority of the information, like I said, had come from John White and his maps.

There's this engraving of the Sakon in Algonquin Village on the Pelmico.

Pumley Grove River, and it's based on a drawing made by John White in July of 1585.

There will be wars with the Iroquois are a part of.

There will be wars with other native peoples, Algonquians coming down from Canada.

But for New England, they've now removed the two major native peoples.

And so they can expand as much as they like.

Because they had fertilizer, though, the fertility of the soil was never really impaired, and they could continue to use the same land over and over and over again for extended periods of time.

Now, in terms of political organization of these Algonquian tribes, they're basically similar.

I mean, they're all patriarchies.

That means that the chief system that they're following, or the second, as they call them, he is a man.

They die.

Women are the ones in the village that stay there for the extended periods of time they have along their lives, and so then things pass through them and they control things more directly.

Wars amongst the Algonquians do happen, but they happen for certain definable reasons.

They often engaged in war to settle boundary disputes between peoples or avenge insults and extend or resist their tribal authorities.

So I...

There's, there's a similar kind of uprising that occurs in, in Virginia in the 1620, 1622 by, um, the local, um, Algonquian, um, people, and when kind of news of that reaches England, actually the purpose of kind of conveying these events in such dramatic detail is to justify a much more severe response-

Ah

... to the Indigenous population.

It says here, afterward, the men began researching what they believed they had encountered.

They found references to the Wendigo, a malevolent supernatural being appearing in the traditions of several Algonquian-speaking peoples, including Ojibwe communities.

Traditional descriptions vary, but the Wendigo is strongly associated with malevolence, starvation, and cannibalism.

We all kind of know that, I think.

When the Jamestown colony was established in sixteen oh seven under the auspices of the Virginia Company, survival hinged on adapting to a new environment.

Tobacco cultivation replaced the earlier fishing economy, and cooperation with local Algonquian groups proved vital for trade and food, especially after the harsh winter known as the Starving Time.

Jamestown’s eventual success was also tied to the economic logic of privateering against Spanish holdings.

This not only brought wealth to the colony, but also reinforced English naval power, an early sign that overseas colonies could serve both commercial and military objectives for home.

Chapter 2.

The hero gods of the Algonquians and the Iroquois.

1.

The Algonquin myth of Michabo.

[laughs]

Some historical figures as well from, you know, one a Celt, one a, a chieftain of, um, you know, an Algonquian nation out in, in America.

So yeah, that would be what I would do, uh, for my, uh, you know, dinner with four.

And on that Come Dine Me episode, I'd probably rate them all 20 just so I can win the actual thing.