Over the course of centuries, Indigenous nations adapted to their environment and the land they inhabited. This can explain why, in 1500 in northeastern America, there were different language families who had differing social structures and ways of life. Some families were nomadic, others were sedentary.
The three main language families are :
Iroquoians adopted a sedentary way of life because of the very fertile banks of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Valley. Edible plants grew so abundantly on the land that Iroquoians developed effective farming practices adapted to the environment.
Depiction of Iroquoians Farming
Since they no longer needed to move around for food, they built longhouses. As their name suggests, these were long dwellings for up to 50 members of the same tribe. With the matrilineal Iroquoian social structure, choosing who lived in the longhouse was not left to chance. This meant that if a young Iroquoian woman from the Bear clan married a young man from the Turtle clan, the husband would become part of the Bear clan and move into the longhouse of his new partner’s mother.
A matrilineal society is one in which the lineage is established through the mother’s family. Leadership is also assumed by the family's oldest woman.
Some nations built large stockades around their village to protect them from enemies. After living in the same spot for 20 to 30 years, the ground became barren, and the village would move to farm more fertile land.
Depiction of an Iroquoian village made up of longhouses, protected by a stockade
Depiction of the inside of a longhouse
Iroquoian farming nations lived on more fertile land, whereas Algonquian nations had to hunt, fish and harvest for food, which is why they held onto a nomadic way of life. The wigwam, their temporary home, was only used to sleep or to protect them against the cold. It was collapsible and easily transported when they needed to move to find food. This language family regularly moved around, which explains their vast territory.
A wigwam
While men were mainly responsible for hunting and fishing, women provided for the group by harvesting and cooking food. Algonquian nations established a patrilineal social structure.
A patrilineal society is one in which lineage is established through the father’s family.
Living in harsh northern conditions, Inuit developed a resistance to the cold and adapted their way of life to the climate. They built igloos—shelters made of snow and ice—and made clothing to protect them from their environment’s extreme conditions.
Building an igloo: a shelter that could protect a family from winter conditions
They hunted marine animals such as fish, whales, walruses, seals and narwhals for food, as well as land animals such as polar bears, musk oxen and caribou. In summer, they hunted for marine birds and harvested lichen and small flowers.
The ground was almost always frozen, making it impossible for them to farm. Inuit had a nomadic way of life since the climate did not leave them any other choice. Tasks were attributed in the same manner as Algonquians within a patrilineal social structure.