The document summarizes aspects of life for Native American tribes in the Northeast region, including the Iroquoian and Wampanoag tribes. It describes their food sources from hunting, fishing, gathering, and growing crops. It also outlines the tools and weapons they created for tasks like hunting, fishing, and battle. Housing structures included dome-shaped wigwams and longhouses. Family and social structures were matrilineal, centered around clans led by elder women. Music and dance played important roles in ceremonies, which often involved tobacco, pipes, and symbolic dances. Transportation methods included canoes, snowshoes, and walking.

1. The Northeast
Native Americans
Created by: Berk, Lydia,
Clarice, Shea, and Teddy

2. Food
The people of the longhouse had a
lot of different resources for food. For
meat they hunted elk, deer, rabbits,
wolves, and bear. They also fished in
nearby lakes. Some of what they caught
was trout, whitefish, sturgeon, and
shellfish. Some wild fowl they caught
was turkeys, ducks, herons, pigeons and
partridges. The people of the north also
gathered wild plants. They gathered
sunflowers for their oil, tobacco, plums,
grapes, cherries, berries, sweet crab
apples, chestnuts, black walnuts, hickory
nuts, and maple sap. The Iroquoian tribe
had gardens in which they grew corn,
kidney beans, lima beans, pumpkins,
melons, and squash.

3. Tools
The Wampanoag made tools
for battle and everyday life. They
made spears, bows and arrows and
elm bark canoes. These elm bark
canoes were not as light as birch bark
canes. They also made Cayuga
burden straps made from basswood
bark fiber or leather. They also made
clay pots and used sharpened pieces
of bone to decorate the outsides of
the pots. They also used fire to cook
food and have heat. They also made
many different kinds of fishing and
hunting tools. Mortars made of
hollowed out logs to mash corn to
make bread, soups and other food.
The Wampanoag created many
different kinds of tools for their lives.

4. Homes and Shelters
The Wampanoag used
different materials to make their
houses and shelters. They built
dome shaped wigwams called
witus. They framed them with
saplings and covered them with
mats sewn with cat tail leaves.
They built their witus around an
open space so they could have
ceremonies and other activities.
The inside of the longhouse was
lined with wooden platforms
used to store food, animal furs
and for sleeping. These are
some of the different types of
homes and shelters the
Wampanoag built.

5. Family Life
The clan matron protected
many families who were related
to each other. Men were often
away from their families hunting
in woods and water ways. The
women were centered in the long
house and fields where they lived
and worked with their mothers
and sisters. Children were raised
by their mothers, sisters and
brothers. The clan was led by
the clan matron (oldest most
respected woman). The clan
matron controlled food supplies,
selected chiefs and arranged
marriages.

6. Music and Dance
The Native
Americans of the
Northeast used small
drums, horn rattles,
turtle shell rattles, burl
drums and feather fans
to make music for
traditional dances.

7. Beliefs
Many beliefs some Native
Americans had were in the sky
spirit who controlled the wind.
Also a supreme being, earth
spirits, thunder spirits, the
three sisters corn, squash and
beans. The Dew bird, basket
woman, clamshell boy and evil
spirits. I think it’s a lot like
Greek mythology. A lot of the
good and evil spirits fought
each other in a quest to save or
destroy the people of the north
east. These were some of the
beliefs of the north east.

8. Ceremonies
There would be a special longhouse
specially reserved for ceremonial use.
Tobacco was often used for ceremonies. It
would be thrown directly onto the coals, or
smoked in stone or clay pipes. Its smoke
was thought to bring prayers up to heaven.
Pipes were smoked with honored guests
and to strengthen friendships between
tribes. Every year there would be six or
eight festivals/ceremonies. Some are the
midwinter festival, the time of planting
festival, when maple sap flowed in trees,
when berries ripen, and the eagle dance-a
dance where two men from each clan
dance like an eagle and they each had a
horn rattle in the right hand and a feather
fan in the left hand to sweep away evil.
This dance is about a boy who is taken by
the Dew Eagle and comes back as a man
who can heal people. The dew eagle gives
rain when the thunder spirit does not.

9. Transportation
The Iroquoian Native
American tribes
mainly walked on
foot for
transportation.
Depending on what
season it was, or
what trees they had,
they would use pine
dugout canoes birch
bark canoes, or linen
dugout canoes for
water transportation.
If it was cold and
snowing, they would
use snowshoes.

10. Other Interesting Facts
The Wampanoag were
a very interesting tribe to
study. One interesting fact I
learned was before
Europeans came to the
continents Native Americans
grew crops along North
America. Most Native
Americans, (Iroquois) were
Canada’s first cultivators.
Girls that were too young to
marry shaved off their hair in
the front and on the sides.
These are some interesting
facts that I learned about the
Wampanoag.