Algonquian
Algonquian
throughout North America which includes many important tribes such as the
Roanoke that have been part of important history. They have typical Native
American religious beliefs that are similar to what we learned about in class.
speaking tribes originated in modern day Ontario and spread throughout the
east coast of both Canada and North America. Modern day tribes in this
group are spread across the United States due to relocation throughout
history (bigorrin). One of the tribes in this group, the Roanoke tribe, was the
tribe that made first contact with the first group of English settlers in the new
world on Roanoke Island. I chose to focus on this linguistic group and tribe
because I grew up on Roanoke Island which is part of the Outer Banks on the
coast of North Carolina. Roanoke Island is split into two towns. Manteo,
where I come from, and Wanchese. These towns are named after two chiefs
many of the tribes across the new world. Growing up in Manteo we learned a
lot about Native American culture through elementary school trips to festival
park and the lost colony. Both locations are rich in Native American culture
Algonquian group. Some like the Beothuk and Wappinger tribes have gone
extinct but with over half a million Algonquian people alive today the
majority are still alive (bigorrin). Some examples of tribes that still exist are
and eels. The weather conditions of Canada made it difficult for the
Algonquian people to grow food so they moved place to place to hunt, fish,
and gather berries and other wild plants (history). The Algonquian people
travelled both on foot and canoes during warm weather, and with snowshoes
and toboggans in the winter months (history). They used animal skins for
typical for Native Americans. They believed in a spirit world that interacted
with the physical world, and their spiritual leaders were shamans. Shamans
were the only people that could interact with the spirit world and convert its
power and influence to the physical one. These shamans, also called
medicine men, preformed healing rituals to heal the sick by expelling evil
spirits (first). Shamans also had the power to put a curse on someone and
inflict them with sickness (classroom). Shamans had dreams or visions which
they used to guide their tribe. For instance, if a shaman had a vision of an
animal herd in a specific area the hunters would venture out and hunt in that
spot (classroom).
Instead of a monotheistic or polytheistic religion like most of us are
known as Kitchi Manitou. Kitchi Manitou is a spiritual force present not only in
living creatures, but also in inanimate objects such as rocks, and even the
sun and moon (classroom). This is the concept of animism that we learned in
class.
There was also a demon spirit that the Algonquian believed in known
as the Wendigo. When people would get lost in the woods they would be
possessed by the evil spirit and return to the tribe as a violent and antisocial
cannibal. They would consume human flesh to give power to the evil spirit
and could only be stopped if the host was killed and burned to ashes. There
what we learned about in class, celebrating the change of the state of life of
black signified death or grievance, and purple was used for other special
occasions. Algonquian people wore masks in these ceremonies to ward off
evil spirits. They also carried with them sacred beads called wampum which
cultures. In order to transition from boy to man boys are taken to a secluded
area and are force fed a plant known as the wysoccan. This plant contains a
deadly hallucinogen called the deadly Datura that is said to be 100 times
more dangerous than LSD. Some of the effects of this drug are amnesia,
boys forget their memories of childhood but in many cases these boys forget
culture in North America. Being spread out across the continent and being
the first ones to contact the English settlers. They have mostly normal rituals
and religious beliefs, but with being such a widespread culture there are
The Algonquians
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h560.html (History)
This source showed me the history of the Algonquian tribes and part of their culture
I used this source for information on the different tribes and where they are located.
http://www.cracked.com/article_16313_the-5-most-terrifying-rites-manhood-from-around-world.html
(cracked)
I used this source for information one of the dangerous rites of passage
7457.html (classroom)
I used this source for information on the religion of the different Algonquian tribes.
I used this source as well for information on the religion of the different Algonquian tribes.