Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/57

SECT. II.] ALG0NK1N-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. 21 SECTION II. ALGONKIN-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. The Cheppeyan and other eastern Athapasca tribes are bounded on the south by Indians of the great family, called Algonkin by the French, and recently Lenape in America. The Iroquois tribes are, on all sides but the south, bounded by the Algonkin-Lenape; and it is most convenient to describe, in the first place, the limits of the territory which was in pos- session of both together, at the time when the Europeans made their first settlements in that part of North America. Those limits may be generally stated to have been : On the north ; the Missinipi River from its source to its mouth in Hudson's Bay, and thence, crossing that bay, a line extend- ing westwardly, through Labrador, until it reaches the Eski- maux. On the east ; the Labrador Eskimaux, and, from the ex- treme boundary of these on the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Hatteras or its vicinity ; the line across the Gulf of St. Lawrence passing between Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland ; although it is possible that the Micmacs, an Algonkin tribe, may have occupied the southwestern parts of the last mentioned island. On the south ; an irregular line, drawn westerly from Cape Hatteras to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi or its vicinity ; which divided the Tuscaroras, Iroquois, and various Lenape, from some extinct tribes, and from the respective terri- tories of the Catawbas, of the Cherokees, and of the Chickasaws. On the west ; the Mississippi to its source, thence the Red Riv- er of Lake Winnipek, formerly called Lake of the Assiniboins (a Sioux tribe), down to that lake ; whence the original line north- wardly to the Missinipi cannot be correctly traced. The Al- gonkin tribes are, along the whole of this line, bounded on the west by the Sioux. But there are several exceptions to the general designation of the Mississippi as forming the boundary. This was probably formerly true, as high up as Prairie du Chien in latitude 43°. But the united Sacs and Foxes, an Algonkin nation, are now established on both sides of the Mississippi, from the River Desmoines to Prairie du Chien ; whilst, above that point, the Dahcotas, the principal Sioux nation, have long