War, religion and recent history

Year Published: 1962

Description: The Central Algonquians, who lived along the short of the Great Lakes and Mississippi, were first discovered by white men when Robert LaSalle and Pere Jacques Marquette journeyed down the St. Lawrence River from the French settlements in Canada until they reached the Great Lakes and then the Mississippi. They found a largely agricultural people who planted corn and wore elaborately decorated clothing. They were the Indians who used the calumet, the peace pipe decorated with white feathers for peace, and red for war, and which Pere Marquette called as good as a passport. The influence on his people was one of their greatest chiefs, Pontiac, is described.