Woodland people: North-East Indians

New York was not built and developed using native American methods. It was built using ideas from Europe, and from people whose families mainly came from Europe. Yet even today we can find some signs of a very different past. The centre of New York is Manhattan Island. Before New York was built, the Manhattans and other Indian tribes lived in the North-East in harmony with the land.

There were so few people and so much space that at times the country seemed empty. Travelling and meeting other people was made difficult without horses (there were no horses until Europeans brought them).

The land of the Manhattans and other Indians was different to anything we can imagine. It was an age before roads, before horses, before writing, and before the use of iron. Some writers describe it as a stone age, because this is what people used for tools. Yet this was a time when most Indian tribes lived successfully in peace in their environment. Their lives were shaped by nature around them.

The woodlands had many tribes. This gives a false impression, however. Most tribes had a handful of villages, and only a few hundred people making up their tribes. Even a large tribe such as the Mohawk only had about 3000 people.

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 13