Where did Northeast Indian peoples live before European contact?

Before European contact, Northeast Indian peoples inhabited a vast region characterized by a mosaic of temperate forests, meadows, wetlands, and waterways. This culture area was roughly bounded by the following geographic features:12

• North: The transition zone between deciduous forests and the taiga.1
• East: The Atlantic Ocean.1
• West: The Mississippi River valley.1
• South: An arc extending from the coast of present-day North Carolina northwest to the Ohio River, and then southwest to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.1

Within this territory, Algonquian groups were the most widely distributed, occupying the majority of the region. Iroquoian speakers primarily controlled the areas surrounding Lakes Erie and Ontario, while Siouan groups also resided in the area before many moved westward during the 16th and 17th centuries. These peoples lived in settlements ranging from dispersed family hamlets to large, palisaded villages, depending on their reliance on agriculture versus hunting and gathering.3142