Culture Areas circa 1500 in N. Am.
There is very little written eye-witness evidence of the earliest European – Native contacts. Archaeological research gives some idea of the distribution of native tribes about 1500 AD.
In the northeast, there were two language groups, the Algonquian and Iroquoian.
The Algonquian inhabited Nova Scotia, through New England and the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and the Delaware Valley. Tribal groups included Micmac, Abenaki, Pequot, Narragansett and Wampanoag. A second tribal group lived around the Great Lakes and included the Algonkin, Menominee, Ottowa and Pottawatomi. The Iroquoian inhabited New York state, Quebec, and Ontario. Some of them formed an alliance known as the League of Five Nations – which at one time increased to six.
[Barnes, Dr. Ian, The Historical Atlas of Native Americans, page 75]