<P> At the time of the first European settlements in North America, Algonquian tribes occupied what is now New Brunswick, and much of what is now Canada east of the Rocky Mountains; what is now New England, New Jersey, southeastern New York, Delaware and down the Atlantic Coast through the Upper South; and around the Great Lakes in present - day Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa . They were mostly concentrated in the New England region . The homeland of the Algonquian peoples is not known . At the time of the European arrival, the hegemonic Iroquois federation, based in present - day New York and Pennsylvania, was regularly at war with Algonquian neighbours . </P> <P> The French and later English encountered the Maliseet of present - day Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick; the Abenaki of Quebec, Vermont and New Hampshire; the Mi'kmaq band governments of the Maritime provinces lived primarily on fishing . Further north are the Betsiamite, Atikamekw, Anishinaabe and Montagnais / Naskapi (Innu). The Beothuk people of Newfoundland are also believed to have been Algonquian, but their last known speaker died in the early 19th century . Few records of their language or culture remain . </P> <P> Colonists in the Massachusetts Bay area first encountered the Wampanoag, Massachusett, Nipmuck, Pennacook, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Quinnipiac . The Mohegan, Pequot, Pocumtuc, Tunxis, and Narragansett were based in southern New England . The Abenaki tribe was located in northern New England: present - day Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont in what became the United States and eastern Quebec in what became Canada . They had established trading relationships with French colonists who settled along the Atlantic coast and what was later called the St. Lawrence River . The Mohican tribe was located in western New England and in the upper Hudson River Valley (around what was developed by Europeans as Albany, New York). These tribes practiced agriculture, hunting and fishing . </P> <P> The Lenape, also called Delaware, were (Munsee) and Unami speakers that were in what is now known as the eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, lower Hudson Valley and western Long Island areas in New York . They encountered the European explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in what is now New York Harbor in 1524 . By the year 1643 there were roughly thirteen Algonquin tribes living on Long Island, considered by some to be branches of the Pequot: Canarsie, Recouwacky, Matinecock, Merrick, Massapequa, Nissequoge, Secatoag, Seatauket, Patchoag, Poosepatuck (also called Uncachogee), Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhasset and Montaukett . </P>

The territory occupied by algonquian speaking tribes along the atlantic coast