Indian tribes have been listed in-groups or cultural areas. There are seven distinctive cultural areas in United States. Each native nation is as distinct in its customs, language and spirituality as is each European nation. Studying the British and German is as different as studying the Pequot and the Iroquis. Throughout the entire North American continent, there are ten groups and they speak about thirty different languages and six hundred dialects.
The Eastern tribes lived in woodland along the coastline, covered with a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees. The Eastern Algonquian tribes wanted to maintain a balance of power and generally tried to find ways to accommodate the English colonists. They shared knowledge about environment, cultivated foods, medicines, established trails, and cleared lands. There was a conflict between the native tribes and colonists since the tribes considered themselves as stewards of the land whereas the colonists wanted to own the land. Sexual division of labor was marked among the Algonquin tribes of New England who settled between the Kennebec River and Cape Cod. They were the Abenaki, Pawtucket, Massachuset, Narraganset, Pequot amd Wampanoag. The Iroquois confederacy consisted of the Mohawk, the Oneida, the onondaga, the Cayuga and the Seneca. Hunting and fishing activities were taken care of by men who had to leave the main camp for many days at a time and were exposed to a greater risk of being hurt or dying.
The Pequots were warriors and their name means "destroyers". Their religion was based on a deep attachment to the land. They have an explanation of creation with three tiers of life- air, land and water- and a tree of life. In winter they built long houses like the Iroquois and in summer, they lived in portable wigwams near their hunting and fishing grounds. Whereas in other North Eastern tribes only important people could adorn themselves with wampum, it was common for nearly everyone in the Pequot tribe to wear wampum ornaments.There are two tribes: Mashantucket (Western Pequot) and Paucatuck (Eastern Pequot). During the Pequot war of 1637, when the colonists considered them as an evil force deserving destruction, 300 to 700 Pequots, mostly women, children and the elderly were trapped inside the fort. A peace treaty was signed with the colonists in 1638 and the tribe was dissolved. The warriors were executed. Women and children were sold as slaves in the West Indies or given as slaves to the Mohegan, the Narragansett, the Metoac, and the Niantic tribes. Since the Mohegans treated them cruelly, the colonists moved them to Eastern Connecticut. In 1666, 2,000 acres became the Mashantucket (Western) Pequot Reservation in Ledyard. About twenty years later, 200 acres called the Lantern Hill Reservation were set aside for the Paucatuck (Eastern) Pequot.
Powhatan (falls in a current of water) was a confederacy of 30 tribes.
They hunted , fished and gathered in and around the Chesapeake Bay. They ate the eggs of birds and made a milky drink from walnuts. Men and women did not eat together. The men had many wives.