Central Group.
The Central group west of the Iroquois appears to be the most typical and the best known and the following are the main culture traits: maize, squashes and bean were cultivated, wild rice where available was a great staple, and maple sugar was manufactured; deer, bear and even bison were hunted; also wild fowl; fishing was fairly developed, especially sturgeon fishing on the lakes; pottery poor, but formerly used for cooking vessels, vessels of wood and bark common; some splint basketry; two types of shelter prevailed, a dome-shaped bark or mat-covered lodge for winter and a rectangular bark house for summer, though the Ojibway used the conical type of the northern border group; dug-out and bark canoes and snowshoes were used, occasionally the toboggan and dog traction; weaving was of bark fibre (downward with fingers), and soft bags, pack lines and fish nets were made; clothing was of skins; soft-soled moccasins with drooping flaps, leggings, breech-cloth and sleeved shirts for men, for women a skirt and jacket, though a one-piece dress was known; robes of skin or woven rabbit-skin; no armour or lances; bows of plain wood and clubs; in trade days, the tomahawk; work in wood, stone and bone weakly developed; probably considerable use of copper in prehistoric times; feather-work rare.
Eastern Group.
In the eastern group agriculture was more intensive (except in the north) and pottery was more highly developed. Woven feather cloaks were common, there was a special development of work in steatite, and more use was made of edible roots.
Iroquoian Tribes.
The Iroquoian tribes were even more intensive agriculturalists and potters. They made some use of the blow-gun, developed cornhusk weaving, carved elaborate masks from wood, lived in rectangular houses of peculiar pattern, built fortifications and were superior in bone work[846].
The Ojibway.
In physical type the Ojibways[847], who may be taken as typical of the central Algonquians, were 1.73 m. (5 ft. 8 in.) in height, with brachycephalic heads (82 in the east, 80 in the west, but variable), heavy strongly developed cheek-bones and heavy and prominent nose. They were hard fighters and beat back the raids of the Iroquois on the east and of the Foxes on the south, and drove the Sioux before them out upon the Plains. According to Schoolcraft, who was personally acquainted with them and married a woman of the tribe, the warriors equalled in physical appearance the best formed of the North-West Indians, with the possible exception of the Foxes.
They were organised in many exogamous clans; descent was patrilineal although it was matrilineal in most Algonquian tribes. The clan system was totemic. There was a clan chief and generally a tribal chief as well, chosen from one clan in which the office was hereditary. His authority was rather indefinite.
Religion.