Today, Native Americans live throughout the Northeast.
Some make their home in tribal communities on reservations, such as the Penobscot Reservation in Maine and the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Connecticut. Most, however, live in towns and cities where the majority of residents are non-Indians.
With a Native American population of 63,000, New York is the northeastern state with the largest number of Native Americans. Close behind is the Great Lakes state of Michigan, where 56,000 Native Americans live.
Because northeastern Indians were the first to have extensive contact with non-Indians, they lost more of their lands and traditions than tribes in many areas of North America. Yet, through remarkable determination, many of their ways and beliefs have survived. The Ojibwa still revere the secrets of Midewiwin, the Menominee continue to harvest the wild rice that has always nourished their people, and, 500 years after its founding, the great Iroquois Confederacy still stands strong.
Iroquois Indians John Tarbell, Joe La Claire, Jack Hill, and Peter Horn (from left to right) migrated south to New York City from the Kanamake reservation in Canada. Like many other Mohawk and Iroquois Indians from that area, they found work in high-rise steel construction.
