The Algonquin (or Algonkin) were spread over a vast area and was composed of hundreds of tribes speaking "roughly" the same language. The name means "At the place of spearing fishes and eels".
Their claimed lands included most of the Canadian region south of Hudson Bay between the Rockies and the Atlantic Ocean. They did, however, cede large pockets of land to the Sioux and Iroquois, the latter of whom had defeated them along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
As the French began exploring the land in the mid-1600's, the Algonquin, The Illiniwek strain, were the first to strike alliances with them--much to the chagrin of other First Nation tribes.
Today there are about 8,000 Algonquin, mostly in Quebec and Ontario.
