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Like many people you are confused by the word Algonquian. This is not the name of a tribe but the name of a very large group of distantly-related languages spoken by very many different tribes from the Blackfoot and Cheyenne of the Plains to the Powhatan of Virginia.

The word derives from the small Algonkin tribe who live today in their traditional homeland in the Ottawa River valley between Ontario and Quebec. At first contact with European explorers there were perhaps 6,000 Algonkins; today there are around 8,000 so they have increased slightly.

Algonquian simply means "like the Algonkin", at least in terms of language.

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13y ago

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