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Full Glossary for The Last of the Mohicans
Algonquin The Indians of Algonquin stock were patrilineal, and their earliest home was north of the St. Lawrence River and east of Lake Ontario. At one time they comprised fifty to sixty tribes with many minor groups.
Delawares The Delaware Indians, of Algonquin stock, were found along the drainage of the Delaware River and the shores of Delaware Bay. They called themselves Lenape or Leni-Lenape and were actually a confederacy of three Algonquin tribes — the Munsee, Unami, and Unalachtigo. After they were conquered by the Iroquois in 1720 and had their land encroached upon by the English, they slowly moved west to Oklahoma. Though not particularly powerful or aggressive at discovery, they were accorded an honorific preeminence by other eastern Algonquins and were called "Grandfathers."
Hurons The Hurons, matrilineal clans living originally near the St. Lawrence River, were enemies of the Iroquois and were among the first to receive the French as friends. After their confederacy was destroyed by the Iroquois in 1648-1650, they scattered and drifted, often in alliance or conflict with other tribes.
Iroquois The Iroquois stock was divided into totemic, matrilineal clans with tendencies toward confederacies. Made up of some fifteen tribes with many minor subdivisions, these Indians' earliest home was somewhere between the lower St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, as well as in southern Ohio and Kentucky.
League of Six Nations The Iroquois proper of history comprise the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes. The Tuscarora of North Carolina voluntarily moved to New York and about 1715 were admitted to the confederacy, which became known as the League of Six Nations. According to history, the League sided with the British against the French and other Indians.
Mingo Mingo was a Delaware word that literally meant "stealthy, treacherous."
Mohican This is apparently Cooper's composite name from two different Algonquin tribes — the Mahicans of the Hudson River Valley between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, and the Mohegans from along the Thames River in Connecticut.