Any member of the various North American Indian peoples of the largely wooded area stretching east from the Mississippi River valley to the Atlantic coastline and extending north into Canada and south as far as what are now the U.S. states from Illinois to North Carolina.
The Indians in this region spoke Iroquoian , Algonquian , and Siouan languages. The heaviest population concentrations were near or along the seacoast, lakes, ponds, marshes, creeks, and rivers. There animals could be hunted, fish caught, birds taken, leaves, seeds, and roots of wild plants gathered, shellfish collected, and crops grown. Certain areas were favoured with resources not found elsewhere in the region. In certain parts of the upper Great Lakes area, wild rice ( Zizania aquatica ) grew in abundance, and the Menominee especially depended on it. In addition to the Menominee, Eastern Woodlands groups include the Abenaki , Woodland Cree , Delaware , Fox , Huron , Illinois, Iroquois , Mohican , Miami , Micmac , Mohawk , Mohegan , Montagnais and Naskapi , Ojibwa , Oneida , Ottawa, Pequot , Powhatan , Sauk , Seneca , Tuscarora, and Winnebago .