St. Lawrence Iroquoians - Migration Into The St. Lawrence Valley

Migration Into The St. Lawrence Valley

Near 1000 AD, with the introduction of the maize culture in the North East region, many Iroquoian-speaking communities around the Great Lakes began to switch from nomadic life to more permanent settlements. The richness of the soil in the St. Lawrence valley, along with the abundance of fisheries nearby and of forests rich in game animals, provided a good place for northeastern Iroquoian settlements. By approximately 1300, their settlement patterns began to resemble the large fortified villages which Cartier described as characteristic of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians.