The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. This grouping consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages. Before Europeans came into contact, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although many of them supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash (the "Three Sisters"). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice. Colonial period At the time of the first European settlements in North America, Algonquian peoples occupied what is now New Brunswick, and much of what is now Canada east of the Rocky Mountains; what is now New England, New Jersey, southeastern New York, Delaware and down the Atlantic Coast through the Upper South; and around the Great Lakes in present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. The homeland of the Algonquian peoples is not known. At the time of the European arrival, the hegemonic Iroquois Confederacy, based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, was regularly at war with Algonquian neighbours. Tribal identity The Algonquian peoples include and have included historical populations in: Mohegan of Connecticut, United States Chowanoke, formerly of North Carolina Carolina Algonquian Roanoke, formerly of North Carolina Croatan, formerly of North Carolina Powhatan Confederacy of Virginia Pamunkey of Virginia, United States Powhatan people of Virginia, United States Wampanoag of Massachusetts Wabanaki of the Maritime provinces/Atlantic provinces in Canada and New England in the United States Abenaki of Quebec, Canada; historically New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Penobscot of Maine Miꞌkmaq of Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland Passamaquoddy of Maine, United States, and New Brunswick, Canada. Maliseet of New Brunswick and Quebec Shawnee, formerly of the Ohio River Valley, now Oklahoma Central Algonquian peoples Kickapoo (Kikapú, Kiikaapoa, Kiikaapoi): originally from southeast Michigan and Wisconsin United States; now in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, United States; Coahuila, Mexico Peoria (Illiniwek), formerly Illinois now Oklahoma Anishinaabe, Great Lakes, Subarctic, Northern Plains Ojibwe (including the Saulteaux and Oji-Cree)), Minnesota, North Dakota, and Michigan, United States, as well as Ontario, Canada Potawatomi of Michigan, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, United States; Ontario, Canada Odawa of Michigan and now Oklahoma, United States; Ontario, Canada Mississaugas of Ontario, Canada Nipissing of Ontario, Canada. Algonquin of Ontario and Quebec, Canada Cree of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories, Canada, as well as