Traditionally, Algonquin people shared many cultural traits with the tribes flanking them on the east, the Innu, and with the Ojibwa to the west. Before colonization by the French, Dutch, and English, the Algonquin were probably organized in bands of patrilineal extended families.

The first native peoples encountered by European settlers in the New World were Algonkian tribes, speaking variants of the Algonquin language group. While initially relatively friendly, relations between the Europeans and the Algonquin tribes deteriorated quickly.

One of the most populous and widespread Native American groups, Algonquian tribes consist of peoples that speak Algonquian languages and historically shared cultural similarities. There are hundreds of original tribes that spoke several related dialects of the language group. Historically, they lived across eastern North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains and from northern Canada to the Carolinas.