OUR COUNTRY THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 27 
Games of the Indian vouths. 
ent; wherever the white man went there was the Indian stand- 
ing across his path. 
The Indians of North America were for the most part wild 
and uncivilized. They lived in huts (wigwams) made of skins 
Or bark stretched over frames of wood. The Iroquois Indians— 
a tribe occupying the region afterward known as New York 
—lived in what were known as “Jong houses,” ‚The long 
house was a long, low house in which lived twenty or thirty 
families, each family occupying its own apartment. 
Government among the Indians was conducted by tribes. A 
number of families related by blood would join together to form 
a clan, and a number of clans would join and form a tribe. 
The tribe was governed by a chief and a council of wise men. 
The religion of the Indian consisted in a worship of the world 
öf nature around him. He saw God in the flowing river, in the 
sunshine and in the storm. Ilis heaven was a happy hunting- 
Eround where he had his dog an. his bow and arrow, and where 
he could hunt forever.