Vikings down the St. Lawrence - Effects on Indigenous Societies.

[GameBawesome]

The idea of a surviving Norse presence in the Americas is a very popular 'What if'. In an alternate scenario where there was a continuous Viking settlement in Vinland - What is now Newfoundland- is a very interesting subject in alternate history.

However, I wanted to talk about one thing, though this has been mentioned before in this previous thread - How would a surviving Norse presence in the Americas effect Native American societies.

Here, I wanted to focus on one particular Native group that lived around the modern St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes Region, such as the Iroquoian peoples
and Algonquian peoples (Yes, I know these groups are highly diverse, but I'm grouping them linguistically for simplicity)

So starting off with the POD, what if there was a continued Norse presence in America? The initial natives and Norse relations are peaceful, as more Norse settlers arrive until mid-1100 AD.

Now, given that these are Norse Vikings, going down the St. Lawerence River could be answer. If they do so, how would this effect Indigenous groups in the region?

 

[von Adler]

It depends a lot on whether or not the Norse bring with then old world disease - I'll assume they do, and the natives suffer a devastating series of epidemics (but not quite as bad as in the 16th century OTL), which allows for decently peaceful co-existence - there's so much land vacated that the arrival of more Norse does not cause conflict over land.

The Norse will be bringing iron working - more specifically bog iron extraction, which the natives will probably learn pretty quickly - if not it will be a valuable trade good.

Norse horses, probably Icelandic in origin, will start spreading and the natives will start using them. They will probably also adapt the wheel - hand carts and horse carts will spread out. Probably northern European heavy plows and wheeled plows too, which will reform agriculture.