Iroquois
The Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Haudenosaunee or the Six Nations, was a powerful alliance of Native American tribes in the Northeast, recognized for its sophisticated political and social structure. The original tribes included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas, with the Tuscaroras joining in 1722. The Confederacy is believed to have been established as early as the twelfth century, though most historians agree it formed in the sixteenth century. The Iroquois developed a matrilineal society, where lineage and clan identity were traced through the mother, and they lived in longhouses that served as communal dwellings.
Historically, the Iroquois were prominent in fur trading and engaged in significant military campaigns known as the Beaver Wars against rival tribes and European settlers. They played a crucial role in colonial conflicts, notably assisting the British during the French and Indian War. Despite their early political strength, the Iroquois Confederacy's influence waned by the early 19th century, transitioning into a cultural and ceremonial entity. Today, many Iroquois people reside in New York and other areas, maintaining their cultural heritage through language, traditional practices, and religious beliefs, including the Longhouse Religion.
On this Page
Iroquois
The Iroquois Confederacy or the Six Nations, also called the Haudenosaunee or Hodinoshone (People of the Longhouse), was the most powerful Native American group in the Northeast during the colonial era. Hampered by a lack of written records, historians do not agree on when the Iroquois Confederacy was formed, though some suggest it was established as early as the twelfth century CE. Most historians, however, believe it came into existence in the sixteenth century. The original tribes of the Iroquois were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, and the Senecas. The Tuscaroras were brought into the confederation in 1722 after they were forced to flee North Carolina in the wake of the Tuscarora War. Most Americans of Iroquois ancestry still live in the New York area, where their ancestors lived for centuries.
Brief History
By the early seventeenth century, the Iroquois had a well-designed government and a strong military. Iroquois society was basically agrarian, with women farming and men hunting. When French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in what would become New York state in July 1609, the Iroquois people were spread out from eastern Canada in the north to the Carolinas in the south. However, Dutch fur traders who arrived the following year became the first Europeans to establish a relationship with the Iroquois. In exchange for furs, the Dutch provided the Iroquois with firearms that were used against rival tribes.
For much of the seventeenth century, the Iroquois were involved in a series of extremely brutal battles that became known as the French and Iroquois Wars or the Beaver Wars. In response to increased fur trading and human settlement, the availability of beavers for trapping had declined in the east, and the Iroquois wanted to set up trade directly with western tribes living in areas where beavers were still plentiful. After decades of battling the rival Algonquins and their French allies, the Great Peace of Montreal was negotiated by the Iroquois, the French, and many other native tribes in 1701, by which time the Iroquois had expanded their territory as far west as the Mississippi River. The treaty included agreements to resolve intertribal disputes and disputes with the French by negotiation instead of war.
Dynastic conflicts between England and France in Europe spilled over into the American colonies in the form of the French and Indian Wars (1689–1763), the last of which is known in the United States simply as the French and Indian War (1754–63). The Iroquois helped the British to win this war. When dissatisfaction with the British caused the American colonists to launch a campaign of rebellion in 1765, alliances divided the Iroquois. While the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras supported the colonists, most Iroquois sided with the British. Under Chief Skenandoah, the Oneidas became strong allies of the colonists. During the American Revolution, when George Washington’s troops were starving at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–78, the chief dispatched some three thousand bushels of corn. After Lord Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown in 1781, England ceded large areas of what had been Native American lands to the new American government. In 1794, the Iroquois met in New York and signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States, establishing peace and confirming Iroquois land rights in New York. Afterward, many Iroquois migrated to Canada or westward toward Wisconsin. By 1800, the confederacy had faded as a political power, but continues today as a largely cultural and ceremonial body.
Overview
Iroquoian society was traditionally divided into clans chosen to represent certain animals and elements. With some variation among the six nations, the sky clans were the hawk, the snipe or sandpiper, and the heron. The earth clans were the bear, the wolf, and the deer. The water clans were the turtle, the eel, and the beaver. The Iroquois bloodline was matrilineal, meaning descent is traced through the mother’s family. Individuals were generally expected to marry only within their clans, but the loss of Iroquois to disease and wars led to the tradition of adopting war captives and permitting intermarriage between Iroquois women and European and other native men.
The longhouses from which the Iroquois took their name (Haudenosaunee) were usually about two hundred feet long and twenty-five feet wide. Individual living quarters for individual families surrounded a central hall. Within those quarters, separate platforms covered with seal- or deerskins or grass mats were erected for sleeping, working, and eating. Supplies and food could be stored underneath.
According to tradition, the motivating force behind the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy was Deganawida, a prophet who became known as the Great Peacemaker. Tired of the chaos and violence that characterized life for many Native Americans, he set up the Great Law of Peace. Deganawida’s chief disciple was Hiawatha (no connection to the Hiawatha made famous in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha” in 1855).
While the governing Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy was made up of fifty or more male chiefs, the clan mothers were responsible for choosing those chiefs. The duties of the clan mothers were handed down from Jigonsaseh, the original clan mother and another disciple of Deganawida. There was also one male and one female faith keeper who served as advisers to the clan mothers. A unanimous vote was required to declare war.
Reconciliation and atonement formed the basis of the Iroquois justice system. The chiefs and the clan mothers served as arbiters and judges, handing down terms of atonement. Eviction from the tribe occurred only in such cases as murder and rape. Sexual abuse of a child was considered a capital offense.
According to the 2010 US Census, more than eighty thousand Americans identified as being at least partly Iroquois, and about half that many identified as being wholly Iroquois. In the early twenty-first century, the largest number of people of Iroquois ancestry still lived in upstate New York. Smaller groups of Iroquois lived in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and southern Quebec. Contemporary Iroquois generally speak either English and/or French. Many also continue to speak native dialects. Some Iroquois still embrace the Longhouse Religion founded at the end of the seventeenth century, amalgamating elements of Christianity and native beliefs. Others are generally Protestant or Catholic. Over time, the Iroquoian justice system has given way to those of the United States and Canada.
Bibliography
Englar, Mary. The Iroquois: The Six Nations Confederacy. Bridgestone, 2003.
George-Kanentiio, Douglas. “Peace Practices among the Iroquois.” Religion East and West, vol. 9, 2009, pp. 121–28.
Graymont, Barbara. The Iroquois. Chelsea House, 1989.
"Iroquois." Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Aug. 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-people. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
"Iroquois Confederacy." Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center, 2024, www.potawatomiheritage.com/encyclopedia/iroquois-confederacy/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.
Johnson, Michael G. Iroquois: People of the Longhouse. Firefly, 2013.
MacLeitch, Gail D. Imperial Entanglements: Iroquois Change and Persistence on the Frontiers of Empire. U of Philadelphia P, 2011.
Oswalt, Wendell H. This Land Was Theirs: A Study of Native North Americans. 9th ed., Oxford UP, 2009.
Richter, Daniel K. Trade, Land, Power: The Struggle for Eastern North America. U of Pennsylvania P, 2013.
Soodalter, Ron. “Massacre and Retribution: Joining with the British in Attacks on Patriot Settlements, the Iroquois Tribes Sealed Their Own Fate.” Military History, vol. 28, no. 3, 2011, p. 44.