The Iroquois is a confederacy of American Indian nations that initially included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca, and later included the Tuscarora.
The Iroquois were also known as the Five Nations or the Six Nations, and by the endonym Haudenosaunee, meaning "people who are building the longhouse."
The Iroquois Confederacy is believed to have come about between 1450 CE and 1660 CE as a result of the Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa), which was the oral constitution upon which its written constitution was later written in a sequence of pictograms on wampum belts, and later translated into English and other languages.
The Great Law of Peace is said to have been composed by Deganawidah (Great Peacemaker), Hiawatha, and Jigonsaseh (Mother of Nations. Although Hiawatha was a real person and a co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, he is mostly known through legends or the fictional character created by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The French knew the Iroquois Confederacy as the Iroquois League.
Between about 1600 and 1800, the Iroquois Confederacy in New York was the most powerful alliance of American Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River. Their combined power over the other tribes allowed them to gain control over the East Coast beaver trade, dealing with the French in Canada and the English along the Atlantic Coast. During the conflicts between these European powers, the Iroquois assumed a neutral position, and thus gained European goods, including firearms and gunpowder, from both.
Throughout four wars between the English and the French, the Iroquois maintained their position of neutrality, while extending their control over the American Indian tribes in the Ohio, Delaware, and Susquehanna River valleys. Once the outcome of the final conflict, the French and Indian War, had become a foregone conclusion, with the French facing defeat, the Iroquois allied themselves with the English.
The French defeat in 1760 left England as the only European power in North America, and this signaled a period of decline in the influence of the Iroquois, whose homelands were now threatened by the expansion of European-American settlement.
When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the unity of the Iroquois broke down. Member nations split between the Americans and the English, with the majority supporting the English.
The American victory in the War for Independence spelled an end to the strength of the Iroquois, and most of them were pushed out of their ancestral homes in New York into Canada.
A large group of Iroquois people, mostly Mohawks, led by Captain Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader, left New York to settle in Quebec, where they were given a large land grant on the Grand River as a reward for their loyalty to the British Crown.
During the 1830s Indian Removals, many of the Iroquois remaining in the United States, largely Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora, were relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), while others moved to what was then the Province of Upper Canada, or to Wisconsin.
In 1990, there were around 50,000 Iroquois in North America. These included about 17,000 Mohawk, 11,000 Oneida, and around 10,000 people of Seneca or mixed Seneca-Cayuga heritage in the United States, and about 10,000 Mohawks on the St. Regis and the Six Nations reserves in Ontario, and the Caughnawaga Reserve in Quebec. As the Six Nations Reserve was open to all members of the Iroquois Confederacy, there were many Cayuga there, as well. Most of the remaining Iroquois were still in New York, and the Onondaga Reservation there is considered the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy, although the Oneida live mostly in Wisconsin, while the Seneca and Cayuga are mostly in Oklahoma. Others, of course, live in urban areas throughout the United States.
At the time of the 2020 census, around 80,800 people in the United States claimed Iroquois ethnicity, and 45,000 claimed 100% Iroquois ethnicity, although many of them are fully integrated into the Western economies of the United States and Canada.
Today, the Grand Council of the Six Nations is an assembly of 56 Hoyenah (chiefs) or sachems representing the Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Tuscarora.
There are several communities of people descended from the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy in the United States and Canada. In the U.S., these include the Cayuga Nation, the Granienkeh, the Kanatsiohareke, the Onondaga Nation, the Oneida Indian Nation, the Oneida Tribe, the St. Regis Band, the Seneca Nation, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, the Tonawanda Band of Seneca, and the Tuscarora Nation. In Canada, there are the Kahnawake, the Kanesatake, the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, the Thames Oneida, the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, the Tyendinaga Mohawk, and the Wahta Mohawk.
Individual tribes will be covered in subcategories.
Categories
CayugaMohawkOneida | OnondagaSenecaTuscarora |
Recommended Resources
Called the Iroquois Confederacy by the French, and the League of Five Nations by the English, the confederacy is also known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which means "people of the long house." The exact date that the member nations (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas) came together is unknown, but its purpose was to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of making decisions. history, land rights, treaties, culture, history, and governmental structure are noted.
https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/
The mission of the Iroquois Genealogy Society is to encourage interest in the genealogy of the Hodinöhsö:ni' (Iroquois) Nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) through research into various documents, such as census records, annuity rolls, claims, maps, and so on. Its goals, projects, partners, a calendar of events, and a list of officers are provided. Its collections, membership information, contacts, and other resources are included.
https://www.iroquoisgenealogysociety.org/
Located in Howes Cove, New York, the educational institution is a venue for promoting Iroquois art and artists, and a meeting place for everyone to celebrate Iroquois culture and diversity. The modern building is designed to suggest the Iroquois Longhouses, and its open porches suggest the possibility of additions. Its collections and exhibits include art and archeology, a research library, educational programs, and themed virtual tours. Hours and admissions are posted.
https://www.iroquoismuseum.org/
Based in the Six Nations of the Grand River community in Ontario, Canada, the non-profit organization was established in 1997 to help preserve and nurture the languages and songs of the Iroquois. Included are resources for learning the Cayuga, Mohawk, and Onondaga languages, three of the six Iroquoian languages, including a pronunciation guide and a font for the Henry Orthography. Words and phrases are listed alphabetically and presented in UNICODE format. Other languages may be added later.
http://ohwejagehka.com/
Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center
Featuring more than three thousand artifacts, the facility emphasizes the culture of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), which are the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The Center also features story-telling lectures and a gift shop with Mohawk baskets, beadwork, books, t-shirts, silver jewelry, and acrylic paintings. The Center is family-owned by a Mohawk of Akwesasne, in the Northeast Adirondack Mountains of New York.
https://www.6nicc.com/
Six Nations of the Grand River
The Six Nations is the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. Its membership is between 25,000 and 30,000, with roughly half living on the reserve. The reserve is home to members from each of the Six Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora, as well as some Lenape (Delaware). Members are, for the most part, descendants of American Indian tribes who sided with the British during the American Revolution. Contacts are posted.
http://www.sixnations.ca/
