Aviva Directory » People & Daily Life » Ethnicity » American Indians » Iroquois » Mohawk

Historically located in what is now the Mohawk Valley in Upstate New York, the Mohawk (Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) were the easternmost tribe in the Iroquois League of Nations, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.

In the Iroquois Confederacy, they were considered the "keepers of the eastern door," as they were the first line of protection from invasions coming from that direction.

While concentrated in the Mohawk Valley, at the time of European contact, their territory of influence extended north to the St. Lawrence River, southern Quebec, and eastern Ontario; south to the New Jersey region and into Pennsylvania; east to the Green Mountains of Vermont; and west to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation's traditional homeland.

By most accounts, the Mohawk were the most powerful and feared of the Iroquois nations.

While the Mohawk people call themselves the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (people of the flint), the Mohicans referred to them as Maw Unk Lin (bear people). Hearing the Mohican's name for them, the Dutch wrote it as Mohawk, although they also referred to them as Egil or Maqua. The French adapted these terms as Aignier and Maqui, respectively.

In addition to hunting and fishing, the Mohawk grew corn along the floodplains of the Mohawk River.

The first recorded contact that the Mohawks had with Europeans was in 1609, when a band of Hurons (Wyandot) led the French explorer Samuel de Champlain and his armed crew into Mohawk country, attacking a group of Mohawks along a lake near Ticonderoga, killing four chiefs. This was the first encounter the Mohawks had with firearms.

This sparked the Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars. Led by the Mohawks, and newly supplied with firearms by their trading partners, the English and the Dutch, the Iroquois Confederation mobilized against the Iroquoian-speaking Hurons and related tribes of the Great Lakes region. In what may have begun as a revenge war, the Iroquois effectively destroyed several large tribal confederacies, including the Mohicans, the Huron, Neutral, Erie, Susquehannock (Conestoga), and the northern Algonquians, displaying extreme brutality and what many historians have described as acts of genocide. For a couple of centuries, the Iroquois controlled the New England frontier and the Ohio River Valley.

The Beaver Wars lasted from July of 1609 to August of 1701 and were so named because the resulting beaver trade between the Iroquois and the French devastated the local beaver population and enriched the Iroquois.

During the North American wars between the British and the French, the Mohawk largely remained neutral, although they sometimes raided both parties. In the French and Indian War, they retained a neutral stance until it became clear that the French were going to be defeated; at that point, they sided with the British against the French and their allies.

The Mohawk were among the four Iroquois tribes who allied with the British during the American War for Independence. This was probably due to a long trading relationship with the British and expanding American colonization of American Indian lands. Although a few prominent Mohawks remained neutral, while others sided with the Continental Congress, the majority of the Mohawks, who sided with the British, were viewed as being particularly brutal by the Americans. This prompted Sullivan's Expedition against Iroquois settlements, destroying villages, crops, and winter stores.

Many Mohawk retreated into Canada. After the American victory, the newly formed United States forced the Mohawks and others to cede their lands in New York. Most of the remaining Mohawks joined those who had earlier migrated to Canada, where they were granted land. They formed what became the First Nations Reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario. Other groups of Mohawk settled near the Bay of Quinte or in the vicinity of Montreal, where they joined established communities.

The Mohawks again fought as allies of Britain during the War of 1812.

Today, the Mohawk people live in settlements in Upper New York, along the St. Lawrence in Quebec, and in southern Ontario.

The focus of this portion of our guide is on the Mohawk people. Appropriate topics may include online resources for Mohawk tribes, reserves, or reservations, recognized or unrecognized, as well as schools, medical facilities, businesses, industries, organizations, or other entities owned or operated by a Mohawk tribe or First Nation, or by individual Mohawks. Informational websites may also be found here.

 

 

Recommended Resources


Search for Mohawk on Google or Bing