I R O Q U OIS P E O P L E S of N O R T H A M E R I C A From East to West A rchaeological discoveries and Iroquois oral history traditions show that the Iroquois culture originated in the area around the St Lawrence River Lake Simcoe in Ontario and the Susquehanna River By a d 1000 the ancestors of today’s Iroquois were growing corn in New York Six hundred years later historians believe there were approxi mately 15,000 Iroquois living in the eastern woodlands From the 1500s to 1722 when the Tuscarora joined the Iroquois Confederacy the Haudenosaunee were arranged from west to east across northern New York The Mohawk were on the easternmost end and the Seneca were westernmost with the Oneida Onondaga and Cayuga spread out between Each nation had its own customs and language and each exer cised control over its respective area Referred to as the Keepers of the Western Door the Seneca were likely the most numerous tribe of Haudenosaunee and occupied villages between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake Thanks to military campaigns that extended their reach to present-day northwestern Pennsylvania the Seneca were powerful but often faced opposition from another local tribe the Huron They and every other nation requiring materials for making tools traded A Mohawk leader who was grandfather to Joseph Brant was an early friend of the British in the 1700s 9
The longhouses of the Haudeno saunee provided not only shelter but also the core of their identity with the Mohawk who called themselves People of the Flint Place and were also known as Keepers of the Eastern Door Based in the Mohawk Valley of eastern New York the Mohawk had access to rivers that connected the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean Such a location brought them in contact with various tribes and later European traders The Oneida of central New York were immediate neighbors Self-identified as People of the Standing Stone from an ancient story involving the ability to shape-shift into stones to avoid an enemy the Oneida were orga nized into three clans or family groups Wolf Turtle or Bear Between the Oneida and Cayuga were the Onondaga the most centrally located Iroquoian tribe Like the middle of a longhouse where fires burned to warm the interior the Onondaga were later considered the Keepers of the Fire among the Haudenosaunee And it was in Onondaga territory that members of the Iroquois Confederacy would meet to discuss laws and other govern ment business West of the Onondaga settlements lay the Cayuga 10
s oi u q o r I g n i e B C T H E M O S T F A M O U S I R O Q U O I S c The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published The Song of Hiawatha in 1855 Although the poem had nothing to do with the historical figure of Hiawatha it did publicize the name of this important Iroquois political leader The poem’s commercial success also guaranteed that hundreds of towns lakes schools and trains would be named after Hiawatha
