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The Iroquois Indians were a tribe that was from upstate New York. Archeological evidence indicates that they were living ever since about 1100 AD, which was long before the Europeans ever arrived there. The Onondaga were the first of the Iroquois tribes that can be positively identified in New York and seems to have begun after the merger of two villages sometime between 1450 and 1475. The Iroquois Indians originally lives around Lake Ontario. At around 1600 A. D. , five Iroquois tribes banded together to for a confederacy.
The five tribes were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayuga, and the Seneca. A sixth tribe was added to the confederacy in 1722. This tribe was the Tuscarawas. There were other tribes who spoke a form of the Iroquois language. The Iroquois language was Iroquian-Northern.
All of the tribes languages were closely related but not identical. The Erie Indians spoke a form of the language but were not part of the tribe. They were from the eastern shores of Lake Erie in New York and Pennsylvania. The Iroquois confederacy considered them enemies and wiped out the entire tribe.
The Iroquois Indians were long threatened by the Adirondacks, but there greatest danger was themselves. Relationships between the tribes had deteriorated into constant war, blood feuds, and revenge killings. A Huron holy man known as the Peacemaker saved the Iroquois from self-destruction. The Iroquois were the most important native group in North American history.
Culturally, however, there was little to distinguish them from their Iroquian-speaking neighbors. All had matrilineal social structures; the women owned all property and determined kinship. The individual tribes were divided into three clans; turtle, bear, and wolf, each headed by the clan mother. After marriage the man moved into his wives household and the children became members of her clan. The houses they lived in were called longhouses and some of them could be over 200 feet in length. They were built about a framework covered with elm bark, the choice for all manner of things by the Iroquois.
The villages they lived in were permanent meaning that they only moved for defensive purposes or when the soil became to worn out, which was about every twenty years. The diet of the Iroquois was most corn, beans, and squash. These were known as deohako or life supporters. The women owned and tended the field under the supervision of the clan mother.
Men usually left the village in the fall for the annual hunt and returned about midwinter. Spring was fishing season. Other than clearing fields and building villages, the primary occupation of the men was warfare. The warriors wore their hair in the form of the Mohawk but other styles became common later such as the mullet.
Tattoos were common for both sexes. Torture and ritual cannibalism were some of the ugly traits of the Iroquois, but there were shared with several other tribes east of the Mississippi. The confederacy founded Kainerekowa, which was also know as the Great Law of Peace, which pretty much just stated that the Iroquois shouldnt kill each other. The leagues organization was prescribed by a written constitution based on 114 wampum's and reinforced by a funeral rite known as the Condolence, sharing mourning at the passing of sachems from the member tribes.
The council was composed of fifty male sachems known variously as lords, or piece chiefs. Nominated by tribal clan mothers, Iroquois sachem ships were usually held for life, although they could be removed for misconduct or incompetence. The emblem of their office was the deer antler headdress, and guided by an all-male council, the sachems ruled in times of peace. The Iroquois was a very spiritual tribe as are all Indian tribes. They were a very well organized tribe and had much unity between them. This tribe was very interesting to learn about and it amazes me at all the things they were able to accomplish without all the technology we have today.
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