IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY
OVERVIEW
The Iroquois Confederacy, an association of six linguistically related tribes in the northeastern woodlands, was a sophisticated society of some 5,500 people when the first white explorers encountered it at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The 1990 Census counted 49,038 Iroquois living in the United States, making them the country's eighth most populous Native American group. Although Iroquoian tribes own seven reservations in New York state and one in Wisconsin, the majority of the people live off the reservations. An additional 5,000 Iroquois reside in Canada, where there are two Iroquoian reservations. The people are not averse to adopting new technology when it is beneficial, but they want to maintain their own traditional identity.
HISTORY
The "Five Tribes" that first joined to form the Iroquois Confederacy, or League, were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca (listed in order from east to west according to where they lived in an area that roughly corresponds to central New York state). They called themselves Haudenosaunee (pronounced "hoo-dee-noh-SHAW-nee"), or people of the longhouse, referring to the construction of their homes, in which extended families of up to 50 people lived together in bark-covered, wooden-framed houses that were 50 to 150 feet long. They also envisioned their extended community as occupying a symbolic longhouse some 300 miles long, with the Mohawk guarding the eastern door and the Seneca the western.
The origin of the name Iroquois is uncertain, although it seems to have involved French adaptations of Indian words. Among the possibilities that have been suggested are a blending of hiro (an Iroquois word used to conclude a speech) and koué (an exclamation); ierokwa ("they who smoke"); iakwai ("bear"); or the Algonquian words irin ("real") and ako ("snake") with the French -ois termination. One likely interpretation of the origin of the name is the theory that it comes from the Algonquian word "Irinakhoiw," which the French spelled with the -ois suffix. The French spelling roughly translates into "real adders" and would be consistent with the tendency of European cultures to take and use derogatory terms from enemy nations to identify various Native groups.
The Mohawk called themselves Ganiengehaka, or "people of the flint country." Their warriors, armed with flint arrows, were known to be overpowering; their enemies called them Mowak, meaning "man eaters." The name Oneida means "people of the standing stone," referring to a large rock that, according to legend, appeared wherever the people moved, to give them directions.
During the early beginnings of the Colonial period in the United States, the original inhabitants, the Native Americans had to deal with many invaders from Europe. Of all the Native American tribes, the Iroquois and Huron had the most interaction with the Europeans. The Spanish, English, and French were some of the few countries that worked with the Native Americans the most. Each country had their own methods of dealing with the Native Americans when it came to interaction or methods for trading and obtaining of goods. Of those three nations the French was the one nation that appeared to not take full advantage of the Huron and Iroquois.
local chief. The chief was the focus of power in the settlement. The local chief
1.Iroquois Confederacy— confederation of five indigenous North American peoples, or nations, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca; founded c.1570.
This philosophy was at the core of the powerful Iroquois League of Five Nations. The League of Five Nations, or Iroquois Confederacy as it is more commonly called, was a thriving and well-functioning form of government very similar to that of the United States Government. Hundreds of years before "civilized" man arrived in the New World -- historians think as early as 1400 A.D.-- the Iroquois had created a radically new and well-organized form of government unlike any other before it. This new form of government was the idea of two peaceful men named Hiawatha and Deganawida (McClard 47). Hiawatha and Deganawida realized that the five Iroquois tribes were constantly fighting with one another resulting in many innocent deaths and ongoing tribal wars. As a solution to the constant stream of violence between the Iroquois people, they proposed a union between the five tribes that would make the Iroquois nation as a whole stronger and more powerful, while uniting their "brothers" together in friendship. The Iroquois Confederacy was a lasting union between the five Iroquois tribes: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. This union of five Iroquois tribes would prove to have a great deal of impact on the founding fathers of the United States. The grounding principles of unity, freedom of the people, and democracy that defined the Iroquois Confederacy very much impressed certain men who were charged with designing the new government of the United States.
The Iroquois tribe was part of an alliance with five other tribes throughout New York that banded together against enemies, talked about land, and traded with each other. These peaceful people operated in a democracy, one of the first seen in the early world. Much is known about these tribes due to the missionaries which were sent out in the 1600’s. The Jesuits, an order of the Catholic Church devoted to teaching, spent the time to move out into the unknown world, live with these people, and teach them the ways of Catholicism. In doing this, they documented everything they saw and provided accurate accounts of the building of these structures.
Have you ever heard of the Powhatan tribe? If not, let me share a little fact about them. Powhatan means “waterfall” in the Virginia Algonquian language. The Powhatans didn't live in tepees. They lived in small roundhouses called wigwams, or in larger Iroquois-style longhouses.
The Native American Ottawa tribe and culture of the tribe is eminently fascinating and beautiful. The Ottawa tribe has a great deal of history behind it. According to tolatsga.org, the Ottawa tribe first arrived on the east side of Lake Huron in 1400. The name “Ottawa” is originally spelled “Odawa” in their native language. The language that they speak is mostly English, but their native language is Ojibwa, which is related to Anishinaabe language. The tribe’s original homeland, according to bigorrin.org, is mostly in southern Ontario in Canada, which is where the name of “Ottawa” or “Odawa” came from, and Michigan. There are multiple Ottawa tribes, but there is one here in Manistee, Michigan, they are The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. According to tolatsga.org, there are 2,750 Ottawa-Ojibwe members in Michigan, which is two-thirds ...
The Seminole tribe are descendants of the Creek tribe. The Creeks spoke two languages, Muskogee and Miccosukee. Miccosukee is a related tongue of Muskogee. Two groups in the tribe speak those languages. That must get confusing.
Around the world there are groups of people who refer to themselves, or we refer them, as indigenous people. Indigenous people are “originating in and characteristics of a particular region or country; native.” (Dictionary.com) Sometimes they are referred to as Native Americans. One tribe that has been around for many years is the Chippewa tribe there are approximately 150 tribes or bands. They call themselves the “first man” or the “original” man, also known as Anishinabe, in the Chippewa language. The Chippewa tribe originated in North America, mainly in the United States, however, over time they have ended up in parts of Canada as well as the United States.
The Algonquians on the other hand had tried to take over the Iroquoian territory. The Iroquois had fought and won a battle with the Algonquians for the territory they had lost for 20 years. Other than these two main groups, the Iroquois people were well rounded. All of the many families in a clan, many clans in a tribe, and many tribes make what is known as the one Iroquois Confederacy. Some of the famous people who were a big part of the Iroquoian culture were Deganawida and Hiawatha. Deganawida along with Hiawatha were the two founders of the Iroquoian Confederacy. They both organized a few of the Native American tribes and made it into a political and cultural confederacy. Another famous Iroquoian person is Dina A. John, who was a resident of the Onondaga tribe and survived the Van Shaik Expedition. She had also served in the War of 1812 and became an artist and entrepreneur in New York. These famous people are representing for what the Iroquois Confederacy has become. Contrary to what many historians believed, based on the narratives of this essay one would unequivocally conclude that indeed Native-Americans were never impoverish nor culturally
This tribe is ever flowing and changing, this can be seen in the fact that they moved constantly but also their original name. The Osage were originally known as Ni-u-ko’n-ska and that means “children of the middle waters”. Their name later changed to Wah-Zha-Zhi which was translated by French explorers, who had come to America, and was later the English word Osage (Brief History). The Osage got this name because initially their territory ranged from between the Arkansas River to the Mississippi River and then up along both sides of the Ohio River up into Pennsylvania.
The Europeans called them the Iroquois Confederacy, since they had successfully woven together sophisticated concepts of culture, spirituality, government, and land - something that they fataized for centuries. However, the Haudenosaunee way of life was changed forever through historical globalization as imperialistic endeavors by the French, British, and Dutch, slowly began to unravel the vast progression the confederacy made economically, politically and socially. Due to the economic impairment, loss of culture through assimilation, and displacement along with territorial loss, it has become evident that imperialism/colonization improved the lives of the Haudenosaunee to no
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
Though referred to most commonly as the Blackfeet or Blackfoot, many refer to themselves as the Nitsitapiksi (Ni-tsi-ta-pi-ksi), the “Real People,” a term used by the Blackfoot to also refer to all First Peoples of the Americas (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 11). The term Niitsipoiyksi is used to refer to those who are “the speakers of the Real language,” that being Blackfoot, but it may also mean those who speak their Aboriginal language (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 11). The Blackfoot Peoples are made up of three distinct Nations the Kainai, the Piikuni and Siksika. Though this is how some Blackfoot literature refers to the Nations, it is still common to hear these Nations referred to as the Blood Nation for the Kainai, Peigan (Canada) or Blackfeet (United States) for the Piikuni, and Blackfoot or Northern Blackfoot for the Siksika (The Blackfoot Gallery C...
The Iroquois includes many Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family, such as the Huron, Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca among others. However, the Huron is often spoken of separately. The Iroquois differs from the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois League. All of them were affected by the arrival and colonization by Europeans. While Iroquois have a reputation of being violent, they were at times peaceful and were employed by different European companies; they also spread their culture and some European ideas with them. The Iroquois League has been said to have influenced the Founding Fathers, but is that true? Another question is whether the Iroquois were cannibals. They believed in witchcraft, but witchcraft