The Iroquois

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The Iroquois

The Indian Tribe in North America that I chose to report on is the Iroquois. The Iroquois are one of the most important tribes because they were part of the Revolutionary war and sided with the British. I chose to research the Iroquois because they seem very interesting and they were a very advanced tribe. I also liked the fact that they played a role in the Revolutionary war.

The Iroquois were originally a confederacy of Five Nations which resided in upstate New York between the Adirondack Mountains and Niagara Falls. Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca were the names of the five original nations. Sometime between 1715 and 1722, the Tuscaroras, an Iroquoian tribe of North Carolina, which had moved to New York, were formally admitted to the confederacy.

The name Iroquois was given to them like many other tribes, by their enemies. The Algonquin called them the Iroqu "rattlesnakes." After the French added the Gallic suffix "-ois" to this insult, the name became Iroquois. The Iroquois call themselves Haudenosaunee meaning "people of the long house."

Over time, they gained control of most of the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada. At its peak in 1680, their empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the intersection of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and neighboring parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake.

The geographical location affected the Iroquois' lives in many wa...

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... defeated easily. I would prefer my current life because there is much better medical care and with computers, fighting a war is easier then ever before.

In doing this report I learned many thing about the Iroquois I never knew before. I did not know about their False Face Society and how important it was to them. They were a lot more interesting then I thought and were more intelligent then I anticipated. The things I learned are very important because they will give me a better understanding of the Native Americans. The Iroquois are probably the most interesting Native Americans that I have ever reported on.

Bibliography

The Iroquios, Barbara A. McCall, 1989, p12, 19

Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, "The Iroquois", 1998

http://www.*censored*shovel.com/iro.html

American Indian Almanac, John Upton Terrell, 1971, p196

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