Upon their arrival back to camp, the captives were stripped, bound at the hands and feet, and forced to walk a gauntlet of tribe members who repeatedly struck them with clubs, torches, and knives. The purpose was to abduct members of rival tribes as compensation. These were conducted to provide an outlet for grief and mourning. They regularly practiced “Mourning War” raids to avenge warriors killed in a previous battle. The Iroquois were well known for their constant warfare, merciless treatment of prisoners of war, and their training of males to be immune to pain. The children always remained with the mother. Unlike most eastern Indians, the Iroquois were monogamists, but divorce was easy and frequent. The men carefully removed all facial hair and wore their hair in a Mohawk style. Clothing was adorned with moose-hair embroidery, and decorated pouches for carrying personal items completed the costumes. In the winter, they wore fringed buckskins, leggings, moccasins, and a robe or blanket. The primary item of women’s clothing was a skirt. In the summer, the people went mostly naked, with the men wearing only a decorated breechcloth with a belt worn around the waist. As mothers of the warriors, they decided on questions of war and peace. As the cultivators of the ground, women determined how the food would be distributed and held jurisdiction of the territorial domain. The women decided the fate of captives for life or death. No alien could become a member of the tribe except by formal adoption into a clan, which the women of the clan decided. Fifty hereditary chiefs from all five tribes constituted the league council, which ratified the nominations made by the women’s council. The tribes were matrilineal, whereby families moved into the mother’s longhouse, and family lineage was traced from her.Įach tribe had a women’s council which took the initiative in all matters of public importance, including the nomination of members of the chief’s council, which was made up of both hereditary chiefs and additional members chosen for their abilities. Women held a unique role within the tribes, believed to be linked to the earth’s power to create life. They used shields made of rawhide or wickerwork. Their early weapons were the bow, knife, stone and wooden clubs, and stone-headed lances. The tribes also cultivated squash, beans, and tobacco, and the women gathered wild roots, greens, berries, and nuts. Surrounding the villages were extensive cornfields and orchards. In the principal towns, the houses were compactly and regularly arranged and enclosed within strong palisades. The occupants of the house were usually closely related by clan kinship. At the ends of the building were separate rooms for storage and guest purposes. Each compartment sheltered one family so that as many as 20 families might live under one roof. The interior was divided into equal size compartments, which opened on a central passageway. However, most structures ranged from 50 to 100 feet in length and 15 to 20 feet in width. The Iroquois lived in longhouses, some of which extended more than the length of a football field. They were Dekanawida, sometimes known as the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha, and Jigonhsasee, known as the Mother of Nations. According to oral histories, the tribes, who had been fighting, raiding, and feuding with one another and other tribes, were brought together through the efforts of two men and one woman. Some historians believe the tribes came together as early as 1142, while others contend it was formed in about 1450. History varies as to when the Iroquois League was established. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy and became known as the Six Nations. They called themselves Haudenosaunee, which means “people of the longhouse.”Īfter Europeans arrived, they were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations. The name “Iroquois” is a French derivative of disputed origin and meaning but may come from the Algonquin word Irinakhow, meaning “real snakes.” The Algonquin tribes denoted hostile tribes as snakes. Other tribes of Iroquoian stock not part of the Confederacy were the Huron, Tionontati, the Neutral Nation of Ontario the Erie and Conestoga in Ohio and Pennsylvania and the Meherrin, Nottoway, Tuscarora, and Cherokee, of Virginia and Carolina. Technically, “Iroquois” refers to a language rather than a particular tribe, but early on, it began to refer to a “nation” of Indians made up of five tribes, including the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Mohawk. The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee were a powerful northeast Native American confederacy who lived primarily in Ontario, Canada, and upstate New York for over 4,000 years.
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