FIELD RESEARCHES AMONG THE SIX NATIONS 



OF THE IROQUOIS 



By J. N. B. HEWITT, 

 Ethnologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



To resume his field researches among the tribal remnants of the 

 famous Six Nations of the Iroquois, the writer left Washington 

 May 8, 1930. The war of the American Revolution wrecked the 

 solidarity of the famous League of the Iroquois, consequently the 

 several tribes composing it became separated into a number of 

 divisions which finally settled in various places — some on reserva- 

 tions in the State of New York, others in Canada — so it is not 

 strictly accurate to speak of the Six Nations of Canada or of New 

 York State. Only portions of the Six Nations dwell in Canada on 

 several reservations, while in the State of New York a remnant of 

 the Onondaga tribe, the several sections of the Seneca, and the rem- 

 nant of the Tuscarora of New York, reside, maintaining a dubious 

 form of tribal organization, but not as coordinate units of the League 

 of the Iroquois, for the Mohawk, the Oneida, and the Cayuga tribes 

 no longer have a tribal organization in the State of New York. 



On the Grand River in Ontario, Canada, and elsewhere in Canada, 

 other portions of the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Seneca, 

 the Cayuga, and the Tuscarora tribes are found. Those on the Grand 

 River Grant occupy a reservation of about 56,000 acres, in large part 

 of very fine agricultural land, and these tribes up to the year 1924 

 maintained a semblance of the old government of the League of the 

 Iroquois. 



But the majority of the members of these Grand River tribes had 

 become so indifferent to the institutions of the League — its institu- 

 tions, its customs, and its laws, and regulations — that they were no 

 longer able to maintain an efficient tribal organization for the estab- 

 lishment of order and justice, and therefore much disorder and law- 

 lessness resulted. These conditions finally became such that in 1924 

 the Canadian Government wisely abrogated the remaining semblance 

 of the ancient government of the League of the Iroquois. By this 

 legal change of status of these tribes the famous League of the Iro- 

 quois came to an end on this reservation after enduring for 375 years. 

 It was instituted by the statesmanship and the altruistic labors of 



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