618 



IROQUOIS 



[B. A. B. 



velopment of that of the several brood 

 families of which it was composed, and 

 the brood family, strictly speaking, was 

 composetl of the i^rogeny of a woman 

 and her female descendants, counting 

 through the female line only; hence the 

 clan may be described as a permanent 

 body of kindred, socially and politically 

 organized, who trace actual and theoret- 

 ical descent through the female line only. 

 The simpler units surrendered part of 

 their autonomy to the next higher units 

 in such wise that the whole was closely 

 interdependent and cohesive. The estab- 

 lishment of the higher unit created new 

 rights, privileges, and duties. This was 

 the principle of organization of the con- 

 federation of the five Iroquoian tribes. 

 The date of the formation of this confed- 

 eration (probably not the first, but the 

 last of a series of attempts to unite the 

 several tribes in a federal union) was not 

 earlier than about the year 1570, which 

 is some 30 years anterior to that of the 

 Huron tribes. 



The Delawares gave them the name 

 Mingwe. The northern and western 

 Algonquians called them Nadowa, 'ad- 

 ders'. The Powhatan called them Mas- 

 sawomekes. The English knew them as 

 the Confederation of the Five Nations, 

 and after the admission of the Tuscarora 

 in 1722, as the Six Nations. Moreover, 

 the names Maqua, Mohawk, Seneca, and 

 Tsonnontowan, by which their leading 

 tribes were called, were also applied to 

 them collectively. The League of the 

 Iroquois, when first known to Europeans, 

 was composed of the five tribes, and oc- 

 cupied the territory extending from the 

 E. waterslied of L. Champlain to the w. 

 watershed of Genesee r., and from the 

 Adirondacks southward to the territory of 

 the Conestoga. Thedateof the formation 

 of the league is not certain, but there is 

 evidence that it took place about 1570, oc- 

 casioned by wars with Algonquian and 

 Huron tribes. The confederated Iroquois 

 immediately began to make their united 

 power felt. After the coming of the 

 Dutch, from whom they procured fire- 

 arms, they were able to extend their con- 

 quests over all the neighboring tribes 

 until their dominion was acknowledged 

 from Ottawa r. to the Tennessee and fiom 

 the Kennebec to Illinois r. and L. Michi- 

 gan. Their westward advance was 

 checked by the Chippewa; the Cherokee 

 and the Catawba proved an effectual bar- 

 rier in the S., while in the N. they were 

 hampered by the operations of the 

 French in Canada. Champlain on one of 

 his early expeditions joined a party of 

 Canadian Indians against the Iroquois. 

 This made them bitter enemies of the 

 French, whom they afterward opposed at 

 every step to the close of the French 



regime in Canada in 1763, while they 

 were firm allies of the English. The 

 French made several attempts through 

 their missionaries to win over the Iro- 

 quois, and were so far successful that a 

 considerable number of individuals from 

 the different tribes, most of them Mo- 

 hawk and Onondaga, withdrew from the 

 several tribes and formed Catholic set- 

 tlements at Caughnawaga, St Kegis. and 

 Oka, on the St Lawrence. The tibes of 

 the league rei)eatedly tried, but without 

 success, to induce them to return, and 

 •finally, in 1684, declared them to be 

 traitors. In later wars the Catholic Iro- 

 quois took part with the French against 

 their former brethren. On the breaking 

 out of the American Revolution the 

 League of the Iroquois decided not to 

 take part in the confiict, but to allow 

 eavh tribe to decide for it-elf what action 

 to take. All the tribes, with the excep- 

 tion of the Oneida and about half of the 

 Tuscaroia, join d the English. After the 

 revolution the Mohawk and Cayuga, with 

 other Iroquoian tribes that were in the 

 English interest, after several temj)orary 

 a-^ignments, were finally settltd by the 

 Canadian government on a reservation 

 on Grand r., Ontario, where they still 

 reside, although a few individuals emi- 

 grated to Gibson, Bay of Quinte, Caugh- 

 nawaga, and St Thomas, Ontario. All 

 the Iroquois in the United States are on 

 reservations in New York with the ex- 

 ception of the Oneida, who are settled 

 near Green Bay, Wis. The so-called 

 Seneca of Oklahoma are composed of the 

 remnants of many tribes, among which 

 may be mentioned the Conestoga and 

 Hurons. and of emigrants from all the 

 tribes of the Iroquoian confederation. It 

 is very probable that the nucleus of 

 these Seneca was the remnant of the 

 ancient Erie. The Catholic Iroquois of 

 Caughnawaga, St Regis, and Oka, al- 

 though having no coimection with the 

 confederation, supplied many recruits to 

 the fur trade, and a large number of 

 them have become permanently resident 

 among the northwestern tribes of the 

 United States and Canada. 



The number of the Iroquois villages 

 varied greatly at different periods and 

 from decade to decade. In 1657 there 

 were about 24, but after the conquest of 

 the Erie the entire country from the 

 Genesee to the w. watershed of L. Erie 

 came into possession of the Iroquoian 

 tribes, which afterward settled colonies 

 on the upper waters of the Allegheny 

 and Susquehanna and on the n. shore of 

 L. Ontario, so that by 1750 their villages 

 may have numbered about 50. The 

 populati<in of the Iroquois also varied 

 much at different periods. Their con- 

 stant wars greatly weakened them. In 



