Iroquois

Sources

Early History. The League of the Iroquois was a confederacy of native peoples living in present-day western New York. Originally made up of five nations, the Senecas, Cayugas, Onandagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, the Iroquois were united in the 1400s by Hiawatha. Along with his mentor, Deganawidah, Hiawatha helped the Iroquois to negotiate a peace that ended many generations of war among them. According to Iroquois tradition Hiawatha was deeply depressed and grief stricken by the deaths of all his daughters in quick succession. Wandering in the forest, eventually he met Deganawidah, the Peacemaker, who showed him new religious rituals that eased his mind and restored his sanity. Hiawatha believed that this new religion could unite the Iroquois and asked Deganawidah to share it. But Deganawidah was unable to speak in public, so the task of spreading the word fell to Hiawatha, who used Deganawidah’s rituals to heal the old wounds among the Five Nations of the Iroquois and unite them in a Great League of Peace and Power. (They added a sixth nation in 1711, when the Tuscaroras of North Carolina migrated north and sought their protection.)

Covenant Chain. In the early years of the seventeenth century the French positioned themselves in Canada; the Dutch dropped anchor in New York harbor; and the British established settlements in New England. The Iroquois, therefore, held the strategically important central territory around which the European powers were arrayed. All sides needed them as trading partners and were willing to make concessions in exchange for their business. By maintaining unity and following a policy of playing one power off against the other two, the Iroquois

maximized their power and preserved their territorial integrity for many years, despite the inevitability of decline. In 1677 the Iroquois assumed a durable position of regional leadership with the establishment of a Covenant Chain with the British. (Earlier in the seventeenth century they had formed a Covenant Chain with the Dutch.) Through this series of treaties the British declared the Iroquois to be the leaders of all native peoples in most of present-day New York and Pennsylvania. This recognition empowered the Iroquois and made life simpler for Anglo-American colonists. While each tribe retained its own sovereignty for most purposes, they were willing to become clients of the Iroquois and Britain in order to obtain arms and trade goods at low prices. Further, by placing the Iroquois in the role of “first among equals,” the Covenant Chain created a mechanism for resolving native differences peacefully. The Covenant Chain operated in practice through meetings between the colonial governor of New York and the Iroquois sachems, or leaders, who would often speak for other Indians in attendance. The Chain promoted the social and political authority of native peoples, but it also acknowledged the limits of native power in the context of superior European technology. In the eighteenth century the Chain empowered the Iroquois to avoid war by agreeing to give away the lands of the Delawares and Shawnees over the objections of those tribes. Despite the Chain, however, the Iroquois consistently tried to show the British that their loyalty could not be taken for granted. Although they sided with the British against the Dutch and later the French during wartime, the Iroquois always attempted to preserve at least a posture of independence during peacetime. In addition to commercial and military factors, the alliance was strong because of warm personal relationships. Sir William Johnson, the British Indian superintendent for the Northern District, lived in Iroquois territory, participated in ceremonial life, and had for a consort Molly Brant, sister of Joseph Brant.

Sources

Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992);

Neal Salisbury, “Native People and European Settlers,” in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, volume 1, North America, edited by Bruce C. Trigger and Wilcomb E. Washburn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 440–453.