I.

Introduction

Iroquois, important confederacy of Native American tribes of the Iroquoian language family and of the Northeast culture area. The Iroquois Confederacy, thought to have been founded in the late 16th century, originally consisted of five tribes—the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca—in what is now central New York State. The confederacy came to be known among Europeans as the League of Five Nations. In the early 18th century the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian people of present-day North Carolina, migrated to New York and, in 1722, were formally admitted to the alliance; the confederacy then became known as the League of Six Nations, or simply the Six Nations.

The Iroquois, as the largest group of Iroquoian peoples, gave their name to the language family of which they are a part. The term Iroquois is thought to be derived from an Algonquian word for “real adders” (snakes), used as a derogatory term. The Iroquois refer to themselves by their specific tribal names, and collectively call themselves the Haudenosaunee (pronounced ho-dee-no-SHOW-nee), or “people of the longhouse,” after their type of dwelling. They think of their confederacy as a longhouse extending across their combined territory, with the Mohawk guarding the eastern door near the Mohawk River, and the Seneca, the western door near Lake Erie.