III.

History

The stable yet flexible nature of their political organization, together with skill in warfare and the early acquisition of European firearms, enabled the Iroquois to achieve and maintain a position of great power during the colonial period of American history. During its period of expansion in the 17th century, the Iroquois Confederacy defeated and scattered other Iroquoian peoples—the Tobacco, Neutral, and Erie to the west, the Huron to the north, and the Susquehannock to the south. By 1720 the Iroquois had subdued almost all the tribes in a vast region extending from the Hudson River to the Illinois River and from the Ottawa River to the Tennessee River.

In their early relations with European settlers, the Iroquois operated as an independent power. During the colonial period they held the balance of power between the French and English, particularly in the area around the Canadian border. With few exceptions—chiefly factions of the Mohawk and Cayuga, who came under the influence of French Jesuit missionaries—the Iroquois allied themselves with English interests. They bitterly opposed the extension of French settlement southward from Canada, and they were responsible for preventing the English colonies from being flanked on the west by the French.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the league council declared for neutrality but allowed each of the Six Nations to take sides as it saw fit. The Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca joined the British; the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the rebels. After the revolution ended in 1783, many Iroquois settled in Canada under the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who had led Iroquois and British in battle.