Iroquois (Algonkin: Irinakhoiw,
'real adders', with the French suffix -ois).
The confederation of Iroquoian tribes known in history,
among other names, by that of the Five Nations, comprising the
Cayuga,
Mohawk,
Oneida,
Onondaga, and
Seneca. Their name for themselves as a
political body was Oñgwanonsioñni',
'we are of the extended lodge.' Among the Iroquoian tribes kinship is
traced through the blood of the woman only; kinship means membership in a
family, and this in turn constitutes citizenship in the tribe, conferring
certain social, political, and religious privileges, duties, and rights
which are denied to persons of alien blood; but, by a legal fiction
embodied in the right of adoption, the blood of the alien may be
figuratively changed into one of the strains of the Iroquoian blood, and
thus citizenship may be conferred on a person of alien lineage. In an
Iroquoian tribe the legislative, judicial, and executive functions are
usually exercised by one and the same class of persons, commonly called
chiefs in English, who are organized into councils. There are three grades
of chiefs. The chiefship is hereditary in certain of the simplest
political units in the government of the tribe; a chief is nominated by
the suffrages of the matrons of this unit, and the nomination is confirmed
by the tribal and the federal councils. The functions of the three grades
of chiefs are defined in the rules of procedure. When the five Iroquoian
tribes were organized into a confederation, its government was only a
development of that of the separate tribes, just as the government of each
of the constituent tribes was a development of that of the several clans
of which it was composed. The government of the clan was a development of
that of the several brood families of which it was composed, and the brood
family, strictly speaking, was composed of the progeny 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 theoretical 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 establishment of the higher unit created new rights,
privileges, and duties. This was the principle of organization of the
confederation of the five Iroquoian tribes. The date of the formation of
this confederation (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, 'adders'. The Powhatan called
them Massawomekes. 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 occupied the territory extending from
the East watershed of Lake Champlain to the west watershed of Genesee
river, and from the Adirondacks southward to the territory of the
Conestoga. The date of the formation of the league is not certain, but
there is evidence that it took place about 1570, occasioned 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 firearms, they were able to extend their conquests over all
the neighboring tribes until their dominion was acknowledged from Ottawa
river to the Tennessee and from the Kennebec to Illinois rivers and Lake
Michigan. Their westward advance was checked by the Chippewa; the Cherokee
and the Catawba proved an effectual barrier in the south, while in the
north 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
Iroquois, and were so far successful that a considerable number of
individuals from the different tribes, most of them Mohawk and Onondaga,
withdrew from the several tribes and formed Catholic settlements at
Caughnawaga, St Regis, and Oka, on the. St Lawrence. The tribes of the
league repeatedly tried, but, without success, to induce them to return,
and finally, in 1684, declared them to be traitors. In later wars the
Catholic Iroquois 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 conflict, but to allow each tribe to
decide for itself what action to take. All the tribes, with the exception
of the Oneida and about half of the Tuscarora, joined the English. After
the revolution the Mohawk and Cayuga, with other Iroquoian tribes that
were in the English interest, after several temporary assignments, were
finally settled by the Canadian government on a reservation on Grand
river, Ontario, where they still reside, although a few individuals
emigrated to Gibson, Bay of Quinté,
Caughnawaga, and St Thomas, Ontario. All the Iroquois in the United States
are on reservations in New York with the exception 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, although having no connection 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 west watershed of Lake Erie came into possession of the Iroquoian
tribes, which afterward settled colonies on the upper waters of the
Allegheny and Susquehanna and on the north shore of Lake Ontario, so that
by 1750 their villages may have numbered about 50. The population of the
Iroquois also varied much at different periods. Their constant wars
greatly weakened them. In 1689 it was estimated that they had 2,250
warriors, who were reduced by war, disease, and defections to Canada, to
1,230 in 1698. Their losses were largely made up by their system of
wholesale adoption, which was carried on to such an extent that at one
time their adopted aliens were reported to equal or exceed the number of
native Iroquois. Disregarding the extraordinary estimates of some early
writers, it is evident that the modern Iroquois, instead of decreasing in
population, have increased, and number more at present than at any former
period. On account of the defection of the Catholic Iroquois and the
omission of the Tuscarora from the estimates it was impossible to get a
statement of the full strength of the Iroquois until within recent times.
About the middle of the 17th century the Five Nations were supposed to
have reached their highest point, and in 1677 and 1685 they were estimated
at about 16,000. In 1689 they were estimated at about 12,850, but in the
next 9 years they lost more than half by war and by desertions to Canada.
The most accurate estimates for the 18th century gave to the Six Nations
and their colonies about 10,000 or 12,000 souls. In 1774 they were
estimated at 10,000 to 12,500. In 1904 they numbered about 16,100,
including more than 3,000 mixed bloods, as follows:
In Ontario: Iroquois and Algonkin at Watha (Gibson), 139 (about one-half
Iroquois); Mohawk of the Bay of Quinté,
1,271; Oneida of the Thames, 770; Six Nations on Grand river, 4,195
(including about 150 Delawares). In Quebec: Iroquois of Caughnawaga,
2,074; of St Regis, 1,426; of Lake of Two Mountains, 393. Total in Canada,
about 10,418.
The Iroquois of New York in 1904 were distributed as
follows: Onondaga and Seneca on Allegany res., 1,041; Cayuga, Onondaga,
and Seneca on Cattaraugus res., 1,456; Oneida on Oneida res., 150; Oneida
and Onondaga on Onondaga res., 513; St Regis res., 1,208; Cayuga and
Seneca on Tonawanda res., 512; Onondaga and Tuscarora on Tuscarora res.,
410. Total, 5,290.
In 1905 there were also 366 Indians classed as Seneca
under the Seneca School, Okla.
The Algonquian and other Indians included with the
Iroquois are probably outnumbered by the Caughnawaga and others in the
Canadian northwest who are not separately enumerated.
