Perhaps no group of Eastern Native Americans is better known to the general public than the Iroquois of upstate New York. A confederation of five tribes or nations—Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk—they flourished for a millennium. Encountered by the first Europeans, they traded with the Dutch and the French in the early 1600s. French Jesuit missionaries sought to Christianize and assimilate them. Finally they lost their lands in New York and were dispersed to Canada, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. An Iroquois renaissance is taking place today, fueled in large part by the lure of gambling riches and a renewed interest in native culture.
In Iroquoia, archaeologist William Engelbrecht of Buffalo State College, draws on archaeology, ethnology, historical evidence, and oral traditions to give the reader a detailed overview of this great culture from its ancient roots until today. Beginning as hunters, fishermen, and gatherers, Engelbrecht traces the economic and cultural development of the five nations as they acquire corn agriculture and change into sedentary peoples. They spoke different but related languages and they developed in different ways. Their villages had to move every few years as the surrounding land was denuded of trees and the soil exhausted. Warfare became more common, and villages became larger and more fortified. Engelbrecht shows that the long house may have been used as a defensive structure as well as a community center.
The most intriguing aspect of Iroquois life was the confederation of tribes, or the League of the Haudenosaunee. With the help of oral traditions, Engelbrecht pushes its formation into prehistoric times, late 1500s, and shows that it focused on peaceful relations among the five nations and extensive trade. The Mohawks guarded the east, while the Seneca watched the west. League meetings were usually held at Onondaga in the center. The League continued until European pressure forced the Iroquois in different directions. Iroquoia is an outstanding survey of this captivating episode of America’s heritage.
Funk and Kuhn’s study of three 16th-century Mohawk villages is a compliment to the more general Iroquoia. Excavated by the New York State Museum between 1960 and 1970, under the direction of Robert Funk, the three sites give a detailed view of Mohawk life in the 16th century shortly before Europeans moved into New York in large numbers. With their homeland in the Mohawk River valley, the most eastern nation of the Iroquois developed somewhat differently than their western neighbors. The Mohawks were the first of the league to have intensive dealings with the Europeans and their life changed because of it.
The Five Nations League of Iroquois is one of the most remarkable aspects of Native Americans life. These volumes give the reader a much greater appreciation of this story. As the Iroquois renaissance moves forward today, the story only becomes more fascinating.
