Facts about Iroquois
The Iroquois were enemies of the Huron and the Algonquin, who were allied with the French, due to their rivalry in the fur trade.
Other Iroquois have incorporated themselves directly into the outside economies off the reservation.
Practically, few Iroquois joined the fighting and the Battle of Lake George found a group of Mohawk and French ambush a Mohawk-led British column.
The Iroquois traded excess corn and tobacco for the pelts from the tribes to the north and the wampum from the tribes to the east.
Contact with Europeans in the early 1600s had a profound impact on the economy of the Iroquois.
The idealized Iroquois man was a good warrior and productive hunter while the perfect woman excelled in agriculture and housekeeping.
The Iroquois people were predominantly agricultural, harvesting the "Three Sisters" commonly grown by Native American groups: maize, beans, and squash.
The Iroquois used gift exchange more often than any other mode of exchange.
The Iroquois sided with the British during the American Revolution.
The Iroquois also traded for alcohol, a substance they did not have before the arrival of Europeans.
The Iroquois Nation or Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) was a powerful and unique gathering of Native American tribes that lived prior to the arrival of Europeans in the area around New York State.
The Iroquois developed a system of economics very different from the now dominant Western variety.
Another instance of traditional Iroquois property views impacting modern-day Indian life involves the purchase of land in New York State by the Seneca-Cayuga tribe, perhaps for a casino.
The structure of the traditional Iroquois economy created a unique property and work ethic.
The cooperative production and communal distribution of goods made internal trade within the Iroquois Confederacy pointless, but external trade with tribes in regions with resources the Iroquois lacked served a purpose.
At the time of contact with Europeans, Iroquois women produced about 65 percent of the food and the men 35 percent.
By emphasizing an individual's usefulness to society, the Iroquois created a mindset that encouraged their members to contribute even though they received similar benefits no matter how hard they worked.
After the American Revolutionary War, Captain Joseph Brant and a group of Iroquois left New York to settle in Canada.
During the French and Indian War, the Iroquois sided with the British against the French and their Algonquin allies, both traditional enemies of the Iroquois.
Similar sentiments were expressed in a statement by the Iroquois Council of Chiefs (or Haudenosaunee) in 1981.
Many Iroquois have been fully integrated into the surrounding Western economy of the United States and Canada.
The Iroquois idea that land came into one's possession if cared for and reverted to public control if left alone persisted in reservation property law.
The combined production of food was successful to the point where famine and hunger were extremely rare—early Europeans settlers often envied the success of Iroquois food production.
Despite the influence of Western culture, the Iroquois have maintained a unique view of property over the years.
A theft-free society can be respected by all, communal systems such as that of the Iroquois are often criticized for not providing any incentive to work.
The Iroquois leased the right to extract stone from the lands in one instance and fixed royalties on all the production.
The economy of the Iroquois originally focused on communal production and combined elements of both horticulture and hunter-gatherer systems.
The Iroquois were at the height of their power in the seventeenth century, with a population of about twelve thousand people.
The Iroquois men were responsible for hunting, trading, and fighting, while the women took care of farming, food gathering, and housekeeping.
The Iroquois nations' political union and democratic government has been credited by some] as one of the influences on the United States Constitution.
Iroquois men were taught to be self-disciplined, self-reliant, and responsible as well as stoic.
The Iroquois had a system of collectively owned land free to be used as needed by their members.
The Iroquois attempted to eliminate any feelings of dependency during childhood and foster a desire for responsibility.
The Iroquois, however, had a strong tradition of autonomous responsibility.
The Oki is the personification of the life-force of the Iroquois, as well as the name of the life force itself.
External trade offered one of the few opportunities for individual enterprise in Iroquois society.
The Iroquois hoped that aiding the British would also bring favors after the war.
In 1779, George Washington ordered Col. Daniel Brodhead and General John Sullivan to lead expeditions against the Iroquois nations to "not merely overrun, but destroy," the British-Indian alliance.
The division of labor reflected the dualistic split common in the Iroquois culture.
The Iroquois system of land management had to change with the coming of the Europeans and the forced isolation to reservations.
The campaign successfully ended the ability of the British and Iroquois to mount any further significant attacks on American settlements.
The Iroquois had little choice but to trade for gunpowder after they had discarded their other weapons.
The Iroquois believed in a supreme spirit, Orenda, the "Great Spirit" from whom all other spirits were derived.
The Iroquois women of each agricultural group would select an old but active member of their group to act as their leader for that year and agree to follow her directions.
The British primarily used these gifts to gain support among the Iroquois for fighting against the French.
By 1800 the Iroquois had been confined to reservations, and they had to adapt their traditional economic system.
After the American victory, Joseph Brant and a group of Iroquois left and settled in Canada on land given them by the British.
At first, they became important trading partners, but the expansion of European settlement upset the balance of the Iroquois economy.
The voluminous records we have for the constitutional debates of the late 1780s contain no significant references to the Iroquois.
After the Europeans arrived and placed the Iroquois on reservations, the natives had to adjust their property system to a more Western model.