The Mohawk people are a Native American tribe from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York. They were part of the Iroquois League of Nations and fought against the US in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812. They speak the Mohawk language and call themselves “Flint People”. They traded with the Dutch and formed an alliance, but later became English allies and were driven west after the American Revolution. They signed a treaty with the US in 1794 but sided with the British in the War of 1812. They still have a sizable population in New York and Canada and own casinos in upstate New York.
The Mohawk people are a Native American tribe historically located in what is now known as the Mohawk Valley in present-day upstate New York in the United States, although their range has expanded to include parts of present-day Canada south -Oriental. One of the first five tribes that made up the Iroquois League of Nations, the Mohawks fought against the United States in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. A sizable Mohawk population remains throughout New York and Quebec and Ontario, Canada . The Mohawks own and operate casinos in upstate New York and were known in the early 20th century for their work building many of New York City’s skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building.
As a nation of the Iroquois League, the Mohawk people traditionally speak the Mohawk language of the Iroquois language family. In the Mohawk language, the Mohawk people refer to themselves as Kanienkehaka which translates as “Flint People”. Their name comes from their traditional region in what is now the Mohawk Valley, where they quarried deposits of flint to make arrowheads and other tools.
In the early 17th century, the Mohawk people encountered Dutch settlers in what was then known as New Netherland. The Mohawks entered the fur trade with the Dutch and formed an alliance. They maintained an exclusive trade with the Dutch through battles with other neighboring tribes, including the Algonquins, and were originally on peaceful terms with the French colonists. This peace with the French lasted until the 17th, when the French attacked the Mohawks before entering into a new peace settlement which was conditional on the Mohawks receiving Jesuit missionaries and converting to Catholicism.
When England drove the Dutch out of New Netherland in about 1674, the Mohawks became English allies, with many in the process of converting to Protestantism, and maintained hostile relations with neighboring Native American tribes. Mohawk allegiance to British colonists continued through the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. After the American victory in 1776, a large percentage of the Mohawk people were driven west from present-day New York and into what is now Canada. In alliance with the rest of the Iroquois League, the Mohawk people finally signed a treaty with the United States in 1794, although they sided with the British again in the War of 1812.
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