The Iroquois Native Americans were a tribe from northeastern United States, consisting of five tribes that eventually became six. They formed the Iroquois Confederacy, a democracy with a written constitution that influenced the development of the US Constitution. They were farmers and hunters, living in permanent villages in longhouses, and were a matrilineal society with women as clan mothers who selected tribal chiefs through democratic elections.
The Iroquois Native Americans are members of an Indian tribe indigenous to the northeastern United States. Originally, their homeland was between Niagara Falls and the Adirondack Mountains in what is now upstate New York. Five tribes initially made up the Iroquois nation: the Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida. In 1722, a sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined them and became part of the Iroquois nation. Through conquest and migration, the Iroquois eventually gained control over most of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.
Related by similar languages and cultures, the Iroquois Native Americans united to form the Iroquois Confederacy, or Iroquois League. The Mohawks, or “People of Flint,” protected the eastern portion of the Iroquois nation; and the Senecas, “Great People of the Hills,” protected the West. Scattered among were the Cayugas, “People of the Mucky Land”; the Oneidas, “People of the standing stone”; the Onondaga, “Keepers of the fire”; and the Tuscarora, “People in shirts”.
The first native Iroquois were hunters and farmers. They lived in permanent villages and built houses made of elm bark and were called longhouses. Longhouses could be over 200 feet (60.96 meters) long, and although they had openings at both ends, there were no doors or windows. The tribe was not nomadic and villages were only moved when the soil ran out – roughly every 20 years – or for defensive reasons. Squash, beans, and corn were their staple crops and were thought to be special gifts from their creator.
Gender roles among Iroquois Native Americans were differentiated along traditional lines with the exception of how tribal leaders were selected. Iroquois men were in charge of warfare, commerce, and hunting, and women were in charge of household, agriculture, and property. The Iroquois were a matrilineal society divided into clans, each ruled by a clan mother who made decisions about resources and land, but the chiefs, who made trade deals and military decisions, were all men. Tribal chiefs were selected by a democratic election held only among women who were clan mothers.
In general, the Iroquois are considered to be the most important group of Native Americans during the colonial era in both the United States and Canada. This was largely due to their unique political system. The Iroquois Confederacy was a democracy based on a written constitution that served as the supreme law and an intricate system of checks and balances. Historians acknowledge that European contact with their political system directly influenced the development of both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.
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