Iroquois (redirected from Haudenosaunee)

Iroquois

Any of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family and living at the time of European contact in a continuous territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie. The name Iroquois is a French derivation of Irinakhoiw, meaning “rattlesnakes,” their Algonquian enemy's epithet. They call themselves Hodenosaunee, meaning “people of the longhouse.” The Iroquois were semisedentary, practiced agriculture, palisaded their villages, and lived in longhouses that lodged many families. Women traditionally grew crops of corn and other vegetables, produced most household goods, and, when they became clan elders, had considerable power to determine the makeup of village councils. Men built houses, hunted, fished, and made war, which was ingrained in Iroquois society; war captives were often tortured for days or made permanent slaves. Iroquois religion centred on agricultural festivals. The early 21st-century descendants of the various Iroquois tribes number more than 900,000 individuals.

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Iroquois

strongest, most feared of eastern confederacies. [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 250]

See : Fearsomeness

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Iroquois

a group of American Indian tribes that inhabited the northeastern part of the present USA and engaged in farming and hunting and, beginning in the 16th century, fur trading. Their ancient social organization is a classic example of the maternal tribal system.

The League of the Iroquois (League of the Six Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), which played a large role in the 17th and 18th centuries during the colonial wars of the European powers for supremacy in North America, was formed in about 1570. At this time, Iroquois society was a military democracy. By the late 18th century, the league had been defeated by American forces, lands had been expropriated, and the Iroquois had been settled on 16 reservations in the USA and Canada. Most contemporary Iroquois are engaged in agriculture, and some are industrial and construction workers. They are subjected to discrimination and segregation. It is estimated that in 1960 the Iroquois numbered about 35,000 in the USA and about 15,000 in Canada. The Iroquoian languages are related to the Hokan-Siouan language family. Most Iroquois are considered to be Christians, although a considerable number of them actually continue to adhere to the syncretic worship of the powers of nature.

REFERENCES

Engels, F. Proiskhozhdenie sem V, chastnoi sobstvennosti i gosudarstva. Moscow, 1953.
Morgan, L. H. Drevnee obshchestvo …. 2nd ed. Leningrad, 1935. (Translated from English.)
Morgan, L. H. League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois. New York, 1922.
Weinman, P. L. A Bibliography of the Iroquoian Literature. Albany, N.Y., 1969.
Fenton, W. “The Iroquois in History.” In North American Indians in Historical Perspective. New York, 1971.

IU. P. AVERKIEVA