Iroquois

The Iroquois
Native Americans were the first people to live in America before any other man came. It is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot on America, there were about 10 million Native Americans living in America, North of Mexico (“American”). Native Americans had all separated and made their own tribes. Some of the many Native American tribes that still exist are those of the Iroquoian tribes, consisting of five, now six, different tribes. The six tribes, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora, became known as the Iroquois Confederacy (“Iroquois”).
The Iroquois were often known as the “League of Peace and Power,” the “Six Nations,” or the “People of the Long house,” but they like to refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee (“Iroquois”). Their name was given to them by their enemies, the Algonquin, who called them the Iroqu “rattlesnakes.” The French later added “-ois” to the word and their name became Iroquois. They were also known as the “Six Nations,” originally the “Five Nations” because the sixth tribe, Tuscarora, joined after being sent away from North Carolina. Each of the six tribes had different meanings to their names; Seneca meant “great hill people,” Cayuga “people of the mucky land,” Onondaga “people on the mountain,” Oneida “people of the standing stone,” Mohawk “people of the flint,” and Tuscarora meant “shirt wearing people” (Lee). These six tribes make up what are known as the Iroquois people.
Before the Europeans first came to America, the Iroquois originally lived in what is now upstate New York. When the Europeans tried to claim the “new land,” the Iroquois started to scatter about. They had also migrated because of the lack of growth in their crops. The Iroquois now live in all different parts of northeastern United States, Southern Canada, in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and still upstate New York (Lee).... [continues]

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