The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse
Anthropology Research Assignment
The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse
Prepared for: Victor Gulewitsch
TA: Cecibel Rodriguez
ANTH*1150*02
Prepared By: Ellen Griffin
Student ID: 0726506
Date: March 17, 2011
The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse
Introduction
The Iroquois are considered a branch of North American Indians, also known as Haudenosaunee or the “People of the Longhouse”. The Iroquois have greatly contributed to society through initiating the Iroquois confederacy also called the Iroquois League formed in 1570. The North American confederacy consists of five nations called: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, which resided in what is now known as Upstate New York. These tribes joined together as the “ 5 civilized tribes” for strength and survival. Between 1715 & 1722, a tribe called Tuscaroras, who had moved North from California, were formally admitted into the confederacy, as the sixth tribe, but they were non-voting members, but were placed under the protection of the
Confederacy. (Colden, 1973)
The Iroquois people were considered a hunter and gatherer society, they had to find and grow all their own food. In the early Iroquois stage the Iroquois people would grow maize and gather fish in the summer, but in the winter they would only hunt, these were there main sources of food. Later in the Iroquois stage there was an abundant source of agriculture farming, and they were finally able to grow corn, beans, and squash, which made up eighty percent of their daily diet. (Ali & Behan, 2010)
When trading among bands the Iroquois would use wampum’s, traditional, sacred shell beads as a type of currency. The Europeans realized the importance of wampum’s to the Iroquois and used it as a medium of exchange. Initially wampum’s were used as a form of documenting important events. The Iroquois people had a lot of trade tools but also were able to obtain guns and ammunition through fur trade with the
Europeans. (Snyderman, 1961)
The
The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse
Prepared for: Victor Gulewitsch
TA: Cecibel Rodriguez
ANTH*1150*02
Prepared By: Ellen Griffin
Student ID: 0726506
Date: March 17, 2011
The Iroquois: People of the Longhouse
Introduction
The Iroquois are considered a branch of North American Indians, also known as Haudenosaunee or the “People of the Longhouse”. The Iroquois have greatly contributed to society through initiating the Iroquois confederacy also called the Iroquois League formed in 1570. The North American confederacy consists of five nations called: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, which resided in what is now known as Upstate New York. These tribes joined together as the “ 5 civilized tribes” for strength and survival. Between 1715 & 1722, a tribe called Tuscaroras, who had moved North from California, were formally admitted into the confederacy, as the sixth tribe, but they were non-voting members, but were placed under the protection of the
Confederacy. (Colden, 1973)
The Iroquois people were considered a hunter and gatherer society, they had to find and grow all their own food. In the early Iroquois stage the Iroquois people would grow maize and gather fish in the summer, but in the winter they would only hunt, these were there main sources of food. Later in the Iroquois stage there was an abundant source of agriculture farming, and they were finally able to grow corn, beans, and squash, which made up eighty percent of their daily diet. (Ali & Behan, 2010)
When trading among bands the Iroquois would use wampum’s, traditional, sacred shell beads as a type of currency. The Europeans realized the importance of wampum’s to the Iroquois and used it as a medium of exchange. Initially wampum’s were used as a form of documenting important events. The Iroquois people had a lot of trade tools but also were able to obtain guns and ammunition through fur trade with the
Europeans. (Snyderman, 1961)
The
Cited: Aquila, R. (1983). The Iroquois Restoration: Iroquois Diplomacy on the Colonial Frontier, 1701-1754. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Colden, C. (1973). The History of the Five Indian Nations: Depending on the Province of New-York in America. Ithaca and london: Cornell University Press. Snyderman, G. S. (1961). The Function of Wampum in Iroquois Religion. JSTOR: Google Scholar, 105(6), 571 - 573. Retrieved March 16, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/985167?seq=3 HAUDENOSAUNEE TODAY. (n.d.). Iroquois Museum. Retrieved March 16, 2011, from www.iroquoismuseum.org/iroquois.htm Ali, S., & Behan, M. (2010, December 14). Chapter Two: Before and After Contact | Feeding New York. Macaulay Honors College. Retrieved March 16, 2011, from http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/marcotullio2010/2010/12/14/chapter-two-before-and-after-contact/ Baskin, C. (1982). Women in Iroquois Society. Canadian Women Studies, 4(2), p 42-46. Retrieved March 16, 2011, from https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/13888/12941 Conrad, M. (1999). Disorderly DrinkingReconsidering Seventeenth-Century Iroquois Alcohol Use. American Indian Quarterly, 23. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=95212508 Fenton, W. (1986). A Further Note on Iroquois Suicide. Ethnohistory, 33(4), p 448-449. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/482042?seq=1