Iroquois

1
Iroquois

• Iroquois
• Haudenosaunee ("The people of the longhouses") in
  reference to their communal lifestyle and the
  construction of their dwellings.

2
Iroquois Tribes

• Mohawk People of the Flint
• Seneca comes from name of their villages
  Onandowaga People of the Mountain
• Oneida People of the Upright Stone, or
  standing stone
• Onondaga People of the Hills
• Cayuga People of the Great Swamp
• Tuscarora (joined later) comes from their tribal
  name skarureh which means hemp people
• Where did these tribes originally live???

3
New York State

• The Iroquois tribes are original residents of
  what is now NYS. (The exception is the
  Tuscaroras, who came from North Carolina.) Some
  Iroquois people still live in New York today,
  while others moved to Canada in the 1700's.

4
How was the Iroquois Confederacy Organized?

• Governed by the Iroquois Great Council.
• 8-14 leaders sent from each nation where they
  discussed political topics and made decisions
  through voting.
• chiefs were actually elected officials chosen
  by the clan mother (matriarchs) of each tribe.
• Individual nations had smaller tribal councils to
  make local decisions.
• Does this remind us of anything we do today with
  our government?

5
The Longhouse

• The Iroquois people lived in villages of
  longhouses, which were large wood-frame buildings
  covered with sheets of elm bark. Iroquois
  longhouses were up to a hundred feet long, and
  each one housed an entire clan, as many as 60
  people!
• In the center of the longhouse was a fire and a
  hole in the roof where fire could exit. What does
  this remind you of?

6
How did they travel?

• Sometimes--the Iroquois Indians did use elm-bark
  or dugout canoes for fishing trips, but usually
  preferred to travel by land. Originally the
  Iroquois tribes used dogs as pack animals. (There
  were no horses in North America until colonists
  brought them over from Europe.) In wintertime,
  Iroquois people used laced snowshoes and sleds to
  travel through the snow.

7
What did they eat???

• The Iroquois were farming people. Iroquois women
  did most of the farming, planting crops of corn,
  beans, and squash and harvesting wild berries and
  herbs.
• Iroquois men did most of the hunting, shooting
  deer and elk and fishing in the rivers.
• Iroquois Indian dishes included cornbread,
  soups, and stews cooked on stone hearths

8
Games

• Lacrosse was played by the Iroquois.
• Today lacrosse is a leading sport in the United
  States.

9
References

• Tsaclas, M., (2006) Iroquois Project. Retreived
  December 10, 2006 from http//www.geocities.com/b
  igorrin/iroquois_kids.htm
• Tsaclas, M., (2006) Iroquois Project. Retreived
  December 10, 2006 from http//www2.kenyon.edu/Pro
  jects/Farmschool/history/native.htm
• By Melinda Tsaclas