IROQUOIS LEAGUE, the name given by the French to the confederacy of North American Indians, called by the Eng lish the and afterward the "Six Na tions' By the Delawares they were known as the Mingwe; by the Algonquins as Naclowa; by the Powhatan as Massawomelces. The Mo hawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, after they were driven from their hunting-grounds in North .Carolina in 1712, were the members of this confederacy. They called themselves Ongwanonsionni, "the people of the long house.* They formerly re sided on the Mohawk River in New York State and on the lakes which still bear their names, and extended their conquests to the Mississippi and beyond the Saint Lawrence. Their valor and successes had procured them the name of the Romans of America. Their territory abounded with lakes well stored with fish; their forestkwere filled with game, and they had the advantage of a fertile soil. T owed theiuthoritv to ublic opinion ;tige eral affairs onfe eI were managed by a great councilse o e chiefs, which asse annually a on ga. The history of the Iroquois dates back to 1535, when Car tier found the who had settled along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, from Que bec to Montreal, and who, judging from the similarity in languages were undoubtedly the ancestors of the later Iroquois. The Algon quins, who at this time were more powerful' drove those people from their habitations and scattered them throughout the country, some like the Hurons, traveling west, and the ma jority, among whom were the Iroquois, going south, settling mainly in North Carolina. Hia watha, their leader, persuaded them to form a league or confederacy for their own protection.
I '4 formed and afterwa own asthe_tayt e upon such so lansirlsirvxist ence at the present time. were driven from their territory in North Carolina and coming north again settled in Central and Western New York. Here they gathered other tribes and merged them into the confederacy. ki 1715 t±igytoolc the Tuscaroras, after w lc. .e eague 1,Wrtivn as Na tions2-211) ey bought firearms and supplies from the s ut an, • . duall stren • th ned theta se ves so at m 1. I, ey too e o' . ve in a long and bloody war against the Algonquins, first attacking the French missions among Hurons in Canada and either slaying, capturing, or sending into exile all this tribe. They then rapidly subdued the Neutral Nation, the Erie, the Ottawa, and tribes of the Algonquin race; and conquered in quick succession the Cones togas in the south, those east of the Hudson, among whom were the Mohicans, and the Miami and Illinois tribes of the Middle West, the only tribes who successfully opposed them being the Ojibwas of the Northwest and the Cherokees of the South. In the long wars between the Brit
ish and the French, which continued with some interruption for nearly a century, until 1763, they were, with a few exceptions in the British interest. These exceptions were notably the Cayugas and the Mohawks, over whom the French Jesuit missionaries exercised a great influence, and who later withdrew from the league and settled in the villages of Caughna waga and Saint Regis. In the Revolution the Iroquois as a league were neutral, but the sep arate tribes took up the warfare generally in favor of the British, the Oneidas and some of the Tuscaroras being the only ones who sided with the Americans. Brant led the Mohawks and Cayugas into Canada, where, at the end of the war, the Canadian government gave them several reservations, and where a majority of them are at the present time. The reservations for the Iroquois in the United States are mostly in New York, where all now live except a part of the Oneidas, who in 1820 migrated to Wis consin, and a small band of Senecas, who have a small reservation in the Indian Territory. According to the United States census, and a Canadian report, the total number of the Iro quois in 1902 was about 17,000, of whom about 8,000 were in the United States. Since then the Iroquois have increased somewhat. Numbers of them have left the reservations and gone out to take their place in the world. Those still classed as Iroquois are Gibson (Ontario, Can ada) 140; Mohawks of Bay of Ouinte (Ontario, Canada) 1282; Oneidas (Thames, Canada) 776; Grand River Six Nations (Ontario, Canada) 4.195; Caughnawaga (Quebec) 2,082; Saint Regis Iroquois, 1,435; Two Mountains Indians, 399; New York reservations, 4,918; Wisconsin Oneidas, 2,107; Oklahoma Senecas, 215. See Six NATIONS, THE; IROQUOIAN FAMILY.
Bibliography.— Beaucamp, W. M., 'New York Indians' (Albany 1901) ; Bush, E. H., 'Iroquois Past and Present' (Buffalo 1901) ; Chadwick, E. M., 'People of the Longhouse' (Toronto 1897) ; Colden, C., 'History of the Five Nations of Canada' (1747) ; Hale, Hor atio, 'The Iroquois Book of Rites' (Philadel phia 1883) ; Hewitt, J. N. B., 'Historic League of the Iroquois' (Washington 1894); Miller, .9. C., 'The Iroquois' (New York 1855) ; Mor gan, L. H., 'League of the Iroquois' (New York 1851) ; Parker, A. C., 'The Constitution of the Five Nations' (Albany 1916) ; 'Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants' (Albany 1916) ; Root, Elihu, Iroquois and the Struggle for America' (Albany 1910) ; School craft, H. R., 'Notes on the Iroquois' (Albany 1847) ; Stiles, S. H., 'Economics of the . 1 Iro q T uo o f (Lanca Ohio 1905) ; Weiser, C., 'A 848.