These conquests made the five nations or tribes of the Iroquois complete masters of Upper Canada. And as a logical result they extended their sway over the conquered lands, held by the two tribes last mentioned, in what is to-day the State of Michigan.. Then, in 1654-55, the war with the Erie took place; it ended with the complete political destruction of this intrepid people, for many of them became captives and were adopted as citizens of the commonwealth of their conquerors, while others fled to other tribes for asylum. These victories left the hostile tribes in the Susquehanna River Valley the only formidable enemies of the five nations or tribes at this time. Then, in this region, there was a respite from warfare of about 20 years. In 1676 the Iroquois of the five nations vigorously attacked the Susque hanna tribes, especially the Conestoga ("Place Of Muddy Water'), who although supported by the Maryland authorities were nevertheless completely defeated and the valley of the Sus quehanna became a highway for troops of Iroquois warriors going to attack the Virginia and Carolina tribes,— the Tutelo, the Sapona, the Achonechy (preferably Occaneechi), the Catawba, the Cherokee and other southern tribes with whom they had already been at war; the Conoy and the Shawnee were also subdued and brought under the dominion of the five nations of the Iroquois league or confederation.
Subsequent to 1680 the five nations of the Iroquois league attacked and defeated the Illi nois tribes, driving some across the Mississippi River. In 1722 the Tuscarora became a sixth tribe or nation of the league or confederation of the Iroquois. Thenceforth these six tribes or nations were usually called the six nations of New York Indians, shortened sometimes to the six nations.
To commend and to secure their rule in the valleys of the Susquehanna and the Ohio rivers these six nations established a vast colonial policy, in pursuance of which they placed a vicegerent on the Susquehanna and another on the Ohio to oversee and to advise the subject tribes in purely local affairs and to uphold federal law and to maintain federal rights and to secure justice by the reference of matters affecting these to the federal council at Onon daga.
The vicegerent on the Susquehanna River was called Swatane by the Iroquois and Shikellamy by the Delawares. Both names signify "He enlightens us.' The vicegerent on the Ohio River was named Scarouady by the Iroquois and Monacatuatha by the Dela wares. The Iroquois name signifies "Beyond the Sky.' The meaning of the Delaware name is not definitely known. He was more fre quently, however, mentioned as the Half-king. He lived first at Logstown, but in order to avoid the French influence he withdrew to Aughwick, Pa. It appears from the records that there were probably two in succes sion who held this office in the Ohio region.
The .first notice of such an official occurs in 1728, but of course this was not the historical date of the beginning of this unique native American policy. The so-called French and Indian War in the fifth decade of the 18th cen tury brought this policy to an end. With the defeat of the Mohegan tribes on their eastern border in desultory warfare (1626-40) the Iroquois were finally able, about 1720, to bring the Delawares under subjection. They adopted them into the status of women, which by virtue of the very dominant civil and political position of Iroquoian women in their own social organization was not at all the act of humilia tion that most writers on this matter have hitherto maintained. The position of woman among the Iroquoian peoples was rather one of power and respect, being in some measure superior to that of the warriors and the chiefs.
Champlain was drawn, largely by force of circumstances and ignorance of the spirit of the Iroquois tribes, into committing two costly blunders which together finally deprived France of her Canadian colonies. The first was his joining a Huron-Algonquian war-party, in 1609, while on its way to raid the territory of the five nations of Iroquois. On the shores of the lake which to-day bears his name he met an Iroquois war-party, which he and his allies de feated largely by the strange firearms of the Frenchmen, by which three of the Iroquois chiefs were killed; the second and more serious mistake was made in 1615, when he led an in vading force of French and Indians into the lands of the five Iroquois nations; he ad vanced into these lands to the region about the present site of Syracuse, N. Y. There he at tacked a palisaded fortification for four days, but after being severely wounded in the knee by an arrow he and his baffled allies — Hurons and Algonquian warriors — were compelled to raise the siege. This unprovoked overt act the invasion of Iroquois territory by these Frenchmen and Indians — aroused the undying hostility of these five nations of the Iroqotus League against the French. They afterward consistently opposed the French at every step until the close of the French regime in Canada in 1764. Thus, these five, later six, nations became the firm friends of the English who were at that time often at war with the French. But this English alliance finally became the cause of the disruption of the unity of the league as pointed out elsewhere in these pages. The pretentious raids into the Iroquois country by Champlain, De la Barr, Courcelles, Tracy, Frontenac, Denonville and others never greatly embarrassed the activities of these five nations, so that they were never, or at least only tem porarily, prevented from gradually extending their sway south, west and north among the native peoples, their neighbors.