IROQUOIS, A confederacy of five tribes of Iroquoian stock—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—to which the Tuscarora were afterwards added. They called themselves by names signifying respectively 'we of the long house' and 'real people.' The term Iroquois is of French origin, being possibly corn pcunded from two ceremonial words of frequent occurrence in their councils, with the addition of the French suffix ois. Another theory makes it an Algonquian derivative. Their Algonquian neighbors knew them as ileng•e or Nadowa, about equivalent to 'alien' or 'enemy,' while by the English they were designated as the Five, or Six, Nations.
The people found by Cartier in 1535 occupy ing the shores of the Saint. Lawrence River from the present Quebec to Montreal were of Iro quoian stock, as proved by linguistic evidence, and appear to have been, in part at least, the ancestors of the later Iroquois. These tribes were dispossessed shortly afterwards by the more powerful Algonquian tribes, sonic, like the Hu rons, taking refuge farther to the west, while others, including the Iroquois. retired to the south. Shortly after this withdrawal—probably about the middle of the sixteenth century—the tribes known later as the Five Nations were persuaded by the counsel of their traditional legislator, Hiawatha, to form a league or con federacy upon such a well-ordered plan that it has endured for more than three centuries, and exists to-day as their ruling government, in spite of all the changes brought about by the advent of the white man. The five tribes at this time occupied central and western New York, where they were found in 1609 by Cham plain, who, by joining forces with their Algon quian enemies, brought down upon the French the lasting vengeance of the Iroquois League, which was one of the main factors in the ulti mate loss of Canada.
By the formation of the league, in which each tribe represented a State government, with a central federal council of fifty chiefs sitting at Onondaga, the Iroquois were enabled to with stand the inroads of the hostile Algonquian tribes, and even to assume the offensive. On tho establishment of the French missions among the Hurons (see WYANDOT), about the year 1630, the Iroquois, who in the meantime had been sup plied with firearms by the Dutch on the Hudson, began war upon their kinsmen in Canada with such effect that in a few years those of the Hu rons ho had not been slaughtered or carried into captivity were forced to abandon their coun try and tly hundreds of miles to the west. The same fate soon after befell the cognate Neutral Nation and the Erie, as well as the Ottawa and others of Algonquian race, resulting in almost complete ruin to the French missions in Canada. The destroyers then turned upon the Conestoga and others in the South, the Mohican and others east of the Hudson, and the Miami and Illinois in the West, until by the year 1700 they claimed and were conceded a paramount influence and dictation from Hudson Bay to the Cherokee frontier of Carolina. and from the Connecticut almost or quite to the Mississippi, the only tribes able to Make successful opposition being the Ojibwa in the Northwest and the Cherokee in the South. From the beginning of the coloni al period they held the balance of power between France and England in the North, and were emirted alike by both, but remained steadfast to the English interest. The few exceptions were
chiefly in the case of the Mohawk and Cayuga, who yielded to the influence of the French Jesuit missionaries, by whom they were finally drawn off from the territory of the league and settled in the mission villages of Caughnawaga and Saint Regis. About the year 1715 the cognate Tusearora, who had been driven out from North Carolina in a war with the settlers, removed to New York, where they were assigned lands by the Iroquois and admitted as the sixth na tion of the league.
At the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the league council declared for neutrality. while allowing each of the six component tribes to take sides as it thought fit. The great majority of the Iroquois sided against the Americans, only the Oneida and a part of the Tuscarora refusing. The Mohawk and Cayuga followed their great chief. Brant. in a body to Canada. At the close of the struggle these, with other Iroquois who had supported the English cause, were settled by the Canadian Government on a reservation on Grand River, Ontario, where most of them still remain. others being at. Quinn. Bay, Thames River, and Gibson, in the same province. The Catholic Iroquois are at Caugh nawaga, Saint Regis. and Lake of Two Moun tains. in Quebec Province, hut are no longer affiliated with the league. Those of Caughna waga constitute the largest single Indian settle ment north of Mexivo, In addition to the Saint Regis Iroquois in Canada. about as ninny more are on the New York side of the line, the reservation having been cut in two when the boundary was finally established by till ryey. The Iroquois in the United States are all on reser vations in New York, excepting the Oneida, most of whom removed to Wisconsin about 1820, and a mixed band of so-called 'Seni.ea' in the Indian Territory. In general it may be said that they are fairly prosperous, those of Caughnawaga heading the list.
The political importance of the Iroquois, al t iuu rh due in part to their geographic situation and early m•llirem, tit of firearms, was in great tile ',suit of their supelior system of rgauizition and of their individual force of character. The Sallie trait, have enabled them to hold their own in -the midst of an alien sur rounding. Prominent feature. of their system were the council of matrons, the elaborate clan structure, and the N‘holesalt• adoption of eap• who, it spared, were admitted to full tribal rights. instead of being reduced to semi slavery, a, :111101Ig some tribes. 'The best single source of information upon the confed eracy is probably ,Ilorgaii, ',raga(' of fh• Ho donosaum (Rochester, 1s54). Dia lei:tie:illy All the Iroquoian tribes closely resemble t act outer.
The present number of the Iroquois. including those of the Catholic mission colonies which have (.4 our nu to the ancient league. is considerably distributed as fol lows: ()Mario. Canada. 'Iroquois and Algonquins of Gilson.' 12.5 (perhaps onelialf being Iro quois) ; '.Mohawks of the Pay of 12:10; of the 'n1:11111•.-,' S I 0 'Six Nations on the (Irind Myer,' 39:10. Quebee, 'Iro quois of Caiodinawagn.' 1900; 'Iroquois of Saint Regis; 1323: 'Iroquois ;Ind of Lake of Two Mountains,' •140 (perhaps onedialf being Iroquois). In the United States—New York reservations, Wisconsin (Oneida). 2030; Indian Territory ( Seneca ) 310.