Transcript The Iroquois Confederacy - The Hills Family Webpage

The Iroquois Confederacy
Haudenosaunee Tribes
Onondaga
Seneca
Cayuga
Tuscarora
Mohawk
Oneida
The Forming of the Iroquois.
Around 1570, Hiawatha (an Onondaga
chief) and Dekanawida (a Mohawk
Chief) decided to stop their tribes from
fighting.
The five nations formed the Iroquois
League.
Iroquois Principles
 They would live in
peace with each other.
 They would trade with
each other.
 They would go to war
TOGETHER.
 Each tribe elected
Sachems to run the
Confederacy.
“We bind
ourselves together
by taking hold of
each other’s hands.
… Our strength
shall be in union. …
Carry no anger and
hold no grudges”
Long Houses

100 foot long
houses that held
10-20 families.
Each family had a
section of the
house.

Women owned the
longhouses and a
husband would
move into his wife’s
mother’s longhouse.
Iroquois Culture
 The “THREE
SISTERS” of corn,
beans and squash
were farmed by the
women.
 Deer, beaver, and
moose were hunted
by the men.
The effect of
ENVIRONMENT
 No grazing land for herds.
The forest provided wood
Forest animals gave the Iroquois food
and clothing
They needed crops they could store for
the long winter in a temperate climate.
A short growing season allowed for the
3 sisters to grow.