{{Short description|Indigenous confederacy in North America}}
{{Redirect|Iroquois|the ethnolinguistic group in general|Iroquoian peoples|other uses|Iroquois (disambiguation)}}
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{{very long|date=July 2026|words=9,997}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{small|{{Name in various languages
 | name = {{nobold|''(in constituent languages)''}}
 | moh = {{lang|moh|Rotinonshón꞉ni}}<ref name="deerfield">[http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/glossary.do?shortName=rotinonsionni "Rotinonsionni, which is the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) word for Haudenosaunee". ''Kanienkehaka Lifeways – Mohawk Valley, circa 1500''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817023120/http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/glossary.do?shortName=rotinonsionni |date=August 17, 2021 }}. Retrieved August 27, 2017.</ref>
 | one = {{lang|one|Lotinuhsyu·niʼ}}<ref name="Oneida Cultural Heritage">{{cite web |title=Oneida Cultural Heritage |url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/divisions/human-services/our-culture/ |website=Oneida Nation |publisher=Oneida Nation of Wisconsin |access-date=6 June 2026}}</ref> or {{lang|one| Lotinosho꞉ni}}<ref name="Who Are We">{{cite web |title=Who Are We? |url=https://oneidalanguage.ca |website=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |publisher=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |access-date=6 June 2026}}</ref>
 | ono = {{lang|ono|Ganųhcyų́·nih}}<ref name="Woodbury"> |isbn=9781442623637|url=https://archive.org/details/onondagaenglishe0000wood|page=1182}}</ref>
 | cay = {{lang|cay|Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́꞉nih}}<ref name="Dyck">Dyck, Carrie, Froman, Frances, Keye, Alfred & Keye, Lottie. 2024. ''A grammar and dictionary of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Cayuga)''. (Studies of Amerindian Linguistics). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10473483. Pg 3 [https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/398]</ref>
 | see = {{lang|see|Hodínöhšö꞉ni꞉h}}<ref name="Chafe">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iroquois. |encyclopedia=English-Seneca Dictionary |date=2014|last1=Chafe |first1=Chafe|publisher=Onöndowa'ga:' Gawë:nö' (Seneca Language) Department |url=https://senecalanguage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/SENECA-DICTIONARY-FINAL.pdf|page=88}}</ref>
 | tus = {{lang|tus|Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ}}<ref name="Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ |encyclopedia=Tuscarora–English/English–Tuscarora Dictionary |date=2015|last1=Rudes|first1=Blair A. |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781442628809|url=https://archive.org/details/tuscaroraenglish0000rude_x3e6/mode/1up|page=42}}</ref>}}
}}
| conventional_long_name = Haudenosaunee Confederacy
| common_name            = Haudenosaunee or Iroquois
| status                 = [[Confederation|Recognized confederation]], later became an [[List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies|unrecognized government]]<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/sociology-and-social-reform/sociology-general-terms-and-concepts/stateless |title=Stateless Society |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Lewis Henry |last=Morgan |author-link=Lewis H. Morgan |date=1881 |title=Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines |location=Chicago and London |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]}}</ref>
| year_end               = 
| date_start             = Between 1142 and 1660 (estimate)
| image_coat             = 
| image_flag             = Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy.svg
| year_start             = 
| flag_type              = [[Flag of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy|Flag]]
| title_leader           = 
| leader1                = 
| year_leader1           = 
| image_map              = Haudenosaunee Territory.png
| image_map_caption      = Map showing historical (in purple) and currently recognized (in pink) Haudenosaunee territorial claims
| government_type        = [[Confederation]] with [[consensus democracy|consensus government]]
| legislature            = [[Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council|Grand Council of the Six Nations]]
| national_motto         = 
| national_anthem        = 
| capital                = [[Onondaga (village)|Onondaga]] (at various modern locations:
*Before 1609: [[Cazenovia, New York]]
*1609–1615: [[Pompey, New York]]
*1615–1640: [[Delphi Falls, New York]]
*1640 onwards: [[Manlius, New York]])
| common_languages       = [[Iroquoian languages]], [[English language|English]]
}}
The '''Haudenosaunee Confederacy'''{{Efn|name=a|
* {{langx|moh|Rotinonshón꞉ni}}<ref name="deerfield"/>
* {{langx|one|Lotinuhsyu·niʼ}}<ref name="Oneida Cultural Heritage">{{cite web |title=Oneida Cultural Heritage |url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/divisions/human-services/our-culture/ |website=Oneida Nation |publisher=Oneida Nation of Wisconsin |access-date=6 June 2026}}</ref> or ''Lotinosho꞉ni''<ref name="Who Are We">{{cite web |title=Who Are We? |url=https://oneidalanguage.ca |website=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |publisher=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |access-date=6 June 2026}}</ref>
* {{langx|ono|Ganųhcyų́·nih}}<ref name="Woodbury">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iroquois Confederacy |encyclopedia=Onondaga-English / English-Onondaga Dictionary |date=2003 |last1=Woodbury |first1=Hanni |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781442623637|url=https://archive.org/details/onondagaenglishe0000wood|page=1182}}</ref>
* {{langx|cay|Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́꞉nih}}<ref name="Dyck"/>
* {{langx|see|Hodínöhšö꞉ni꞉h}}<ref name="Chafe"/>
* {{langx|tus|Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ}}<ref name="Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Akunęhsyę̀·niˀ |encyclopedia=Tuscarora–English/English–Tuscarora Dictionary |date=2015|last1=Rudes|first1=Blair A. |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781442628809|url=https://archive.org/details/tuscaroraenglish0000rude_x3e6/mode/1up|page=42}}</ref>}} ({{IPAc-en|,|h|oʊ|d|ɪ|n|oʊ|ˈ|ʃ|oʊ|n|i}} {{respell|HOH|din|oh|SHOH|nee}};<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Keh |first1=Andrew |last2=Kiehart |first2=Pete |date=July 27, 2022 |title=How Indigenous Athletes Are Reclaiming Lacrosse |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/sports/how-indigenous-athletes-are-reclaiming-lacrosse.html |access-date=July 27, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=Haudenosaunee (hoe-dee-no-SHOW-nee)}}</ref> {{lit|those who build the longhouse}}),<ref>[https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/who-we-are/ "Who We Are"]. Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Accessed October 24, 2025.</ref><ref>[https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iroquois "Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)"]. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed October 2025.</ref> also known as the '''Iroquois''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪr|ə|k|w|ɔɪ|,_|-|k|w|ɑː}} {{respell|IRR|ə|kwoy|,_|-|kwah}}), is a [[Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America|confederacy]] of [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian-speaking]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands|indigenous peoples]] in northeast [[North America]]. They were known by the [[French colonization of the Americas|French]] during the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial years]] as the '''Iroquois League''', and later as the '''Iroquois Confederacy'''. They have also been called the '''Six Nations'''{{Efn|name=b}} ('''Five Nations'''{{Efn|name=c}} before 1722).

Their country has been called '''Iroquoia'''<ref name="Iroquoia">{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Chad |title=The storied landscape of Iroquoia: history, conquest, and memory in the Native northeast |date=2020 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-1496218650}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shannon |first1=Timothy |editor-first1=Frederick E. |editor-last1=Hoxie |title=Iroquoia |date=7 April 2016 |volume=1 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199858897.013.10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Preston |first1=David L. |title=Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667-1783 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0803213692}}</ref> and '''Haudenosauneega'''<ref>{{cite web |title=Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee) |url=https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/haudenosauneega-confederacy |website=Native Land Digital |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> in English, and ''Iroquoisie'' in French. The peoples of the Haudenosaunee included (from east to west) the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Oneida people|Oneida]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca]]. After 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking [[Tuscarora people]] migrated from the southeast and were accepted into the confederacy, henceforth known as "Six Nations".

Haudenosaunee [[oral history]] describes the formation of the Confederacy by the [[Great Peacemaker]], [[Hiawatha]], and [[Jigonhsasee]] under a constitution known as the [[Great Law of Peace]], likely between 1142 and 1660,<ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Iroquois Indians|website=Untitled Document|url=https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/environmental_center/sunbury/website/HistoryofIroquoisIndians.shtml|access-date=2025-01-21}}</ref> although there is little agreement on the date.<ref>{{cite web|title=How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy|website=Native America|date=2018-12-13|url=https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blog/how-the-iroquois-great-law-of-peace-shaped-us-democracy#:~:text=The%20Iroquois%20Confederacy%2C%20founded%20by,democracy%20on%20earth(2|access-date=2025-01-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution (U.S. National Park Service)|website=NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service)|date=2024-10-10|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-six-nations-confederacy-during-the-american-revolution.htm#:~:text=The%2520Five%2520Nations%252C%2520comprised%2520of,1200.%7Cref=|access-date=2025-01-21}}</ref> Contact with Europeans began with the arrival of [[Netherlands|Dutch]] colonists to [[New Netherland|North America]], which the Haudenosaunee describe as the origin of the [[Two Row Wampum Treaty]]. The acquisition of [[musket]]s through the [[North American fur trade|fur trade]] led to a rapid expansion in Haudenosaunee strength during the [[Beaver Wars]],<ref name="Richter1992">{{cite book |last=Richter |first=Daniel K. |year=1992 |title=The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization |publisher=University of North Carolina Press}}</ref> during which time they dispersed or assimilated most neighboring tribes. At its peak around 1700, Haudenosaunee power extended from what is today [[New York State]], north into present-day [[Ontario]] and [[Quebec]] along the [[Great Lakes|lower Great Lakes]]–[[St. Lawrence River|upper St. Lawrence]], and south on both sides of the [[Allegheny Mountains]] into present-day [[Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], and the [[Ohio River|Ohio Valley]].

As colonial power on the continent grew, the Haudenosaunee maintained neutrality between the [[British America|British]] and [[New France|French]] colonies, but increasingly aligned with the British under the [[Covenant Chain]], backing the British during the [[French and Indian War]] and securing protection from westward colonial expansion through the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]]. During the [[American Revolution]], Haudenosaunee unity collapsed, with the Oneida and Tuscarora fighting alongside the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]] and the other nations of the confederacy allying with the British. In the wake of American independence and the devastating [[Sullivan Expedition]], many Haudenosaunee fled to [[British Canada]], establishing the [[Six Nations of the Grand River]] reserve. Haudenosaunee territory in the United States was further reduced by a series of land cessations and sales. Nonetheless, the Haudenosaunee continue to consider themselves sovereign and independent, [[History of the Haudenosaunee#League of Nations|attempting to join]] the [[League of Nations]] in 1923 and issuing their [[Haudenosaunee passport|own passports]].

In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in [[Canada]], and over 81,000 in the [[United States]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marques |first=Nicole Terese Capton |date=2011 |title=Divided We Stand: The Haudenosaunee, Their Passport and Legal Implications of Their Recognition in Canada and the United States|url=https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=ilj |access-date=October 28, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/c2010br-10.pdf |date=January 2012 |title=The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010 |access-date=June 5, 2021}}</ref> They retain sovereignty over seven [[Indian reserve|reserves]] in Canada and eleven [[Indian reservation|reservations]] in the United States, divided between seventeen [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] and nine [[Tribe (Native American)|Tribal nations]].

==Names<!--'Ganonsyoni' redirects here-->==
{{Main|Names of the Haudenosaunee}}
[[File:Iroquois dictionnary, Jesuit fathers, Quebec Circa 1660.jpg|thumb|Iroquois dictionary, Jesuit fathers, Quebec, {{Circa|1660}}]]
''Haudenosaunee'' (People of the [[Longhouses of the Indigenous peoples of North America#Haudenosaunee and the other East Coast longhouses|Longhouse]]){{Efn|name=a}} is the [[Exonym and endonym|autonym]] by which the Six Nations refer to themselves.<ref name="haudenosauneeconfederacy.com">{{cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/ |access-date=20 April 2026 |website=Haudenosaunee Confederacy}}</ref> ''Iroquois'' is a term of colonial origin which some scholars consider a derogatory name adopted from the traditional enemies of the Haudenosaunee.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kasak |first=Ryan M. |date=2016 |chapter=A distant genetic relationship between Siouan-Catawban and Yuchi |editor1-last=Rudin |editor1-first=Catherine |editor2-first=Bryan J. |editor2-last=Gordon |title=Advances in the Study of Siouan Languages and Linguistics |pages=5–38}}</ref> The descriptive name '''Six Nations'''{{Efn|name=b|* {{langx|moh|Iáia’k Nihononhontsá꞉ke}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Kahnawà:ke Kanien'kehá:ka Kanakeráhsera |url=http://www.kahnawakelonghouse.com/index.php |website=Kahnawake Longhouse |publisher=Kahnawà:ke Branch of the Mohawk Nation |access-date=31 July 2026}}</ref>
* {{langx|cay|Hyeí Niyǫhwęjá꞉ge꞉}}<ref name="Dyck"/>
* {{langx|see|Ye꞉i’ Níónöëdzage꞉h}}<ref name="Chafe"/>}} ('''Five Nations'''{{Efn|name=c|
* {{langx|cay|Hwíhs Niyǫhwęjá꞉ge꞉}}<ref name="Dyck"/>
* {{langx|see|Wís Níónöëdzage꞉h}}<ref name="Chafe"/><ref name = Bardeau>{{cite web |last1=Bardeau |first1=Phyllis E. Wms. |title=ONONDOWA'GA:' GAWË:NÖ' -- Seneca Language Teacher's Dictionary |url=https://senecalanguage.com/wp-content/uploads/Seneca-Language-Teachers-Dictionary-Phyllis-E.-Wms.-Bardeau-.pdf |website=Senecalanguage.com |access-date=29 July 2026}}</ref>}} before 1722) is also used, particularly in historical documents. A less common, older autonym for the people of the confederation is {{lang|moh|Ongweh’onweh}}{{Efn|
* {{langx|moh|Onkwehón꞉we}}<ref>{{cite web |title=History & Culture |url=http://www.kahnawakelonghouse.com/index.php?mid=2 |website=Kahnawake Longhouse |publisher=Kahnawà:ke Branch of the Mohawk Nation |access-date=31 July 2026}}</ref>
* {{langx|one|ukwehu·wé}}<ref name="Who Are We">{{cite web |title=Who Are We? |url=https://oneidalanguage.ca |website=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |publisher=Oneida Language and Cultural Centre |access-date=6 June 2026}}</ref>
* {{langx|ono|ųgwehų́·weh}}<ref name="Woodbury"/>
* {{langx|cay|Ǫgwehǫ́꞉weh}}<ref name="Dyck"/>
* {{langx|see|ögwé’ö꞉weh}}<ref name="Chafe"/>
* {{langx|tus|ękwehę̀·we}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Indian |encyclopedia=Tuscarora-English/English-Tuscarora dictionary |date=2015|last1=Rudes|first1=Blair A. |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781442628809|url=https://archive.org/details/tuscaroraenglish0000rude_x3e6/mode/1up|page=42}}</ref>}} (Original People).<ref>{{cite web |title=Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators |website=[[Smithsonian Institution|The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian]] |date=2009 |url=https://americanindian.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/HaudenosauneeGuide.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior |title=Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study |url=https://parkplanning.nps.gov/showFile.cfm?projectID=91275&MIMEType=application%252Fpdf&filename=NPS%5FFinger%5FLakes%5FContext%5FThemes%5FDRAFT%5F2021%5F508%2Epdf&sfid=462152 |access-date=April 6, 2022 |website=[[National Park Service|US National Park Service]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cultural Misconceptions |url=https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/cultural-misconceptions/}}</ref>

==Confederacy<!--'Iroquois Confederacy' redirects here-->==
[[File:Map of the Country of the Five Nations belonging to the province of New York and of the Lakes near which the Nations of Far Indians live with part of Canada taken from the Map of the Louisiane done 1730.png|thumb|Map of the Five Nations from the [[Darlington Collection]]]]

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is believed to have been founded by the [[Great Peacemaker]] at an unknown date estimated between 1450 and 1660, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into "The Great League of Peace".{{sfn|Graymont|1972|pp=14–15}} Other research based on astronomical events dates the founding to 1142.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Barbara A. |last2=Fields |first2=Jerry L. |date=1997-01-01 |title=A Sign in the Sky: Dating the League of the Haudenosaunee |url=https://meridian.allenpress.com/aicrj/article/21/2/105/211735/A-Sign-in-the-Sky-Dating-the-League-of-the |journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal |language=en |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=105–163 |doi=10.17953/aicr.21.2.k36m1485r3062510 |doi-broken-date=April 8, 2026 |issn=0161-6463}}</ref> Each nation involved had a distinct Iroquoian language, territory, and function in the League.

The League is embodied in its [[Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council|Grand Council]], an assembly of fifty [[Royaner|chiefs]], each representing a [[clan]] of a nation.{{sfn|Johansen|Mann|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC&pg=PA135 135]}}

When [[European colonization of the Americas|Europeans first arrived]] in North America, the Haudenosaunee (''Iroquois League'' to the French, ''Five Nations'' to the British) were based in what is now central and west New York State including the [[Finger Lakes]] region, occupying large areas north to the St. Lawrence River, east to Montreal and the [[Hudson River]], and south into what is today northwestern Pennsylvania. At its peak around 1700, Haudenosaunee power extended from what is today New York State, north into present-day Ontario and Quebec along the [[Great Lakes|lower Great Lakes]]–[[St. Lawrence River|upper St. Lawrence]], and south on both sides of the [[Allegheny Mountains]] into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into the [[Ohio Valley]]. From east to west, the League was composed of the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Oneida people|Oneida]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca nations]]. In about 1722, the [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] joined the League, having migrated northwards from the [[Carolinas]] after a [[Tuscarora War|bloody conflict]] with white settlers. A shared cultural background with the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (and a sponsorship from the Oneida) led to acceptance of the Tuscarora as the sixth nation in the confederacy in 1722; the Haudenosaunee become known afterwards as the Six Nations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallace |first=Anthony F. C. |title=Tuscarora: A History |location=Albany |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |date=2012 |isbn=9781438444314}}</ref><ref name="Bruce Trigger 1978, pp. 287-288">{{cite book |editor-first=Bruce |editor-last=Trigger |title=Handbook of American Indians |volume=15 |date=1978 |pages=287–288}}</ref> Note that until 1707, treaties were between the "Five Nations" and "England", but after 1722 they were between the "Six Nations" and "Britain", as both entities had new names due to political unions.<ref>[https://worldhistorycommons.org/source-collection-analyzing-treaties-between-iroquois-confederacy-and-english-colonies-18th-century World History Commons: Source Collection: Analyzing 18th century Anglo-Iroquois Treaties]</ref>

There were many other independent Iroquoian-speaking peoples outside the Haudenosaunee League. The [[Erie people|Erie]], [[Susquehannock]], and [[Wyandot people|Wyandot (Huron)]], lived at various times along the [[St. Lawrence River]] and around the [[Great Lakes]], often competing and warring with neighboring nations of the League.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}} In the American Southeast, the [[Cherokee]] were another Iroquoian-language people who had migrated to that area centuries before European contact.

French, Dutch, and English colonists, both in [[New France]] (Canada) and the [[Thirteen Colonies]], recognized a need to gain favor with the Haudenosaunee, who occupied a significant portion of lands west of the colonial settlements. Their first relations were for [[Fur trade|fur trading]], which became highly lucrative for both sides. The colonists also sought to establish friendly relations to secure their settlement borders.<ref>{{cite web |title=Iroquois - Summary |url=https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/cultures/nm09/summary |website=eHRAF World Cultures |publisher=[[Yale University]] |access-date=February 3, 2026 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>

For nearly 200 years, the Haudenosaunee were a powerful factor in North American colonial policy. Alliance with the Haudenosaunee offered political and strategic advantages to the European powers, with the Haudenosaunee often holding the balance of power between the French and British Empires. Some of their people settled in mission villages along the [[St. Lawrence River]], becoming more closely tied to the French. While they participated in French-led raids on Dutch and English colonial settlements, where some Mohawk and other Haudenosaunee settled, in general the Haudenosaunee resisted attacking their own peoples.

The Haudenosaunee remained a large politically united Native American polity until the [[American Revolution]], when the League was divided by their conflicting views on how to respond to requests for aid from the British Crown.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-six-nations-confederacy-during-the-american-revolution.htm |access-date=June 5, 2024 |website=[[National Park Service]] |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> After their defeat, the British ceded Haudenosaunee territory to the new United States without consultation, and many Haudenosaunee had to abandon their lands in the Mohawk Valley and elsewhere, and relocate to the northern lands retained by the British. The Crown gave them land in compensation for the five million acres they had lost in the south, but it was not equivalent to earlier territory.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

Modern scholars of the Haudenosaunee distinguish between the League and the Confederacy.<ref name="Richter11-12">{{cite book |last=Richter |first=Daniel K. |chapter=Ordeals of the Longhouse |editor1-last=Richter |editor1-first=Daniel K. |editor2-last=Merrill |editor2-first=James H. |title=Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600–1800 |date=2003 |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-271-02299-4 |doi=10.5325/jj.27939657 |pages=11–12}}</ref>{{sfn|Fenton|1998|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Shannon|2008|pp=72–73}} According to this interpretation, the Haudenosaunee League refers to the ceremonial and cultural institution embodied in the Grand Council, which still exists. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy was the decentralized political and diplomatic entity that emerged in response to European colonization, which was dissolved after the British defeat in the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref name="Richter11-12" /> Today's Haudenosaunee people do not make such a distinction, and use the terms interchangeably, but prefer the name Haudenosaunee Confederacy.{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

After the migration of a majority to Canada, the Haudenosaunee remaining in New York were required to live mostly on reservations. In 1784, a remnant of 6,000 Haudenosaunee faced 240,000 New Yorkers, with land-hungry New Englanders poised to migrate west. "Oneidas alone, who were only 600 strong, owned six million acres, or about 2.4 million hectares. Iroquoia was a land rush waiting to happen."<ref name="brookhiser">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/arts/19iht-idside20.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |first=Richard |last=Brookhiser |author-link=Richard Brookhiser |title="Iroquoia: A land lost in push by British empire and U.S. settlers," Book Review of Alan Taylor's ''The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution'' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 19, 2006 |access-date=December 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709214951/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/arts/19iht-idside20.html |archive-date=July 9, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> By the [[War of 1812]], the Haudenosaunee had lost control of much territory.{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

==History==
{{main|History of the Haudenosaunee}}

[[File:Atotarhoreceivingtwomohawkchieftains.png|thumb|Haudenosaunee painting of Tadodaho receiving two Mohawk chiefs]]

===Formation of the League===

The Haudenosaunee League was established [[History of the Americas#Classic stage (800 BCE – 1533 CE)|prior to European contact]], with the banding together of five of the many Iroquoian peoples living south of the Great Lakes.<ref name="AmHerTage">{{cite book|title=The American Heritage Book of Indians |publisher=American Heritage Publishing, Co., Inc. |date=1961 |editor-first=Alvin M. Jr. |editor-last=Josephy }}</ref>{{efn |''The American Heritage encyclopedia'' relates that Europeans learned about many interior tribes through the names given them by the Algonquian-speaking coastal tribes they encountered first, who referred to enemies in terms reflecting their competitive relationship. The editors add, that Iroquois was a polite name from such people, and its meaning is 'from the south', people of the south, or such similar name.}} Many archaeologists and [[Anthropology|anthropologists]] believe that the League was formed about 1450,{{sfn|Fenton|1998|p=69}}{{sfn|Shannon|2008|p=25}} though arguments have been made for dates as early as the [[solar eclipse]] of August 31, 1142.<ref>{{harvp|Graymont|1972|pp=14–15}}.
"It was a confederation based on kinship—a symbolic household. They called their confederation Ganonsyoni, which means "The Lodge Extended Lengthwise", that is, a lodge that is "spread out far". All individuals and all the tribes of the Confederacy were considered as one family living together in one lodge. The Mohawks, dwelling furthest east, were Keepers of the Western Door. The Onondagas, situated in the center, were the Fire Keepers as well as the [[Wampum]] Keepers. Onondaga was therefore, the capital, where the Grand Council was held and wampum records were kept. The local [[royaner|clan chiefs]] of each tribe meeting together as a unit were the federal chiefs of the League. The Mohawks, Onondagas, and Senecas were the Elder Brothers; The Oneidas and Cayugas, the Younger Brothers. The younger and elder brethren sat on opposite sides of the lodge and counseled across the fire with each other. The Onondagas sat in the middle and kept the balance between the two sides."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Johansen |first=Bruce |year=1995 |title=Dating the Iroquois Confederacy |journal=Akwesasne Notes |series=New Series |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=62–63 |url=http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html |access-date=December 12, 2008}}</ref>{{sfn|Johansen|Mann|2000|loc="Ganondagan"|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC&pg=PA105 105]}}{{sfn|Mann|2005|p=333}}

The founders of the League are traditionally held to be [[The Great Peacemaker|Dekanawida]] the Great Peacemaker, [[Hiawatha]], and [[Jigonsaseh|Jigonhsasee]] the Mother of Nations, whose home acted as a sort of United Nations. They brought the Peacemaker's [[Great Law of Peace]] to the five Iroquoian nations who were fighting, raiding, and feuding with each other and with other tribes, both [[Algonquian people|Algonkian]]<!--use of alternative spelling is deliberate for search engines hits.--> and [[Iroquoian people|Iroquoian]].{{efn|The American Heritage Book of Indians states that oral tradition recounts that other Iroquoian peoples were given the opportunity to join the league.}}<ref name="AmHerTage" /> These five tribes still compose the Haudenosaunee in the early 21st century: the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Oneida people|Oneida]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca]], together with the southern [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] who joined in the 18th century.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

===Seventeenth Century===
{{See also|Beaver Wars}}
[[File:5NationsCession.jpg|thumb|Map showing Haudenosaunee claims through the 1700s]]

Beginning in 1609, the League fought the decades-long [[Beaver Wars]] against the French, their [[Wyandot people|Huron]] allies, and other neighboring tribes, including the [[Petun]], Erie, and Susquehannock.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=8}} Trying to control access to game for the lucrative fur trade, they invaded the [[Algonquian peoples]] of the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic coast]] (the [[Lenape]], or ''Delaware''), the Algonquian [[Anishinaabe]] of the boreal [[Canadian Shield]] region, and not infrequently the English colonies as well. During the Beaver Wars, they defeated and assimilated most of the Huron (1649), [[Petun]] (1650), the [[Neutral Confederacy|Neutral Nation]] (1651),<ref>{{cite book |last=Reville |first=F. Douglas |title=The History of the County of Brant |pages=20}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07565a.htm |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |title=The Hurons |publisher=Newadvent.org |date=June 1, 1910 |access-date=February 27, 2011 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> [[Erie people|Erie Tribe]] (1657), and [[Susquehannock]] (1680).<ref>{{cite book |last=Steele |first=Ian K. |title=Warpaths: Invasions of North America |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1994 |pages=64}}</ref>

By the end of the century, the Haudenosaunee continued several wars against the French. During [[King William's War]] (North American part of the [[Nine Years’ War|War of the Grand Alliance]]), the Haudenosaunee allied with the English. In July 1701, they concluded the "[[Nanfan Treaty]]", deeding some of their conquered land to the English (a large tract north of the Ohio River).<ref>{{cite news |last=Windle |first=Jim |title=What about that 1701 Nanfan Treaty? |date=December 28, 2016 |url=https://tworowtimes.com/historical/1701-nanfan-treaty/ |work=Two Row Times |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> Meanwhile, the Haudenosaunee were negotiating peace with the French; together they signed the [[Great Peace of Montreal]] that same year, with the participation of the leading Huron diplomat [[Kondiaronk]].{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

===Eighteenth Century===
{{Main|French and Indian Wars}}

{{See also|Six Nations land cessions}}

In the early 18th century, the [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] gradually migrated northward toward Pennsylvania and New York after [[Tuscarora War|a bloody conflict]] with white settlers in [[Province of North Carolina|North]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]. Due to linguistic and cultural similarities, the Tuscarora gradually aligned with the Haudenosaunee and entered the confederacy as the sixth Indian nation in 1722, under the sponsorship of the Oneida.<ref name="Bruce Trigger 1978, pp. 287-288"/>

The Haudenosaunee continued to be involved in wars between France and England in the eighteenth century. During [[Queen Anne's War]] (the North American part of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]]), they helped plan attacks against the French. During the [[French and Indian War]], the Haudenosaunee briefly fought on both sides while trying to maintain neutrality. By the end, the Haudenosaunee joined the British after they took Louisbourg and Fort Frontenac.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=14}} After the war, to protect their alliance, the British government issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], forbidding white settlement beyond the [[Appalachian Mountains]]. American colonists resented and largely ignored the order, and the British had insufficient soldiers to enforce it.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fenge |first1=Terry |last2=Aldridge |first2=Jim |title=Keeping promises : the Royal Proclamation of 1763, aboriginal rights, and treaties in Canada |date=November 1, 2015 |publisher=[[McGill–Queen's University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-9755-6 |pages=4, 38, 51, 201, 212, 257 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSTCDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA201 |access-date=October 6, 2019}}</ref> Faced with confrontations, the Haudenosaunee agreed to adjust the line again in the [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)]].

During the [[American Revolution]], the League broke down. The Oneida and Tuscarora supported the American colonists, while the rest of the Haudenosaunee League (the Cayuga, Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca) sided with the British and Loyalists. At the war's conclusion with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, no provisions were made for the Haudenosaunee.{{sfn|Graymont|1972|p=}} Another [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)|Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] was signed with the new United States in 1784, whereby the Haudenosaunee ceded much of their historical homeland to the Americans, followed by the [[Treaty of Canandaigua|1794 treaty of Canandaigua]] which ceded even more land to the Americans.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=17}} After this, the Haudenosaunee in New York state become demoralized, as more of their land was sold to land speculators while alcoholism, violence, and broken families plagued their reservations.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=19}} The Oneida and the Cayuga sold almost all their land and moved away.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=19}}

===In the west===
Many Haudenosaunee (mostly Mohawk) and Haudenosaunee-descended [[Métis|Métis people]] living in [[Lower Canada]] (primarily at [[Kahnawake]]) took employment with the Montreal-based [[North West Company]] during its existence from 1779 to 1821, and became [[voyageurs]] or [[mountain man|free traders]] in the [[North American fur trade]] as far west as the Rocky Mountains.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} They are known to have settled around [[Jasper, Alberta|Jasper's House]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/onlineExhibit/southesk/rockyMountains_waniyandes.cfm |title=Southesk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310174503/http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/onlineExhibit/southesk/rockyMountains_waniyandes.cfm |archive-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref> and possibly as far west as the [[Finlay River]]<ref>{{cite web |first=Dorthea |last=Calverley |url=https://calverley.ca/article/01-039-the-iroquois-of-the-rocky-mountain-trench/ |title=The Iroquois of the Rocky Mountain Trench |access-date=June 18, 2019 |publisher=South Peace Historical Society |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> and north as far as the [[Pouce Coupe]] and [[Dunvegan Provincial Park|Dunvegan]] areas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.calverley.ca/Part01-FirstNations/01-040.html |title=The Iroquois in the Peace River Area |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417065214/http://www.calverley.ca/Part01-FirstNations/01-040.html |archive-date=April 17, 2014}}</ref>

===Canadian Haudenosaunee===
During the 18th century, the Catholic Canadian Haudenosaunee outside Montreal reestablished ties with the League Haudenosaunee.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} During the American Revolution, the Canadian Haudenosaunee declared their neutrality and refused to fight for the Crown, despite the offers of [[Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester|Sir Guy Carleton]], the governor of Quebec.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} In the War of 1812, the Canadian Haudenosaunee again declared neutrality.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} The Canadian Haudenosaunee communities at Oka and Kahnaweke were prosperous settlements in the 19th century, supporting themselves with farming and the sale of sleds, snowshoes, boats, and baskets.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} In 1884, about 100 Canadian Haudenosaunee were hired by the British government to serve as river pilots and boatmen for the relief expedition of the besieged General [[Charles George Gordon|Charles Gordon]] in Khartoum in the Sudan, taking the force commanded by Field Marshal Wolsely up the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} On their way back to Canada, the Canadian Haudenosaunee river pilots and boatmen stopped in London, where they were personally thanked by Queen Victoria for their services.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}} In 1886, when a bridge was being built at the St. Lawrence, a number of Haudenosaunee men from Kahnawke were hired to help in the construction, and proved so skilled as steelwork erectors that since that time, a number of bridges and skyscrapers in Canada and the U.S. have been built by Haudenosaunee steelmen.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=20}}

===20th century===

====World War I====
During World War I, Canada encouraged First Nations men to enlist in the [[Canadian Expeditionary Force]] (CEF), where their hunting skills made them excellent snipers and scouts, particularly the warlike Haudenosee and the especially fierce Mohawk.{{sfn|Chartrand|2007|p=6}}{{sfn|Winegard|2012|p=30}} About half the 4,000 or so First Nations men who served in the CEF were Haudenosaunee.{{sfn|Winegard|2012|pp=76–77}} Men from the Six Nations reserve at Brantford were encouraged to join the 114th Haldimand Battalion (Brock's Rangers) of the CEF, where two entire companies including officers were all Haudenosaunee. The 114th Battalion was formed in December 1915, and broken up in November 1916 to provide reinforcements for other battalions.{{sfn|Chartrand|2007|p=6}} A Mohawk from Brantford, William Forster Lickers, who enlisted in the CEF in September 1914, was captured at the [[Second Battle of Ypres]] in April 1915, where he was savagely beaten by his captors, as one German officer wanted to see if "Indians could feel pain". Lickers was left paralyzed for life, while the officer was well pleased to see that Indians did indeed feel pain.{{sfn|Winegard|2012|p=112}}

The Six Nations council at Brantford tended to see themselves as a sovereign nation allied to the Crown through the Covenant Chain going back to the 17th century, and thus allied to King George V personally, rather than under the authority of Canada.{{sfn|Winegard|2012|p=128}} One Haudenosaunee [[yakoyaner|clan mother]], in a letter of August 1916 to a CEF recruiting sergeant who refused her teenage son as underage, declared the Six Nations were not subject to the laws of Canada and he had no right to refuse him.{{sfn|Winegard|2012|p=128}} As she explained, the Haudenosaunee were not serving Canada, but giving military support directly to their ally King George V.{{sfn|Winegard|2012|p=128}}

====League of Nations====
At the end of the [[War of 1812]], Britain shifted Indian affairs from the military to civilian control. With the creation of the [[Canadian Confederation]] in 1867, civil authority, and thus Indian affairs, passed to Canadian officials with Britain retaining control of military and security matters. During World War I, an act attempted to conscript Six Nations men for military service. Under the ''Soldiers Resettlement Act'', legislation was introduced to redistribute native land. Finally in 1920, an Act was proposed to force citizenship on "Indians" with or without their consent, which would then automatically remove their share of any tribal lands from tribal trust and make the land and the person subject to the laws of Canada.<ref name="Woo (2003)">{{cite journal |last1=Woo |first1=Grace Li Xiu |title=Canada's Forgotten Founders: The Modern Significance of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Application for Membership in the League of Nations |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2003_1/woo/ |journal=Law Social Justice & Global Development Journal |volume=2003 |number=1 |access-date=December 27, 2014 |date=April 30, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316175524/http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2003_1/woo/ |archive-date=March 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Haudenosaunee hired a lawyer to defend their rights in the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court refused to take the case, declaring that the members of the Six Nations were British citizens. In effect, as Canada was at the time a division of the British government, it was not an international state, as defined by international law. In contrast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had been making treaties and functioning as a state since 1643 and all of their treaties had been negotiated with Britain, not Canada.<ref name="Woo (2003)" /> As a result, a decision was made in 1921 to send a delegation to petition the [[King George V]],<ref name="Léger (1994)">{{cite book |editor-last1=Léger |editor-first1=Marie |translator-last=Bennett |translator-first=Arnold |title=Aboriginal peoples: toward self-government |date=1994 |publisher=Black Rose Books |location=Montréal |isbn=978-1-551640-11-2 |pages=3–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGRVxZ0ZAt8C |access-date=December 27, 2014}}</ref> whereupon Canada's External Affairs division blocked issuing passports. In response, the Haudenosaunee began issuing their own passports and sent [[Deskaheh|Levi General]],<ref name="Woo (2003)" /> the Cayuga Chief "Deskaheh",<ref name="Léger (1994)"/> to England with their attorney. [[Winston Churchill]] dismissed their complaint claiming that it was within the realm of Canadian jurisdiction and referred them back to Canadian officials.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

On December 4, 1922, [[Charles Stewart (premier)|Charles Stewart]], Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and [[Duncan Campbell Scott]], Deputy Superintendent of the [[Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada|Canadian Department of Indian Affairs]] traveled to Brantford to negotiate a settlement on the issues with the Six Nations. After the meeting, the Native delegation brought the offer to the tribal council, as was customary under Haudenosaunee law. The council agreed to accept the offer, but before they could respond, the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] conducted a liquor raid on the Haudenosaunee's Grand River territory. The siege lasted three days<ref name="Woo (2003)" /> and prompted the Haudenosaunee to send Deskaheh to Washington, D.C., to meet with the chargé d'affaires of the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Netherlands]] asking the Dutch Queen to sponsor them for membership in the [[League of Nations]].<ref name="Léger (1994)"/> Under pressure from the British, the Netherlands reluctantly refused sponsorship.<ref name="Un Chicanery">{{cite web|title=Un Chicanery |url=http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2013/04/24/un-chicanery/ |website=mohawknationnews.com |date=April 24, 2013 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426140144/https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2013/04/24/un-chicanery/ |archive-date=April 26, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Deskaheh and the tribal attorney proceeded to [[Geneva]] and attempted to gather support. "On 27 September 1923, delegates representing [[Estonia]], [[Irish Free State|Ireland]], [[Panama]] and [[Qajar Iran|Persia]] signed a letter asking for communication of the Six Nations' petition to the League's assembly," but the effort was blocked.<ref name="Woo (2003)" /> Six Nations delegates traveled to the Hague and back to Geneva attempting to gain supporters and recognition,<ref name="Léger (1994)"/> while back in Canada, the government was drafting a mandate to replace the traditional Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council with one that would be elected under the auspices of the Canadian [[Indian Act]]. In an unpublicized signing on September 17, 1924, Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|Mackenzie King]] and Governor-General [[Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy|Lord Byng of Vimy]] signed the Order in Council, which set elections on the Six Nations reserve for October 21. Only 26 ballots were cast.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}

The long-term effect of the Order was that the Canadian government had wrested control over the Haudenosaunee trust funds from the Haudenosaunee Confederation and decades of litigation would follow.<ref name="Woo (2003)" /> In 1979, over 300 Indian chiefs visited London to oppose [[Patriation]] of the Canadian Constitution, fearing that their rights to be recognized in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 would be jeopardized. In 1981, hoping again to clarify that judicial responsibilities of treaties signed with Britain were not transferred to Canada, several Alberta Indian chiefs filed a petition with the British High Court of Justice. They lost the case but gained an invitation from the Canadian government to participate in the constitutional discussions which dealt with protection of treaty rights.<ref name="Léger (1994)"/>

==== U.S. Indian termination policies ====
{{main|Indian termination policy}}

In the period between [[World War II]] and The Sixties, the U.S. government followed a policy of [[Indian termination policy|Indian Termination]] for its Native citizens. In a series of laws, attempting to mainstream tribal people into the greater society, the government strove to end the U.S. government's recognition of tribal sovereignty, eliminate trusteeship over Indian reservations, and implement state law applicability to native persons. In general, the laws were expected to create taxpaying citizens, subject to state and federal taxes as well as laws, from which Native people had previously been exempt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=96 |title=U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 108, 83rd Congress, 1953. (U.S. Statutes at Large, 67: B132.) |publisher=Digital History |access-date=May 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608052514/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=96 |archive-date=June 8, 2007}}</ref>

On August 13, 1946, the ''[[Indian Claims Commission]] Act of 1946'', Pub. L. No. 79-726, ch. 959, was passed. Its purpose was to settle for all time any outstanding grievances or claims the tribes might have against the U.S. for treaty breaches, unauthorized taking of land, dishonorable or unfair dealings, or inadequate compensation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/enrd/lead-indian-claims-commission-act-1946 |title=Lead Up To The Indian Claims Commission Act Of 1946 |date=April 13, 2015 |website=www.justice.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415092737/https://www.justice.gov/enrd/lead-indian-claims-commission-act-1946 |archive-date=April 15, 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Philip|2002|pp=21–33}}

On July 2, 1948, Congress enacted [Public Law 881] 62 Stat. 1224, which transferred criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed by and against "Indians" to the State of New York. It covered all reservations' lands within the state and prohibited the deprivation of hunting and fishing rights which might have been guaranteed to "any Indian tribe, band, or community, or members thereof." It further prohibited the state from requiring tribal members to obtain fish and game licenses.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chapter 809 July 2, 1948 [S. 1683] {{!}} [Public Law 881] 62 Stat. 1224 |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol6/html_files/v6p0427b.html#p427b |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=August 10, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701153341/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol6/html_files/v6p0427b.html |archive-date=July 1, 2017}}</ref> During congressional hearings on [Public Law 785] 64 Stat. 845, tribes strongly opposed its passage, fearful that states would deprive them of their reservations. The State of New York disavowed any intention to break up or deprive tribes of their reservations and asserted that they did not have the ability to do so.{{sfn|Shattuck|1991|p=169}}

On August 1, 1953, [[U.S. Congress]] issued a formal statement, [[House concurrent resolution 108]], which was the formal policy presentation announcing the official federal policy of Indian termination. The resolution called for the "immediate termination of the [[Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes|Flathead]], [[Klamath people|Klamath]], [[Menominee]], [[Potawatomi]], and [[Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians|Turtle Mountain Chippewa]], as well as all tribes in the states of California, New York, Florida, and [[Texas]]." All federal aid, services, and protection offered to these Native peoples were to cease, and the federal trust relationship and management of reservations would end.<ref name="bloodstruggle">{{cite book|author-last=Wilkinson |author-first=Charles |title=Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |date=2005}}</ref> Individual members of terminated tribes were to become full U.S. citizens with all the rights, benefits and responsibilities of any other U.S. citizen. The resolution also called for the [[United States Department of the Interior|Interior Department]] to quickly identify other tribes who would be ready for termination in the near future.<ref>{{cite web |title=House Concurrent Resolution 108 |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=96 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608052514/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=96 |archive-date=June 8, 2007 |website=Digital History}}</ref>

Beginning in 1953, a Federal task force began meeting with the tribes of the Six Nations. Despite tribal objections, legislation was introduced into Congress for termination.<ref name="srmt-nsn.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.srmt-nsn.gov/government/culture_and_history/ |title=Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe – Culture and History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220040158/http://www.srmt-nsn.gov/government/culture_and_history/ |archive-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref> The proposed legislation involved more than 11,000 Indians of the Haudenosaunee Confederation and was divided into two separate bills. One bill dealt with the [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Oneida Indian Nation|Oneida]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]] and [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] tribes, and the other dealt with the [[Seneca Nation of New York|Seneca]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Legislation terminating federal controls over eight Indian groups submitted to congress |url=http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc012737.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=April 18, 2017 |date=January 21, 1954 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610043006/http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc012737.pdf |archive-date=June 10, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The arguments the Six Nations made in their hearings with committees were that their treaties showed that the U.S. recognized that their lands belonged to the Six Nations, not the U.S., and that "termination contradicted any reasonable interpretation that their lands would not be claimed or their nations disturbed" by the federal government.{{sfn|Johansen|Mann|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC&pg=PA42 42]}} The bill for the Haudenosaunee Confederation died in committee without further serious consideration.<ref name="srmt-nsn.gov"/>

[[File:Kinzua Dam another 'gain, Glade Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania - 20210912.jpg|thumb|The [[Kinzua Dam]] in September 2021]]
On August 31, 1964,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/88/hr1794/text |title=Text of H.R. 1794 (88th): An Act to authorize payment for certain interests in lands within the Allegheny ... (Passed Congress/Enrolled Bill version) |work=GovTrack.us}}</ref> H. R. 1794 ''An Act to authorize payment for certain interests in lands within the Allegheny Indian Reservation in New York'' was passed by Congress and sent to the president for signature. The bill authorized payment for resettling and rehabilitation of the [[Seneca people|Seneca Indians]] who were being dislocated by the construction of the [[Kinzua Dam]] on the [[Allegheny River]]. Though only 127 Seneca families (about 500 people) were being dislocated, the legislation benefited the entire Seneca Nation, because the taking of the Indian land for the dam abridged a 1794 treaty agreement. In addition, the bill provided that within three years, a plan from the Interior Secretary should be submitted to Congress withdrawing all federal supervision over the Seneca Nation, though technically civil and criminal jurisdiction had lain with the State of New York since 1950.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal64-1304836 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141217174231/http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal64-1304836 |url-status=dead |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |date=December 17, 2014 |archive-date=December 17, 2014 |website=cqpress.com |access-date=August 10, 2018}}</ref>

Accordingly, on September 5, 1967, a memo from the Department of the Interior announced proposed legislation was being submitted to end federal ties with the Seneca.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bill submitted to end federal ties with Seneca Indians |url=http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc017446.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=April 18, 2017 |date=September 5, 1967 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502001702/https://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc017446.pdf |archive-date=May 2, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/55963524/ |title=Warren Times-Mirror and Observer from Warren, Pennsylvania p.9 |work=Newspapers.com |date=September 7, 1967 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416174137/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/55963524/ |archive-date=April 16, 2021}}</ref> In 1968 a new liaison was appointed from the BIA for the tribe to assist the tribe in preparing for termination and rehabilitation.<ref>{{cite press release |title=New Bureau of Indian Affairs Assignments Announced for Senecas and Osage |url=http://bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc015564.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=April 18, 2017 |date=February 28, 1968 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502010420/https://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc015564.pdf |archive-date=May 2, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The Seneca were able to hold off termination until President Nixon issued<ref name=Hauptman2013>{{cite book |title=In the Shadow of Kinzua: The Seneca Nation of Indians Since World War II |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |author-first=Laurence Marc |author-last=Hauptman |year=2013 |page=32}}</ref> his ''Special Message to the Congress on Indian Affairs'' in July 1970.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2573 |title=Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Indian Affairs. |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225903/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2573 |url-status=dead }}</ref> No New York tribes then living in the state were terminated during this period.

One tribe that had formerly lived in New York did lose its federal recognition. The [[Indian termination policy#Emigrant Indians of New York|Emigrant Indians of New York]] included the [[Oneida Nation of Wisconsin|Oneida]], [[Stockbridge–Munsee Community|Stockbridge-Munsee]], and [[Brothertown Indians|Brothertown]] Indians of Wisconsin.<ref name="bia.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc017133.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |title=Indian claims commission awards over $38.5 Million to Indian tribes in 1964 |access-date=April 18, 2017 |date=January 20, 1965 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610050043/http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc017133.pdf |archive-date=June 10, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In an effort to fight termination and force the government into recognizing their outstanding land claims in New York, the three tribes filed litigation with the Claims Commission in the 1950s.<ref name="iwantthenews.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.iwantthenews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=21652&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=74&S=1 |title=Efforts have gone on for years to get Brothertown recognition |website=www.iwantthenews.com |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029205854/http://www.iwantthenews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=21652&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=74&S=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> They won their claim on August 11, 1964.<ref name="bia.gov"/> Public Law 90-93 81 Stat. 229 ''Emigrant New York Indians of Wisconsin Judgment Act'' established federal trusteeship to pay the Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee, effectively ending Congressional termination efforts for them. Though the law did not specifically state the Brothertown Indians were terminated, it authorized all payments to be made directly to each enrollee, with special provisions for minors to be handled by the Secretary. The payments were not subject to state or federal taxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Public Law 90-93 September 27, 1967 {{!}} [S. 1972] 81 Stat. 229 |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol6/html_files/v6p1104b.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215600/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol6/html_files/v6p1104b.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |website=dc.library.okstate.edu}}</ref>

Beginning in 1978, the Brothertown Indians submitted a petition to regain federal recognition.<ref name="iwantthenews.com"/> In 2012 the Department of the Interior, in the final determination on the Brothertown petition, found that Congress had terminated their tribal status when it granted them citizenship in 1838 and therefore only Congress could restore their tribal status.<ref>{{cite web|title=Laverdure Issues a Final Determination Regarding Brothertown Indian Nation Petition for Federal Acknowledgment |url=http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc-021437.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=April 18, 2017 |location=Washington DC |date=September 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502123846/https://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc-021437.pdf |archive-date=May 2, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> As of 2014, they are still seeking Congressional approval.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iwantthenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=22293 |title=Town action surprises tribe, county |website=www.iwantthenews.com |access-date=December 28, 2014 |archive-date=December 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217065958/http://www.iwantthenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=22293 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

====Oka Crisis====
{{Main|Oka Crisis}}

In 1990, a long-running dispute over ownership of land at [[Oka, Quebec]], caused a violent stand-off. The Mohawk reservation at Oka had become dominated by a group called the [[Mohawk Warrior Society]] that engaged in practices that American and Canadian authorities considered [[smuggling]] across the U.S.-Canada border, and were well armed with assault rifles. On July 11, 1990, the Mohawk Warrior Society tried to stop the building of a golf course on land claimed by the Mohawk people, which led to a shoot-out between the Warrior Society and the ''[[Sûreté du Québec]]'' that left a policeman dead.{{sfn|Morton|1999|p=273}} In the resulting [[Oka Crisis]], the Warrior Society occupied both the land that they claimed belonged to the Mohawk people and the [[Honoré Mercier Bridge|Mercier bridge]] linking the Island of Montreal to the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.{{sfn|Morton|1999|p=273}} On August 17, 1990, Quebec Premier [[Robert Bourassa]] asked for the Canadian Army to intervene to maintain "public safety", leading to the deployment of the [[Royal 22nd Regiment|Royal 22<sup>e</sup> Régiment]] to Oka and Montreal.{{sfn|Morton|1999|p=273}} The stand-off ended on September 26, 1990, with a melee between the soldiers and the warriors.{{sfn|Morton|1999|p=273}} The dispute over ownership of the land at Oka continues.{{as of?|date=May 2019}}

==Society==

===Clothing===
{{main|Haudenosaunee clothing}}
[[File:Seneca man in the costume of the Iroquois.jpg|thumb|upright|A representation of a Seneca man in traditional dress]]
In 1644 [[Johannes Megapolensis]] described Mohawk as going nearly-nude in the summer and wearing various furs in winter, combined with unsewn Dutch [[wiktionary:duffel|duffel]]s.<ref name=MohawkCountry>{{cite book |last1=Snow |first1=Dean R. |last2=Gehring |first2=Charles T. |last3=Starna |first3=William A. |title=In Mohawk Country |date=1996 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8156-2723-4 |pages=xix–xx |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1tbXzVpHtMsC |access-date=April 27, 2016}}</ref> On their feet the Haudenosaunee wore [[moccasin]]s.<ref name=MorganLH>[[#MorganLH|Morgan, 1904]]</ref>

Traditionally, the bodies and faces of Haudenosaunee men were heavily tattooed with geometric designs and their noses and ears were pieced with rings made up of [[wampum]] or [[silver]].{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} The men usually shaved most of their hair and leaving only a tuft in the center, giving the name [[Mohawk hairstyle|Mohawk]] to their hairstyle. Married women wore their hair in a single braid held in place by a comb made of bone, antler or silver while unmarried wore their hair in several braids.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} Warriors wore moccasins, leggings and short kilts and on occasion wore robes that were highly decorated with painted designs.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} During times of war, the faces and bodies of the warriors were painted half red, half black.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} A cap made of buckskin or cloth tied to wood splints called the ''gustoweh'' was decorated with feathers was often worn by men.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} Later, feathers in the gustoweh denote the wearer's tribe by their number and positioning.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Language Index |url=https://www.ohwejagehka.com/lang.htm |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=www.ohwejagehka.com |archive-date=July 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724164238/https://www.ohwejagehka.com/lang.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Colleen |date=July 19, 2017 |title=Gustoweh Headdress Instructions |url=https://wanderingbull.com/gustoweh-headdress-instructions/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=The Wandering Bull, LLC |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Seneca woman in the costume of the Iroquois.jpg|thumb|upright|A representation of a Seneca woman in traditional dress]]
Haudenosaunee clothing changed rapidly following the introduction of scissors, needles, and textiles obtained from the Europeans.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}} In the 17th century women normally went topless with a buckskin skirt in the warm months, covering their upper bodies with a cape-like upper garment with an opening for the head in winter.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|pp=36–37}} By the 18th century, red and blue cloth obtained from Europeans became the standard material for clothing, with the men and women wearing blouses and shirts, usually decorated with beadwork, [[quillwork]], and ribbons, and often worn alongside silver accessories.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} Reflectiong European influence, Haudenosaunee women began to abandon their traditional topless style of dressing in the warm months in favor of long, loose-fitting overdresses{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}} Men's clothing, initially made of buckskin and decorated with porcupine quill-work, was likewise later made of broadcloth obtained from Europeans.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=37}}

By the 1900s most Haudenosaunee were wearing the same clothing as their non-Haudenosaunee neighbors. Today most nations primarily wear their traditional clothing to ceremonies or special events.<ref>{{cite web|title=Traditional Appearance |url=http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/appearance.html |website=Haudenosaunee Confederacy |access-date=May 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160730071324/http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/appearance.html |archive-date=July 30, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Societies===
[[File:Society of Mystic Animals.png|thumb|right|Meeting of the Society of Mystic Animals {{circa}}1900]]

Fraternal societies, often called "medicine societies", "medicine lodges",<ref name="MedSoc">{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Arthur C. |title=Secret Medicine Societies of the Seneca |journal=American Anthropologist |date=April–June 1909 |volume=II |issue=2 |pages=161–185 |doi=10.1525/aa.1909.11.2.02a00010 |jstor=659460 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/659460 |access-date=July 7, 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or "curing societies",<ref name=Gadacz>{{cite web |last1=Gadacz |first1=René R. |title=False Face Society |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/false-face-society |website=Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=July 7, 2022}}</ref> played an important role in Haudenosaunee social organization. [[Lewis H. Morgan]] says that each society "was a brotherhood into which new members were admitted by formal initiation."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Assembly |first=New York (State) Legislature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvVLAQAAMAAJ&dq=Morgan+says+that+each+society+%22was+a+brotherhood+into+which+new+members+were+admitted+by+formal+initiation%22&pg=RA3-PA113 |title=Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York |date=1914 |publisher=E. Croswell |pages=113–5 |language=en}}</ref> Originally the membership seems to have been on the basis of [[Moiety (kinship)|moiety]] (the matrilineal division within each clan), but by 1909 all societies seem to have been open to all men regardless of kinship.

It is believed that "most of the societies are of ancient origin and that their rituals have been transmitted with little change for many years." "Each society has a legend by which its origin and peculiar rites are explained."<ref name=MedSoc /> As part of his religious revolution, Handsome Lake "sought to destroy the societies and orders that conserved the older religious rites."<ref name=MedSoc /> A council of chiefs proclaimed, some time around 1800, that all animal and mystery societies should immediately dissolve, but through a defect in the form of the order the societies decided it was not legally binding and "went underground" becoming [[Secret society|secret societies]].<ref name=":4" /> Condemned by the [[Longhouse Religion|Code of Handsome Lake]], the societies were also rejected by the Christian Haudenosaunee as holding [[Paganism|pagan]] beliefs. Gradually, however, the societies came more into the open as hostility lessened.<ref name=MedSoc />

A number of societies are known, of which the False Face Society is the most familiar. Others were the Little Water Society, the Pygmy Society, the Society of Otters, the Society of Mystic Animals, the Eagle Society, the Bear Society, the Buffalo Society, the Husk Faces, and the Woman's Society—which despite its name had male membership. The Sisters of the Deo-ha-ko was an organization of women.<ref name=MedSoc />

During healing ceremonies, a carved "False Face Mask" is worn to represent spirits in a tobacco-burning and prayer ritual. False Face Masks are carved in living trees, then cut free to be painted and decorated.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}} False Faces represent grandfathers of the Haudenosaunee, and are thought to reconnect humans and nature and to frighten illness-causing spirits.{{sfn|Brascoupé|Etmanskie|2006|p=1329}}

The Haudenosaunee today have several different medicine societies.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Iroquois Traditional Ceremonies – Oneida Nation {{!}} Oneida History |url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IROQUOIS-TRADITIONAL-CEREMONIES-8.17.pdf |access-date=2024-06-06 |language=en}}</ref> The False Face Company conducts rituals to cure sick people by driving away spirits; the Husk Face Society is made up of those who had dreams seen as messages from the spirits and the Secret Medicine Society likewise conducts rituals to cure the sick.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=34}} There are 12 different types of masks worn by the societies.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=34}} The types of masks are:
* ''The Secret Society of Medicine Men and the Company of Mystic Animals'':
** Divided mask that painted half black and half red;
** Masks with exaggerated long noses;
** Horn masks;
** Blind masks without eye sockets.
* ''Husk Face Society'':
** Masks made of braided corn.
* ''False Face Society'':
** Whistling masks;
** Masks with smiling faces;
** Masks with protruding tongues;
** Masks with exaggerated hanging mouths;
** Masks with exaggerated straight lops;
** Masks with spoon-lips;
** Masks with a disfigured twisted mouth.

The "crooked face" masks with the twisted mouths, the masks with the spoon lips and the whistling masks are the "Doctor" masks.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=34}} The other masks are "Common Face" or "Beggar" masks that are worn by those who help the Doctors.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=35}}

The Husk Face Society performs rituals to communicate with the spirits in nature to ensure a good crop, the False Face Society performs rituals to chase away evil spirits, and the Secret Medicine Society performs rituals to cure diseases.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=24}} The grotesque masks represent the faces of the spirits that the dancers are attempting to please.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=34}} Those wearing Doctor masks blow hot ashes into the faces of the sick to chase away the evil spirits that are believed to be causing the illness.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=34}} The masked dancers often carried turtle shell rattles and long staffs.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=35}}

===Medicine===
{{main|Haudenosaunee ethnobotany}}
In recent times, traditional medicine has co-existed with western medicine, with traditional practices more prevalent among followers of the Gaihwi꞉io (Longhouse Religion). People may resort to traditional practices for certain types of ailments, and to western medicine for other types, or they may use both traditional and western medicine to treat the same ailment as a form of double security.

The Haudenosaunee societies are active in maintaining the practice of traditional medicine.<ref name=Rioux>{{cite journal |title=Some medical beliefs and practices of the contemporary Iroquois Longhouses of the Six Nations Reserve |journal=Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences |date=May 1951 |volume=41 |issue=5 |pages=152–158 |last1=Rioux |first1=Marcel|jstor=24531234 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24531234 |access-date=July 6, 2022}}</ref>

===Women in society===
The Haudenosaunee have historically followed a [[Matriarchy|matriarchal]] system. Men and women have traditionally had [[Gender role|separate roles]] but both hold real power in the Nations. No person is entitled to 'own' land, but it is believed that the Creator appointed women as stewards of the land. Traditionally, the [[Haudenosaunee Clan Mother|Clan Mother]]s appoint leaders, as they have raised children and are therefore held to a higher regard. By the same token, if a leader does not prove sound, becomes corrupt or does not listen to the people, the Clan Mothers have the power to strip him of his leadership.<ref name=Thomas>{{cite web|author-last1=Thomas |author-first1=Katsithawi |title=Gender Roles among the Iroquois |url=https://dokumen.tips/documents/gender-roles-among-the-iroquois-vanier-roles-among-the-iroquois-by-katsithawi.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917180720/https://dokumen.tips/documents/gender-roles-among-the-iroquois-vanier-roles-among-the-iroquois-by-katsithawi.html |archive-date=September 17, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The chief of a clan can be removed at any time by a council of the women elders of that clan. The chief's sister has historically been responsible for nominating his successor.<ref name=Wagner1999>{{cite web|url=http://www.now.org/nnt/summer-99/iroquois.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816164431/http://www.now.org/nnt/summer-99/iroquois.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 16, 2000 |title=Iroquois Women Inspire 19th Century Feminists |access-date=March 21, 2009 |author-last=Wagner |author-first=Sally Roesch |year=1999 |work=National NOW Times |publisher=[[National Organization for Women]]}}</ref> The clan mothers, the elder women of each clan, are highly respected.

The Haudenosaunee have traditionally followed a [[Matrilineality|matrilineal system]], and hereditary leadership passes through the female [[Kinship|line of descent]], that is, from a mother to her children. The children of a traditional marriage belong to their mother's [[clan]] and gain their social status through hers. Her brothers are important teachers and mentors to the children, especially introducing boys to men's roles and societies. If a couple separates, the woman traditionally keeps the children.<ref name=Wagner1999/> It is regarded as incest by the Haudenosaunee to marry within one's matrilineal clan, but considered acceptable to marry someone from the same patrilineal clan.{{sfn|Charlton|1968|pp=30–34}}

The teachings of [[Handsome Lake]] also expanded to influence the wider Haudenosaunee society. The power centered around the mode of food production and the social sphere in general. Handsome Lake's teaching tried to center the nuclear family and transferred the women's sphere to be relegated to the home while the men's sphere focused on horticulture. Also, the Handsome Lake code shifted from the family structure from the maternal one to one that centers around the patriarch.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holly |first=Marilyn |date=June 1990 |title=Handsome Lake's teachings: The shift from female to male agriculture in Iroquois culture. An essay in ethnophilosophy |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF01557313 |journal=Agriculture and Human Values |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3–4 |pages=80–94 |doi=10.1007/BF01557313 |s2cid=144792686 |issn=0889-048X |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Moreover, several other factors influenced the position of Haudenosaunee women. The exhaustion of the beavers' population led to men traveling for longer distances; this resulted in women having a more influential role in their societies because of the long absence of men. Another factor that influenced women's position shift was the reorganization of the political structure. The changes were influential as elected representatives instead of women-appointed chiefs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ezzo |first=David |title=Female Status and roles among the Iroquois |journal=Whispering Wind}}</ref>

The status of Haudenosaunee women inspired and had an impact on the early Feminist American movement. This was seen in the Seneca Fall Convention of 1848, the first feminist convention. For example, [[Matilda Joslyn Gage|Matilda Gage]], a prominent member of the convention, wrote extensively about the Haudenosaunee throughout her life. [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton|Elizabeth Cady]] lived in close proximity to the Seneca tribe of the Haudenosaunee and had a relative and a neighbor who was adopted by the Seneca tribe as well.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hagan |first=Willow |title=Iroquois Native American Cultural Influences in Promoting Women's Rights Ideologies Leading Up to the First Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls on the 19th and 20th of July, 1848 |journal=Center of the American West}}</ref>

Women also held an important position as Agoianders. The Agoianders were named for their perceived good qualities. They served a wide variety of social, political and diplomatic functions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reed |first=Patricia |date=January 1, 1992 |title=The Role of Women in Iroquoian Society |url=https://journals.mcmaster.ca/nexus/article/view/131 |journal=NEXUS: The Canadian Student Journal of Anthropology |volume=10 |issue=1 |doi=10.15173/nexus.v10i1.131 |issn=0707-3771 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Historically women have held the dwellings, horses and farmed land, and a woman's property before marriage has stayed in her possession without being mixed with that of her husband. The work of a woman's hands is hers to do with as she sees fit.

Historically, at marriage, a young couple lived in the longhouse of the wife's family ([[Matrilocal residence|matrilocality]]). A woman choosing to divorce a shiftless or otherwise unsatisfactory husband is able to ask him to leave the dwelling and take his possessions with him.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Benokraitis |author-first=Nijole V. |date=2011 |title=Marriages & Families |edition=7 |publisher=Pearson Education Inc. |location=New Jersey |pages=58–59}}</ref>

===Spiritual beliefs===
{{Further|Haudenosaunee mythology}}

Like many cultures, the Haudenosaunee's spiritual beliefs changed over time and varied across tribes. Generally, the Haudenosaunee believed in numerous deities, including the [[Great Spirit]], the Thunderer, and the Three Sisters (the spirits of [[bean]]s, maize, and [[Cucurbita|squash]]). The Great Spirit was thought to have created plants, animals, and humans to control "the forces of good in nature", and to guide ordinary people.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}} [[Orenda]] is the proposed Iroquoian name for the magical potence found in people and their environment.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last1=Hewitt |author-first1=J. N. B. |title=Orenda and a Definition of Religion |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |date=1902 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=33–46 |jstor=658926 |doi=10.1525/aa.1902.4.1.02a00050 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The Haudenosaunee are argued to have believed in the ''orenda'', the spiritual force that flowed through all things, and believed if people were respectful of nature, then the ''orenda'' would be harnessed to bring about positive results.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=23}} There were three types of spirits for the Haudenosaunee: 1) Those living on the earth 2) Those living above the earth and 3) the highest level of spirits controlling the universe from high above with the highest of those beings known variously as the Great Spirit, the Great Creator or the Master of Life.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=23}}

Sources provide different stories about Haudenosaunee creation beliefs. Brascoupé and Etmanskie focus on the first person to walk the earth, called the Skywoman or Aientsik. Aientsik's daughter Tekawerahkwa gave birth to twins, Tawiskaron, who created vicious animals and river rapids, while Okwiraseh created "all that is pure and beautiful".{{sfn|Brascoupé|Etmanskie|2006|p=1328}} After a battle where Okwiraseh defeated Tawiskaron, Tawiskaron was confined to "the dark areas of the world", where he governed the night and destructive creatures.{{sfn|Brascoupé|Etmanskie|2006|p=1328}} Other scholars present the "twins" as the Creator and his brother, Flint.{{sfn|Saraydar|1990|p=21}} The Creator was responsible for game animals, while Flint created predators and disease. Saraydar (1990) suggests the Haudenosaunee do not see the twins as polar opposites but understood their relationship to be more complex, noting "Perfection is not to be found in gods or humans or the worlds they inhabit."{{sfn|Saraydar|1990|p=22}}

Descriptions of Haudenosaunee spiritual history consistently refer to dark times of terror and misery prior to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, ended by the arrival of the [[Great Peacemaker]]. Tradition asserts that the Peacemaker demonstrated his authority as the Creator's messenger by climbing a tall tree above a waterfall, having the people cut down the tree, and reappearing the next morning unharmed.{{sfn|Saraydar|1990|p=22}} The Peacemaker restored mental health to a few of the most "violent and dangerous men", Ayonhwatha and Thadodaho, who then helped him bear the message of peace to others.{{sfn|Saraydar|1990|p=23}}

After the arrival of the Europeans, some Haudenosaunee became Christians, among them the first Native American Saint, [[Kateri Tekakwitha]], a young woman of Mohawk-Algonquin parents. The Seneca chief [[Handsome Lake]], also known as Ganeodiyo,{{sfn|Brascoupé|Etmanskie|2006|p=1329}} introduced a new religious system to the Haudenosaunee in the late 18th century,<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Wallace |author-first=Anthony |title=Death and Rebirth of the Seneca |url=https://archive.org/details/deathrebirthofse0000unse |url-access=registration |publisher=Vintage |date=April 12, 1972 |isbn=978-0-394-71699-2}}</ref> which incorporated Quaker beliefs along with traditional Iroquoian culture.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}} Handsome Lake's teachings include a focus on parenting, appreciation of life, and peace.{{sfn|Brascoupé|Etmanskie|2006|p=1329}} A key aspect of Handsome Lake's teachings is the principle of equilibrium, wherein each person's talents combined into a functional community. By the 1960s, at least 50% of Haudenosaunee followed this religion.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}}

Dreams play a significant role in Haudenosaunee spirituality, providing information about a person's desires and prompting individuals to fulfill dreams. To communicate upward, humans can send prayers to spirits by burning tobacco.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}}

Condolence ceremonies are conducted by the Haudenosaunee for both ordinary and important people, but most notably when a hoyane (chief) died. Such ceremonies were still held on Haudenosaunee reservations as late as the 1970s.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}} After death, the soul is thought to embark on a journey, undergo a series of ordeals, and arrive in the sky world. This journey is thought to take one year, during which the Haudenosaunee mourn for the dead. After the mourning period, a feast is held to celebrate the soul's arrival in the skyworld.

"Keepers of the faith" are part-time specialists who conduct religious ceremonies. Both men and women can be appointed as keepers of the faith by tribe elders.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}}

===Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address===
The Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address is a central prayer in Haudenosaunee tradition recited daily in the beginning of school days as well as social, cultural, and political events.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://indigenousvalues.org/haudenosaunee-values/thanksgiving-address-ganonhanyonh/ |title=Thanksgiving Address |website=Indigenous Values Initiative |date=June 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126110610/https://indigenousvalues.org/haudenosaunee-values/thanksgiving-address-ganonhanyonh/ |archive-date=November 26, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The address gives thanks to the parts of nature necessary to ecosystem sustainability and emphasizes the ideology that all animals and plants within an ecosystem are connected and each plays a vital role in it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/idle-no-more-decolonizing-water-food-and-natural-resources-with-tek |author-last=Goodness |author-first=Valerie |work=Indian Country Today |date=January 30, 2015 |title=Idle no more: Decolonizing water, food and natural resources with tek. |access-date=April 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818181942/https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/idle-no-more-decolonizing-water-food-and-natural-resources-with-tek |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The phrasing of the address may vary depending on the speaker but is usually composed of 17 main sections and ends with a closing prayer. The 17 main sections are: 1) The people, 2) The Earth Mother, 3) The waters, 4) The fish, 5) plants, 6) food plants,7) medicine herbs, 8) animals, 9) trees, 10) birds, 11) four winds, 12) The Thunderers, 13) The Sun, 14) Grandmother Moon, 15) The stars, 16) The Enlightened Teachers, and 17) The Creator. Within each section, gratitude is given for the gifts that section provides to humanity.

The address serves as a pledge of gratitude as well as a "scientific inventory of the natural world".<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Kimmerer |author-first=R.W. |author-link=Robin Wall Kimmerer |date=2013 |title=[[Braiding Sweetgrass]]: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants |publisher=[[Milkweed Editions]] |pages=110 |isbn=978-1-57131-335-5}}</ref> By describing living and non-living elements of the ecosystem and their functions, uses and benefits, the pledge instills early concepts of [[traditional ecological knowledge]] within grade school children and onward.

After asking permission from [[Oren Lyons]], a spiritual leader of the [[Onondaga Nation]], [[Robin Wall Kimmerer]] included the Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address in her book ''[[Braiding Sweetgrass|Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]''.<ref>{{cite news| title = The 'Braiding Sweetgrass' Author Wants Us to Give Thanks Every Day | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | language = en-US | date = 2024-11-29 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/books/braiding-sweetgrass-serviceberry-robin-wall-kimmerer.html | access-date = 2026-03-05 }}</ref>

===Festivals===
The Haudenosaunee traditionally celebrate several major festivals throughout the year.<ref name=MorganLH /> These usually combine a spiritual component and ceremony, a feast, a chance to celebrate together, sports, entertainment and dancing. These celebrations have historically been oriented to the seasons and celebrated based on the cycle of nature rather than fixed calendar dates.

For instance, the Mid-winter festival, {{lang|see|Gi'-ye-wä-no-us-quä-go-wä}} ("The supreme belief") ushers in the new year. This festival is traditionally held for one week around the end of January to early February, depending on when the new moon first occurs that year.<ref>[[#morgan1995|Morgan, Thomas, 1995]], pp. 200–201</ref>

Haudenosaunee ceremonies are primarily concerned with farming, healing, and thanksgiving. Key festivals correspond to the agricultural calendar, and include Maple, Planting, Strawberry, Green Maize, Harvest, and Mid-Winter (or New Year's), which is held in early February.{{sfn|Reid|1996|p=167}} The ceremonies were given by the Creator to the Haudenosaunee to balance good with evil.{{sfn|Saraydar|1990|p=22}} In the 17th century, Europeans described the Haudenosaunee as having 17 festivals, but only 8 are observed today. The most important of the ceremonies were the New Year Festival, the Maple Festival held in late March to celebrate spring, the Sun Shooting Festival which also celebrates spring, the Seed Dance in May to celebrate the planting of the crops, the Strawberry Festival in June to celebrate the ripening of the strawberries, the Thunder Ceremony to bring rain in July, the Green Bean Festival in early August, the Green Corn Festival in late August and the Harvest Festival in October. Of all the festivals, the most important were the Green Corn Festival to celebrate the maturing of the corn and the New Year Festival. During all of the festivals, men and women from the False Face Society, the Medicine Society and the Husk Face Society dance wearing their masks in attempt to humor the spirits that controlled nature.

The most important of the occasions for the masked dancers to appear were the New Year Festival, which was felt to be an auspicious occasion to chase the malevolent spirits that were believed to cause disease.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=23}} An important ritual in the New Year Festival was the White Dog Sacrifice. During this ritual a pure white dog would be strangled before being decorated with ribbons, spots of red paint, and a collar of wampum. The dog would then be hung up on a long pole for a few days. Afterwards, it would be taken down and thrown in a fire with tobacco while speeches were read. The White Dog Sacrifice may have had varying religious significance among the tribes of the Haudenosaunee, with the Seneca viewing the ritual as sending the dog to the Great Creator as a messenger.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tooker |first=Elisabeth |date=1965 |title=The Iroquois White Dog Sacrifice in the Latter Part of the Eighteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/480613 |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=129–140 |doi=10.2307/480613 |jstor=480613 |issn=0014-1801|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Art===
{{Main|Iroquois art}}

[[File:Detail. Ball-headed club. A diplomatic gift to James Bruce (8th Earl Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine), made most probably by Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). From Canada, early-mid 19th century CE. National Museum of Scotland.jpg|thumb|left|Detail. Ball-headed club. A diplomatic gift to James Bruce (8th Earl Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine), made most probably by Haudenosaunee. From Canada, early-mid 19th century CE. National Museum of Scotland]]

Haudenosaunee art includes a wide range of visual forms, including wood carving, pottery, quillwork, beadwork, basketry, husk work, silverwork, clothing, jewelry, and wampum. Historically, Haudenosaunee artists used animal, human, and geometric imagery on wood, bowls, pottery, and clay pipes, while later beadwork and related arts often featured floral designs.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Academy|first=SNP STEAM|date=2023-04-18|title=Hodinohsó:ni' Art & Artists|url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a6d9dceb91f2401ab4238093805e4fd0|access-date=2026-04-07|website=ArcGIS StoryMaps|language=en}}</ref> In the 19th century, the Haudenosaunee Realist School adapted Haudenosaunee subjects and stories to watercolor and other flat media,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Smith|first=Matthew Ryan|date=2025-01-01|title=The Precarious Origins of the Iroquois Realist School|url=https://www.academia.edu/115511459|journal=First American Art Magazine}}</ref> and in the 20th and 21st centuries Haudenosaunee artists worked across painting, sculpture, assemblage, video, and site-specific installation.<ref name=":32">{{cite journal |last=Stevens|first=Scott Manning|date=2020-04-29|title=Collecting Haudenosaunee Art from the Modern Era|journal=Arts|volume=9|issue=2|pages=55|doi=10.3390/arts9020055|doi-access=free}}</ref> Modern Haudenosaunee art often addresses history, colonialism, cultural continuity, innovation, and resilience.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Hodinöšyö:nih Continuity {{!}} Innovation {{!}} Resilience|url=https://rmsc.org/exhibits/haudenosaunee-continuity/|access-date=2026-04-09|website=Rochester Museum & Science Center|language=en-US}}</ref>

The work of [[Caroline G. Parker|Caroline G. Parker (Jigonhsasee]]), a 19th century embroiderer and bead-worker of the Seneca Wolf Clan, has had a lasting influence on Seneca and Tuscarora fashion. She combined elements of both Haudenosaunee and Victorian styles to her art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The New York Historical |url=https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/indigenous-peoples-day-honoring-caroline-parker-haudenosaunee-artist |access-date=2026-06-30 |website=www.nyhistory.org |language=en}}</ref>

===Lacrosse===
The modern version of [[lacrosse]] is popular among the Haudenosaunee, who have a long history with the sport.<ref>{{cite news|author-last1=Demirel |author-first1=Evin |title=A Millennium after inventing the game, the Iroquois are lacrosse's new superpower |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/21/a-millennium-after-inventing-the-game-the-iroquois-are-lacrosse-s-new-superpower.html |newspaper=The Daily Beast |access-date=June 14, 2015 |date=July 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927231014/https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-millennium-after-inventing-the-game-the-iroquois-are-lacrosses-new-superpower |archive-date=September 27, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[First Nations Lacrosse Association]] is recognized by [[World Lacrosse]] as a sovereign state for international lacrosse competitions. It is the only sport in which the Haudenosaunee field national teams and the only [[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous people]]'s organization sanctioned for international competition by any world sporting governing body.

===Naming conventions===
Each clan has a group of personal names which may be used to name members. The clan mother is responsible for keeping track of those names not in use, which may then be reused to name infants. When a child becomes an adult he takes a new "adult" name in place of his "baby" name. Some names are reserved for chiefs or faith keepers, and when a person assumes that office he takes the name in a ceremony in which he is considered to "resuscitate" the previous holder. If a chief resigns or is removed he gives up the name and resumes his previous one.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Tooker |author-first1=Elisabeth |title=The Iroquois Ceremonial of Midwinter |date=1970 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |isbn=978-0815621492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8RNWdnJigQC&q=iroquois%20naming&pg=PA22 |access-date=June 8, 2015}}</ref>

==Government==
{{Main|Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council|Great Law of Peace}}

[[File:Six Nations survivors of War of 1812.jpg|thumb|Mohawk leader [[John Smoke Johnson]] (left) with John Tutela and Young Warner, two other Six Nations [[War of 1812]] veterans, in July 1882]]

The ''Grand Council of the Six Nations'' is an assembly of 56 ''[[Royaner|Hoyenah]]'' ([[Tribal chief|chiefs]]). Chief offices are hereditary within their clan. When a position becomes vacant a candidate is selected from among the members of the clan and "raised up" by a council of all chiefs. The new chief gives up his old name and is thereafter addressed by the title.

Today, the seats on the Council are distributed among the Six Nations as follows:
* 14 Onondaga
* 10 Cayuga
* 9 Oneida
* 9 Mohawk
* 8 Seneca
* 6 Tuscarora

When anthropologist [[Lewis H. Morgan|Lewis Henry Morgan]] studied the Grand Council in the 19th century, he interpreted it as a central government. This interpretation became influential, but Richter argues that while the Grand Council served an important ceremonial role, it was not a government in the sense that Morgan thought.<ref name="Richter11-12"/>{{sfn|Fenton|1998|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Shannon|2008|pp=72–73}} According to this view, Haudenosaunee political and diplomatic decisions are made on the local level and are based on assessments of community [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]]. A central government that develops policy and implements it for the people at large is not the Haudenosaunee model of government.

Unanimity in public acts was essential to the Council. In 1855, Minnie Myrtle observed that no Haudenosaunee treaty was binding unless it was ratified by 75% of the male voters and 75% of the mothers of the nation.<ref name=Wagner/> In revising Council laws and customs, a consent of two-thirds of the mothers was required.<ref name=Wagner/> The need for a double supermajority to make major changes made the Confederacy a ''de facto'' [[Democracy|consensus government]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Morden|first1=Michael|title=Treaty Federalism as Conflict Management: Indigenous- Settler Power Sharing in Canada|url=http://www.unifr.ch/federalismnetwork/assets/files/Best%20Papers%202011/Morden%20-%20Treaty%20Federalism%20in%20Canada.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2015}}</ref>

The women traditionally held real power, particularly the power to veto treaties or declarations of war.<ref name=Wagner>{{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Sally Roesch |editor1-first=Ron |editor1-last=Sakolsky |editor2-first=James |editor2-last=Koehnline |title=Gone To Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture |year=1993 |publisher=Autonomedia |location=Brooklyn, New York |isbn=978-0-936756-92-9 |pages=240–247 |chapter=The Iroquois Influence on Women's Rights}}</ref> The members of the Grand Council of Chiefs were chosen by the mothers of each clan. If any leader failed to comply with the wishes of the women of his tribe and the Great Law of Peace, the mother of his clan could demote him, a process called "knocking off the horns". The deer antlers, an emblem of leadership, were removed from his headgear, thus returning him to private life.<ref name=Wagner/><ref>{{cite book |author=Eldridge, Larry D. |title=Women and freedom in early America |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |year=1997 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=CrpC9UXJe_MC&pg=PA15 15] |isbn=978-0-8147-2198-8}}</ref>

Councils of the mothers of each tribe were held separately from the men's councils. The women used men as runners to send word of their decisions to concerned parties, or a woman could appear at the men's council as an orator, presenting the view of the women. Women often took the initiative in suggesting legislation.<ref name=Wagner/>

===Wampum belts===
{{See also|Wampum}}
[[File:Chiefs of the Six Nations at Brantford, Canada, explaining their wampum belts to Horatio Hale September 14, 1871.jpg|left|thumb|Chiefs of the Six Nations explaining their wampum belts to [[Horatio Hale]], 1871]]

The term "wampum" refers to beads made from purple and white mollusk shells on threads of elm bark.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}} Species used to make wampum include the highly prized [[Hard clam|quahog clam]] which produces the famous purple colored beads. For white colored beads the shells from the [[Busycotypus canaliculatus|channeled whelk]], [[knobbed whelk]], [[Sinistrofulgur perversum|lightning whelk]], and snow whelk are used.<ref name="wampum&wampumbelts">{{cite web|url=http://www.ganondagan.org/wampum.html|title=Wampum & Wampum Belts|publisher=Ganondagan|access-date=January 13, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721100104/http://www.ganondagan.org/wampum.html|archive-date=July 21, 2012}}</ref>

Wampum was primarily used to make wampum belts by the Haudenosaunee, which Haudenosaunee tradition claims was invented by Hiawatha to console chiefs and clan mothers who lost family members to war.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}} Wampum belts played a major role in the Condolence Ceremony and in the raising of new chiefs.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}} Both chiefs and clan mothers wear wampum belts as symbol of their offices.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}} Wampum belts are also used to signify the importance of a specific message being presented. Treaty making often involved wampum belts to signify the importance of the treaty.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|p=36}}

[[File:Hiawatha Belt vector.svg|thumb|The Hiawatha Belt]]
The [[Hiawatha#Hiawatha Belt|Hiawatha Belt]] is the national belt of the Haudenosaunee and is represented in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy flag. The belt has four squares and a tree in the middle which represents the original Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee that were united by the [[Great Peacemaker|Peacemaker]] and [[Hiawatha]]. Going from left to right the squares represent the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Mohawk. The Onondaga are represented by an [[Pinus strobus|eastern white pine]] which represents the [[Tree of Peace]], an [[Eastern White Pine]], the needles of which are clustered in groups of five.<ref name="iroquoisflag">{{cite web |url=http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/kmartin/School/iroqflag.htm |title=Haudenosaunee Flag |publisher=First Americans |access-date=September 25, 2007 |archive-date=June 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110621234520/http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/kmartin/School/iroqflag.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> Traditionally the Onondaga are the peace keepers of the confederacy. The placement of the nations on the belt represents the actual geographical distribution of the six nations over their shared territory, with the Seneca in the far west and the Mohawk in the far east of Haudenosaunee territory.<ref name="wampum&wampumbelts"/> The [[Haudenosaunee flag]] created in the 1980s is based on the Hiawatha Belt ... created from purple and white wampum beads centuries ago to symbolize the union forged when the former enemies buried their weapons under the Great Tree of Peace."<ref name="flagwampum">{{cite web|url=http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28214379.html|title=From beads to banner |publisher=Indian Country Today |access-date=May 4, 2009}}</ref>

Treaty belts were later presented to symbolically represent treaties between the Haudenosaunee and European colonists. The [[Two Row Wampum Treaty|The Two Row Wampum]] or "Guesuenta", meaning "it brightens our minds", was originally presented to the Dutch settlers, and then French, with two lines representing a canoe and a sailboat moving side-by-side along the river of life, not interfering with the other's course. All non-Native settlers are, by associations, members of this treaty.

"The Covenant Belt" was presented to the Haudenosaunee at the signing of the [[Treaty of Canandaigua|Canandaigua Treaty]]. The belt has a design of thirteen human figures representing symbolically the [[Thirteen Colonies]] of the U.S. The house and the two figures directly next to the house represent the Haudenosaunee people and the symbolic longhouse. The figure on the left of the house represent the Seneca Nation who are the symbolic guardians of the western door (western edge of Haudenosaunee territory) and the figure to the right of the house represents the Mohawk who are the keepers of the eastern door (eastern edge of Haudenosaunee territory).<ref name="wampum&wampumbelts"/>

===Influence on the United States===
Historians in the 20th century have suggested the Haudenosaunee system of government influenced the development of the U.S. government,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johansen |first1=Bruce E. |author1-link=Bruce E. Johansen |last2=Grinde |first2=Donald A. Jr. |author2-link=Donald A. Grinde Jr. |title=Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy |series=Native American Politics Series |volume=3 |date=1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/28/us/iroquois-constitution-a-forerunner-to-colonists-democratic-principles.html |title=Iroquois Constitution: A Forerunner to Colonists' Democratic Principles |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 28, 1987}}</ref> although the extent and nature of this influence has been disputed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Payne |first=Samuel B. Jr. |title=The Iroquois League, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=53 |number=3 |pages=605–620 |date=1996 |doi=10.2307/2947207 |jstor=2947207}}</ref> Bruce Johansen proposes that the Haudenosaunee had a representative form of government.<ref name="Johansen 1981">{{cite book |last=Johansen |first=Bruce E. |author-link=Bruce E. Johansen |title=Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, The Iroquois, And The Rationale For The American Revolution |location=Ipswich, MA |publisher=Gambit |year=1981}}</ref>

Consensus has not been reached on how influential the Haudenosaunee model was to the development of U.S. documents such as the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=V. I. |title=I Have Spoken: American History Through the Voices of the Indians |publisher=Swallow Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/ihavespokenameri0000unse/page/14 14] |isbn=978-0-8040-0530-2 |year=1971 |url=https://archive.org/details/ihavespokenameri0000unse/page/14}}</ref> The influence thesis has been discussed by historians such as [[Donald A. Grinde Jr.|Donald Grinde]]<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Lyons |editor-first=O. |last=Grinde |first=D. |chapter=Iroquois political theory and the roots of American democracy |title=Exiled in the land of the free: democracy, Indian nations, and the U. S. Constitution |publisher=Clear Light Publishers |location=Santa Fe, NM |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-940666-15-3 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/exiledinlandoffr00oren_0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/exiledinlandoffr00oren_0}}</ref> and [[Bruce Johansen]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Bruce E. |last1=Johansen |author2-link=Donald A. Grinde Jr. |first2=Donald A. |last2=Grinde Jr. |title=Exemplar of liberty: native America and the evolution of democracy |publisher=American Indian Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles |location=[Los Angeles] |year=1991|isbn=978-0-935626-35-3 |author1-link=Bruce E. Johansen}}</ref> In 1987, [[Cornell University]] held a conference on the link between the Haudenosaunee's government and the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kahonwes.com/iroquois/document1.html |access-date=May 20, 2012 |title=The Tree of Peace The Great Law of Peace: New World Roots of American Democracy by David Yarrow© September 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703193225/http://www.kahonwes.com/iroquois/document1.html |archive-date=July 3, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1988, the [[U.S. Congress]] passed a resolution to recognize the influence of the Haudenosaunee League upon the Constitution and [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/hconres331.pdf |access-date=November 23, 2008 |title=H. Con. Res. 331, October 21, 1988 |publisher=[[United States Senate]]}}</ref>

Scholars such as [[Jack N. Rakove]] challenge this thesis. [[Stanford University]] historian Rakove writes, "The voluminous records we have for the constitutional debates of the late 1780s contain no significant references to the Iroquois" and notes that there are ample European precedents to the democratic institutions of the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hnn.us/articles/12974.html |title=Did the Founding Fathers Really Get Many of Their Ideas of Liberty from the Iroquois? |work=History News Network |publisher=[[George Mason University]] |access-date=January 5, 2011 |last=Rakove |first=J. |date=July 21, 2005}}</ref> In reply, journalist [[Charles C. Mann (writer)|Charles C. Mann]] wrote that while he agreed that the specific form of government created for the U.S. was "not at all like" that of the Haudenosaunee, available evidence does support "a cultural argument – that the well-known democratic spirit had much to do with colonial contact with the Indians of the eastern seaboard, including and especially the Haudenosaunee," and (quoting Rakove) "that prolonged contact between the aboriginal and colonizing populations were important elements [sic] in the shaping of colonial society and culture."<ref>Response by Charles C. Mann 7–21–05 in {{cite web |url=http://hnn.us/articles/12974.html |title=Did the Founding Fathers Really Get Many of Their Ideas of Liberty from the Iroquois? |work=History News Network |publisher=[[George Mason University]] |access-date=February 2, 2019 |last=Rakove |first=J. |date=July 21, 2005}}</ref> Historian [[Francis Jennings]] noted that supporters of the thesis frequently cite the following statement by [[Benjamin Franklin]], made in a letter from Benjamin Franklin to James Parker in 1751:<ref name="Johansen 1981"/> "It would be a very strange thing, if six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such a Union ... and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies," but he disagrees that it establishes influence. Rather, he thinks Franklin was promoting union against the "ignorant savages" and called the idea "absurd".<ref name=":3">{{cite book |last=Jennings |first=F. |author-link=Francis Jennings |title=Empire of fortune: crown, colonies, and tribes in the Seven Years War in America |publisher=Norton |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-393-30640-8 |location=New York |pages=95, 111, 160, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VsBPyRfdHEAC&pg=PA259 259n15]}}</ref>

The [[Anthropology|anthropologist]] Dean Snow has stated that although Franklin's [[Albany Plan]] may have drawn inspiration from the Haudenosaunee League, there is little evidence that either the Plan or the Constitution drew substantially from that source. He argues that "such claims muddle and denigrate the subtle and remarkable features of Haudenosaunee government. The two forms of government are distinctive and individually remarkable in conception."<ref>{{cite book |last=Snow |first=D. R. |title=The Iroquois (The Peoples of America Series) |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishers]] |location=Cambridge, MA |year=1996 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=P7e82KQoX6IC&pg=PA154 154] |isbn=978-1-55786-938-8}}</ref>

Similarly, the anthropologist [[Elisabeth Tooker]] has concluded that "there is virtually no evidence that the framers borrowed from the Iroquois." She argues that the idea is a myth resulting from a claim made by linguist and ethnographer [[John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt|J.N.B. Hewitt]] that was exaggerated and misunderstood after his death in 1937.<ref name="Tooker">{{cite book |editor-last=Clifton |editor-first=J. A. |title=The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, NJ |year=1990 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ARbVmr941TsC&pg=PA107 107–128] |chapter=The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League |isbn=978-1-56000-745-6 |last=Tooker |first=E.}}</ref> According to Tooker, the original Haudenosaunee constitution did not involve representative democracy and elections; deceased chiefs' successors were selected by the most senior woman within the hereditary lineage in consultation with other women in the tribe.<ref name="Tooker"/>

===International relations===

====Relations with colonial powers====
The Haudenosaunee people, living mainly in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, had many encounters with European colonial powers, primarily the English, Dutch, and French.

The Dutch respected Haudenosaunee land claims and were peaceful with the Haudenosaunee, specifically the Mohawk people. Trying to avoid their own [[Black Legend]], the Dutch established trade and an allyship with the Mohawk people. By the 1640s Dutch traders were exporting thousands of furs a year, most of which were traded from the Mohawks. The Mohawks used their monopoly over the Fort Orange (Albany) market to set prices. Many of the furs the Mohawks sold were stolen from other Indigenous enemies around the St Lawrence River region and then traded to the Dutch. While the Dutch had strong relations with the Mohawks, they fell into conflict with other Indigenous peoples like the Delawares.<ref name=foner>{{cite book|last1=Foner | first1=Eric | last2=DuVal|first2=Kathleen|last3=McGirr|first3=Lisa|pages=34–36, 82–83|title=Give Me Liberty: An American History, Volume 1 | publisher=W.W. Norton & Company | year=2023 | isbn=978-1-324-04157-3}}</ref>

Initially, English rule around the Haudenosaunee strengthened their position. In the mid-1670s, New York governor Sir Edmund Andros allied with the Haudenosaunee in what was known as the [[Covenant Chain]]. During the Covenant Chain, the English and Haudenosaunee reinforced each other. The English and Haudenosaunee would join to fight Native rivals and the French. Andros accepted the Haudenosaunee land claim in the vast area stretching to the Ohio River. Starting in the 1680s, natives around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley would regroup and with French aid pushed the Haudenosaunee back east. The Haudenosaunee would continue to support the English during the Seven Years' War from 1754 to 1763. English respect of Haudenosaunee land claims was starting to diminish and by the end of the 18th century, the Haudenosaunee would adopt a policy of neutrality with the European empires while continuing to profit off the fur trade.{{r|foner}}

====20th century to present====
{{further|Haudenosaunee passport}}

The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy declared war on [[German Empire|Germany]] in 1917 during [[World War I]] and [[Nazi Germany|again in 1942]] in [[World War II]].<ref>[[#morgan1995|Morgan, Thomas, 1995]], pp. 22–27</ref>

The Haudenosaunee government has issued passports since 1923, when Haudenosaunee authorities issued a passport to Cayuga statesman Deskaheh ([[Deskaheh|Levi General]]) to travel to the League of Nations headquarters.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/Iroquois-Nationals-forfeits-first-game-98603364.html |work=[[Indian Country Today|Indian Country Today Media Network]].com |access-date=February 27, 2011 |title=Iroquois Nationals forfeits first game |date=July 16, 2010 |first=Gale Courey |last=Toensing |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012073536/http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/Iroquois-Nationals-forfeits-first-game-98603364.html |archive-date=October 12, 2010}}</ref>

More recently, passports have been issued since 1997.<ref>''[[The Economist]]'', July 24, 2010.</ref> Before 2001 these were accepted by various nations for international travel, but with increased security concerns across the world since the [[September 11 attacks]], this is no longer the case.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/15/iroquois-lacrosse-team-passports-visa-us-uk |title=Iroquois lacrosse team cleared to travel by America – then blocked by Britain |first=Ewen |last=MacAskill |author-link=Ewen MacAskill |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=July 15, 2010 |access-date=July 25, 2019 |publisher=[[Guardian News & Media Limited]]}}</ref> 
In 2010, the [[Iroquois men's national lacrosse team|Haudenosaunee Nationals]] lacrosse team was allowed by the U.S. to travel on their own passports to the [[2010 World Lacrosse Championship]] in England only after the personal intervention of [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Hillary Clinton]]. However, [[Government of the United Kingdom|the British government]] refused to recognize the Haudenosaunee passports and denied the team members entry into the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_sp_ot/us_lacrosse_iroquois_passports |title=UK won't let Iroquois lacrosse team go to tourney |last=Gross |first=Samantha |date=July 14, 2010 |work=[[Yahoo! News]] |publisher=[[Yahoo!]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100720124546/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_sp_ot/us_lacrosse_iroquois_passports |archive-date=July 20, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/sports/17lacrosse.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all |title=Iroquois Defeated by Passport Dispute |date=July 16, 2010 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last=Kaplan |first=Thomas |access-date=July 25, 2019 |page=D1}}</ref>

The [[Onondaga people|Onondaga Nation]] spent $1.5&nbsp;million on an upgrade to the passports designed to meet 21st-century international security requirements.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=484701 |title=Iroquois spend $1.5 million to upgrade passports |work=[[WSTM-TV|CNYCentral.com]] |date=July 19, 2010 |access-date=February 27, 2011 |first=Michael |last=Benny |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719062649/http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=484701 |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |publisher=[[Barrington Broadcasting]] Group, LLC}}</ref>

==People==
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Iroquois <br/> Haudenosaunee
| flag             = Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy.svg
| total            = 125,000
| total_year       = 2010
| total_source     = estimate
| total_ref        = <!-- references supporting total population -->
| regions          = North America
| region1          = {{flagcountry|United States}}
| pop1             = 80,000
| ref1             = <!--<ref>erence/s supporting pop1 data -->
| region2          = {{flagcountry|Canada}}
| pop2             = 45,000
| ref2             = 
| languages        = [[Northern Iroquoian languages#Family division|Northern Iroquoian languages]] (including [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]], [[Oneida language|Oneida]], [[Onondaga language|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga language|Cayuga]], [[Seneca language|Seneca]], [[Tuscarora language|Tuscarora]]), English, French
| religions        = [[Longhouse Religion]], Karihwiio,{{clarify|date=December 2013}} Kanoh'hon'io,{{clarify|date=December 2013}} Kahni'kwi'io,{{clarify|date=December 2013}} Christianity, others
| image            = 
| image_caption    = 
| related_groups   = 
| footnotes        = 
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
}}

===Nations===
The first five nations listed below formed the original Five Nations (listed from east to west, as they were oriented to the sunrise); the Tuscarora became the sixth nation in 1722.
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|-
! English name !! Iroquoian name !! Meaning !! 17th/18th-century location
|- 
| [[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]]      || ''Kanien'kehá꞉ka'' || "People of the Great Flint"    || [[Mohawk River]]
|-
| [[Oneida tribe|Oneida]]       || ''Onyota'a꞉ka''    || "People of the Standing Stone" || [[Oneida Lake]]
|-
| [[Onondaga (tribe)|Onondaga]] || ''Onöñda'gega'''   || "People of the Hills"          || [[Onondaga Lake]]
|-
| [[Cayuga tribe|Cayuga]]       || ''Gayogo̱ho꞉nǫʔ''   || "People of the Great Swamp"    || [[Cayuga Lake]]
|-
| [[Seneca tribe|Seneca]]       || ''Onöndowá'ga꞉''   || "People of the Great Hill"     || [[Seneca Lake (New York)|Seneca Lake]] and [[Genesee River]]
|-
| [[Tuscarora (tribe)|Tuscarora]]{{sup|1}} || ''Ska꞉rù꞉rę''' || "Hemp Gatherers"<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08168b.htm |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |title=Iroquois |date=October 1, 1910 |access-date=February 27, 2011}}</ref> || From [[North Carolina]]{{sup|2}}
|-
| colspan="4" |{{smaller|1 Not one of the original Five Nations; joined 1722.<br />2 Settled between the Oneida and Onondaga.}}
|}

{{multiple image
|align = center
|image1 = Iroquois 5 Nation Map c1650.png
|alt1 = Iroquois Five Nations c. 1650
|caption1 = Iroquois Five Nations c. 1650
|width1 = 250
|
|image2 = Iroquois 6 Nations map c1720.png
|alt2 = Iroquois Six Nations c. 1720
|caption2 = Iroquois Six Nations c. 1720
|width2 = {{#expr: (216 * 588 / 427) round 0}}
}}

===Clans===
{{See also|Iroquois kinship}}
Within each of the six nations, people belonged to a number of [[matrilineality|matrilineal]] [[clan]]s. The number of clans varies by nation, currently from three to eight, with a total of nine different clan names.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
|+ '''Current clans''' 
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Seneca
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Cayuga
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Onondaga
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Tuscarora
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Oneida
! scope="col" stXXle="width: 70px;" | Mohawk
|-
| [[Gray wolf|Wolf]] (''{{lang|see|Honöta꞉yö꞉nih}}'')
| Wolf (''{{lang|cay|Honǫtahyǫ́꞉ni꞉}}'')
| Wolf (''{{lang|ono|Hothahi꞉ionih}}'')
| Wolf (''{{lang|tus|Θkwarì•nę}}'')
| Wolf (''{{lang|one|Thayú꞉ni}}'')
| Wolf (''{{lang|moh|Okwáho}}'')
|-
| Bear (''{{lang|see|Hodidzöní'ga꞉'}}'')
| Bear (''{{lang|cay|Hadihnyagwái}}'')
| Bear (''{{lang|ono|Ohgwai꞉ih}}'')
| Bear (''{{lang|tus|Uhčíhręˀ}}'')
| Bear (''{{lang|one|Ohkwá꞉li}}'')
| Bear (''{{lang|moh|Ohkwá꞉ri}}'')
|-
| Turtle (''{{lang|see|Hadínyahdë꞉h}}'')
| Turtle (''{{lang|cay|Hadinyáhdę꞉}}'')
| Turtle (''{{lang|ono|Hanya'dëñh}}'')
| Turtle (''{{lang|tus|Ráˀkwihs}}'')
| Turtle (''{{lang|one|A'no꞉wál}}'')
| Turtle (''{{lang|moh|A'nó꞉wara}}'')
|-
| [[Sandpiper]]/[[Snipe]] (''{{lang|see|Hodí'nehsi꞉yo'}}'')
| Sandpiper (''{{lang|cay|Hodi'nehsí꞉yo'}}'')
| Snipe (''{{lang|ono|Odihnesi꞉ioh}}'')
| Sandpiper (''{{lang|tus|Tawístawis}}'')
| —
| —
|-
| [[Deer]] (''{{lang|see|Hodí꞉nyögwaiyo'}}'')
| —
| Deer (''{{lang|ono|De'odijinaindönda'}}'')
| Deer (Kà?wí꞉ñu)
| —
| —
|-
| [[American Beaver|Beaver]] (''{{lang|see|Hodígë'ge꞉ga꞉'}}'')
| —
| Beaver (''{{lang|ono|Hona'gaia'gih}}'')
| Beaver (''{{lang|tus|Rakinęhá•ha•ˀ}}'')
| —
| —
|-
| [[Heron]] (''{{lang|see|Hodidáë'ö꞉ga꞉'}}'')’
| Heron 
| Heron
| —
| —
| —
|-
| [[Hawk]]/[[Eagle]] (''{{lang|see|Hodíswë'gaiyo’}}'')’
| Hawk (''{{lang|cay|Hodihsw'ęgáiyo'}}'')
| Hawk (''{{lang|ono|Degaiadahkwa'}}'')
| —
| —
| —
|-
| — 
| —
| [[American eel|Eel]] (''{{lang|ono|Ohgönde꞉na'}}'')
| Eel (''{{lang|tus|Akunęhukwatíha•ˀ}}'')
| —
| —
|}

===Population history===
Modern scholarly estimates of the 17th century population of the Haudenosaunee have ranged from 5,500<ref name="Swanton">{{cite book |last1=Swanton |first1=John R. |title=The Indian Tribes of North America |series=Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin; 145 |date=1974 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C. |page=40 |edition=Fourth Reprint |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.49015002845759&seq=50}}</ref> to more than 100,000.{{sfn|Jones|2008|page=85}} When it comes to eye-witness estimates (that is, contemporary estimates) [[Marc Lescarbot]] estimated the Haudenosaunee in year 1609 at 8,000 warriors (that is around 40,000 people) and baron [[Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce de Lahontan, Baron de Lahontan|L. A. de Lahontan]] estimated the Haudenosaunee population around year 1690 at 70,000 people (on average 14,000 in each of five tribes).<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Krzywicki |first=Ludwik |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4381154&view=1up&seq=346&skin=2021 |title=Primitive society and its vital statistics |publisher=Macmillan |year=1934 |series=Publications of the Polish Sociological Institute |location=London |pages=534, 533, 396, 418, 421, 422, 471, 472}}</ref> Haudenosaunee territory in the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century was over 75,000 square km (over 29,000 square mi).<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 1, 2022 |title=Indigenous America Maps |url=https://indigamerica.blogspot.com/ |access-date=2024-05-19 |language=en}}</ref> [[John R. Swanton]] enumerated a total of 226 Haudenosaunee villages and towns (but most were not occupied at the same time as the Haudenosaunee moved villages every five to twenty years).<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Swanton |first=John R. |url=https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15440 |title=The Indian tribes of North America |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology |year=1952 |pages=34–39|hdl=10088/15440 }}</ref>{{sfn|Jones|2008|page=14}} On the contrary [[Lewis H. Morgan]] in his 1851 book estimated the Haudenosaunee population in 1650 at 25,000 people, including 10,000 [[Seneca people|Seneca]], 5,000 [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], 4,000 [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], 3,000 [[Oneida people|Oneida]] and 3,000 [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]].<ref name=":1" /> The Seneca were also estimated at 13,000 in year 1672 and 15,000 in year 1687.<ref name=":1" /> In 1713–1722, the Haudenosaunee population was augmented when the Tuscarora migrated north to New York and joined them as the sixth nation.<ref name="Trigger">{{cite book |last1=Trigger |first1=Bruce |title=Handbook of American Indians, Vol. 15 |date=1978 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=287–288 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofnortha0000bruc/page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref>

More recent estimates by Snow and Jones of the Haudenosaunee population have been about 20,000. Jones' estimate applies to the period preceding the first known epidemics of [[Old World]] diseases impacting the Haudenosaunee in the mid-17th century. After an archaeological investigation and dating of all 125 Haudenosaunee villages known to have been occupied between 1500 and 1700 (fewer than 226 listed by Swanton occupied at any time), Jones estimated the total pre-epidemic Haudenosaunee population at 20,000 in 1620–1634. In the post-epidemic period from 1634 to 1660 he estimates the total Haudenosaunee population at 8,000. The latter figure does not include the thousands of people adopted into the Haudenosaunee from conquered ethnic groups.{{sfn|Jones|2008|pages=iii–v, 84–86}} The Haudenosaunee had a liberal and successful adoption policy that allowed them to recoup their population losses and gave them an adaptive advantage over their foes who were unable to do the same. In 1658, the Jesuits noted that the Haudenosaunee contained more adopted foreigners than natives of the country.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keener |first=Craig S |date=1999 |title=An Ethnohistorical Analysis of Iroquois Assault Tactics Used against Fortified Settlements of the Northeast in the Seventeenth Century |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/11612 |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=777–807 |issn=1527-5477}}</ref>

In 1779 between 40 and 60 Haudenosaunee towns and villages were destroyed by the [[Sullivan Expedition]] in a [[scorched earth]] operation. More than 5,000 Haudenosaunee fled to British Canada and an unknown number remained in the U.S. According to one estimate 4,500 died in the aftermath of the expedition, including many who fled to Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Not Merely Overrun but Destroyed. The Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 |url=https://storiesofthesusquehanna.blogs.bucknell.edu/stories-and-maps/}}</ref>{{sfn|Graymont|1972|p=220}}<ref name="Koehler2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Koehler |first1=Rhiannon |date=Fall 2018 |title=Hostile Nations: Quantifying the Destruction of the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide of 1779 |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=427–453 |doi=10.5250/amerindiquar.42.4.0427|s2cid=165519714 }}</ref>

In 1907 there were 17,630 Haudenosaunee<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mooney |first=James |url=https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/23978 |title=The aboriginal population of America north of Mexico |publisher=Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections |year=1928 |pages=4|hdl=10088/23978 }}</ref> and in 1923 there were 8,696 Haudenosaunee in the USA and 11,355 in Canada, for a total of 20,051.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swanton |first=John R. |url=https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15440 |title=The Indian tribes of North America |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology |year=1952 |pages=40|hdl=10088/15440 }}</ref>

According to data compiled in 1995 by Doug George-Kanentiio, a total of 51,255 Six Nations people lived in Canada. These included 15,631 Mohawk in Quebec; 14,051 Mohawk in Ontario; 3,970 Oneida in Ontario; and a total of 17,603 of the Six Nations at the Grand River Reserve in Ontario.<ref name="doug">{{cite journal |url=http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/population95.html |first=Doug |last=George-Kanentiio |title= Iroquois population 1995 |journal=Akwesasne Notes |series=New Series |date=Fall–Winter 1995 |volume=1 |issue=3 & 4 |page=61 |access-date=February 27, 2011}}</ref> More recently according to the Six Nations Elected Council, some 12,436 on the [[Six Nations of the Grand River]] [[Indian reserve|reserve]], the largest [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] reserve in Canada,<ref>[http://www.sixnations.ca/CommunityProfile.htm Community Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170618022029/http://www.sixnations.ca/CommunityProfile.htm |date=June 18, 2017 }}, Six Nations Elected Council, December 2014</ref> as of December 2014 and 26,034 total in Canada.<ref name=MMS>[http://www.sixnations.ca/MembershipDept.htm Lands/Membership Department] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906182732/http://www.sixnations.ca/MembershipDept.htm |date=September 6, 2015 }}, Six Nations Elected Council, December 2014</ref>

In 1995, tribal registrations among the Six Nations in the U.S. numbered about 30,000 in total, with the majority of 17,566 in New York. The remainder were more than 10,000 Oneida in Wisconsin, and about 2200 Seneca-Cayuga in Oklahoma.<ref name="doug"/> As the nations individually determine their rules for membership or citizenship, they report the official numbers. (Some traditional members of the nations refuse to be counted.)<ref name="doug"/> There is no federally recognized Haudenosaunee nation or tribe, nor are any Native Americans enrolled as Haudenosaunee.

In the [[2000 U.S. census]], 80,822 people identified as having Haudenosaunee ethnicity, with 45,217 claiming only Haudenosaunee ancestry. There are multiple reservations in New York: [[Cayuga Nation of New York]](~450,<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |url=https://docs.steinhardt.nyu.edu/pdfs/metrocenter/nbm3/native_american_culture_lang.pdf |title=New York Native Americans Language & Culture |date=2012 |publisher=New York State Education Department |location=NY |publication-date=2012 |pages=11–12 |language=en}}</ref>) [[St. Regis Mohawk Reservation]] (3,288),<ref name=":5" /> [[Onondaga Reservation]] (468),<ref name=":5" /> [[Oneida Indian Nation]] (~ 1000<ref name=":5" />), [[Seneca Nation of New York]] (533<ref name=":5" />) and the [[Tuscarora Reservation]] (1,138 in 2000<ref name=":5" />). Some 21,000 lived at the [[Oneida Nation of Wisconsin]], according to the 2000 census. [[Seneca-Cayuga Nation]] in Oklahoma has more than 5,000 people in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory |publisher=Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission, Barbara A. Warner (Ponca Nation) Executive Director 1993 to Present |date=April 10, 2011 |url=http://www.ok.gov/oiac/documents/2011.FINAL.WEB.pdf |page=33 |access-date=September 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512040555/http://www.ok.gov/oiac/documents/2011.FINAL.WEB.pdf |archive-date=May 12, 2012}}</ref> In the 2010 census, 81,002 persons identified as Haudenosaunee, and 40,570 as Haudenosaunee only across the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Indian and Alaska Native Population by Tribal Grouping, 2010 |url=https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-10.pdf |publisher=Census Bureau}}</ref> Including the Haudenosaunee in Canada, the total population numbered over 125,000 as of 2009.{{sfn|Daeg de Mott|2009}}

In the 2020 U.S. census in total 113,814 people identified as Haudenosaunee.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Distribution of American Indian tribes: Iroquois People in the US |url=https://www.statimetric.com/us-ethnicity/American_Indian_tribes_Iroquois}}</ref>

===Modern communities===
{{wide image|1914 Panoramic View of Iroquois.jpg|600px|Haudenosaunee in [[Buffalo, New York]], 1914|98%|center|alt=}}

Several communities exist of people descended from the tribes of the Haudenosaunee confederacy.
{{maplink|frame=yes|type=shape|text=[[Indian reservation|Recognized lands]] of modern Haudenosaunee communities| id= Q7856707, Q16243155, Q7093670, Q7094494, Q7959850, Q22951104, Q3457190, Q424379, Q3192630, Q7093666, Q7093671, Q110904219, Q2648205, Q5054056, Q1014394, Q3036237}}

====Canada====
* [[Kahnawake]] Mohawk in Quebec
* [[Kanesatake]] Mohawk in Quebec
* [[Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne]] in Ontario and Quebec
* [[Oneida Nation of the Thames]] in Ontario
* [[Six Nations of the Grand River|Six Nations of the Grand River Territory]] in Ontario
* [[Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory]] in Ontario
* [[Wahta Mohawks|Wahta Mohawk Territory]] in Ontario

====United States====
* [[Cayuga Nation of New York|Cayuga Nation]] in New York
* [[Ganienkeh]] Mohawk – not federally recognized
* [[Kanatsiohareke]] Mohawk
* [[Onondaga people|Onondaga Nation]] in New York
* [[Oneida Indian Nation]] in New York
* [[Oneida Nation of Wisconsin|Oneida Nation]] of Indians in Wisconsin
* [[St. Regis Mohawk Reservation|St. Regis Mohawk Tribe]] in New York
* [[Seneca Nation of New York|Seneca Nation]] of New York
* [[Seneca–Cayuga Nation|Seneca-Cayuga Tribe]] of Oklahoma
* [[Tonawanda Band of Seneca|Tonawanda Seneca Nation]] of New York
* [[Tuscarora Reservation]] of New York

==See also==

* [[Wabanaki Confederacy]] (Native American and First Nations Confederacy in [[New England]] and [[Atlantic Canada]].)

The [[St. Lawrence Iroquoians]], [[Wyandot people|Wyandot (Huron)]], [[Erie people|Erie]], and [[Susquehannock]], all independent peoples known to the European colonists, also spoke [[Iroquoian languages]]. They are considered Iroquoian in a larger cultural sense, all being descended from the [[Proto-Iroquoian language|Proto-Iroquoian]] people and language. Historically, however, they were competitors and enemies of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy nations.{{sfn|Daeg de Mott|2009}}

{{Portal|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
*[[Covenant Chain]]
*[[David Cusick]]
*[[Economy of the Iroquois]]
*[[Ely S. Parker]]
*[[First Nations Lacrosse Association]]
*[[Flying Head]]
*[[Ganondagan State Historic Site]]{{nb5}}
*[[Gideon Hawley]]
*[[Great Law of Peace]]
*[[Handsome Lake]]
*[[Haudenosaunee mythology]]
*[[Haudenosaunee settlement of the north shore of Lake Ontario]]
*''[[Heritage Minutes]]''
*[[History of New York (state)]]
*[[History of Ontario]]
*[[Iroquois music]]
*[[Iroquois White Corn Project]]
*[[Kahnawake Iroquois and the Rebellions of 1837–38]]
*[[Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary]]
*[[Lenape]]
*[[Mohawk Chapel]]
*[[Red Jacket]]
*[[Seven Nations of Canada]]
*[[Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet]]
*[[Six Nations of the Grand River]]
*''[[Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations]]''
*[[Sullivan Expedition]]
*[[Town Destroyer]]
*[[Urban Indian]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist| group=note1}}

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{notelist}}

==Citations==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last1=Brascoupé|first1=Simon|title=Encyclopedia of Anthropology |chapter=Iroquois |last2=Etmanskie |first2=Jenny |editor1-last=Birx |editor1-first=James |date=2006 |publisher=Sage Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaanth00hjbi/page/n1382 1328]–1333 |doi=10.4135/9781412952453.n483 |isbn=9780761930297 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaanth00hjbi |url-access=limited}}
* {{cite journal |last=Charlton |first=Thomas |date=1968 |title=On Iroquois Incest |journal=Anthropologica |volume=10 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/25604757 |jstor=25604757 |pages=29–43}}
* {{cite book |last=Chartrand |first=René |year=2007 |title=The Canadian Corps in World War I |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]}}
* {{cite book|last1=Daeg de Mott|first1=D. K.|editor1-last=Gall|editor1-first=Timothy L. |editor2-last=Hobby |editor2-first=Jeneen|title=Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, Vol. 2 |date=2009 |publisher=Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=978-1414448909|pages=304–310|edition=2nd|chapter=Iroquois |access-date=April 12, 2015|chapter-url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1839300179&v=2.1&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=eb05a3c023abbd93493161c60d07c24a}}
* {{cite journal |last=Day |first=Gordon M. |title=Iroquois: An Etymology |journal=Ethnohistory |date=1968 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=389–402 |doi=10.2307/480418 |jstor=480418}}
* {{cite book |last=Fenton |first=William N. |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LNKNhY0MX8UC&pg=PP1 |title=The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy |location=Norman |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=0-8061-3003-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Graymont |first=Barbara |year=1972 |edition=1st Paperback |isbn=978-0-8156-0116-6 |title=The Iroquois in the American Revolution |publisher=Syracuse University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZN3ctqlL1MC&pg=PA349 <!--|quote=also: '' {{ISBN|0-8156-083-6}} (hardcover)'; quotation pp. 14-15:<br />'''It was a confederation based on kinship—a symbolic household. They called their confederation Ganonsyoni, which means "The Lodge Extended Lengthwise", that is, a lodge that is "spread out far". All individuals and all the tribes of the Confederacy were considered as one family living together in one lodge. The Mohawks, dwelling furthest east, were Keepers of the Western Door. The Onondagas, situated in the center, were the Fire Keepers as well as the Wampam Keepers. Onondaga was therefore, the capital, where the Grand Council was held and wampum records were kept. The local clan chiefs of each tribe meeting together as a unit were the federal chiefs of the League. The Mohawks, Onondagas, and Senecas were the Elder Brothers; The Oneidas and Cayugas, the Younger Brothers. The younger and elder brethren sat on opposite sides of the lodge and counseled across the fire with each other. The Onondagas sat in the middle and kept the balance between the two sides.<br />The date of the founding of the league is lost in antiquity. Historians and anthropologists have made estimates that range all the way from 1450 to 1660. Indian tradition follows the earlier date and assigns the founding to the work of two remarkable individuals. One was Deganawida, a Huron adopted by the Mohawks. The other was Hiawatha, his spokesman, an Onondaga who was also adopted by the Mohawks. ... -->}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Johansen |first1=Bruce Elliott |last2=Mann |first2=Barbara Alice |year=2000 |title=Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-30880-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC}}
* {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Michael |date=2003 |title=Tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-84176-490-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Eric E. |date=December 2008 |title=Iroquois Population History and Settlement Ecology, AD 1500–1700 |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University]] |url=https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/8916 |access-date=May 27, 2016}}
* {{cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |year=2005 |title=1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |location=New York |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |isbn=978-1-4000-4006-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/1491newrevelatio00mann}}
* {{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Lewis H. |title=League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or Iroquois |volume= |author-link=Lewis H. Morgan |publisher=Dodd, Mead |year=1904 |location=New York|isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/leagueofhodnos00morg/page/n5/mode/2up |ref=MorganLH}}
* {{cite journal |last=Morgan |first=Thomas D. |url=http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/NAWWII.html |title=Native Americans in World War II |journal=Army History: The Professional Bulletin of Army History |issue=35 |date=Fall 1995 |pages=22–27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327110226/http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/NAWWII.html |archive-date=2017-03-27 |access-date=2013-04-17 |via=www.shsu.edu |ref=morgan1995}}
* {{cite book |last=Morton |first=Desmond |date=1999 |title=A Military History of Canada |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |location=Toronto}}
* {{cite book |last=Philip |first=Kenneth R. |year=2002 |title=Termination Revisited: American Indians on the Trail to Self-Determination, 1933-1953 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |location=Lincoln |orig-year=1999 |isbn=0-8032-3723-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/terminationrevis0000phil}}
* {{cite book|last1=Reid|first1=Gerald|title=Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Vol. 1: North America|date=1996|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|location=New York|pages=164–167|chapter=Iroquois}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Saraydar|first1=Stephen|title=No Longer Shall You Kill: Peace, Power, and the Iroquois Great Law|journal=Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly|date=1990|volume=15|issue=1|pages=20–28 |doi=10.1525/ahu.1990.15.1.20}}
* {{cite book |last=Shannon |first=Timothy J. |year=2008 |title=Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier |location=New York |publisher=[[Viking Books]] |isbn=978-0-670-01897-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/iroquoisdiplomac0000shan}}
* {{cite book |last=Shattuck |first=George C. |date=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ymFLjaBFXqwC|title=The Oneida Land Claims: A Legal History |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |access-date=December 19, 2014 |isbn=9780815625254}}
* {{cite book |last=Winegard |first=Timothy C. |year=2012 |title=For King and Kanata: Canadian Indians and the First World War |location=Winnipeg |publisher=[[University of Manitoba Press]] |isbn=978-0-88755-728-6}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Lewis H. |title=Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family |volume= |author-link=Lewis H. Morgan |publisher= |year=1870 |isbn= |url= |ref=morgan1870}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/ Haudenosaunee Confederacy], official website
* [http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/ Iroquois Indian Museum]
* [http://www.canadiangenealogy.net/aboriginal/iroquois.htm Canadian Genealogy (The Iroquois)]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Iroquois|short=x}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/the-six-nations-confederacy-during-the-american-revolution.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310204448/http://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/the-six-nations-confederacy-during-the-american-revolution.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 10, 2015 |title=The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution – Fort Stanwix National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) |website=www.nps.gov |language=en |access-date=September 13, 2019}}
{{Indigenous peoples in Quebec}}
{{League of the Haudenosaunee}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iroquois}}
[[Category:Haudenosaunee| ]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands]]
[[Category:First Nations in Ontario]]
[[Category:First Nations in Quebec]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Central New York]]
[[Category:Upstate New York]]
[[Category:Native American people in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Great Lakes tribes]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in West Virginia]]
[[Category:Tribal Confederacies of indigenous peoples of North America]]
[[Category:Exonyms]]