Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0362
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2022
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0362
Introduction
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) include the Mohawk (Kanienʼkehá꞉ka), Oneida (Onyota’a:ka), Onondaga (Onöñda’gaga’), Cayuga (Guyohkohnyoh), Seneca (Onödowáʼga), and since 1722, Tuscarora (Skaruhreh). The Haudenosaunee are sometimes referred to as the Five Nations or Six Nations in both the scholarly literature and archival sources. Iroquois is an exonym commonly used in older scholarship, while the endonym Haudenosaunee is becoming more common in recent scholarship. Each nation of the Haudenosaunee speaks a distinct Iroquoian language and at time of contact with Europeans in the 16th century the Five Nations occupied parts of what is now New York and at various times occupied part of Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec. Archaeological evidence suggests that many defining features of Haudenosaunee culture including maize-bean-squash agriculture, matrilocality and matrilineality, and longhouse architecture coalesced circa 1000–1300 CE. The social and political structure of the Five Nations underwent many historical changes, most notably the creation of the Gayanesshagowa or Great Law of Peace, in which the Peacemaker brought together the Five Nations of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca in the Confederacy. The full history of the Great Law and the founding of the Confederacy is sometimes known as the Deganawidah Epic or Founding Epic, and a full oral rendition takes several days to tell. The Confederacy created by the Great Law still brings together chiefs from all six nations to form a decentralized, consensus-based government. After contact with Europeans, the Haudenosaunee were among the most powerful military and diplomatic powers in eastern North America. Haudenosaunee diplomats were major players in many of the major events of the 17th and 18th centuries including the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution, and Haudenosaunee traders were influential and active in trade connecting them to the broader Atlantic world. In the wake of the American Revolution, both British-allied and American-allied Haudenosaunee communities faced precipitous land loss to American colonialism and punitive land sales and threats of removal throughout the 19th century. The 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua secured the boundaries of remaining Haudenosaunee reservations in what is now New York and some land claims cases remain ongoing. Today there are eighteen Haudenosaunee reservations and reserves within the boundaries of New York, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Ontario, Quebec, and on the border between New York, Quebec, and Ontario.
General Overviews
The works included in this section give an overview of academic scholarship, as there have been very few works that attempt an overview of Haudenosaunee history for academic or scholarly audiences. George-Kanentiio 2000 and Snow 1994 provide brief, readable introductory overviews for a general audience, while Johansen and Mann 2000, Littlefield and Parins 2011, and Trigger 1978 are general reference works. Adams and Macleod 2000, Deloria and Salisbury 2004, and Deloria and DeMallie 1999 provide historiographic overviews of academic work.
Adams, Richard E. W., and Murdo J. Macleod, eds. The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Vol. 1, North America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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The first part of a larger series, this work includes essays offering a comprehensive overview of recent scholarship to 1996 on North American Indigenous groups including the Haudenosaunee, covering topics from trade and religion to environment and historiography. Each essay is followed by a comprehensive bibliographic essay.
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Deloria, Vine, and Raymond J. DeMallie, eds. Documents of American Indian Diplomacy: Treaties, Agreements, and Conventions, 1775–1979. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
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Two-volume set that compiles major treaties with many Indigenous nations from before the American Revolution through 1871, including treaties with individual Haudenosaunee nations and reservations. Because this reference mainly focuses on the post–American Revolution period, many earlier Haudenosaunee treaties are not included, but there are valuable overview essays of intercultural treaty making protocol and sovereignty issues.
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Deloria, Philip J., and Neal Salisbury, eds. A Companion to American Indian History. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
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This collection of essays by leading scholars gives an overview of recent historiography from first contacts through sovereignty issues in the present. The volume is comprehensive in scope covering all of North America, but specific essays including those on empires, religion, kinship, gender, and captivity treat Haudenosaunee history and academic Iroquois studies historiography in depth.
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George-Kanentiio, Doug. Iroquois Culture & Commentary. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light, 2000.
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This overview of Haudenosaunee history from creation through the present by Mohawk journalist and activist Doug George-Kanentiio connects Haudenosaunee cultural and spiritual frameworks to cultural survival in the present.
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Johansen, Bruce E., and Barbara Alice Mann. Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
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Essential encyclopedia that defines key terms and concepts in Iroquois studies and Haudenosaunee history with reference to both oral history and academic scholarship. Many essays include historiographic discussion and bibliographies with primary and secondary sources, making this a vital first stop for a bibliographic overview of major issues.
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Littlefield, Daniel F. and James W. Parins, eds. Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2011.
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Mainly focused on the southeast, this two-volume encyclopedia includes essays on the Oneida and Seneca experiences of Removal, as well as essays on notable Haudenosaunee individuals such as Ely Parker and Maris Pierce. The well-researched essays include bibliographies up to date to 2011.
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Mann, Barbara Alice. Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas. New York: P. Lang, 2000.
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This survey of women’s roles in Haudenosaunee community life and governance draws on oral and archival evidence. Mann’s survey is the first book-length work to examine Haudenosaunee women’s social, political, economic, and religious roles from before contact to the 19th century and includes a comprehensive bibliography up to date through 2000.
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Snow, Dean. The Iroquois. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994.
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This accessible account of Haudenosaunee history, primarily based on archaeological evidence, covers the origins of the Five Nations through the end of the 20th century. This broad overview by a leading anthropologist orients the reader to major periods and events, and has a comprehensive anthropological and historical bibliography through 1994, but its historical framing is somewhat dated.
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Trigger, Bruce, ed. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15, Northeast. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1978.
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An exhaustive, though now somewhat dated, collection of essays on major Indigenous nations and issues in northeastern North America. Essays include overviews of individual nations, the formation of the Confederacy, Haudenosaunee reservations and reserves in the United States and Canada, and early history before contact.
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Journals
The journal Iroquoia is the only academic journal dedicated to peer reviewed publications in Iroquois studies. Akwesasne Notes during its run published on many topics including Haudenosaunee history. The William and Mary Quarterly and the Journal of the Early Republic are early American history journals, while Ethnohistory publishes on Indigenous history broadly. New York History and Ontario History are regional history journals that publish on state and provincial topics including Haudenosaunee history. Native American and Indigenous Studies and Wicazo Sa Review publish interdisciplinary work in Indigenous studies.
Akwesasne Notes. 1969–1997.
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A quarterly newspaper published from 1969 to 1997 at the Akwesasne Reserve and St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, founded by Ernest Benedict. During its run, it was the most widely circulated Indigenous newspaper in the world and published on a range of topics from history to current events and Red Power activism. The American Indian Digital History Project has an incomplete run of volumes 1–19 available for free online
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Ethnohistory. 1954–.
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Published by Duke University Press for the American Society for Ethnohistory, this interdisciplinary journal publishes essays on anthropological and historical topics related to Indigenous peoples throughout North America, including Haudenosaunee history.
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Iroquoia. 2015–.
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Established in 2015, this annual journal is the only peer-reviewed publication focused solely on interdisciplinary Iroquois studies, sponsored by the Conference on Iroquois Research. Essays published to date focus mainly on academic archaeology, history, and anthropology.
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Journal of the Early Republic. 1981––.
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Published by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, this quarterly journal on early-19th-century American history occasionally publishes articles on Haudenosaunee history.
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Native American and Indigenous Studies. 2014–.
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Published by the University of Minnesota Press for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) since 2014. Interdisciplinary essays focus on Indigenous studies methods covering Indigenous groups throughout the Americas, including Haudenosaunee history and culture.
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New York History. 1919–.
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First published by the New York State Historical Association (now the Fenimore Art Museum) as The Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association, the journal was published as New York History beginning in 1932 and has been published by Cornell University Press since 2019. Essays cover academic history, public history, and museum studies on topics from the 17th to the 20th century, including Haudenosaunee history.
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Ontario History. 1899–.
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Published by the Ontario Historical Society since 1899, this journal on Ontario provincial history publishes essays on Indigenous history from the 17th to the 20th century, including Haudenosaunee history.
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Wicazo Sa Review. 1985–.
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Published by the University of Minnesota Press since 1985, this is one of the leading journals for Indigenous studies, with interdisciplinary essays on the state of the field, critical theory, history, language, literature, and culture including Haudenosaunee topics.
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The William and Mary Quarterly. 1946–.
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Although focused on early American history broadly, this journal published by the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture has published some of the most influential articles on 17th- and 18th-century Haudenosaunee history.
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Primary Sources
Archival sources for Haudenosaunee history are scattered across a wide range of institutions, while Haudenosaunee writers and scholars have a long tradition of using oral narratives that has only more recently gained currency among settler scholars of academic Iroquois studies. Thwaites 1896–1901 details conversion efforts and ethnographic observations by Jesuit missionaries while the Philip Schuyler Papers at the New York Public Library, Johnson 1921, O’Callaghan 1850 and O’Callaghan 1853, and the New France Archives mainly detail diplomatic and political interactions between the Haudenosaunee and settler powers. Jennings and Fenton 1984 provides a comprehensive overview of major treaties, with a focus on legal and diplomatic history. Sullivan 1887 is a set of journals kept by American military officers who burned many Haudenosaunee towns during the American revolution, and include detailed descriptions of Haudenosaunee towns and fields. Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) Haudenosaunee Archaeological Materials is a collection of objects recovered from two 18th-century Seneca towns. For oral narratives, see Rice 2013 (cited under Foundation and Dating of the Confederacy), Williams 2018 (cited under Major Treaties and Legal History, Mohawk 2005 and Wallace 1946 (both cited under Foundation and Dating of the Confederacy). Ackley and Stanciu 2015 is a major recent collection of the 20th-century writing of Wisconsin Oneida activist Laura Cornelius Kellogg touching on 20th-century history and the historical grounding of land claims.
Ackley, Kristina, and Cristina Stanciu, eds. Laura Cornelius Kellogg: Our Democracy and the American Indian and Other Works. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015.
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A collection of the writings of 20th-century Wisconsin Oneida activist, public intellectual, and founding member of the Society of American Indians Laura Cornelius Kellogg. The collection offers an important group of sources for 20th-century Haudenosaunee history and Oneida land claims based in the 18th and 19th centuries. The introduction by editors Ackley and Stanciu recontextualizes declensionist narratives in earlier scholarship of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Brandão, José Antonio, ed. Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois. Translated by José Antonio Brandão with K. Janet Ritch. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
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A rare 17th-century captivity narrative describing captivity and adoption of an unnamed French settler by the Oneida in 1661. This edition includes an introductory essay describing evidence for the author’s identity and the authenticity of the manuscript, as well as a version of the narrative published by Jesuits and an unpublished version of the narrative by the unnamed author.
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Jennings, Francis, and William Nelson Fenton, eds. Iroquois Indians: A Documentary History of the Diplomacy of the Six Nations and Their League. Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications, 1984.
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Arranged in chronological order, this very large microfilm collection of fifty-one reels includes photos of wampum belts and manuscript and print documents in English, French, and Dutch from the 16th century to 1842 from a variety of archives. Documents were selected by the editors for their relevance to Haudenosaunee diplomatic history, and are a foundational resource for the field as a whole, but can be limited in other areas such as gender, cultural history, or ethnographic detail.
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Johnson, Sir William. The Papers of Sir William Johnson. 14 vols. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1921.
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A collection of the personal and official papers of Sir William Johnson (b. 1715–d. 1774), diplomat and eventual British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern District. Johnson’s papers include diplomatic correspondence, records of many of the major British-Haudenosaunee treaties of the 18th century, and financial accounts for British-Haudenosaunee diplomacy.
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A searchable database of digitized 17th- and 18th-century archival documents held by Archives nationales (Paris), Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Québec) and others. Document text is not digitized and is mainly in French. This database provides unparalleled access to material on Laurentian Haudenosaunee communities and New France’s diplomatic and military relationship with the Confederacy.
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O’Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary History of the State of New York. 4 vols. Albany, NY: C. Van Benthuysen, 1850.
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Collected material from a variety of sources dated 1666 to 1775 documenting the history of British New York, including some documents translated from French. Material pertaining to Haudenosaunee history mainly relates to diplomatic and political interactions with New York government officials.
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O’Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 14 vols. Albany, NY: C. Van Benthuysen, 1853.
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Collected archival material from a variety of sources dated 1603 to 1683, mainly from the New Netherland period. Includes documents translated from Dutch and French. Material related to Haudenosaunee history includes diplomatic correspondence, records of treaties, and some travel narratives that include cultural and ethnographic details.
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Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) Haudenosaunee Archaeological Materials, circa 1688–1754, Cornell University Library Digital Collections.
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A digital catalog of nearly seven hundred archaeological items found at two Seneca sites dated 1688–1754 which were excavated in collaboration with the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, the Seneca Art and Culture Center, and Seneca leaders. All materials included were recovered from domestic portions of the sites and no sacred materials are included in the collection.
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Philip Schuyler Papers at the New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, New York City.
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A collection of the personal and official papers of Philip Schuyler (b. 1733–d. 1804), American Revolutionary War general. American Revolution era papers in the collection detail Schuyler’s diplomatic contact with the American-allied Oneida, conflicts with neutral and British-allied Haudenosaunee, and Committee of Safety raids against Haudenosaunee communities. Much, but not all, of the collection has been digitized and images of documents are available but the document text is not OCR searchable.
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Sullivan, John. Journals of the military expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the six nations of Indians in 1779. Auburn, NY: Knapp, Peck & Thomson, 1887.
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A collection of officers’ journals kept during the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign of 1779, led by Major General John Sullivan at the behest of George Washington. Intended as a scorched-earth campaign to hamper the military effectiveness of Haudenosaunee allies who had joined the British against the Americans during the Revolution, the journals kept during the expedition also provide detailed description of many Haudenosaunee towns, fields, and orchards destroyed by the expedition.
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Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 71 vols. Cleveland, OH: Burrow Brothers, 1896–1901.
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Extensive accounts written by French Jesuit missionaries during the 17th century, available in original French and English translation. See Lozier 2018 (cited under Kahnawà:ke and Other Laurentian Communities) for a recent discussion of issues with the English translation. Mainly of use for ethnographic details regarding Laurentian Haudenosaunee communities, this collection should be read through the lens of missionaries’ Eurocentrism and attempts to convert Indigenous peoples.
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Critical Theory and Historiography
Academic Iroquois history has only recently attended to methodological shifts in the wider field of Indigenous studies. Countryman 2012 outlines the recent history of the subfield, while Mt. Pleasant, et al. 2018 calls for further strides. Bruchac 2018, den Ouden 2007, and Stevens 2013 critically examine the colonial history of academic Iroquois studies. Hill and Coleman 2019, Hill 2009, McCarthy 2010, Powless 2016 (cited under Major Treaties and Legal History), Stevens 2018 and Sunseri 2010 propose methodological frameworks grounded in Haudenosaunee epistemologies.
Bruchac, Margaret M. Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists. 2d ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018.
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Abenaki anthropologist Margaret Bruchac’s decolonizing “reverse ethnography” reconstructs the relationships between academic anthropologists and their informants, including Jesse Cornplanter (Seneca), Arthur C. Parker, and William Fenton. Bruchac’s work is essential reading for understanding much of the foundational ethnographic work of academic Iroquois studies, as well as the strategies pursued by Indigenous informants and the ways in which their contributions were obscured.
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Countryman, Edward. “Toward a Different Iroquois History.” The William and Mary Quarterly 69.2 (2012): 347–360.
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This review essay by influential early American historian Edward Countryman discusses major shifts in the field of 17th and 18th century academic Iroquois studies, including recent reconsiderations of diplomatic neutrality, gender roles, and material culture. Review of Jon Parmenter, Kurt A. Jordan, David L. Preston, Gail D. MacLeitch, Karim M. Tiro, and Matthew Dennis.
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Den Ouden, Amy. “Locating the Cannibals: Conquest, North American Ethnohistory, and the Threat of Objectivity.” History and Anthropology 18.2 (2007): 101–133.
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In this powerful essay, historian Amy den Ouden examines the work of ethnohistorian James Axtell as an object study of how academic objectivity can inflict harm on living Indigenous communities. Axtell’s influential early work in Iroquois studies is still widely cited in the field, and this piece persuasively shows why this early work must be read critically.
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Hill, Richard W., and Daniel Coleman. “The Two Row Wampum-Covenant Chain Tradition as a Guide for Indigenous-University Research Partnerships.” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 19.5 (2019): 339–359.
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In addition to an oral history of the Two Row Wampum/Covenant Chain treaty at Albany, New York, Richard Hill Sr. and settler scholar Daniel Coleman outline principles for building decolonial research relationships based on trust and cooperation.
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Hill, Susan M. “Conducting Haudenosaunee Historical Research from Home: In the Shadow of the Six Nations–Caledonia Reclamation.” American Indian Quarterly 33.4 (2009): 479–498.
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After a brief historical outline of Haudenosaunee land rights at Oshwe:ken (Six Nations Grand River reserve), Mohawk scholar Susan Hill outlines a Haudenosaunee research protocol that rejects scholarly objectivity, emphasizes collective identity, and embraces a theoretical framework based in Haudenosaunee cultural history.
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McCarthy, Theresa. “Dę’ni:s nisa’sgao’dę?: Haudenosaunee Clans and the Reconstruction of Traditional Haudenosaunee Identity, Citizenship, and Nationhood.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 34.2 (2010): 81–101.
DOI: 10.17953/aicr.34.2.yv6n3n601523m65kSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Onondaga scholar Theresa McCarthy examines the Haudenosaunee clan system and community-based clan research to argue that clan-based knowledge can challenge and transcend colonial definitions of citizenship and territory. McCarthy explores the practical and scholarly relevance of clan-based knowledge to assertions of citizenship, leadership, territorial mobility, and land rights.
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Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa, Caroline Wigginton, and Kelly Wisecup. “Materials and Methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies: Completing the Turn.” The William and Mary Quarterly 75.2 (3 May 2018): 207–236.
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In this introduction to an interdisciplinary forum which includes discussion of Haudenosaunee history, co-authors Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, Caroline Wigginton and Kelly Wisecup introduce the tenants of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). They argue that NAIS should examine Indigenous peoples as active agents; examine records produced by Indigenous peoples in a variety of formats; recognize the knowledge of current Indigenous communities as critical to the field’s interpretive work; and recognize that Indigenous histories are tribally specific.
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Stevens, Scott Manning. “The Historiography of New France and the Legacy of Iroquois Internationalism.” Comparative American Studies 11.2 (2013): 148–165.
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Mohawk scholar Scott Manning Stevens examines French portrayals of Haudenosaunee culture and politics in 17th-century French Jesuit writing, and argues that Haudenosaunee people have embraced an image of intransigence as a tool of resistance and inter-Indigenous solidarity. Also includes an important overview of both Haudenosaunee representations of history and settler scholars’ academic representations.
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Stevens, Scott Manning. “Tomahawk: Materiality and Depictions of the Haudenosaunee.” Early American Literature 53.2 (June 2018): 475–511.
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Stevens critiques portrayals of the cruel and warlike Iroquois in early American writing and imagery on which much early scholarship in the field was based. Stevens examines the ways violence has been associated with the Haudenosaunee in academic, artistic, and museum portrayals, taking the image of the tomahawk as an example of how settler violence has been justified, as well as an example of how Haudenosaunee people have used this reputation for violence to protect their sovereignty.
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Sunseri, Lina. Being Again of One Mind: Oneida Women and the Struggle for Decolonization. UBC Press, 2010.
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Oneida sociologist Lina Sunseri offers an incisive combination of feminist theory and Oneida women’s narratives to show how Oneida nation women view nationhood and decolonization as a way to restore traditional gender balance. Sunseri’s critical reading of feminist literature on nationalism argues that Haudenosaunee concepts of nation preceded contact with Europeans and are intrinsically tied to women’s roles in communities and governance.
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Foundation and Dating of the Confederacy
The formation and dating of the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is one of the oldest and most contentious questions in the field of academic Iroquois studies. Most academic scholars accept that the Confederacy was formed before European contact, though some contest this. Some Haudenosaunee oral narratives date the foundation of the Confederacy to as early as 1090 CE (see Cusick 1848 and Mann and Fields 1997), while some academic scholars date the founding to as late as the 17th century (Starna 2008). Kuhn and Sempowski 2001 and Wallace 1946 argue for a date just prior to European contact, while Mohawk 2005 and Rice 2013 argue for an earlier date prior to contact. See also Williams 2018 (cited under Major Treaties and Legal History) for an oral narrative of the founding of the Confederacy and Engelbrecht 2003 and Bradley 2005 (both cited under Early Trade, Contact, and Archaeology) for archaeological evidence.
Cusick, David. Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations. Lockport, NY: Turner & McCollum, printers, 1848.
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In this early history of the Confederacy, originally published in 1826, Tuscarora writer David Cusick records oral narratives of the creation of the world and the founding of the Confederacy. Cusick dates the founding to several centuries before contact.
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Kuhn, Robert D., and Martha L. Sempowski. “A New Approach to Dating the League of the Iroquois.” American Antiquity 66.2 (2001): 301–314.
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Based on analysis of pipe and pottery fragments at Seneca and Mohawk sites, this piece by archaeologist Robert Kuhn and Martha Sempowski argues that the Confederacy was dated between 1590 CE and 1605 CE.
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Mann, Barbara A., and Jerry L. Fields. “A Sign in the Sky: Dating the League of the Haudenosaunee.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 21.2 (1 January 1997): 105–163.
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Based on astronomical details from oral histories of the founding, Mann and Fields date the founding of the Confederacy to 1142 CE. As of 1997, this work includes a comprehensive bibliography on the topic of dating the founding of the Confederacy.
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Mohawk, John C. Iroquois Creation Story: John Arthur Gibson and J.N.B. Hewitt’s Myth of the Earth Grasper. Buffalo, NY: Mohawk Publishers, 2005.
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A 19th-century Mohawk version of the founding as told by Chief John Arthur Gibson to anthropologist J.N.B. Hewitt and edited by Mohawk historian John Mohawk. This version of the founding does not explicitly date the formation of the league but does position it as occurring prior to European contact. Mohawk’s introduction is essential reading for interpreting the many variances between different versions of the founding story.
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Rice, Brian. The Rotinonshonni: A Traditional Iroquoian History through the Eyes of Teharonhia: Wako and Sawiskera. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013.
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A 20th-century Mohawk version of the creation and founding narratives as told by Jake Thomas and Tekaronioneken Jake Swamp to Indigenous studies scholar Brian Rice. This version of the Deganawidah epic does not explicitly date the formation of the Confederacy, but does position it before European contact. This account also includes some history of early Haudenosaunee-settler contact from Haudenosaunee oral accounts.
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Starna, William A. “Retrospecting the Origins of the League of the Iroquois.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 152.3 (2008): 279–321.
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This piece by anthropologist William Starna argues for a founding date for the Confederacy between 1560 CE and the mid-17th century, based almost entirely on mentions of the Confederacy in European records. This piece dismisses the Deganawidah epic narrative of the founding and argues that the Confederacy was founded at least in partial response to European contact.
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Wallace, Paul A. W. White Roots of Peace: The Iroquois Book of Life. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light, 1946.
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A collection of oral histories that argues for the foundation of the Confederacy around 1451 CE, predating European arrival in North America, as well as for the influence of the Confederacy on the US Constitution. Although Wallace’s argument regarding Haudenosaunee influence on the US Constitution has not been widely accepted by academic scholars, the 1451 date for the founding of the Confederacy is more widely accepted.
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Early Trade, Contact, and Archaeology
Works on the period just prior to direct Haudenosaunee contact with Europeans tend to focus on tribalization and early integration of European trade goods. Bradley 2005, Hamell 1992, and Miller and Hamell 1986 examine how Haudenosaunee people integrated trade goods into existing cultural frameworks before direct contact with Europeans. Bradley 2005 and Engelbrecht 2003 trace the material evidence for tribalization before contact. Hill 2006 argues that excavated burial artifacts on which much of the academic scholarship of this period is based must be returned for the health of descendent communities.
Bradley, James W. Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.
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Drawing on archaeological and archival evidence, archaeologist James Bradley examines the origins of the Onondaga from about 1200 BCE, with a focus on the 16th- and 17th-century introduction of European trade goods before direct contact with Europeans. Bradley argues that Onondaga people integrated trade goods into existing cultural frameworks, and that this integration shaped easy direct contact with Europeans.
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Engelbrecht, William. Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003.
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Archaeologist William Engelbrecht brings together archaeological, archival, oral, and linguistic evidence to examine the coalescence of Haudenosaunee nations from the pre-contact Owasco period through the establishment of the Five Nations. Engelbrecht examines the cultural and historical significance of changes in material culture and subsistence, and argues that some Mesoamerican cultural practices entered Iroquoia alongside maize cultivation.
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Hamell, George R. “The Iroquois and the World’s Rim: Speculations on Color, Culture and Contact.” American Indian Quarterly 16 (1992): 451–469.
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In this anthropological examination of Iroquoian symbolism, archaeologist George Hamell argues that Haudenosaunee people integrated early European trade goods obtained via Indigenous trade channels primarily for their spiritual and symbolic significance. Hamell argues that contact for Haudenosaunee people was not an event but a series of processes in which they progressively integrated trade goods into their own cultural frameworks.
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Hill, Richard W., Jr. “Making a Final Resting Place Final: A History of the Repatriation Experience of the Haudenosaunee.” In Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Native Peoples and Archaeology in the Northeastern United States. Edited by Jordan Kerber, 3–17. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
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Tuscarora artist, scholar, and knowledge keeper Richard Hill Sr. offers a history of Haudenosaunee efforts to have human remains and burial artifacts repatriated. These burial artifacts form the basis of much of the scholarship of early trade and contact, and understanding the colonial context of their excavation is essential to understand the scholarship. Hill argues that burial artifacts must be reunited with the land for the sovereignty and health of descendant communities.
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Miller, Christopher L., and George R. Hamell. “A New Perspective on Indian-White Contact: Cultural Symbols and Colonial Trade.” The Journal of American History 73.2 (1986).
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In this foundational piece of ethnohistorical work, archaeologist George Hamell and historian Christopher Miller argue that Haudenosaunee people abandoned symbolically significant trade goods in favor of economically and militarily significant ones due to colonial pressures in the late 17th century.
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Social and Cultural History
The subfield of Haudenosaunee social and cultural history has come very far since Lewis Henry Morgan’s League of the Iroquois (Morgan 1904) sought to define traditional pre-contact Iroquois culture. Foster, et al. 1984 is a collection of essays representing early ethnohistorical work influenced by Morgan that examined Haudenosaunee culture in multidisciplinary perspective. More recent work places emphasis on agency, continuity, autonomy, sovereignty, and women’s roles. Jordan 2008, Jordan 2010, Kane 2014, and Mt. Pleasant 2011 examine archaeology and material culture to analyze the intersection of Haudenosaunee economic and diplomatic power. Noel 2010, Preston 2009, Kane 2017, and MacLeitch 2011 examine economic entanglements with settler neighbors.
Foster, Michael K., Jack Campisi, and Marianne Mithun, eds. Extending the Rafters: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Iroquoian Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
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This collection of multidisciplinary essays celebrating the career of anthropologist William Fenton examines a wide range of social and cultural topics focused on the late 17th and 18th centuries, including language, religion, archaeology, and the state of the field to 1984.
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Jordan, Kurt. The Seneca Restoration 1715–1754: An Iroquois Local Political Economy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813032511.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of an 18th-century Seneca town at the Townley-Read site, Jordan argues that the Seneca maintained economic and political autonomy and sovereignty despite intensifying colonial pressures. Also offers a significant reconstruction of Seneca daily life including footways, labor, material culture, and integration of European goods and life ways.
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Jordan, Kurt. “Not Just ‘One Site Against the World’: Seneca Iroquois Intercommunity Connections and Autonomy, 1550–1779.” In Across a Great Divide: Continuity and Change in Native North American Societies, 1400–1900. Edited by Laura Scheiber and Mark Mitchell, 79–106. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2010.
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In this essay on Seneca intercommunity interaction in the 17th and 18th centuries, archaeologist Kurt Jordan argues that academic Iroquois studies and archaeologists of Native North America have been slow to acknowledge the economic and political power of Indigenous groups. Jordan argues that methodological attention to movement and connections were crucial to maintaining sovereignty and autonomy.
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Kane, Maeve. “Covered with Such a Cappe: The Archaeology of Seneca Clothing 1615–1820.” Ethnohistory 61.1 (Winter 2014): 1–25.
DOI: 10.1215/00141801-2376060Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this study of archaeological fragments of cloth recovered from 17th- and 18th-century Seneca burials, Kane argues that Haudenosaunee consumers gained access to increasingly high-quality cloth that allowed women to expend more labor on complex traditional decorative work.
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Kane, Maeve. “For Wagrassero’s Wife’s Son: Colonialism and the Structure of Indigenous Women’s Social Connections, 1690–1730.” Journal of Early American History 7.2 (July 2017): 89–114.
DOI: 10.1163/18770703-00702002Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this comparison of connections between 17th-century Haudenosaunee and Algonquian individuals, historian Maeve Kane argues that in comparison to contemporary Algonquian women, Haudenosaunee women were perceived by Europeans as much more influential within their communities despite European efforts to dismiss all Indigenous women’s influence.
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MacLeitch, Gail D. Imperial Entanglements: Iroquois Change and Persistence on the Frontiers of Empire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
DOI: 10.9783/9780812208511Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian Gail MacLeitch examines changing economic and labor patterns among the Haudenosaunee in response to the fur trade, and their impact on Haudenosaunee concepts of gender roles and cultural identity. MacLeitch argues that although Haudenosaunee communities and individuals were active in shaping their engagement with imperial powers, their political and economic sovereignty was ultimately undermined by British power.
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Morgan, Lewis Henry. League of the Ho-Dé-No-Sau-Nee or Iroquois. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1904.
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This foundational work of salvage ethnography, originally published in 1851, is mainly of interest for the way it defined the field of academic Iroquois studies for much of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Mt. Pleasant, Jane. “The Paradox of Plows and Productivity: An Agronomic Comparison of Cereal Grain Production under Iroquois Hoe Culture and European Plow Culture in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Agricultural History 85.4 (Fall 2011): 460–492.
DOI: 10.3098/ah.2011.85.4.460Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this comparison of historical Haudenosaunee corn yields and European wheat yields, Tuscarora agricultural scientist Jane Mt. Pleasant argues that Haudenosaunee women’s communal labor, intercropping, and soil cultivation produced greater yields per acre than European plough monoculture.
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Noel, Jan. “‘Fertile with Fine Talk’: Ungoverned Tongues among Haudenosaunee Women and Their Neighbors.” Ethnohistory 57.2 (March 2010): 201–223.
DOI: 10.1215/00141801-2009-061Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of Haudenosaunee women’s relationships with Dutch and French women, Noel demonstrates that women were active in the illegal fur trade and cross-cultural commerce.
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Preston, David. The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1dgn465Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian David Preston argues that relationships between settlers and Haudenosaunee communities were much more harmonious across the late 17th and 18th centuries than previously believed, and that the Seven Years’ War and American Revolution were responsible for increasing ethnic and racial violence.
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Christian Missionaries and Conversion
Works focused on Christian missions to the Haudenosaunee examine the political impacts of religious conversion, the extent of Christian conversion, and the ways in which Haudenosaunee people adapted Christian practice. Mandell 2013 and Richter 1992 argue that hybrid Protestant practice attracted many Mohawk and Oneida adherents in the 18th century, while Stevens 2012, Steckley 1992, and Tiro 2006 argue that Anglican, Catholic, and Quaker conversion efforts met a more ambivalent reception. The scholarship of Catholic conversion efforts is divided between those like Richter 1992 who argue that Jesuit missionaries caused deep divisions within Haudenosaunee towns, and those like Greer 2005, Shoemaker 1995, and Palmer 2014 who examine the conversion of the recently sainted Kateri Tekakwitha as an example of continuities in Haudenosaunee spiritual practice within Catholic conversion.
Greer, Allan. Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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In this account of the life and beatification of saint Kateri Tekakwitha, who was sainted in 2012, historian Allan Greer examines both Tekakwitha’s spiritual and cultural context and that of her Jesuit hagiographers. Greer argues that Haudenosaunee people, and especially women, incorporated a hybrid Catholicism to protect their autonomy and Indigenous identities.
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Mandell, Daniel R. “‘Turned Their Minds to Religion’: Oquaga and the First Iroquois Church, 1748–1776.” Early American Studies 11.2 (2013): 211–242.
DOI: 10.1353/eam.2013.0017Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of hybrid Protestant practice at the Oneida-Tuscarora town of Oquaga, historian Daniel Mandell argues that Haudenosaunee spiritual practice in the 18th century was shaped by local needs and politics, and that both the founding and dissolution of this Haudenosaunee congregation was shaped by local responses to regional and international politics.
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Palmer, Vera. “The Devil in the Details: Controverting an American Indian Conversion Narrative.” In Theorizing Native Studies. Edited by Audra Simpson and Andrea Smith 266–296. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
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In this important reconsideration of Kateri Tekakwitha’s conversion, Mohawk scholar Vera Palmer argues that Tekakwitha’s spiritual practice represents a particularly Mohawk epistemology and proposes an Indigenous methodology for alternative analysis of European texts about Indigenous histories.
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Richter, Daniel K. “Iroquois versus Iroquois: Jesuit Missions and Christianity in Village Politics, 1642–1686.” Ethnohistory 32.1 (1985): 1–16.
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Richter emphasizes factionalism between adoptees who were friendly to Jesuit missionaries, and traditionalist “native” Haudenosaunee that divided many towns by the 1680s and laid the foundation for further internal factional divisions.
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Richter, Daniel K. “‘Some of Them . . . Would Always Have a Minister with Them’: Mohawk Protestantism, 1683–1719.” American Indian Quarterly 16.4 (1992): 471–484.
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In this analysis of Mohawk Protestants at the town of Tiononderoge, Richter argues that although the Anglican mission to the Mohawk was deemed a failure because the Mohawk did not fully convert to Anglican practice, many Mohawk at Tiononderoge nonetheless adopted a lasting hybrid Protestant practice.
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Shoemaker, Nancy. “Kateri Tekakwitha’s Tortuous Path to Sainthood.” In Negotiators of Change: Historical Perspectives on Native American Women. Edited by Nancy Shoemaker, 49–71. New York: Routledge, 1995.
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Historian Nancy Shoemaker argues that Mohawk saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s experience of conversion represents the contradictory, hybrid incorporation of Catholicism into Haudenosaunee communities. Shoemaker argues that women like Tekakwitha appropriated a hybrid Catholic practice mixed with traditional Haudenosaunee elements to assert themselves within their communities.
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Steckley, John. “The Warrior and the Lineage: Jesuit Use of Iroquoian Images to Communicate Christianity.” Ethnohistory 39.4 (1992): 478–509.
DOI: 10.2307/481964Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this methodologically unique piece, settler scholar of Huron and Wendat language John Steckley examines two 17th-century Jesuit tracts written by French missionaries in Wendat for a Haudenosaunee audience. Steckley argues that the Jesuits deployed the rhetorical device of the warrior and emphasize matrilineal lineage to appeal to a Haudenosaunee readership.
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Steven, Scott Manning. “The Path of the King James Version of the Bible in Iroquoia.” Prose Studies 34.1 (2012): 5–17.
DOI: 10.1080/01440357.2012.686204Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Stevens examines the use of the King James version of the Bible and its translations in early English mission efforts to the Haudenosaunee. Stevens argues that the English King James Bible, rather than its Indigenous translations, became the mainstay of Haudenosaunee Anglican use due to missionary ambivalence about the efficacy of Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous languages to transmit the meaning of the Gospels.
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Tiro, Karim. “‘We Wish to Do You Good’: The Quaker Mission to the Oneida Nation, 1790–1840.” Journal of the Early Republic 26.3 (2006): 353–376.
DOI: 10.1353/jer.2006.0057Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Karim Tiro argues that the early-19th-century Quaker mission to the Oneida foundered because the Oneida desired Quaker legal and political assistance to limit pressure to change their gendered labor patterns and market engagement, while the Quakers wished to change Oneida gender roles and economic activities.
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Diplomatic and Military History
For much of the 20th century, Haudenosaunee diplomatic and military history dominated the concerns of academic historians. In part this built upon the wealth of sources available from treaty conferences and the archives of settler officials whose primary dealings with Haudenosaunee nations were diplomatic and military. The diplomatic and military autonomy of the Confederacy and Haudenosaunee motivations for negotiating diplomatic neutrality after the 1701 Grand Settlement form the major questions of the field. Haudenosaunee internal politics surrounding the “beaver wars” or “mourning wars” of the 17th century and intra-Indigenous politics in Haudenosaunee conflicts with other Indigenous groups also inform this literature. Recent work in the field has emphasized understanding Haudenosaunee cultural paradigms, including the Great Law of Peace and kinship structures, as necessary for understanding military and diplomatic history.
Diplomatic and Military History—17th Century
Haudenosaunee diplomatic and political history of the 17th century is primarily concerned with the degree to which the Confederacy retained autonomy, and the motivation for the many military conflicts of the 17th century. One of the foundational works in the field, Hunt 1940, argues that the wars of the late 17th century were motivated by Indigenous need to control the fur trade and access to European trade goods, while Trelease 2009 emphasizes imperial relations. Brandão 1997 and Richter 1992 argue that the wars of the late 17th century were fueled by traditional Haudenosaunee “mourning wars” aimed at replenishing population through adoption. Dennis 1993, Havard 2014, Parmenter 2007, and Parmenter 2010 situate the wars of the 17th century in the context of Haudenosaunee goals of neutrality, territorial integrity, and autonomy. The Otto and Jacobs 2013 special issue examines the history and historiography of the foundational Dutch-Haudenosaunee alliance.
Brandão, José António. Your Fyre Shall Burn No More : Iroquois Policy toward New France and Its Native Allies to 1701. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
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Historian José António Brandão argues that the 17th-century “Beaver Wars” and Franco-Haudenosaunee warfare were not primarily motivated by control of the fur trade, but rather fueled by Haudenosaunee goals to protect hunting territories, capture adoptees, and seek revenge.
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Dennis, Matthew. Cultivating a Landscape of Peace : Iroquois-European Encounters in Seventeenth-Century America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
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In this reassessment of 17th-century Haudenosaunee diplomacy, historian Matthew Dennis argues that Haudenosaunee military and diplomatic strategy of the period was focused on metaphorical incorporation of Europeans and other Indigenous groups into the peaceful relations of Longhouse.
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Havard, Gilles. The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-Native Diplomacy in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Phyllis Aronoff. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.
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In this examination of the 1701 Montreal peace conference, historian Gilles Havard argues that both the Haudenosaunee and the French were primarily motivated to negotiate peace due to political and military concerns. Havrad argues that the Haudenosaunee used the treaty to maintain trade with western Algonquians and the French while remaining allied with the British. Originally published as La Grande Paix de Montréal de 1701: Les voies de la diplomatie franco-amérindienne (Montreal: Recherches Amérindiennes au Québec, 1992).
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Hunt, George T. The Wars of the Iroquois: A Study in Intertribal Trade Relations. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1940.
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In this classic study, historian George Hunt argues that the “Beaver Wars” of the 17th century were primarily motivated by Haudenosaunee attempts to control the major beaver hunting grounds of the Great Lakes and upper Canada. Now mostly discounted in the field, this study is primarily of interest for the way it shaped the field for much of the 20th century.
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Otto, Paul, and Jaap Jacobs, eds. Special Issue: Early Iroquoian-European Contacts: The Kaswentha Tradition, the Two Row Wampum Belt, and the Tawagonshi Document. Journal of Early American History 3.1 (January 2013): 1–13.
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In this special issue, scholars examine the veracity and significance of the debated 1613 Tawagonshi Treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers. Topics discussed include the forgery of a purported 17th-century parchment, the historiography of the Tawagonshi debate, and the oral and archival evidence for the existence of the Two Row Wampum. The introduction by editors Paul Otto and Jaap Jacobs provides an overview of the politics of the four hundredth anniversary commemoration.
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Parmenter, Jon. “After the Mourning Wars: The Iroquois as Allies in Colonial North American Campaigns, 1676–1760.” The William and Mary Quarterly 64.1 (2007): 39–76.
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In this response to Richter 1983 and Richter 1992, Parmenter argues that during the late 17th century through the mid-18th century, the Haudenosaunee developed mutual nonaggression between Haudenosaunee warriors allied with competing colonial armies. Parmenter shows that this mutual nonaggression minimized intra-Haudenosaunee violence and the effects of inter-colonial warfare on Haudenosaunee populations.
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Parmenter, Jon. The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia 1534–1701. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2010.
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In this interdisciplinary study of Haudenosaunee mobility and diplomacy, historian Jon Parmenter examines the changing shape of Haudenosaunee territories over the course of the 17th century. Parmenter argues that Haudenosaunee communities pursued a fluid diplomatic strategy that preserved their autonomy and sovereignty.
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Richter, Daniel K. The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
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In this classic of the field, historian Daniel Richter expands on his earlier article Richter 1983 (cited under Diplomatic and Military History—Captivity and Cannibalism) on adoptive “mourning wars.” Richter emphasizes Haudenosaunee population decline and cultural decay due to epidemic disease and cyclical mourning wars to replace lost population, and argues that by the 1730s, settler intrusion into core territories undermined Haudenosaunee autonomy.
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Trelease, Allen W. Indian Affairs in Colonial New York: The Seventeenth Century. Ithaca, NY: Fall Creek, 2009.
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Originally published in 1960, this foundational text remains one of the most useful works on Haudenosaunee diplomatic relations with the Dutch and English in the 17th century.
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Diplomatic and Military History—18th Century
The major question of Haudenosaunee diplomatic and political history is to what extent the Confederacy retained autonomy and power in the 18th century. Fenton 1998 and Jennings 1984 typify the earlier approach of the field to emphasize a decline in power and autonomy by the mid- to late 18th century. Midtrød 2011, Parmenter and Robison 2007, Parmenter 2003, and Shannon 2009 typify more recent work emphasizing interdependence with European allies, autonomy, and the significance of neutrality. Vaughan 2006 situates Haudenosaunee diplomacy in the wider context of early modern Indigenous diplomacy in the Atlantic World.
Fenton, William N. The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
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In this synthesis of 17th- and 18th-century Haudenosaunee history, anthropologist William Fenton examines political and diplomatic history of the Confederacy to the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, with an emphasis on the decline of Haudenosaunee power in the 18th century. Fenton’s foundational work, which emphasizes the importance of the Great Law of Peace in understanding Haudenosaunee diplomacy, has had a lasting impact on the field, although his “upstreaming” methodology has been questioned in recent years.
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Jennings, Francis. The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire : The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from Its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744. New York: Norton, 1984.
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In this foundational survey of Anglo-Haudenosaunee diplomacy, historian Francis Jennings argues that the Confederacy operated mainly at the behest of British imperial interests in a vain attempt to forestall encroachment of their lands, a thesis that has been challenged by more recent work.
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Midtrød, Tom Arne. “Strange and Disturbing News: Rumor and Diplomacy in the Colonial Hudson Valley.” Ethnohistory 58.1 (January 2011): 91–112.
DOI: 10.1215/00141801-2010-065Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of the circulation of rumors between Indigenous groups including the Haudenosaunee, Midtrød examines a vast web of Indigenous social and political ties. By tracing rumors of the 1712 Tuscarora War, Midtrød examines Indigenous exchange networks and interdependence.
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Parmenter, Jon. “L’Arbre de Paix : Eighteenth-Century Franco-Iroquois Relations.” French Colonial History 4.1 (9 May 2003): 63–80.
DOI: 10.1353/fch.2003.0022Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of Franco-Haudenosaunee diplomacy between 1701 and 1760, historian Jon Parmenter argues that Laurentian Haudenosaunee settlements such as Kahnawà:ke, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne were essential partners in Confederacy diplomacy with New France, and that the Franco-Haudenosaunee alliance was extensive and strong until the fall of French Canada.
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Parmenter, Jon, and Mark Power Robison. “The Perils and Possibilities of Wartime Neutrality on the Edges of Empire: Iroquois and Acadians between the French and British in North America, 1744–1760.” Diplomatic History 31.2 (1 April 2007): 167–206.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467–7709.2007.00611.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this comparative study of Haudenosaunee and Acadian neutrality in the lead up to the Seven Years’ War, historians Jon Parmenter and Mark Power Robison argue that diplomatic and military neutrality allowed both groups to maintain as wide a range of agency as possible in contested borderlands, in contrast to older scholarship that argued Haudenosaunee neutrality was a sign of military weakness.
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Shannon, Timothy J. Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier. New York: Penguin, 2009.
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A concise introduction to Haudenosaunee diplomacy across the 18th century.
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Vaughan, Alden T. Transatlantic Encounters: American Indians in Britain, 1500–1776. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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In dialogue with the wider field of Atlantic history, this study argues transatlantic mobility was one of the defining features of Indigenous history in the early modern period. Vaughan’s chapter on the 1710 “Four Kings” visit of three Mohawks and one Algonquian to London provides a comprehensive bibliography of that event and its diplomatic significance.
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Diplomatic and Military History—Intercultural Mediators
The figure of the intercultural mediator is an essential one to Haudenosaunee diplomatic history. Hagedorn 1988 and Hagedorn 1995 argues that interpreters required both linguistic and cultural fluency to create a space for cross-cultural understanding. Richter 1988 argues that economic power was essential to cultural brokerage, while Shannon 1996 emphasizes the material performance of diplomacy by career diplomats. Elbourne 2005, Danvers (MacLeitch) 2001, and Hirsch 2000 examine the gendered dynamics of intercultural diplomacy, and Hart 1998, Midtrød 2010, and Parmenter 1999 examine the mutability of race for go-betweens.
Elbourne, Elizabeth. “Family Politics and Anglo-Mohawk Diplomacy: The Brant Family in Imperial Context.” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 6.3 (Winter 2005).
DOI: 10.1353/cch.2006.0004Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian Elizabeth Elbourne examines the marriage patterns of the Mohawk Brant family to argue that the family pursued marriages as part of a strategy to retain familial power in the face of growing settler power, and women were central to this strategy.
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Danvers (MacLeitch), Gail D. “Gendered Encounters: Warriors, Women, and William Johnson.” Journal of American Studies 35.2 (August 2001): 187–202.
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In this essay on British Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Johnson, Danvers argues that Johnson used knowledge of Haudenosaunee gender roles to undermine Haudenosaunee autonomy and manipulate their leaders into deferring to British allies.
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Hagedorn, Nancy L. “‘A Friend to Go between Them’: The Interpreter as Cultural Broker during Anglo-Iroquois Councils, 1740–70.” Ethnohistory 35.1 (1988): 60–80.
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In this foundational piece on intercultural mediators, Hagedorn argues that intercultural mediators required both cultural and linguistic fluency to both formally and informally shape negotiations between Haudenosaunee and settler leaders. Hagedorn’s richly detailed piece offers many different examples of interpreters navigating cultural metaphor and diplomatic ritual to create mutual understanding.
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Hagedorn, Nancy. “Brokers of Understanding: Interpreters as Agents of Cultural Exchange in Colonial New York.” New York History 76.4 (1995): 379–408.
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Hagedorn argues that intercultural mediators occupied an influential but delicate place between Haudenosaunee and settler communities. Hagedorn examines how adoptees, individuals of mixed Haudenosaunee-settler parentage, and fur traders acquired linguistic and cultural fluency, and traces a growing emphasis on Haudenosaunee diplomatic protocol in negotiations after 1700.
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Hart, William Bryan. “Black ‘Go-Betweens’ and the Mutability of ‘Race,’ Status, and Identity on New York’s Pre-Revolutionary Frontier.” In Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750–1830. Edited by Fredrika J. Teute and Andrew R. L. Cayton, 88–113. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
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In one of the few pieces in the subfield to examine Indigenous-Black relations, historian William Bryan Hart examines the role of Black intercultural mediators and views of race among the Haudenosaunee in the 18th century.
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Hirsch, Alison Duncan. “‘The Celebrated Madame Montour’: ‘Interpretress’ Across Early American Frontiers.” Explorations in Early American Culture 4 (2000): 81–112.
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In this examination of Isabel/Elizabeth Montour’s career as an interpreter, Hirsch argues that Montour may have typified the informal role of female interpreters and mediators whose roles were more extensive than previously recognized.
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Midtrød, Tom Arne. “The Flemish Bastard and the Former Indians: Métis and Identity in Seventeenth-Century New York.” American Indian Quarterly 34.1 (Winter 2010): 83–108.
DOI: 10.5250/amerindiquar.34.1Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this analysis of relationships between Dutch men and Mohawk women, historian Tom Arne Midtrød examines the emergence of ethnic differences, and argues that although many mixed-heritage Haudenosaunee people integrated fully with their Haudenosaunee families, some maintained contact with settler family and served as vulnerable intercultural mediators.
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Parmenter, Jon. “Isabel Montour: Cultural Broker on the Frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania.” In The Human Tradition in Colonial America. Edited by Ian Kenneth Steele and Nancy L Rhoden, 141–159. Wilmington, DE: SR Books/Scholarly Resources, 1999.
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In this essay on the mixed-heritage female interpreter Isabel/Elizabeth Montour, Jon Parmenter argues that Montour’s fluid identity as French, Algonquian, and adopted Haudenosaunee allowed her the mobility to act as interpreter to the British government, but ultimately excluded her from formal recognition.
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Richter, Daniel K. “Cultural Brokers and Intercultural Politics: New York-Iroquois Relations, 1664–1701.” Journal of American History 75.1 (June 1988): 40–67.
DOI: 10.2307/1889654Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Richter argues that economically influential Albany merchants acted as key go-betweens in brokering the Anglo-Haudenosaunee alliance of the Covenant Chain.
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Shannon, Timothy J. “Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier: Hendrick, William Johnson, and the Indian Fashion.” The William and Mary Quarterly 53.1 (1996): 13–42.
DOI: 10.2307/2946822Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of cross-cultural dressing by British diplomat William Johnson and Mohawk diplomat Hendrick, Shannon argues that the material performance of cultural in-betweeness was an essential part of Haudenosaunee diplomacy.
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Diplomatic and Military History—Captivity and Cannibalism
Relatively few recent works entirely deal with the issue of Haudenosaunee cannibalism, although it was hotly debated in previous decades in dialogue with the wider literature on Haudenosaunee motives for warfare and captive taking. Abler 1980 responds to denials of Indigenous cannibalism with archaeological and archival evidence of cannibalism among the Haudenosaunee; Watson 2015 contextualizes cannibalism among the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous groups in the wider literary history of the Atlantic World and European anxieties. More recent works focus on captive taking as part of a broader cultural complex with cannibalism as one facet. Richter 1983 argues that Haudenosaunee warfare was mostly motivated by the need for captive taking for adoption. Starna and Watkins 1991 responds to Richter 1983 to argue that most captives were enslaved, not adopted. Lynch 1985 and Lozier 2018 (cited under Kahnawà:ke and Other Laurentian Communities) examine a wide spectrum of how Haudenosaunee communities integrated others.
Abler, Thomas. “Iroquois Cannibalism: Fact Not Fiction.” Ethnohistory 27.4 (1980): 309–316.
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In response to broader debates about the existence of cannibalism among the Indigenous peoples of North America, anthropologist Thomas Abler argues that archaeological and archival records do show instances of cannibalism among the Haudenosaunee.
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Lynch, James. “The Iroquois Confederacy, and the Adoption and Administration of Non-Iroquoian Individuals and Groups Prior to 1756.” Man in the Northeast 30 (1985): 83–99.
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Examines oral narratives and archival sources to analyze how the Haudenosaunee integrated individual adoptees, captive nations, and allied nations on a spectrum from slave to military ally into the 18th century.
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Richter, Daniel. “War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience.” The William and Mary Quarterly 40.4 (1983): 528–559.
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An influential article that outlines the “mourning war,” a cultural complex that compelled Haudenosaunee communities to seek the spiritual replacement of deceased relatives by capturing outsiders for adoption, sacrifice, and cannibalism. Richter argues that this process was ultimately self-destructive and trapped the Haudenosaunee in a cycle of warfare for warfare’s sake.
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Simpson, Audra. “Captivating Eunice: Membership, Colonialism, and Gendered Citizenships of Grief.” Wicazo Sa Review 24.2 (2009): 105–129.
DOI: 10.1353/wic.0.0031Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of 18th-century adoptee Eunice William’s captivity and adoption among Kahnawake Mohawks, Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson argues that gender is central to how citizenship and indigeneity have been imagined in Canada since the Indian Act of 1876. Simpson argues that captivity and historical narratives such as Williams’s are integral to understanding the political recognition of nations and individuals today.
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Starna, William A., and Ralph Watkins. “Northern Iroquoian Slavery.” Ethnohistory 38.1 (1991): 34–57.
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In a direct response to Richter 1983, Starna and Watkins argue that most Haudenosaunee captives were held as slaves, not integrated into families through adoption.
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Watson, Kelly L. Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9780814763476.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In dialogue with the wider historiography of the Atlantic World, historian Kelly Watson contextualizes Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous practices of cannibalism in the broader practice of cannibalism throughout the Atlantic World, literary and oral portrayals of cannibalism, and European anxieties.
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Diplomatic and Military History—The Seven Years’ War
The study of the Haudenosaunee role in the Seven Years’ War is in dialogue with the study of warfare and diplomacy in the 17th and 18th century. Jennings 1988 and White 1991 situate Haudenosaunee agency and decision making during the war within French and British imperial frameworks, while Anderson 2000 and Shannon 2000 emphasize Indigenous agency and cross-cultural relationships.
Anderson, Fred. The Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. New York: Knopf, 2000.
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An accessible, global overview of the Seven Years’ War, with emphasis on the military and diplomatic history of the North American theater of conflict, with detailed attention to Haudenosaunee influence throughout the war.
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Jennings, Francis. Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America. New York: Norton, 1988.
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Historian Francis Jenning’s emphasis on Indigenous and Haudenosaunee agency during the Seven Years’ War is a useful narrative of the war with a comprehensive bibliography, but newer scholarship is less reliant on imperial frameworks and sources.
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Shannon, Timothy J. Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
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In the first book on the Albany Congress in many decades, historian Timothy Shannon narrates the web of relationships that bound together Haudenosaunee communities, British settler communities, and British imperial functionaries on the eve of the Seven Years’ War.
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White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511584671Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This influential study covers the long 18th century, but its influence in academic Iroquois studies has been mainly in the field’s understanding of the Seven Years’ War. White’s “middle ground” concept of a physical and metaphorical space in which neither Indigenous nor settler negotiators dominated and argument that the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous groups lost the ability to play the British and French against each other remain influential in the subfield.
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The American Revolution
The American Revolution is often figured as a decisive breaking point or moment of crisis in scholarship of Haudenosaunee history. The classic of the field, Graymont 1972 argues that the war divided the nations of the Confederacy, but that all shared a common goal of preserving their lands and autonomy. Works that followed are divided on the question of the war’s course and impact. Calloway 1995 and Glatthaar and Martin 2007 argue that the war was an unmitigated disaster because it ideologically divided the Confederacy, while Countryman 1996 and Tiro 2000 argue that intra-Haudenosaunee violence was minimal. Herrmann 2017 and Mt. Pleasant 2014 examine the many ways in which the Haudenosaunee retained agency throughout the war, while Kane 2019 and Pearsall 2015 examine the gendered dimensions of the war.
Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511816437Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian Colin Calloway argues that the American Revolution was catastrophic for Indigenous nations generally, and a moment of crisis for the Haudenosaunee specifically because it was a civil war in which communities and relations turned against one another.
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Countryman, Edward. “Indians, the Colonial Order, and the Social Significance of the American Revolution.” The William and Mary Quarterly 53.2 (1996): 342–362.
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In this sweeping analysis of the Revolution’s impact on Indigenous nations, historian Edward Countryman argues that the Revolution was a disaster for many Indigenous groups including the Haudenosaunee because American ambitions were so inextricably bound to the appropriation of Indigenous lands.
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Glatthaar, Joseph T., and James Kirby Martin. Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. New York: Hill & Wang, 2007.
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In this elegiac account of the Oneida experience of the American Revolution, military historians Joseph Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin provide a whiggish narrative of the Oneidas’ commitment to the American cause, with a final chapter on the land loss wrought by New York state in the wake of the Revolution.
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Graymont, Barbara. The Iroquois in the American Revolution. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1972.
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In this foundational overview of Haudenosaunee participation in the American Revolution, historian Barbara Graymont argues that those Haudenosaunee communities who wished to remain neutral in the conflict were left with no viable means to do so, and that alliances made by both the British-allied Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, and the American-allied Oneida and Tuscarora were aimed at preserving their autonomy and lands.
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Herrmann, Rachel B. “‘No Useless Mouth’: Iroquoian Food Diplomacy in the American Revolution.” Diplomatic History 41.1 (January 2017): 20–49.
DOI: 10.1093/dh/dhw015Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian Rachel Herrmann argues that food diplomacy, which includes both the distribution of food aid and rhetorics of hunger and saitey to invoke aid and alliance, took on paramount importance to the Haudenosaunee in the wake of the 1779 Sullivan Campaign. Herrmann shows that although British allies initially viewed refugee Haudenosaunee allies as useless, they were forced to accommodate Haudenosaunee preferences and needs to maintain their alliance.
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Kane, Maeve. “She Did Not Open Her Mouth Further: Haudenosaunee Women as Military and Political Targets During and After the American Revolution.” In Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World. Edited by –Barbara Oberg, 83–102. University of Virginia Press, 2019.
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Kane argues that Haudenosaunee women were specifically targeted for gendered political violence by Americans during the Revolutionary War as a way of both terrorizing Haudenosaunee communities and destroying their economic and military power.
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Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa. “Independence For Whom?: Expansion and Conflict in the Northeast and Northwest.” In The World of the Revolutionary American Republic: Land, Labor, and the Conflict for a Continent. Edited by Andrew Shankman, 116–133. New York: Routledge, 2014.
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Mt. Pleasant argues that Haudenosaunee responses to American expansionism and aggression during the Revolutionary period are best understood through the lens of the Great Law of Peace, which shaped Haudenosaunee engagement with American diplomats in the postwar period.
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Pearsall, Sarah. “Recentering Indian Women in the American Revolution.” In Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. Edited by Susan Sleeper-Smith, Juliana Barr, Jean M. O’Brien, Nancy Shoemaker, and Scott Manning Stevens, 57–70. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
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Historian Sarah Pearsall argues that the American Revolution cannot be understood without attention to Indigenous women, and examines the captivity of Madam Sacho by the 1779 Sullivan Campaign as a case study. Pearsall argues that Sacho, and other women like her, retained agency during her captivity, and shaped the Sullivan Campaign’s course through the selective intelligence she relayed.
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Tiro, Karim M. “A ‘Civil’ War? Rethinking Iroquois Participation in the American Revolution.” Explorations in Early American Culture 4 (2000): 148–165.
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In this response to Calloway 1995, historian Karim Tiro argues that Haudenosaunee communities and warriors specifically sought to not violently engage one another during the American Revolution. Tiro shows that intra-Haudenosaunee violence and captive taking during the war was minimal and that although towns were destroyed, Haudenosaunee fighters on opposing sides spared one another’s lives.
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Major Treaties and Legal History
Many works of Haudenosaunee history concern themselves with legal and treaty history as a major component of Haudenosaunee diplomatic, political, and cultural history, but the works gathered here focus more specifically on the negotiation and impact of the major treaties of the 18th and 19th centuries. Hauptman 1999 provides a broad overview of the major treaties of the 19th century, while Taylor 2006 is an accessible narrative of early 19th-century dispossession. Oberg 2015 and Powless, et al. 2000 examine the negotiation and legacies of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua. Powless 2016 and Williams 2018 examine the broad foundations of Haudenosaunee sovereignty and legal thought. Haake 2020, Hauptman 2011, and Lehman 1990 analyze other important 18th- and 19th-century treaties. Lyons, et al. 1992 and Shattuck 1991 examine the impact of US Constitutional law for Haudenosaunee communities.
Haake, Claudia B. Modernity through Letter Writing: Cherokee and Seneca Political Representations in Response to Removal, 1830–1857. University of Nebraska Press, 2020.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv13pk8n9Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this comparative study, historian Claudia Haake shows how Cherokees and Senecas envisioned their own modernity and sovereignty through petitions and letters sent to the US federal government. Haake argues that both nations incorporated oral traditions in their diplomatic correspondence and used their correspondence to articulate their sovereignty and political separateness.
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Hauptman, Laurence M. Conspiracy of Interests: The Dispossession of the Iroquois and the Rise of New York State. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999.
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In this study of the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War, historian Laurence Hauptman examines how state transportation interests, land speculation companies, and national defense undermined Haudenosaunee sovereignty to fuel the growth of what became the largest cities of western New York.
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Hauptman, Laurence. The Tonawanda Senecas’ Heroic Battle against Removal: Conservative Activist Indians. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011.
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Hauptman shows how Tonawanda Seneca disrupted land sales, courted white support, and negotiated the repurchase of several thousand acres of land, alongside a consideration of the Longhouse religion and the role of leaders such as Red Jacket and Ely Parker.
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Lehman, J. David. “The End of the Iroquois Mystique: The Oneida Land Cession Treaties of the 1780s.” The William and Mary Quarterly 47.4 (1990): 523–547.
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In this detailed examination of the Oneida treaties of the 1780s, historian David Lehman argues that internal factionalism and New York’s manipulation of the treaty system resulted in the near total loss of Oneida lands and laid the groundwork for further losses in the 19th century.
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Lyons, Oren, Donald A. Grinde, and Curtis Berkey. Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light, 1992.
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This edited collection of essays is one of the sources for the contention that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy inspired the US Constitution, in essays by Donald Grinde Jr. and Robert Venebles. This contention is not widely accepted among academic scholars. Other essays in the volume examine the impact of Constitutional law on Indigenous nations with particular attention to the Haudenosaunee.
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Oberg, Michael Leroy. Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Historian Michael Oberg provides a detailed narrative of the negotiations of the Treaty of Canandaigua and its immediate impact.
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Powless, Irving, G. Peter Jemison, and Anna M. Schein, eds. Treaty of Canandaigua 1794: 200 Years of Treaty Relations between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light, 2000.
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In this edited collection of essays that includes the text of the Treaty of Canandaigua, the assembled authors examine the history of the treaty itself, the foundations and impediments to Haudenosaunee sovereignty into the present, and the current state of treaty rights.
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Powless, Irving. Who Are These People Anyway? Edited by Lesley Forrester. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2016.
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In this edited collection of oral narratives, the late Onondaga Beaver Clan Chief Irving Powless Jr. discusses Haudenosaunee nationhood, sovereignty, and Indigenous-settler relations.
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Shattuck, George C. The Oneida Land Claims: A Legal History. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1991.
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In this narrative of the 20th-century Oneida land claims cases, George Shattuck, settler attorney for Oneida Indian Nation, gives an account of both the cases and their historical basis. Although this volume was published in 1991, it is essential for understanding both the 21st-century Oneida Indian Nation cases heard before the Supreme Court and for understanding the lasting legacy of 18th- and early-19th-century treaties.
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Taylor, Alan. The Divided Ground : Indians, Settlers and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
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This readable narrative of late 18th century and early 19th century Haudenosaunee land loss uses the relationship between Thayendanegea Joseph Brant and missionary Samuel Kirkland to examine the course of Haudenosaunee dispossession.
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Williams, Kayanesenh Paul. Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace. University of Manitoba Press, 2018.
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Together with an analysis of the Great Law of Peace and the founding of the Confederacy, attorney Kayanesenh Paul Williams argues that the Great Law is both a viable alternative to settler systems of law and a model for understanding reconciliation, environmental rights, and land rights.
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19th-Century History
The history of the Haudenosaunee in the 19th-century is relatively understudied compared to the 17th and 18th centuries, due in part to the 1911 New York State Archive fire that destroyed many records and led to the belief in academic Iroquois studies that there was a dearth of sources. More recent works rely more extensively on oral histories and other sources to counterbalance this. Wallace 1969 is notable as a snapshot of the subfield at an earlier point in time. Foundational works such as Hauptman 2011 (cited under Major Treaties and Legal History) focus on political and legal history, including land sales and dispossession. Benn 1998 examines the War of 1812 as a cultural and military turning point in Haudenosaunee autonomy. Dennis 2010, Morgan 2015, and Tiro 2011 examine land issues alongside cultural change and continuities. Haake 2020 (cited under Major Treaties and Legal History), Hauptman and McLester 1999, Hill 2017, Monture 2015, and Mt. Pleasant 2014 place emphasis on Haudenosaunee self-construction and maintenance of political and cultural sovereignty.
Benn, Carl. The Iroquois in the War of 1812. Toronto and Buffalo, NY: University of Toronto Press, 1998.
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The definitive monograph treatment of Haudenosaunee participation in the War of 1812, historian Carl Benn examines the cultural and political context leading to the war that entangled Haudenosaunee communities in alliances with both British and American forces despite the majority of Haudenosaunee wishing to remain neutral.
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Dennis, Matthew. Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.9783/9780812207088Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Beginning with the aftermath of the American Revolution, historian Matthew Dennis examines the intersecting crises of missionary conversion efforts and land dispossession in Seneca territory during the early 19th century. By tracing the influence of prophet Handsome Lake and the murder prosecution of chief Tommy Jemmy for executing a Seneca witch, Dennis shows how Seneca communities pushed back against American attempts to encroach their sovereignty.
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Hauptman, Laurence M., and L. Gordon McLester, eds. The Oneida Indian Journey: From New York to Wisconsin, 1784–1860. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.
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This collection of interdisciplinary essays brings together work by academic scholars and Oneida elders and community members to examine many facets of Oneida dispossession, removal from New York to Wisconsin, and cultural revitalization.
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Hill, Susan M. The Clay We Are Made of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press, 2017.
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In this award-winning monograph, Mohawk scholar Susan Hill tells Haudenosaunee history from the Creation through the 19th century and ongoing land claims negotiations. With an emphasis on women’s roles in land negotiations, Hill examines treaty relationships with settlers, outstanding land claims, and the historical grounding of the current relationship between the Grand River Haudenosaunee and the Canadian government.
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Konkle, Maureen. Writing Indian Nations: Native Intellectuals and the Politics of Historiography, 1827–1863. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
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Literature scholar Maureen Konkle examines the writings of Indigenous leaders from many nations during the 19th century, and shows how they asserted their nations’ sovereignty in the face of American colonialism. In the final chapter on Red Jacket, David Cusick, and other Haudenosaunee writers, Konkle shows how Haudenosaunee writers claimed Indigenous identity and sovereignty at a time of hardening American and Canadian racial definitions.
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Monture, Rick. “We Share Our Matters” : A Literary History of Six Nations of the Grand River. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press, 2015.
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Beginning with the late 18th century, Mohawk scholar Rick Monture offers a comprehensive examination of Grand River Reserve sovereignty. Monture discusses the history and intersection of Haudenosaunee spiritual belief and responsibility to the earth; Haudenosaunee understanding of sovereignty and confederacy; and responsibility to future generations.
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Morgan, Cecilia. “Site of Dispossession, Site of Persistence: The Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) at the Grand River Territory in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” In Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism: Land Holding, Loss and Survival in an Interconnected World. Edited by Zoë Laidlaw and Alan Lester, 194–213. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137452368_10Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Historian Cecilia Morgan examines settler attempts to dispossess the Grand River territory after the Haldimand Proclamation, and Haudenosaunee success in maintaining Longhouse religion, political sovereignty, and traditional knowledge.
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Mt. Pleasant, Alyssa. “Guiding Principles: Guswenta and the Debate over Formal Schooling at Buffalo Creek, 1800–1811.” In Indian Subjects: Hemispheric Perspectives on the History of Indigenous Education. Edited by Brenda J. Child and Brian Klopotek, 114–132. Santa Fe: SAR Press, 2014.
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Mt. Pleasant argues that the Seneca at Buffalo Creek reservation drew on Guswenta principles of mutual peace, friendship, and non-interference to shape their response to Christian missionaries. Mt. Pleasant shows that formal schooling was an important site of Haudenosaunee negotiation with and opposition to American settler colonialism.
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Tiro, Karim. The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation from the Revolution through the Era of Removal. Native Americans of the Northeast. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.
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In this examination of Oneida Indian Nation from 1765 to 1845, historian Karim Tiro examines the important cultural continuities for both Oneidas who remained in their New York territories and those who removed west. Tiro traces the political and diplomatic history of the Oneida from the American Revolution through land dispossession and removal, and its connection to the ongoing political and legal struggles of the Oneida in the present.
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Wallace, Anthony. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York: Knopf, 1969.
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This work is most significant now as a reflection of an earlier state of the field. Wallace relies on now-outdated techniques of “upstreaming” 20th-century consequences of colonialism and psychoanalysis to argue that the Seneca collapsed psychologically, economically, and politically after the American Revolution. Most notable now for the outdated argument that early-19th-century reservations were slums in the wilderness.
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19th-Century History—Women’s History
While the history of Haudenosaunee women is present in some general works on the 19th century, there is also a subset of work particularly concerned with the question of whether women’s status changed in the 19th century. Bilharz 1995 and Brown 1970 argue that women’s status declined, while Tooker 1984 responds that women’s political influence was never significant. Shoemaker 1991a and Shoemaker 1991b argue that although women’s roles changed, their status in the household neither lost nor gained power. Mohawk 2003 and Rothenberg 1980 argue that American political and religious imperialism threatened women’s status but that women’s status was ultimately maintained during the 19th century.
Bilharz, Joy. “First among Equals? The Changing Status of Seneca Women.” In Women and Power in Native North America. Edited by Laura F. Klein and Lilliam A. Ackerman, 101–112. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
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Bilharz provides an overview of the literature to 1995 on Seneca women, and argues that women’s power derived from their role in agriculture and family. She argues that land loss, political change, and relocation undermined women’s status after the 18th century.
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Brown, Judith K. “Economic Organization and the Position of Women among the Iroquois.” Ethnohistory 17.3/4 (1970): 151–167.
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Historian Judith Brown argues that Haudenosaunee women’s political power stemmed from their economic and agricultural control of land, and that their political status declined as a result of land loss.
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Mohawk, John. “The Power of Seneca Women and the Legacy of Handsome Lake.” In Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance. Edited by Richard A. Grounds, George E. Tinker, and David E. Wilkins, 20–34. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
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Seneca historian and activist John Mohawk argues that the teachings of Handsome Lake helped maintain Seneca communitarian values and empowered women in the face of American colonialism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Rothenberg, Diane. “The Mothers of the Nation: Seneca Resistance to Quaker Intervention.” In Women and Colonization: Anthropological Perspectives. Edited by Mona Etienne and Eleanor Leacock, 63–87. New York: Praeger, 1980.
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Historian Diane Rothenberg argues that American Quaker missions to the Seneca were an important part of Quaker attempts to influence American public policy, while Seneca women resisted conversion attempts that undermined their own concepts of land rights and gendered divisions of labor.
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Shoemaker, Nancy. “From Longhouse to Loghouse: Household Structure among the Senecas in 1900.” American Indian Quarterly 15.3 (1991a): 329–338.
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In this response to Wallace 1969 (cited under 19th-Century History), Shoemaker examines changes in Seneca household structure during the 19th century to argue that changes to Seneca household structure and gender roles due to the influence of Handsome Lake were neither as extensive nor as catastrophic as Wallace claimed.
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Shoemaker, Nancy. “The Rise or Fall of Iroquois Women.” Journal of Women’s History 2.3 (1991b): 39–57.
DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2010.0048Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this classic essay, historian Nancy Shoemaker argues that although land loss, forced relocation, and political change altered family, gender, and community relations, women’s roles maintained important continuity while changing to adjust to altered conditions.
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Tooker, Elisabeth. “Women in Iroquois Society.” In Extending the Rafters: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Iroquoian Studies. Edited by Michael K. Foster, Jack Campisi, and –Marianne Mithun, 109–124. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.
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Anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker argues that Haudenosaunee women’s roles within households were purely economic, and that their control of land and agriculture did not result in political influence. Tooker argues that women’s economic status and status within the household declined as a result of land loss.
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19th-Century History—Handsome Lake
Relatively little recent work has solely considered the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake and the religion inspired by his teachings. Parker 1913 is considered the canonical academic compilation of Handsome Lake’s teachings and visions. More recent work like Jortner 2017, Dennis 2010 (cited under 19th-Century History) and Shoemaker 1991b (cited in 19th-Century History—Women’s History) tends to consider Handsome Lake and his teachings within the wider cultural and political context of the early 19th century. Older work such as Wallace 1956, Tooker 1968 and Tooker 1989 argue that Handsome Lake was symptomatic of cultural crisis. Wallace and Holler 2009 argues that the Handsome Lake religion declined somewhat in the early 19th century and underwent revival in the mid-19th century.
Jortner, Adam. Blood from the Sky: Miracles and Politics in the Early American Republic. Illustrated ed. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2017.
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In one chapter on early 19th-century Native American prophetic movements, historian Adam Jortner discusses Handsome Lake’s teachings within the wider context of early-19th-century religious upheaval and traditionalist revival movements.
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Tooker, Elisabeth. “On the New Religion of Handsome Lake.” Anthropological Quarterly 41.4 (1968): 187–200.
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Anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker argues that Handsome Lake’s teachings were primarily aimed at introducing a values system conducive with the economic system of individual property ownership promoted by Christian missionaries and the American government.
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Tooker, Elisabeth. “On the Development of the Handsome Lake Religion.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 133.1 (1989): 35–50.
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Tooker traces the 19th-century developments and historiography of the religion based on Handsome Lake’s teaching, and argues that the religion experienced minor revivals during the course of the 19th century.
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Parker, Arthur, ed. The Code of Handsome Lake. Vol. 163. New York State Museum Bulletin. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1913.
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In this compilation of Handsome Lake’s teaching, Seneca heritage anthropologist Arthur Parker also provides an overview of Seneca religious practice at the turn of the 20th century and a brief historical overview of Handsome Lake’s life.
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Wallace, Anthony F. C. “Revitalization Movements.” American Anthropologist 58.2 (1956): 264–281.
DOI: 10.1525/aa.1956.58.2.02a00040Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Anthropologist Anthony Wallace discusses Handsome Lake and the development of the Longhouse religion as a revitalization movement, and argues that Handsome Lake’s teachings were a response to the colonial pressures of the early 19th century.
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Wallace, Anthony, and Deborah Holler. “Reviving the Peace Queen: Revelations from Lewis Henry Morgan’s Field Notes on the Tonawanda Seneca.” Histories of Anthropology Annual 5 (2009): 90–109.
DOI: 10.1353/haa.0.0057Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this examination of Caroline Parker Mountpleasant as Jiconsaseh or Peace Queen in 1858, Wallace and Holler argue that Handsome Lake’s teachings underwent revival at Tonawanda reservation in the mid-19th century.
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Kahnawà:ke and Other Laurentian Communities
As Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson has argued (Simpson 2014), academic Iroquois studies has since the 19th century viewed Kahnawà:ke, Akwesasne, and other Laurentian Haudenosaunee communities as separate and distinct from Confederacy communities in what is now New York. This distinction has become less pronounced in recent work, but the legacy of older scholarship that drew this distinction is important to understanding the field. Reid 2004 and Alfred 1995 examine the long history and historiography of factionalism and activism at Kahnawà:ke. Lozier 2018 is a recent overview of the 17th-century foundation of these settlements, while Delâge and Sawaya 2001 gives an overview of treaties and government relations between Haudenosaunee and other Laurentian communities with the British.
Alfred, Taiaiake Gerald. Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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In this overview of the political history of Kahnawà:ke from the 17th century to the 20th, Mohawk political scientist Taiaiake Gerald Alfred examines the development of Indigenous identity and the persistence of Mohawk nationalism and political activism at Kahnawà:ke.
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Delâge, Denys, and Jean-Pierre Sawaya. Les Traites des Sept-Feux Avec Les Britanniques: Droits et Pieges d’un Heritage Colonial au Quebec. Sillery, Quebec: Septentrion, 2001.
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With editorial text and translations into French and some treaty transcriptions in English, this volume provides an overview of treaties and government relations between Haudenosaunee and other Laurentian communities with the British government of Canada.
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Lozier, Jean-François. Flesh Reborn: The Saint Lawrence Valley Mission Settlements through the Seventeenth Century. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2018.
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In this examination of Algonquin, Innu, Wendat, Wabanaki, and Haudenosaunee mission settlements along the Saint Lawrence, historian Jean-François Lozier examines relations between Confederacy Haudenosaunee and Laurentian communities, and how each understood the integration of individual captives and captive nations. Also includes an important assessment of translated French sources relied upon by the Anglophone literature.
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Reid, Gerald F. Kahnawa:ke: Factionalism, Traditionalism, and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
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In this political history of Kahnawà:ke from 1870 to 1940, settler sociologist Gerald Reid examines the political revitalization and re-establishment of the traditional longhouse at Kahnawà:ke as well as the tensions surrounding traditionalism and nationalism in the face of aggressive settler colonialism.
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Simpson, Audra. Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv1198w8zSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Mohawk anthropologist Audra Simpson examines the history and historiography of Kahnawà:ke, and articulates the “politics of refusal” as the contrast to recognition. Simpson argues that Indigenous and settler sovereignties can coexist, though with tensions surrounding jurisdiction and political legitimacy.
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- Abolition of Slavery
- Abolitionism and Africa
- Africa and the Atlantic World
- African American Religions
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- African Retailers and Small Artisans in the Atlantic World
- Age of Atlantic Revolutions, The
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- Women Prophets
