Before they were the Iroquois, they were six separate nations involved in bloody battles. The Peacemaker and Hiawatha changed all of that by encouraging the nations to bury their weapons and live peacefully. Under the Peacemakerís guidance, the Iroquois formed one of the most respected, and oldest, governments in the worldóthe Iroquois Confederacy. It was an alliance between the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later, the Tuscarora. Learn how the Iroquois organized and ran their government, controlled fur trade, fought in a war that put the strength of the Confederacy and its land at risk, and continued to preserve their culture, including religious practices, celebrations, and ceremonies, for over a thousand years.

This is the first major book to explore uniquely Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and specifically Oneida, components in the Native American oral narrative as it existed around 1900. Drawn largely from early twentieth-century journals by non-Indigenous scholar Hope Emily Allen, much of which was published in Oneida Iroquois Folklore, Myth, and History for the first time. Even as he studies time-honored themes and such stories as the Haudenosaunee account of creation, Anthony Wonderley breaks new ground examining links between legend, history, and everyday life. He pointedly questions how oral traditions are born and develop. Uncovering tales told over the course of 400 years, Wonderley further defines and considers endurance and sequence in oral narratives. Finally, possible links between Oneida folklore and material culture are explored in discussions of craft works and archaeological artifacts of cultural and symbolic importance. Arguably the most complete study of its kind, the book will appeal to a wide range of professional disciplines from anthropology, history, and folklore to religion and Native American studies.

The Storied Landscape of Iroquoia explores the creation, destruction, appropriation, and enduring legacy of one of early America's most important places: the homelands of the Haudenosaunees (also known as the Iroquois Six Nations). Throughout the late seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries of European colonization the Haudenosaunees remained the dominant power in their homelands and one of the most important diplomatic players in the struggle for the continent following European settlement of North America by the Dutch, British, French, Spanish, and Russians. Chad L. Anderson offers a significant contribution to understanding colonialism, intercultural conflict, and intercultural interpretations of the Iroquoian landscape during this time in central and western New York. Although American public memory often recalls a nation founded along a frontier wilderness, these lands had long been inhabited in Native American villages, where history had been written on the land through place-names, monuments, and long-remembered settlements. Drawing on a wide range of material spanning more than a century, Anderson uncovers the real stories of the people--Native American and Euro-American--and the places at the center of the contested reinvention of a Native American homeland. These stories about Iroquoia were key to both Euro-American and Haudenosaunee understandings of their peoples' pasts and futures. For more information about The Storied Landscape of Iroquoia, visit storiedlandscape.com.

"Explains Iroquois history and highlights Iroquois life in modern society"--

A vivid portrait of the Iroquois nation during colonial America offers insight into their formidable influence over regional politics, their active participation in period trade, and their neutral stance throughout the Anglo-French imperial wars. 15,000 first printing.

Brings the paranormal beings and places of the Iroquois folklore tradition to life through historic and contemporary accounts of otherworldly encounters • Recounts stories of shapeshifting witches, giant flying heads, enchanted masks, ethereal lights, talking animals, Little People, spirit-choirs, potent curses, and haunted hills, roads, and battlefields • Includes accounts of miraculous healings by shamans and medicine people such as Mad Bear and Ted Williams • Shows how these traditions can help one see the richness of the world and help those who have lost the chants of their own ancestors With a rich history reaching back more than one thousand years, the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy--the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora--are considered to be the most avid storytellers on earth with a collection of tales so vast it would dwarf those of any other society. Covering nearly the whole of New York State from the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys westward across the Finger Lakes region to Niagara Falls and Salamanca, this mystical culture’s supernatural tradition is the psychic bedrock of the Northeast, yet their treasury of tales and beliefs is largely unknown and their most powerful sacred sites unrecognized. Assembling the lore and beliefs of this guarded spiritual legacy, Michael Bastine and Mason Winfield share the stories they have collected of both historic and contemporary encounters with beings and places of Iroquois legend: shapeshifting witches, strange forest creatures, ethereal lights, vampire zombies, cursed areas, dark magicians, talking animals, enchanted masks, and haunted hills, roads, and battlefields as well as accounts of miraculous healings by medicine people such as Mad Bear and Ted Williams. Grounding their tales with a history of the Haundenosaunee, the People of the Long House, the authors show how the supernatural beings, places, and customs of the Iroquois live on in contemporary paranormal experience, still surfacing as startling and sometimes inspiring reports of otherworldly creatures, haunted sites, after-death messages, and mystical visions. Providing a link with America’s oldest spiritual roots, these stories help us more deeply know the nature and super-nature around us as well as offer spiritual insights for those who can no longer hear the chants of their own ancestors.

The Five (later Six) Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were central to the story of the white colonization of the American Northeast. The European fur trade transformed their world, and the struggles between English and French colonists forced the tribes to take sides during the Beaver Wars as well as the French and Indian Wars (1689-1763), which included King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War, and finally ended with the French and Indian War of 1754. Sir William Johnson's efforts in the Mohawk Valley ensured that the Iroquois Nations were allies of the British crown; and the loyalty of his kinsman Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) during the American Revolution forced the Mohawks into Canadian exile. This richly illustrated book introduces Iroquois history, social organization, religion and material culture.

This book offers fascinating perspectives on the life, traditions, and current affairs of the peoples of the Iroquois Confederacy. Author Doug George-Kanentiio is a Mohawk now living in Oneida Territory who is actively involved in issues affecting the Confederacy and has been writing about developments in 'Indian Country' for the past decade. In his book he offers a portrait of the Iroquois that touches on a multitude of topics, beginning with iroquois traditions concerning their origins as a people and their spiritual, communal, and family traditions.