Identification

The Iroquoian language family embraces a number of distinct peoples: the Huron, Petun, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora, Erie, Susquehannock, Nottoway, and Cherokee. The last four have little or no connection with Canada and are therefore not discussed in this entry; the remainder either lived in Canada at the time of first European contact or have moved there since. To this list of Iroquoian nations can be added two Iroquoian peoples that no longer exist, the St Lawrence Iroquoians and the Neutral.

The St Lawrence Iroquoians are also referred to as the Stadaconans and Hochelagans, after the names of their two communities (the present-day Quebec City and Montreal). They had vanished by the early seventeenth century and all that is known about their language derives from a vocabulary of two hundred words recorded in the sixteenth century. The other now-extinct Iroquoian people, the Neutral, obtained their European name from the French, who used the appellation Nation du Neutre to refer to any or all of the Iroquoian groups known as the Attiragenrega, Ahondihronon, Antouaronon, Onguiaronon, Kakouagoga, and Wenro. The term reflected the neutrality of these peoples in the seventeenth-century hostilities between the Huron and other Iroquoians.

The name Huron may be derived from the Old French hure, a figurative term for rustic or hillbilly. Although the Huron are often considered a single people, they were actually a confederacy of four nations known as Attignawantan (“Bear People”), Attigneenongnahac (“Cord People”), Arendahronon (“Rock People”), and Tahontaenrat (“Deer People”). Another group, Ataronchronon (“Swamp Dwellers”), while possibly constituting a fifth nation, was probably a component of the Attignawantan. Today, descendants of the Huron people live at Village-des-Hurons (Lorette) near Quebec City. They refer to themselves as Wendat, meaning “Islanders” or “Dwellers on a Peninsula.”

It remains unclear why petun, an Old French term for tobacco, was used to designate a people known as the Khionontateronon or Tionontati. The common assumption that this nation specialized in tobacco production is unfounded. The Petun no longer live in Canada, although a people of mixed Petun-Huron ancestry called the Wyandot reside in Oklahoma.

The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora comprise the Iroquois – a specific designation that should not be confused with the more inclusive Iroquoian language family. The name Iroquois first appeared in a Basque-Micmac pidgin language before being adopted by the French. Despite its disparaging connotation – it meant “killer people” – the term has persisted even in aboriginal parlance. Some traditionalists favour Haudenosaunee or “People of the Longhouse.” The languages spoken by the Iroquois are more closely related to one another than they are to other Iroquoian languages such as Huron; Mohawk and Oneida have an especially close relationship. By the sixteenth century the Iroquois had formed an alliance known as the Iroquois Confederacy or League of Five Nations. When the Tuscarora joined this confederacy in 1722–23, the Five Nations Iroquois became the Six Nations.

Contrary to popular opinion and frequent assertions by Iroquois traditionalists, at the time of first European contact there were no Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, or Seneca living anywhere in what is now known as Canada. Today, however, numerous Iroquois people are settled in Ontario and Quebec. Most live south of Brantford along the Grand River, Tyendinaga (east of Belleville), Akwesasne (near Cornwall), Kahnawake (near Montreal), Kanesatake (near Oka), Oneida of the Thames (southwest of London), and Gibson in the Muskoka district. While the federal government recognizes the residents of each of these communities as a “band” and their land as a “reserve,” many of the inhabitants prefer the terms “First Nation” and “territory.” It is estimated that forty to fifty thousand people in Canada belong to the Iroquoian language family.