History

Some Iroquoian oral traditions allude to long migrations from the west, while many others refer to acts of creation at specific localities in the northeast. Such stories are contradictory and cannot be reconciled with the archaeological record, a fact that is not surprising since these traditions were and are guides to the Iroquoian social, political, and spiritual order rather than literal accounts of what actually happened in the past. Although there are many variants of the Iroquoian cosmological legend, they all refer to Sky Woman falling on earth piled on Turtle’s back. This theme was recorded among the Hurons in the seventeenth century and among the Iroquois in the nineteenth century, attesting to its longevity and persistence even after European contact. To this day, many Iroquois refer to North America as Turtle Island.

The origins of those Iroquoian-speaking peoples who, at the time of first European contact, lived in parts of what are now southern Ontario, southern Quebec, and upstate New York has been the subject of lively scholarly debate for over a century. Since Iroquoians form an intrusive wedge between the eastern and central Algonquian peoples, it was originally thought that they had migrated into the area relatively recently. By the 1950s scientists were beginning to trace systematically the archaeological record of historically known Iroquoians. The new evidence pointed to a long development of Iroquoian cultures from ancestral hunting and gathering peoples living in the same region rather than a migration into an area already occupied by proto-Algonquians. Much data has since accumulated to support what is now commonly referred to as the in situ theory of Iroquoian origins. In the 1990s, however, researchers have found reasons to suspect that Iroquoians migrated into Ontario, Quebec, and New York State at approximately 900 C.E., bringing their languages and already-established culture with them. While debate continues, proponents of both the in situ theory and the more recent incursion model have reached a consensus that Iroquoians were definitely present in the region by one thousand years ago.

The Iroquoians of 1000 C.E. were not organized into the nations we know today but lived in evenly dispersed fishing villages and farming hamlets located throughout the area bordering the lower Great Lakes. Archaeologists refer to the undifferentiated Iroquoians of New York State as Owasco and recognize them as the ancestors of the Five Nations Iroquois. Similarly, the Glen Meyer and Pickering peoples are regarded by Ontario archaeologists as the ancestors of the Huron, Petun, and Neutral. Over time, the culturally uniform Owasco, Glen Meyer, and Pickering villages, which had been scattered along river flats, began to converge and move to defensible and palisaded settlements on hilltops. By 1000 C.E. the language family had already split into many of the modern Iroquoian languages, but it was only after 1350 that the settlement pattern began to resemble the clusters of large fortified communities which typify the nations known from the historical record. Most scholars are reluctant to use national terms such as “Mohawk” for the period prior to 1500, since it cannot be assumed that the nations encountered by Europeans bore a close resemblance to prehistoric peoples. Iroquoian nations were not immutable entities either before or after European contact.

When the St Lawrence Iroquoians encountered the French in the early sixteenth century, they lived along both sides of the St Lawrence River. Linguistic and archaeological evidence indicates that they were a distinct people or peoples and were not, as was previously thought, ancestors of the seventeenth-century Huron or Iroquois. They greeted Jacques Cartier in 1535–36 but had completely disappeared by the time Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603. They appear to have vacated the St Lawrence valley sometime prior to 1580. Although the introduction of European diseases may have played a part in their disappearance, the weight of evidence suggests that hostilities with other aboriginal peoples led to a dispersal during which the survivors were assimilated by both friends and foes. The majority ended up among the Huron, while others may have been captured and adopted by the Mohawk.

The other Iroquoian nations were contacted during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. At that time, the Huron numbered about 21,000 people and occupied six large settlements as well many smaller, satellite communities. The settlements were concentrated in the area between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Archaeological evidence suggests that at least two of the Huron nations had originally lived along the north shore of Lake Ontario and in the Trent valley but had moved north to modern-day Simcoe County shortly before European contact. The Petun, who numbered 8,200, lived in eight or nine villages and hamlets located a day’s walk southwest of the Huron in what are now Nottawasaga and Collingwood townships. Neutral villages were established near the western end of Lake Ontario, between the Grand and Niagara rivers, as well as in the Niagara area of northwestern New York. The total Neutral population was probably in the order of 25,000.

The Mohawk lived in three principal villages and several smaller hamlets situated along a section of the Mohawk River valley west of modern Schenectady, New York. The Oneida had only one community, located west of the Mohawk homeland and southeast of Oneida Lake. The Onondaga inhabited two villages west of the Oneida homeland and just south of present-day Syracuse. West of the Onondaga, near what is now the town of Auburn, New York, were the three principal Cayuga settlements. The Seneca lived in two large and several small communities situated west of the Cayuga and south of modern-day Rochester. In 1625 the total population of the Five Nations Iroquois was little more than 22,000. Little is known about the Tuscarora during this early period, except that their homeland was in what was to become the state of North Carolina.

Much of the uninhabited wilderness between the homelands was used for hunting. Hence, the actual territory of each nation was significantly larger than the area in which the villages were located. For reasons ranging from exhaustion of soil fertility to depletion of firewood, Iroquoian villages were moved every one to three decades. These relocations were confined to the homelands and usually involved a distance of only a few kilometres.

This traditional pattern of Iroquoian settlement was significantly transformed during the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1649, after many years of sustained belligerence, the Iroquois drove the Huron from their Ontario homelands. Although many perished, some found refuge among neighbouring groups while others ended up living with their conquerors. One group of Huron, who had converted to Christianity, settled under French protection at Île d’Orléans near Quebec City. The Mohawk attacked this settlement and carried off many Huron, and after a series of relocations the remaining Huron ended up at Lorette. Another group had sought refuge among the Petun. This mixed Petun-Huron population was also driven from what is now southern Ontario by the Iroquois. Over the next two centuries they lived in the present-day states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kansas before finally settling in Oklahoma. The Neutral were dispersed by the Iroquois during the 1650s and effectively ceased to exist as an identifiable nation.

Following the diaspora of the indigenous inhabitants of southern Ontario, the Iroquois were free to use the territory for hunting. By 1670 the Seneca, Cayuga, and Oneida had established a series of small settlements along the north shore of Lake Ontario: Quinaouatoua (west of Hamilton), Teyaiagon and Ganestiquiagon at the mouths of the Humber and Rouge rivers (both in Metropolitan Toronto), Ganaraské (Port Hope), Quintio (western end of Rice Lake), Quinté (near Trenton), and Ganneious (near Napanee). This first Iroquois effort to settle in southern Ontario was short-lived. By 1688 the communities were either abandoned or taken over by the Ojibwa, an Algonquian people who succeeded in driving the Iroquois back to their homelands in New York State. A few Iroquois lingered under the protection of Fort Frontenac at present-day Kingston.

Meanwhile, Jesuit missionaries succeeded in attracting Iroquoian “Praying Indians” to reserves established along the St Lawrence. In 1667 Father Pierre Raffeix and several French families founded La Prairie de la Madeleine on lands near Montreal. The first native inhabitants were Oneida and adopted Huron. By 1672 the La Prairie mission had a mix of people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Four years later the missionaries made an application for new lands and the La Prairie mission was moved upriver to the Sault-Saint-Louis or Lachine Rapids, where it came to be known as Caughnawaga. In 1677 the newly relocated settlement had twenty-two Huron and Iroquois longhouses and was governed by two Huron and two Iroquois headmen. Despite the multicultural nature of the community, a constant stream of immigrants from the Mohawk valley eventually gave the Mohawk hegemony and Mohawk became the primary language spoken. Today, the community is called Kahnawake (“at the rapids”).

In 1676 the Sulpician missionaries established a mission at Mount Royal on the island of Montreal. The aboriginal peoples who settled there were known as the Iroquois of the Mountain. Eventually, the mission was relocated to Lac des Deux Montagnes near the mouth of the Ottawa River. Although this village originally included people of Nipissing and Algonkin ancestry, many of these individuals moved away during the nineteenth century and the settlement became predominantly Iroquoian. This is the modern community of Kanesatake (“place of reeds”), known to most Canadians by the Algonkin name Oka (“Walleyed pike”).

Migration to the St Lawrence during the last quarter of the seventeenth century caused a significant demographic depletion in the Iroquois homelands, particularly in the Mohawk valley. Persistent efforts by both the Mohawk and the English to convince the “Praying Indians” to return were not met with success, and by the end of the century there were only two Mohawk communities left in New York State. In 1755 a factional dispute and the need for more land prompted several Kahnawake families to move up the St Lawrence to the new Jesuit mission at Saint Regis, near modern Cornwall, Ontario. The French hoped that this settlement would serve as an additional buffer against the British. Today, the community is known as Akwesasne (“where the partridge drums”). During the eighteenth century Kahnawake, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne joined with the Huron of Lorette and several Algonquian-speaking groups to form the Seven Nations of Canada. This confederacy, also known as the Federation of Seven Fires, was composed of Catholic mission settlements and should not be confused with the Six Nations or Iroquois Confederacy.

In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the British were confronted with the problem of what to do with those Iroquois allies who had fought against the Americans and deserved restitution for the loss of their lands in New York State. In 1783 Governor Frederick Haldimand secured a site on the Bay of Quinte in eastern Ontario from an Ojibwa people known as the Mississauga. One Mohawk faction led by John Deserontyon agreed to settle there the following year, and the community they established is now known as Tyendinaga. However, the majority of Mohawk, as well as many Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora, were reluctant to live at the Bay of Quinte. In 1784-85 these Loyalist Iroquois chose to follow the Mohawk war chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) to a large tract of land along the Grand River which Haldimand had acquired from the Mississauga. The original grant included the entire river valley from source to mouth, but numerous controversial land transactions reduced this to the relatively small parcel that constitutes the modern Grand River territory of the Six Nations. Other Iroquois opted to remain in the United States.

In 1839, 242 Oneida who had remained in the United States after the revolution sold their lands in New York State, pooled their money, and purchased a tract of land near London, Upper Canada (Ontario), where they founded a community that came to be known as Oneida of the Thames or Onyota’a:ka. Later in the century, conflicts between the Sulpicians and Protestant Iroquois at Kanesatake, as well as a dispute about whether the Iroquois had any claims to the seigneury of the Lac des Deux Montagnes, led to violence and a sensational trial. The outcome was that in 1881 thirty-two Mohawk families voluntarily abandoned Kanesatake to live on lands in Muskoka purchased from the government of Ontario with money given by the Sulpician seminary. This settlement became Wahta (“maple”), more commonly known as the Gibson Reserve.

Lorette, Kahnawake, Kanesatake, Akwesasne, Tyendinaga, Oneida of the Thames, Wahta, and the Six Nations territory on the Grand River were not established in the traditional, pre-contact homelands. This contrasts with other aboriginal peoples such as the Inuit, who, for the most part, continue to live in the territories they occupied for millennia. It should also be kept in mind that peoples of Iroquoian descent are by no means confined to these communities. In some cases as many as half of those registered on official rolls live “off-reserve” in nearby towns and in large urban centres such as Metropolitan Toronto. The proximity of the modern Iroquoian communities to Canada’s most densely settled non-aboriginal population has had a significant impact on the lives of Iroquoian peoples.

The Iroquoian presence in the Canada of the 1990s is confined to central Canada. By the end of the eighteenth century the expansion of the western fur trade had enticed numerous Kahnawake, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne residents to make their way into the west where they sought employment with the North-West Company. Some married Cree women and settled near present-day Edmonton. Although a few descendants of these families continue to live in Alberta, there are no Iroquois communities west of Ontario.