Economic Life

For ten thousand years, all humans living in what is now Ontario and Quebec were hunters and gatherers. During the period 500–900 C.E. the ancestors of modern Iroquoians adopted the practice of cultivating corn, an innovation that had originated in Mexico. Growing corn and other foods such as beans and squash had a profound effect on Iroquoians, leading to a type of food-producing economy anthropologists call swidden horticulture, which required the preparation of garden plots and fields by clearing forests using the slash-and-burn method. As the clearings became the focus of activity for much of the year, people no longer travelled in small nomadic bands and became more sedentary. This was one of the reasons why Iroquoians had much larger villages, longer houses, and higher population densities than many of their Algonquian-speaking neighbours.

The adoption of swidden horticulture did not mean that Iroquoians completely abandoned hunting, fishing, and gathering. Scientific evidence suggests that, while cultivated foods represented 50 to 60 percent of the Huron caloric intake, almost a quarter of the diet consisted of wild plant foods, particularly fleshy fruits such as strawberries, and 15 percent came from animal and fish food. Of the many animals hunted by Iroquoians, white-tailed deer had the greatest dietary significance and were valued for their large skins. Deer were taken either by individual hunters or in large cooperative expeditions involving hundreds of men. Differences in cultural preferences and local ecosystems led to variations in Iroquoian economies. The Mohawk, for instance, hunted more than did the Huron. Similarly, the St Lawrence Iroquoians at Stadacona relied mainly on fish, eels, and land mammals while those at Hochelaga had extensive cornfields.

All Iroquoians manufactured pottery vessels used for food storage, cooking, and carrying water as well as elaborately decorated ceramic smoking pipes, many different stone and bone tools, reed baskets, bark canoes and eating bowls, snares and fishing nets made from twine, clothes and bags made from animal skins, and a variety of ornamental objects. These items circulated in an internal economy and were occasionally offered in foreign trade. For the most part, Iroquoian communities were self-sufficient. Some, like the Huron, traded corn surpluses to their Algonquian neighbours in return for warm winter clothing. The Huron also obtained large quantities of black squirrel skins from the Neutral and used them to manufacture cloaks. Such trade was not only an integral part of the traditional Iroquoian economy but also served to solidify political alliances between nations.

New alliances emerged with the coming of the Europeans. By 1615 the Huron were trading directly with the French on the St Lawrence River while the Iroquois were trading with the Dutch on the Hudson River. European traders were especially interested in procuring beaver pelts which had already been worn as clothing over the winter, since this released the long guard hairs and rendered them suitable for the manufacture of fashionable felt hats. For Iroquoians, hunting beaver and selling used clothing was an economical means of obtaining European goods.

Initially, the introduction of copper kettles, iron axes, and glass beads did little to alter traditional lifeways.

Iroquoians regarded such European goods much as they viewed native copper and quartz crystals – as sources of supernatural power – and integrated them into existing cultural institutions. Yet sustained contact with Europeans eventually did have an impact. From the 1640s, the Iroquois acquired guns from the Dutch and used them in internecine warfare. Traditional hostilities intensified as the fur trade brought beavers to the verge of extinction and the Iroquois began seeking new sources of peltry outside their national territories. By the late eighteenth century, Kahnawake and Akwesasne men were working for fur-trading companies and were also employed as raftsmen and lumberjacks in the timber industry. In the early nineteenth century, increasing numbers of non-aboriginal settlers and a reduction in the land base led to a decreased reliance on subsistence hunting. At the same time, the creation of reserves precluded the traditional pattern of moving Iroquoian villages whenever the soil was exhausted. Iroquoians turned to European farming methods, including the use of the plow and oxen. At some communities, the earlier horticultural and hunting economy was replaced entirely with intensive agriculture.

One of the most remarkable transformations in the economic life of the Iroquois began in 1886 when the Dominion Bridge Company began construction of a railway bridge over the St Lawrence near Kahnawake. In return for the right to use reserve land for the bridge abutment, Kahnawake men were promised construction jobs. It soon became apparent that the aboriginal workers had little fear of heights and were very agile. By 1907 there were over seventy Kahnawake working as skilled bridgemen on various projects across the country. It was not long before every new structure that went up in Canada had an Iroquois riveting gang precariously balanced on steel girders high above the ground. In the 1930s Kahnawake men joined the Brooklyn local of the high-steel union and began work on some of New York’s most famous bridges and tallest buildings. Within a few generations the Iroquois had moved from building bark-covered longhouses to erecting steel skyscrapers.

Given this early transition to full-time wage work, it is not surprising that today most Iroquoian people participate in the cash-based economy familiar to most Canadians. While many work in businesses run by non-aboriginal people, others have established successful enterprises on the reserves. During the 1960s the Huron at Lorette became famous for their well-crafted snowshoes and canvas canoes which they sold by the tens of thousands. Some Iroquoian communities now have full-time economic development officers and are producing strategies for community planning. In many respects, hamlets such as Ohsweken at the Six Nations territory are little different from any other small town in southern Ontario. The vitality of commerce is promoted with slogans such as “shop local shop native.” While poverty is still evident, it is much less prevalent than in aboriginal reserves in northern Ontario.

Since Akwesasne is situated athwart the Canada-United States border, some residents have engaged in a lucrative, albeit illicit international commerce, thereby bringing significant revenues into the community. Other business initiatives are supported by the Canadian government. A good example of a creative and successful enterprise is the Iroquois Cranberry Growers of Gibson. In the late 1960s, with the assistance of a government grant, the people of Wahta established a modern, fully mechanized cranberry-growing industry which has provided local jobs and now affords an opportunity for an annual event in the tradition of Iroquois berry festivals.