From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Aboriginals: Iroquoians/Alexander Von Gernet
Article-length introductions to each of the Iroquoian peoples are found in the Handbook of North American Indians, vol.15,Northeast, edited by Bruce Trigger (Washington, D.C., 1978), Aboriginal Ontario, edited by Edward S. Rogers and Donald B. Smith (Toronto, 1994), and The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650, edited by Chris J. Ellis and Neal Ferris (London, Ont., 1990).
Popular books on the Huron include Bruce Trigger’s The Huron: Farmers of the North, 2nd. ed. (Toronto, 1990), Nancy Bonvillain’s The Huron (New York, 1989), Elisabeth Tooker’s An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1991), and Conrad Heidenreich’s Huronia (Toronto, 1971). The definitive scholarly study is Bruce Trigger’s multivolume The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Montreal, 1976). Georges Sioui’s For an Amerindian Autohistory (Montreal, 1992) is a philosophical polemic on Huron history written by a Huron.
Lewis Henry Morgan’s classic League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, Iroquois (Rochester, N.Y., 1851) has been reprinted in many different editions and remains the best general book on the Five Nations Iroquois. More recent popular summaries include Frank Speck’s The Iroquois, 2nd. ed. (Bloomfield Hills, Mich., 1955), Barbara Graymont’s The Iroquois (New York, 1988), Dean R. Snow’s The Iroquois (Oxford, U.K., 1996), and Nancy Bonvillain’s The Mohawk (New York, 1992). There is a vast corpus of academic scholarship on the Iroquois. A sample of the most significant studies has been compiled and reprinted in the multivolume An Iroquois Source Book, edited by Elisabeth Tooker (New York, 1985). The “Iroquois Reprints” series by Iroqrafts at Six Nations has revived many other out-of-print classics. A good example of interdisciplinary approaches to Iroquoian studies is Michael K. Foster et al., Extending the Rafters (Albany, N.Y., 1984).
Important books on the rich ceremonial life and belief systems of the Iroquois include Elisabeth Tooker’s The Iroquois Ceremonial of Midwinter (Syracuse, 1970), William Fenton’s massive study, The False Faces of the Iroquois (Norman, Okla.,1987), and James W. Herrick’s Iroquois Medical Botany (Syracuse, 1995). Chief Jacob Thomas’s Teachings from the Longhouse (Toronto, 1994) is a recent outline of the Handsome Lake religion by the only surviving Iroquois capable of reciting the Great Law from memory.
Scholarly works on the complex history of relations between the Iroquois and the European newcomers include Richard Aquila’s The Iroquois Restoration (Detroit, 1983); Francis Jennings’s The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire (New York, 1984); The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy, edited by Francis Jennings (Syracuse, 1985); Beyond the Covenant Chain, edited by Daniel K. Richter and James H. Merrell (Syracuse, 1987); Daniel Richter’s The Ordeal of the Longhouse (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1992); Matthew Dennis’s Cultivating a Landscape of Peace (Ithaca, N.Y., 1993); Barbara Graymont’s The Iroquois in the American Revolution (Syracuse, 1972); and D. Peter MacLeod’s The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years’ War (Toronto, 1996).
Readers interested specifically in the Grand River Six Nations community should consult The Valley of the Six Nations, edited by Charles M. Johnston (Toronto, 1964), Isabel T. Kelsay’s Joseph Brant (Syracuse, N.Y., 1984), and Annemarie Shimony’s Conservatism among the Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve (Syracuse, 1994). Sylvia Du Vernet’s An Indian Odyssey (Islington, Ont., 1986) is the only book on the Gibson Reserve. Rick Hornung’s One Nation under the Gun (Toronto, 1991) and Gerald R. Alfred’s Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors (Toronto, 1995) chronicle the history and recent politics of Mohawk nationalism at Kahnawake, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne. For aboriginal perspectives on contemporary issues, see the quarterly magazine Akwesasne Notes.
