How was the Iroquois Confederacy structured?

The Origin of The Six Nations

Five tribes at constant war

Deganawidah & Hiawatha

Tadodaho, evil Onondaga chief

Peace – gather on Onondaga territory

The Tree of Great PeaceThe Great Law of Peace

(Gayanekshagowa)

The Great Peace Maker - Deganawidah

The Great Wars

Deganawidah

Peace Makers HiawathaThe Legend of Hiawatha: Legend says ... Once upon a time, there was a Mohawk leader named Hiawatha. He was tired of the endless fighting between the five nations. He wanted things to change. One day, he met a great Iroquois speaker named Dekanawidah. Dekanawidah convinced him that the way to bring peace was to form a new nation, a single Iroquois Nation, where all five nations would have voice in government, so that things could be solved peacefully. An old Iroquois legend says this is what he told them: "We bind ourselves together by taking hold of each other's hands so firmly and forming a circle so strong that if a tree should fall upon it, it could not shake nor break it, so that our people and grandchildren shall remain in the circle of security, peace, and happiness. "And so it was done. Each of the five great Iroquois Nations banded together to form the League of Nations.

The Iroquois Indians: There were many woodland Indians, but the most powerful group were the Iroquois Nations - the Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga. All the Iroquois people spoke the same language. They believed in the same gods. They had many similar customs. They believed in cooperation. 

The Mohawk or Ganienkegaga know as People of the Great Flint. The name Mohawk is also likely to have come from an Algonquian insult: Mohowawog (man-eaters).

The Oneida or Onayotekaono were known as People of the Upright Stone. In the early 1700s, the Oneida hosted the Tuscarora tribe of North Carolina, who had been driven from their lands by European settlers.

The Onondaga or Onundagaono were known as People of the Hilss. As the central nation of the Confederacy, the Onondaga hosted the Haudenosaunee Grand Council.

The Cayuga or Guyohkohnyoh were known as People of the Great Swamp. Most of the Cayuga live in Canada today. They were nearly wiped out during the America War of Independence.

The Seneca or Onondowahgah were known as People of the Great Hill. The Seneca took their name from their capital, Osininka.

Original five Nations of Confederacy from east to west

The Nations of the Confederacy

Six Nations – The Tuscarora of Ska-ruh-reh, know as Shirt-Wearers, became the sixth nation of the Confederacy in 1720, after being sponsored by the Oneida. The Oneida and Onondaga gave them land to settle on.

The Iroquois view of nature was based on sharing and cooperation. They took that same attitude into their daily life, history, and government. Because of their attitude, they were able to accomplish something spectacular, something that had never been done before. They were able to form the League of Nations.

The League of Nations

The ClansIroquois people, inaddition to belonging

to anation belonged to a

clan.Clans are named after

animals: deer, heron, turtle, hawk, wolf

Members of the same clan are considered family, even if they belong to different nations.

The position of clan motheris hereditary and is passedfrom mother to daughter.Clan mothers have the rightto select and remove chiefs.They select men who aremost likely to live up to theGreat Law of Peace. If a chiefcommits a crime, ignores thewished of the people, orviolates the Great Law of Peace,the clan mother can removehim from office. She can thengive the title of chief to anotherman.

The clans are lead by the clan mothers

Clan Mothers

Council: The League had a Council. Each Iroquois Nation had a set number of seats on the Council. The decisions of the Council were binding on every person in all Iroquois Nations.

Central Government: The Iroquois Indians had a unique form of representative central government. It was called the League of Nations. These were not tribes that joined together to form a nation. These were nations that joined together to form the League of Nations. Much later in their history, these five nations were joined by the Tuscaronra Nation, bringing the League to a total of six. 

The Grand Council

Grand Council50 chiefsDiscuss topics

important to the Iroquois people

Use formal process of consensus decision-making

Must follow the Great Law

Onondaga – 14 (hosts)Cayuga – 10Mohawk – 9Oneida – 9Seneca – 8A nation’s number ofchiefs is based on thenumber of clans withinthat nation.

The Chiefs – THE GRAND COUNCILEach Nation of Confederacy had a set number of chiefs on the Grand Council

Tadodaho acts as thechairman of the GrandCouncil. He is selected fromamong the Onondaga

chiefs.Tadodaho acts as theConfederacy’s voice when itaddress other peoples. If adecision of the Councilaffects another nation it isTadodaho who informsthe nation.

Tadodaho – spiritual leader

5 War chiefs Advised the Council duringtimes of war. Carried out themilitary orders of theCouncil and organized warbands. If the Council becamecorrupt or ignored thepeople, war chiefs couldremove them by force, ifnecessary.

Men gifted in the theparticular areas ofdiplomacy,

organization,and trading.

Pine tree chiefs

How did the Wampum Belt address collective identity?

The League had a written constitution, a set of rights and agreements that all the people had to honor. The constitution was recorded on 114 wampums.

Written Constitution:

The League did not try to create rules for each tribe and village. That was the job of local government or regional government - the village council and the tribal councils. Only major issues were debated on the floor of the League of Nations. Council speakers were eloquent and persuasive. Some members of the council were selected not because they were great warriors, but because they were great speakers.

Debates:

Votes: There were groups inside the League that acted a great deal like today's political parties. The war-like Mohawk and Oneida often teamed up in the debates. The peaceful Seneca and Cayuga speakers would team up to oppose them. Fortunately, one of the League's constitutional rules was that the Chief of the League would always be selected from the Onondaga Nation. The peace loving Onondaga held 14 seats in the council. That was a lot of seats. The Onondaga were able to keep peace simply by reminding all representatives that their block of votes could swing either way. Although each member's vote carried the same weight, there was a pecking order. The Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca were addressed as "elder brothers" and the Oneida, Cayuga, and Tuscarora were addressed as "younger brothers".

Unanimous Decisions: If there was a weakness to this system, it was that all decisions had to be unanimous. By the 1600's, the Iroquois knew it was essential to present a united front to the colonists. Debates, although heated, nearly always led to a unanimous decision. The Nations stood together, and that made them strong.

During the American Revolution, the clan mothers could not decide whether to fight on the side of the colonists or on the side of the British. The Iroquois Nations tried very hard to not take sides at all. When that did not work, they let each village decide for themselves. Some fought on the side of the colonists. Some fought on the side of the British. 

Borrowing Ideas: When the early colonists began to design a system of government for what would become Canada and the United States of America, they borrowed many ideas from the League of Nations. It was an incredible system of government. It worked for Iroquois, and it worked for the new Canadian & American governments. All governments - the Iroquois League of Nations, Canadian and the Government of the United States are still in operation today.