Iroquois

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Iroquois: smoke dance
Iroquois: smoke dance
Key People:
Lewis Henry Morgan Horatio Hale Erminnie Adele Platt Smith
Related Topics:
Mohawk Seneca Oneida Cayuga Tuscarora

Iroquois, any member of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family—notably the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The peoples who spoke Iroquoian languages occupied a continuous territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie in present-day New York state and Pennsylvania (U.S.) and southern Ontario and Quebec (Canada). That larger group should be differentiated from the Five Nations (later Six Nations) better known as the Iroquois Confederacy (self name Haudenosaunee Confederacy). As was typical of Northeast Indians before colonization, the Iroquois were semisedentary agriculturists who palisaded their villages in time of need. ...(100 of 439 words)