The Indians of the Iroquois League and the Dutch
First printed in de Halve Maen, January, 1946 Vol.XXI no.1
When the Dutch first occupied New Netherland they almost immediately came into contact with the Indians of the Iroquois League who had their home in Central New York along the west of the Mohawk river and were divided into five tribes or “nations”; the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senacas. They were a fierce and independent people who, at that time, had already developed a high native culture, a sense of national unity and a cohesive political structure that is the admiration and wonder of those who have studied their history. They lived mainly by agriculture in semi-permanent settlements which they called castles and which, in the early days were strongly palisaded and they were mighty in war and in diplomacy.
Cadwallader Golden, who was an English Indian Commissioner some two hundred years ago, in his monologue on the History of the Mohawks, said of them; “The Five Nations, in their love of liberty and of their country, in their bravery in battle and their constancy in enduring torments, equal the fortitude of the renowned Romans.” The Iroquois considered themselves superior to all mankind and called themselves “ongue-houwe,” meaning men surpassing all others.
How long they had existed as a nation we do not know, but during the 150 years of which we have their history, the years of their power and glory, without written law, or legislatures as we know them, or courts or taxes, they were not only able to preserve peace and friendship among themselves and their far flung tribes and people, but in their relations with the English and the French, they maintained their independence, their self-respect, a high degree of unified action and a diplomacy that civilized nations today might well emulate.
Contemporary writers referred to the Iroquois as savages. They were supreme as warriors.
With never more than 2,000 fighting men, by the year 1675 they had conquered and put under tribute all of the tribes west to the Mississippi, south to the Carolinas and including western Connecticut and New Jersey. Time and again they ravaged the French colony of Canada and in 1689 they almost destroyed that colony and put Montreal under siege.
They were master diplomats. Like the Romans of old they divided their enemies to conquer them. While they were almost always at war with the French in Canada they carried on constant diplomatic negotiations with them to the consternation of the New York authorities. In this way they got better treatment from the English.
The Iroquois as a people were intense individualists. Every man was his own master. If he trespassed on the rights of others he was judged and punished by the others. Generally it was a family affair. There is no evidence of two villages or tribes ever having come into conflict. Every man owned all of the national domain and yet he actually owned none of it. He could use all of it, anywhere and so could every other man.
But there was no personal ownership of land.
Their Sachems, who were war chiefs or magistrates, held their leadership only by personal example and ability. There were no elections, no emoluments of office, no salaries. The greatest chieftain was often the poorest of them all.
They lived in “Long Houses,” sometimes 200 feet long, many families together, made of oak or elm bark and generally quite open to the elements. The living conditions, by our standards, were very severe. While they suffered from rheumatic and alimentary disorders and from eye inflammations due to the smoke in their lodges and from which blindness often resulted in old age, they were free of infectious or contagious diseases, before the white men came. In those days they apparently had no tuberculosis, no small-pox, no childrens’ or venereal diseases and not even the common cold. In summer they went practically naked. In winter they used blankets or skins of animals. And when they became seriously ill they died.
The Iroquois were not only more intelligent and fiercer than the Algonquin peoples by whom they were surrounded, but they were physically larger and more powerful. When a party of Mohawks visited New Amsterdam on their way to gather tribute from the Long Island Indians Domine Bogardus said of them that never since the days of the ancient Greeks had there been seen such physical perfection.
Marriage among them was by purchase, but the life of the squaw was not as black as it has been painted. While she performed all of the household duties, she was really master of the lodge. Inheritance and descent was through her. If a separation took place, it was the man who cleared out and left the lodge to her.
The man, too, had his duties. He defended his home. He conducted war. He provided and maintained his weapons, his canoe, his fishing equipment, his snowshoes. While the woman cultivated the corn, the beans and the pumpkins and gathered grapes and berries in season and preserved them against the winter, the man was the hunter and fisherman. The lazy or unsuccessful hunter might find that he was without a lodge or a squaw.
A curious Indian institution was the system of clans; the Wolf, the Turtle and the Bear, which existed in all Indian tribes, the Algonquin as well as the Iroquois. The delineations of the system were adamant. No man might take to wife a woman of the same clan as his own. The children all took the clan of their mother. The Clan distinctions ran across all tribes and all villages and were as strong as the family or tribal relations. The old Sachem in signing treaties or important documents always added to his mark the insignia of his clan.
The Dutch described the Indians as indescribably dirty and took especial exception to the fact that they never washed their hands. It is true that the Indian mode of eating and personal habits were disgusting to the white man. The Indian ate anything, including snakes and frogs and, on occasions, human flesh. He was not dainty. He had no idea of sanitation and the marvel is that the filth and vermin that abounded n their lodges did not cause epidemics. The Indian coated his body with clay and grease which turned rancid and smelled abominably, but this covering protected him from the sun and the cold.
The child was the real master of every Indian lodge and throughout his childhood received indulgent and slavish care. He was never reprimanded and was undoubtedly a nuisance.
The young Iroquois man could achieve honor, position and recognition only as a warrior. He had first to find glory in war. If he found glory he could be heard in the Council. And so war parties were constantly going out to gather tribute, to scout, or to fight. This urge for glory was the basis of most wars. On the other hand the young men had their clubs, special lodges to which women were not admitted. They played games, one like our La Crosse; they engaged in foot racing, other athletic contests, or knife or hatchet throwing in which they were remarkably skillful. A circle of braves would squat on their haunches for hours listening to the harangue of some envoy from another tribe, or the song of some hero returned from war, or a tale of the gods of creation by some patriarch.
The Iroquois of long ago were savages, but they had no poor and no rich. They were without industry or commerce, but they had no slaves, no matters, no servants. They had no books or written records but they had eloquence, diplomacy and statescraft. They had no Bill of Rights, but they developed in their community life the highest type of personal liberty and communal security