The Iroquois Nation Research

The Native American tribe who combines with the Vikings won't be any specific real-life tribe - it will be fictional. It will incorporate bits and pieces from tribes as I see fit. General research also helps to flesh out this group of people, but they won't be distinctly Iroquois.

General:

• Also known as the Haudenosaunee or the “People of the longhouse” (second name implies that the nations of the League should live together as families in the same longhouse)
• Later in history formed the “League of Peace and Power”
• Known as the “Five Civilized Tribes” and included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca tribes.
• Name Iroquois was given to them by the French and has multiple meanings. Used derogatively, it means “black snakes” or “real adders” or “killer people”

• The Iroquois nation of the eastern woodlands was one of the most highly organized civilizations that developed among the Native American tribes.
• “They achieved for themselves a more remarkable civil organization, and acquired a higher degree of influence than any other race of Indian Lineage…(In North America)” (Morgan 1954,3)
• The league occupied most of the area that makes up the present day state of New York, however, its influence and territory extended into parts of Canada.
• Clan symbols were the bear, wolf, turtle and deer

Society

• Their society was centered around the wilderness that surrounded them. They relied on agriculture, hunting and gathering.
• Their environment provided them with fertile soil, plentiful game and streams that were full of fish.
• The relative ease at which the Iroquois Nation was able to provide for the needs of its people allowed for the development of a systematic belief system that was more developed than most other systems found among Native American civilizations.
• While the Iroquois nation was the strongest Native American civilization east of the Mississippi river, their integration into the dominant white culture went relatively smooth compared to most other instances of integration. This was due perhaps to similarities between their belief systems which made it easier for the two races to find common ground.
• League traditions allowed for the dead to be symbolically replaced through the “Mourning War” in raids intended to seize captives to replace lost compatriots and take vengeance on non-members. This tradition was common to native people of the northeast and was quite different from European settlers’ notions of combat
• They aimed to create an empire by incorporating conquered peoples and remolding them into Iroquois and thus naturalizing them as full citizens of the tribe.
• Cadwallader Colden wrote “It has been a constant maxim with the Five Nations, to save children and young men of the people they conquer, to adopt them into their own Nation, and to educate them as their own children without distinction, These young people soon forgot their own country and nation and by this policy the Five Nations make up the losses which their nation suffers by the people they lose in war.
• Main crops farmed were corn, beans and squash which were called the 3 sisters and were considered special gifts from the creator. These crops were grown strategically. The cornstalks grow, the bean plants climb the stalks, and the squash grown beneath inhibiting weeds and keeping the soil moist under the shade of their broad leaves.
• Women assumed a position in the Iroquois society roughly equal in power to that of the men. Individual women could hold property including dwellings, horses and farmed land and their property before marriage stayed in their possession without being mixed with that of their husband’s.
• The work of a woman’s hands was hers to do with as she saw fit.
• A husband lived in the longhouse with his wife’s family
• They were a matrilineal clan – that is, clan ties were traced through the mother’s line. If a couple separated, the women kept the children
• The chief of a clan could be removed at any time by a council of the mothers of that clan, and the chief’s sister was responsible for nominating his successor.
• The Grand Council of the Iroquois League is an assembly of 50 chiefs or Sachems, a number which has never changed
• Deer antlers were an emblem of leadership
• Women had real power – the clan needed 2/3rds consent from the Mothers of the tribe before a law or custom could be changed/passed etc
• If any leader failed to comply with the wishes of the women in the tribe and the Great Law of Peace, the mother of the clan could demote him.
• Councils of the mothers were held separately from the men’s councils. The women used men as runners to send world of their decisions to concerned parties.
• Boys were allowed to join the men in hunting after they had killed a deer by themselves.

Housing, clothes, weapons

• The Iroquois village consisted of 2 or more longhouses. In the early years they were built near streams but later on they were built on hilltops for protection from invading tribes.
• Around the village great wooden palisades with watch towers were built.
• The long houses were big enough to hold a family of 30 – 60 people. If could be 25-150 feet long.
• Longhouse was built by driving 2 rows of poles into the ground in zigzag lines 10-12 feet apart. The poles were tied together at the top. Other poles were fastened across them. Next, slabs of bark were tied to cover the poles. An open space was left at the top for smoke to escape. A door was built at the end of it. The door was covered with a curtain made from animal skins. Inside the longhouse a wide path ran through the center. Each family had a space which was separated from the rest by leather curtains. The family space had a seat which was built against the wall, with clothes and tools stored underneath the seat. The seat was also used as a bed when covered with corn husk mats and skins and furs.
• Clothes – mostly made from deerskin. The women wore skirts, vests and moccasins. They decorated their clothes with porcupine quills, shell beads and dyed hair. Also made necklaces from shell beads and animal teeth. Women also sometimes wore leggings and breechcloths. In winter they wore rabbit fur capes or shawls tied over the left shoulder.
• The men wore deerskin breechcloths during summer and wore leather leggings and tunics in winter. Also wore moccasins made of leather or corn husks.
• Made canoes, snowshoes

Religion, beliefs, rituals and ceremonies

• Their religion is characterized by a monotheistic belief in an all-powerful creator known as the “Great Spirit”. They believed in the constant superintending care of this Spirit. He ruled and administered the world, and the affairs of the red race. They didn’t see the need in developing a detailed conception of the creator because e was considered above the capabilities of their minds to understand.
• While divine attributes concerning the Great Spirit remained undeveloped, the Iroquois gave detailed descriptions of the lower class of spirits who interacted with the material world. They were known as “Invisible Agents” and their power was given to them by the Great Spirit.
• Their belief system did not ignore the existence of evil in the world. Evil was represented by the brother of the Great Spirit, “the Evil-minded”. It exists independently and controls its own inferior spiritual beings. These agents of evil also exist in the material world and attempt to bring about evil.
• Developed the idea of an immortal soul, which was judged by the Great Spirit upon the death of the body – the threat of punishment in the afterlife increased morality concerns, which aided in the success of the Iroquois nation.
• Ritual ceremonies practiced by the Iroquois tribes were systematic worship services that occurred in accordance to certain seasonal periods throughout the year. The rituals were handed down through the generation and remained unchanged for centuries.
• Worship and thanks were given to the Great Spirit for protection and survival.
• One of the “Invisible Agents” was usually honoured depending on what time of year the ceremony was taking place.
• The ceremonies were led by “Keepers of the Faith” who was a rather loosely organized council of qualified individuals who were assigned the task of maintaining the ritual practices of the Iroquois people.
• In terms of spiritual beliefs, spirits animated all of nature and controlled the changing of the seasons.
• Key festivals coincided with the major events of the agricultural calendar, including a harvest festival of thanksgiving.
• Held 6 big festivals each year. Each festival lasted several days during which music was made with rattles (made from gourds and turtle shells) and drums.
• Festivals included the Maple festival in spring, Corn Planting festival, Strawberry festival, Green Corn festival, Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving and mid-winter/New Year festival in winter. The first 5 of these involved public confessions followed by group ceremonies which included speeches by Keepers of the Faith, tobacco offerings and prayer The New Years festival was usually held in early February and was marked by dream interpretations and the sacrifice of a white dog offered to purge the people of evil.
• These festivals were held to give thanks to the good spirits for health, clothes, food and happiness.
• In the Iroquois view, ordinary humans could not communicate directly with Great Spirit, but could do so indirectly by burning tobacco, which carried their prayers to the lesser spirits of good.
• Regarded dreams as important supernatural signs and serious attention was given to interpreting dreams.
• Death and burial – The dead were buried in a sitting position facing east. After the burial, a captured bird was released in the belief that it carried away the spirit of the deceased.

Masks

• One of the most interesting Iroquoian art forms is the False Face Mask which was used in the curing ceremonies of the False Face Societies.
• Masks were made of maple, white pine, basswood and poplar. They were first carved in the living tree then cut free and painted and decorated. They represent spirits who reveal themselves to the mask maker in a prayer and tobacco burning ritual performed before the mask is carved.
• The legend: The Spirit Medicine Man, a man blessed with healing powers in response to his love of living things, met a stranger and they had a contest...who could move a mountain. The stranger made the mountain quake. The Medicine Man said that the stranger did indeed have skills, but not enough to move a mountain. The Spirit Medicine Man moved the mountain, but so suddenly, it hit the stranger and left him disfigured. The Spirit Medicine Man healed him and taught him the ways of medicine. The stranger became a very famous healer knows as "Old Broken Nose". The False Face healing rituals honor Old Broken Nose and the Iroquois masks represent his smashed face.
• The Ritual: The ceremony begins with the telling of the myth about Old Broken Nose, then an invocation to the spirits, the ritual, ending with a feast. During the ritual, the False Face members, wearing Iroquois masks, go through every house in the town looking for those who are diseased and ill. If a sick person is found, a healing ritual is performed using turtle shell rattles and blown ashes from tobacco. The community gathers in the longhouse where the False Faces enter, and healings may be requested. It continues with dancing and ends with a ceremonial ash blowing and a feast. It's performed during the spring, fall, midwinter, and smaller versions of the ceremony are performed whenever a sick individual requires it.
• These Iroquois Masks are considered to be "living" and are "fed" with tobacco. The design of the masks may vary, but most share certain features. They have long black or white horse hair. The eyes are deep-set and accented by metal. The noses are bent and crooked. They are painted red and black.
• Basswood is usually used for the masks, although not exclusively. An Iroquois walks through the woods until he is moved by a spirit to carve a mask. The spirit inspires the unique elements of the design and the resulting product represents the spirit itself. Carved directly on the tree, it is removed when it's finished. They are painted red if they were begun in the morning and black if they were begun in the afternoon. The red masks were considered more powerful. There are masks with both colors and they represent spirits with "divided bodies".

Tobacco

• Found everywhere in the Americas was primarily used as medicine.
• Used for many generations as offerings to the spirits for planting, gathering food, healings and for the Native American Pipe ceremony
• The sacred pipe and Native American Pipe Ceremony are the heart of the native people’s cultures as they travel the road of balance.
• The smoke coming from the mouth symbolizes the truth being spoken and the plumes of smoke provide a path for prayers to reach the Great Spirit and for the Great Spirit to travel down to Mother Earth.
• The pipe ceremony is a sacred ritual for connecting physical and spiritual worlds – nothing is more sacred. The pipe is the people’s prayers in physical form and the smoke becomes their words – goes out and touches everything and becomes part of all there is.
• The fire in the pipe is the same fire in the sun, which is the source of life
• Tobacco was used because its roots go deep into the earth and its smoke rises high into the heavens

Dream catchers

• These charms of twigs, sinew and feathers have been woven since ancient times by the parents or grandparents for newborn children
• They are hung above the cradleboard to allow the infants peaceful, beautiful dreams.
• Dreams must be passed through to get to the sleeper. Bad ones get tangled in the web but good ones pass through the center hole and glide down the feathers. The morning sun shines on it and the bad dreams caught in its web expire.
• It was traditional to put a feather in the center, it means breath or air – essential for life
• The slightest movement of the feathers would indicate the passage of another beautiful dream
• The feathers used were different for males and females – owl used for females, signifying wisdom and eagle for males, signifying courage.
• The earliest dream catchers were called Sacred Hoops.
• The circle is sacred to the Native Americans because it is the shape of the earth, sun, moon and life. It is a symbol of strength and unity