Binder Page Name Period Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Notes Date The Haudenosaunee (The Iroquois) The Haudenosaunee lived in the culture region known as the Eastern Woodlands which included New York State. As a result, they lived in an environment that had: Many trees, lots of water, many animals, warm summers, cold snowy winters, and fertile farmland. Their most noted adaptation was the home that they lived in called the longhouse. It was a home built of wooden poles and elm bark. One building was home for many smaller related families. It became a symbol of their people and their confederacy. The Iroquois name for themselves is the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, which means The People of the Longhouse. What else do you already know about the Iroquois? (Brainstorm here)
Dekanawida- The Great Peacemaker One of the most complex governments developed by North American Indians was the League of the Iroquois. Many Iroquois believed that its founder, Dekanawida had been sent by the Master of Life. According to legend, Dekanawida s grandmother once dreamed that her daughter would give birth to a great leader who would bring peace and life to his people. The Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) Confederacy created by Dekanawida did just that. Dekanawida is now almost always called, The Great Peacemaker by the Haudenosaunee people today. The Great Peacemaker was born into a Huron family in Ontario, Canada, in the mid-1500s. From childhood, he was troubled by a speech impediment that made it hard for people to understand what he said. Still, he set himself a great task: to end the fighting that had plagued the Haudenosaunee for years. The Peacemaker left Canada and set out toward the south. One day, he met a Mohawk named Hiawatha. The Peacemaker quickly won the young man over to his cause. Hiawatha, who was a brilliant speaker, agreed to act as the Peacemaker s voice. Tirelessly, the two men journeyed up and down the land. In town after town, Hiawatha preached the Peacemaker s message. At first, the Iroquois resisted. At last, however, they agreed to join the league, meaning a confederacy or an alliance, that the Peacemaker had envisioned. The Great Binding Law (sometimes called the Great Law of Peace) that the Peacemaker developed was a kind of a constitution for the Iroquois Confederacy. It governed everything from inheritance to the selection of elders. It was transmitted orally from one generation to the next because they had no written language. Because the Great Binding Law was long and complex, strings of beads served as aids to the reciters memory. The Iroquois Confederacy brought many years of peace between the five (and later six) nations that joined it. Its unifying power helped the Iroquois keep a strong identity under the pressures of European settlement, The Peacemaker became a great hero. He has been held up as a model of wisdom and courage to generations of Iroquois youth....adapted from American Nation textbook Homework Questions: (for a separate sheet of paper) 1. What task did the Peacemaker create for himself? 2. How was the Great Binding Law passed from one generation to the next? 3. How did the Peacemaker and Hiawatha combine their skills to achieve their objective?
Upon the continent of North America, prior to the landfall of the white man, a great league of peace was formed, the inspiration of a prophet called the Peacemaker. He was a spiritual being, fulfilling the mission of organizing warring nations into a confederation under the Great Law of Peace. The principles of the law are peace, equity, justice, and the power of the good minds. With the help and support of a like-minded man called Aionwatha, whom some people now call Hiawatha, he set about the great work of establishing a union of peace under the immutable natural laws of the universe. He came to our Iroquois lands in our darkest hour, when the message of how to live had been cast aside, and naked power ruled, fueled by vengeance and blood lust. A great war of attrition engulfed the lands, and women and children cowered in fear of their own men. The leaders were fierce and merciless. They were fighting in a blind rage. Nations, homes, and families were destroyed, and the people were scattered. It was a dismal world of dark disasters where there seemed to be no hope. It was raging proof of what inhumanity man is capable of when the laws and principles of life are thrown away. The Peacemaker came to our lands, bringing the message of peace, supported by Hiawatha. He began the work of healing the twisted minds of men. This is a long history... Suffice it to say it is a great epic that culminated on the shores of the lake now called Onondaga where, after many years of hard work-- some say perhaps even 100 years-- he gathered the leaders, who had now become transformed into rational human beings, into a Grand Council, and he began the instructions of how Great Law of Peace Would work....now the Peacemaker said, The symbol of the Haudenosaunee shall be the great white pine with four roots of truth extending to the four cardinal directions, and those people who have no place to go shall follow these roots back to the tree and seek shelter under the long leaves of the white pine that we shall call the great tree of peace. I shall place an eagle atop the tree to be ever-vigilant against those who shall harm this tree, and the eagle shall scream his warnings to
our chiefs whose duty it is to nurture and protect this tree.... I now uproot this tree and command you to throw all of your weapons of war into this chasm to be carried by the undercurrent of water to the furthest depths of the earth, and now I place this tree back over this chasm, throwing away forever war between us, and peace shall prevail. Let each Chief now bring one arrow to form a bundle of arrows. Tie them together so tightly that they cannot be bent or broken apart. Place the bundle of arrows beside the Council Fire as another symbol of your unity and strength. This is what prevailed upon this [continent. When the white men arrived,] they found here in full flower, free democratic principles, all under the authority of the natural law, the ultimate spiritual law of the universe. This was then the land of the free and the home of the brave....adapted from Land of the Free, Home of the Brave by Oren Lyons, in Indian Roots of American Democracy and De-Ka-Nah-Wi-Da and Hiawatha from http://www.indians.org/welker/hiawatha.htm Homework questions: (for a separate sheet of paper) 4. Why did the Iroquois need to form a confederation before the Great Law of Peace? 5. Describe two symbols of the Iroquois Confederacy. Explain what the symbols were supposed to show.
The Confederacy The Iroquois Confederacy was founded about 1570. A confederacy is a loose government set up to help smaller groups cooperate with each other. For example, they might help defend each other. A confederacy can be thought of as A group of groups - in this case, a group of 5 nations The confederacy was known by many names including: League of Five Nations, later League of Six Nations League of the Iroquois, the Iroquois Confederacy the Five Nations, (later, the Six Nations). The Great Council, was made up of 50 sachems, or peace chiefs. They worked on the council to lead the Confederacy. The sachems were always male, but they were chosen by the clan mothers.. Wampum is a collection of beads strung together that carry a special significance. They could remind people of agreements between individuals or treaties between tribes and nations. The most famous wampum may be the Hiawatha Belt, which is a symbol of the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy. Its design is now the flag of the Iroquois. The League of the Iroquois may be one of the first examples of representative government, in North America. There is also some evidence that the Iroquois idea of a confederacy may have been copied by English colonists who started the United States-- the Founding Fathers. Ben Franklin, for example, said he admired the system of the Iroquois.
Tribes (or Nations) There were many tribes that were Iroquois, meaning that they spoke an Iroquois language and shared an Iroquois culture (like living in longhouses). However, only five of these tribes originally joined the Confederacy. They were later joined by a sixth. From West to East, they were: A. Seneca Keepers of the Western Door B. Cayuga Keepers of the Captives (Prisoners) C. Onondaga Keepers of the Great Fire (or Flame) D. Oneida Keepers of the Captives (Prisoners) E. Mohawk Keepers of the Eastern Door F. Later, also: Tuscarora (the last to join, in 1715) The gustoweh was a head dress. Each nation wore a distinctive one
Seneca Tuscarora Cayuga Onondaga Oneida Mohawk