Iroquois

Wyandot Indians

Wyandot Tribe: Meaning perhaps “islanders,” or “dwellers on a peninsula.” Occasionally spelled Guyandot. At an earlier date usually known as Huron, a name given by the French from huré, “rough,” and the depreciating suffix -on. Also called: Hatindiaβointen, Huron name of Huron of Lorette. Nadowa, a name given to them and many other Iroquoian tribes by Algonquians. Telamatenon, Delaware name, meaning “coming out of a mountain or cave.” Thastchetci’, Onondaga name. Connection. The Wyandot belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family. Wyandot Location. The earliest known location of the Huron proper was the St. Lawrence Valley and the territory of the … Read more

Tuscarora Indians

Tuscarora Tribe, Tuscarora Confederacy: From their own name Skǎ-ru’-rěn, signifying according to Hewitt (in Hodge, 1910), “hemp gatherers,” and applied on account of the great use they made of Apocynum cannabinum. Also called: Ă-ko-t’ǎs’-kǎ-to’-rěn Mohawk name. Ani’-Skǎlǎ’lǐ, Cherokee name. Ă-t’ǎs-kǎ-lo’-lěn, Oneida name. Tewohomomy (or Keew-ahomomy), Saponi name. Tuscarora Connections. The Tuscarora belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family. Tuscarora Location. On the Roanoke, Tar, Pamlico, and Neuse Rivers. (See also Pennsylvania and New York.) Tuscarora Subdivisions. The Tuscarora should be considered a confederacy with three tribes or a tribe with three subtribes as follows: Kǎ’tě’nu’ā’kā’, “People of the submerged pine tree”; … Read more

Susquehanna Tribe

Susquehanna Indians. A town and a tribe of the Iroquoian stock, situated in 1608 on the lower portion of the Susquehanna river and its effluents. The original form of the name used by Capt. John Smith was Sasquesahannocks in his text and Sasquesahanough on his map. He first heard the name from Tockwock, Nanticoke, or Powhatan speakers of the Algonquian tongue, while exploring the waters of upper Chesapeake bay and its affluents, as the designation of a mighty people who dwelt on the Susquehanna two days journey “higher than our barge could pass for rocks.” Of this people Smith wrote: … Read more

Shawnee Tribe

1710 Senex Map Portion

Formerly a leading tribe of South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. By reason of the indefinite character of their name, their wandering habits, their connection with other tribes, and because of their interior position away from the traveled routes of early days, the Shawnee were long a stumbling block in the way of investigators.

Seneca Tribe

Seneca Tribe: A prominent and influential tribe of the Iroquois. When first known they occupied that part of western New York between Seneca Lake and Geneva River, having their council fire at Tsonontowan, near Naples, in Ontario county.

Onondaga Tribe

Onondaga Indians, Onondaga Nation, Onondaga First Nation, Onondaga People (Onoñtǎ’´ge‘,’on, or on top of, the hill or mountain’). An important tribe of the Iroquois confederation, formerly living on the mountain, lake, and creek bearing their name, in the present Onondaga County, New York, and extending northward to Lake Ontario and southward perhaps to the waters of the Susquehanna. In the Iroquois councils they are known as Hodiseñnageta, ‘they (are) the name bearers.’ Their principal village, also the capital of the confederation, was called Onondaga, later Onondaga Castle; it was situated from before 1654 to 1681 on Indian hill, in the … Read more

Oneida Tribe

A tribe of the Iroquois confederation, formerly occupying the country south of Oneida Lake, Oneida county, N. Y., and latterly including the upper waters of the Susquehanna.

Caughnawaga Tribe

Ahyouwaighs

Caughnawaga Indians (Gă-hnă-wă-‘ge, ‘at the rapids’ ). Caughnawaga is an Iroquois settlement on the Sault St Louis on St Lawrence River, Quebec. The majority of the emigrants came from the Oneida and Mohawk, and the Mohawk tongue, somewhat modified, became the speech of the whole body of this village. The Iroquois made several unsuccessful efforts to induce the converts to return to the confederacy, and finally renounced them in 1684, from which time Caughnawaga became an important auxiliary of the French in their wars with the English and the Iroquois.

Iroquois Indian Towns and Villages

The following villages and towns were Iroquois, but the particular tribes to which they belonged are either unknown or are collective. To see town names specific to a tribe within the Iroquois Confederation, please see that tribe name itself. Adjouquay Allaquippa Anpuaqun Aquatsagana Aratumquat Awegen Blackleg’s Village Buckaloon Cahunghage Canowdowsa Caughnawaga Chartierstown Chemegaide Chenango Chinklacamoose Chugnut Churamuk Cocfocoraren Cokanuck Conaquanosshan Conejoholo Conemaugh Conihunta Connosomothdian Conoytown (mixed Conoy and Iroquois) Coreorgonel (mixed) Cowawago Cussewago Ganadoga Ganagarahhare Ganasarage Ganeraske Ganneious Gannentaha Glasswanoge Goshgoshunk (mixed) Grand River Indians Hickorytown (mixed) Janundat Jedakne Johnstown Jonondes Juniata Juraken (2) Kahendohon Kanaghsaws Kannawalohalla Kanesadageh Karaken Karhationni … Read more

Meherrin Tribe

Meherrin Indians.  An Iroquoian tribe formerly residing on the river of the same name on the Virginia-North Carolina border.  Jefferson confounded them with the Tutelo.  according to the official colonial documents they were a remnant of the Conestoga or Susquehanna of upper Maryland, dispersed by the Iroquois about 1675, but this also is incorrect, as they are found noted under the name “Menheyricks” in the census of Virginia Indians in 1669, at which time they numbered 50 bowmen, or approximately 180 souls . It is possible that the influx of refugee Conestoga a few years later may have so overwhelmed … Read more

Neutral Tribe

Neutral Indians, Neutral Nation, Neutral First Nation, Neutral People. An important confederation of Iroquoian tribes living in the 17th century north of Lake Erie in Ontario, having four villages east of Niagara river on territory extending to the Genesee watershed; the western bounds of these tribes were indefinitely west of Detroit river and Lake St Clair. They were called Neutrals by the French because they were neutral in the known wars between the Iroquois and the Hurons. The Hurons called them Attiwandaronk, denoting ‘they are those whose language is awry’ and this name was also applied by the Neutrals in turn … Read more

Nottoway Tribe

Nottoway Indians. A Iroquoian tribe formerly residing on the river of the same name in south east Virginia.  They call themselves Cheroenhaka, and were known to the neighboring Algonquian tribes as Mangoac (Mengwe) and Nottoway, i.e., Nadowa, ‘adders,’ a common Algonquian name for the tribes of alien stock.  Although never prominent in history they kept up their organization long after the other tribes of the region were practically extinct. As late as 1825 they still numbered 47, with a “queen” on a reservation in Southampton County.  Linguistically they were closely cognate to Tuscarora.

Cayuga Tribe

Cayuga Indians (Kwĕñio’gwĕb;, the place where locusts were taken out–Hewitt). A tribe of the Iroquoian confederation, formerly occupying the shores of Cayuga Lake, New York. Its local council was composed of 4 clan phratries, and this form became the pattern, tradition says; of that of the confederation of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, in which the Cayuga had 10 delegates.  In 1660 they were estimated to number 1,500 and in 1778, 1,100.  At the beginning of the American Revolution a large part of the tribe removed to Canada and never returned, while the rest were scattered among the other … Read more

Iroquois Tribe

Iroquois Indians, Iroquois People, Iroquois First Nation (Algonkin: Irinakhoiw, ‘real adders’, with the French suffix –ois). The confederation of Iroquoian tribes known in history, among other names, by that of the Five Nations, comprising the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca. Their name for themselves as a political body was Oñgwanonsioñni’, ‘we are of the extended lodge.’ Among the Iroquoian tribes kinship is traced through the blood of the woman only; kinship means membership in a family, and this in turn constitutes citizenship in the tribe, conferring certain social, political, and religious privileges, duties, and rights which are denied to … Read more

Erie Tribe

A populous sedentary Iroquoian tribe, inhabiting in the 17th century the territory extending south from Lake Erie probably to Ohio river, east to the lands of the Conestoga along the east watershed of Allegheny river and to those of the Seneca along the line of the west watershed of Genesee river, and north to those of the Neutral Nation, probably on a line running eastward from the head of Niagara river (for the Jesuit Relation for 1640-41 says that the territory of the Erie and their allies joined that of the Neutral Nation at the end of Lake Erie), and west to the west watershed of Lake Erie and Miami river to Ohio river.

The Delaware in Kansas

Black Beaver, Delaware

In 1682, the seat of the Delaware government was at Shackamaxon, now Germantown, Pennsylvania. There Penn found them and made his famous treaty with them. Although extremely warlike, they had surrendered their sovereignty to the Iroquois about 1720. They were pledged to make no war, and they were forbidden to sell land. All the causes of this step were not known. Because of it the Iroquois claimed to have made women of the Delaware. They freed themselves of this opprobrium in the French and Indian War. The steady increase of the whites drove the Delaware from their ancient seat. They were crowded … Read more