HIstory


 * History:**

The Iroquois Indians lived along the Genesee River, the Mohawk River, and in the Finger Lakes region south of Lake Ontario in New York State. Around 1600 five tribes, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, came together to form a nation. Later on in 1722, a sixth tribe, the Tuscaroras, joined the group. These people were called "Haudenosaunee" or “people of the long house." The name Iroquois is a French name for "snake." There were other Iroquoian-speaking tribes who were not part of the nation. For example, the Erie Indians were related to the Iroquois. They lived next to the shores of Lake Erie in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The Iroquois tribe destroyed all their enemies. They were one of the most powerful tribe of Indians In the Americas.

By 1650, the Iroquois nation began to push their way into the Ohio between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. They conquered various groups of Native Americans living in the area. These wars were called the Beaver Wars because the Iroquois needed more land for hunting and trapping beavers and deer. The Iroquois were involved in fur trade with the Dutch and the British. A small group of Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayuga, and Seneca converted to Catholicism and aided the French, but most of the Iroquois assisted the Englishmen. During the American Revolution, many of these people joined with the British.

A small number of the Iroquois lived in modern-day Ohio. Only several hundred of these natives lived in there. Some Iroquois natives who live in Ohio developed their own political system and separated themselves from the Iroquois living in the East.