The Haudenosaunee Confederacy

Five nations, one longhouse

Haudenosaunee (hoh-dee-noh-SHOH-nee) means People of the Longhouse. A longhouse was a long, shared home where many related families lived together, and the Confederacy saw itself as one big longhouse stretched across its lands. Outsiders often used the name Iroquois, but Haudenosaunee is the people's own name.

The five original nations lived in what is now upstate New York, south of Lake Ontario. From east to west they were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. In the longhouse picture, the Mohawk kept the eastern door, the Seneca kept the western door, and the Onondaga, in the middle, kept the council fire.

The Peacemaker and the Tree of Peace

The story of how the Confederacy began is told in Haudenosaunee oral history, passed down by speakers rather than written. It tells of a messenger known as the Peacemaker who, with his helper Hiawatha, traveled among the warring nations and persuaded them to make peace. (Many Haudenosaunee avoid saying the Peacemaker's name outside ceremony, so he is usually called by this title. This Hiawatha has nothing to do with Longfellow's famous poem.)

As a sign of peace, the nations buried their weapons under a Tree of Peace, a great white pine.

The Great Law of Peace

The Great Law of Peace is the Confederacy's founding law. It set up a council where chiefs from every nation met to decide matters together, aiming for agreement rather than a simple majority. The council has 50 chief titles, shared unevenly among the five nations.

Women held real political power. In each clan, the clan mothers chose the chiefs, and if a chief didn't serve the people well, the clan mothers could remove him.

When did it start, and what came next?

No one knows exactly when the Confederacy was founded, and the date is debated. The Confederacy itself says it dates to time immemorial. Historians' proposals run from the 1100s to the late 1500s.

Around 1722, the Tuscarora, who had moved north from what is now North Carolina, joined the Confederacy, which became the Six Nations. The Confederacy still exists today. Haudenosaunee communities live in New York, Ontario, Quebec, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, including Six Nations of the Grand River, Onondaga Nation, Akwesasne and Kahnawà:ke.

Try it yourself

Visit the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's own website and read how it tells the story of its creation. Then compare it with an encyclopedia article: what details does each one include, and how does each one talk about the founding date?

Good to know

• The founding date is unknown and debated: the Confederacy says time immemorial, Britannica gives the traditional range of about 1570 to 1600, many historians suggest the mid-1400s to mid-1500s, and one study argued for 1142.
• The Peacemaker and Hiawatha (Hayenwatha) are figures from oral history; this Hiawatha is unrelated to Longfellow's poem.
• The map is simplified to upstate New York; Haudenosaunee communities today are in New York, Ontario, Quebec, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
• The Tuscarora joined around 1722 (some sources say 1722-1723).
• The role of clan mothers is simplified; the council works toward consensus.
• The idea that the Great Law influenced the US Constitution is debated (Congress acknowledged it in a 1988 resolution), so the video leaves it out.