Iroquois

For some 600 years, Hiawatha has been revered among the Iroquois people as a hero of mythic proportions. His greatest accomplishment lay in founding the Iroquois Confederacy, a league of nations that stresses cooperation, peace, and unity.

In the time of Hiawatha, the Iroquois--comprising the Onondaga, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca nations--were embroiled in numerous conflicts, both internal and external. Saddened by the violence, Hiawatha used his great oratory skills to try to convince his people to stop warring. ...

The Iroquois traditionally lived in what is now upstate New York, subsisting on wild plant foods, game, and fish from the area's fertile forests and teeming waterways, along with corn, beans, and squash. Long ago the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes formed the League of the Five Nations. Despite its ideal of cooperation, the League was fearsome in war as it attempted to extend its rule. In the 16th century, the League challenged other Indian groups for access to European traders and their goods, siding first with the French, then with the Dutch and English.