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.
