Iroquois People Settled

Before 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, there were many tribes living in North America. Two equally similar and different ones were the Iroquois tribe and the Cherokee tribe. On one hand, they are similar because of their geographies and their economies. On the other hand, they are different because of their cultures and religious beliefs.

The moment when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas was the beginning of the interactions between American Indians and European colonists. These very first interactions were mostly positive due to the the generosity of the Indians but turned violent when the Europeans began to mistreat, kidnap, enslave, and kill the American Indians. Actions taken by the American Indians and European Colonists, especially actions of violence, during the 1600s caused the relationship between the two parties to be negative and conflicting in New England and Chesapeake.

Archaeologists believe that the first human beings to enter North America traveled from Siberia between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. During the Ice Age, a period in time named for the reduction in the Earth's temperature, ocean levels receded, exposing land that was previously covered by the Bering Sea (2). The ancestors of Native Americans were able to walk across the land from present-day Siberia to the landmass that, today, is known as Alaska. Prior to 1550, the ancestors of Native Americans were nomadic hunters and gatherers, meaning they traveled in search of food. Around 1550, Native American tribes were practicing settlement. Settlements consisted of small villages that were centered on hunting, fishing, or farming (2). Approximately thirty Native American tribes settled on the land that is now known as North Carolina including, the Cherokee, the Catawba, the Tuscarora, the Cape Fear, and the Waccamaw tribes (2).

Physical characteristics would have affected settlement patterns in the seventeenth century by changing whether a population would have to spread apart or if they would have to remain concentrated in one area and by changing what kind of homes they could have. The Eastern Woodlands included the Midwest and Northeast Regions. This region had rolling hills, plains, plentiful rainfall and moderate seasons. The Iroquois lived mainly near the Great Lakes and oceans in areas close to lakes and streams. Because of the welcoming climate, the Iroquois were able to farm allowing them to have permanent settlements with the longhouses that they preferred. Furthermore, because they lived near water, they had the ability to fish using the boats they were

Hiawatha was an Iroquois Indian who wanted the Iroquois Tribes to unite together. He did not enjoy Iroquois battling each other, though he did agree with the Iroquois fighting with other tribes of different languages. Hiawatha persuaded the tribes of the Iroquois to create a Confederacy of Peace while being the Keeper of the Wampum, a chief position of leadership.

These nomads continued moving all the way to South America. By the time Europeans arrived in America, there were already at least forty to fifty million indigenous people inhabiting the land (Faber 4-5). Other explorers, from Norway, Greenland, and Iceland reached America centuries before Columbus (Faber ix). Although these people attempted to live in this new land, they didn’t stay long, and failed to create a lasting historical impact (Faber 20-26).

Before the arrival of Europeans in the 1600’s, the Five Nations of the Iroquois lived under a constitution that had three main principles, peace, justice, and the health of mind and body. The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy offered compelling evidence of Native American rich and sophisticated cultures with their well established democratic government with a form of religion and a strong matriarchal system before the advent of Europeans.

The Iroquois had many interesting religious beliefs that were very important to their society and lifestyle. For example, according to Khaleel Mohammed, their religion was characterized by a monotheistic belief in an all-powerful creator known as the “Great Spirit.” (Mohammed, 24) They also believed in a brother of the Great Spirit, who was the evil minded brother whose specific purpose was to cause evil. (Mohammed, 25) Since they believe in spirits and things that are beyond our world, it would explain why the False Face Society fits into their belief system. The legend of the False Face is that a spirit medicine man, who had healing powers, encountered a stranger who he challenged to move a mountain. The stranger was unable too, but the medicine man did, but in doing so he hit the stranger with the mountain and disfigured

To make sense of this world, you must possess your own viewpoints, perspectives, or beliefs because every individual is different. Some people ask,” why do we exist on Earth?” Others ask, ”Is there intelligent life in our solar system?” No matter what religion or belief you have, no one will really know the true answer to this question.

The initial inhabitants of North and South America, known as Paleo-Indians, arrived here over thousands of years ago. It is believed that the Native American forefathers reached this country via a piece of land that linked Asia to North America. Upon arrival, the Paleo-Indians split into numerous tribes. They broke off into a number of tribes, including but not limited to, the Paiutes, the Shoshonis, the Algonquians, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. The Paiutes and the Shoshonis tended to migrate seasonally. They are both tribes that settled in Nevada and Utah. The Algonquian tribe inhabited present-day northeastern United States and eastern Canada. They preferred to remain in their territories, they rarely migrated. The Aztecs, a bellicose nation, colonized what is now Mexico and Guatemala. The Aztecs had gained power over central Mexico before the Spanish accessed the new world. The Mayans also settled in Mexico and Guatemala. They were a very intelligent nation that already had writing and mathematics systems in place by the time the Spanish arrived. The various indigenous tribes then settled in a variety of places across the Americas and formed their own religious and cultural practices.

Nothing is more fundamental yet so important to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans as the United States Constitution, which guarantee our right to do and say as we please so long as it does no harm to anyone. The Iroquois Nation preamble is placed on perfect peace for the welfare of the people. Their focus was fighting for the liberty of the people. Among the Indian nations whose ancient seats were within the limits of our republic, the Iroquois have long continued to occupy the conspicuous position. Nations they now set forth upon the canvas of the Indian history prominent as for the wisdom of their civil institution of the federations. Only the Iroquois had a system that seemed to meet most of the demands espoused by the

The Iroquois nations, one of the oldest and most prestigious tribes in the history of all Native Americans. In this paper I will be showing why the Iroquois ended up siding with the English through the French and Indian, and Revolutionary wars through factors of colonization. I will also be showing some features of their culture, considering the iroquois are not well known in the western United States, and discussing the fall of the once great tribes. The main reason I 've chosen the Iroquois is because of my own prior knowledge of the Iroquois, and their relationship to lacrosse. I started playing lacrosse my freshman year of highschool. The very first thing I learned, before any stick skills or any basics of the game, was the history of it. Our coach insisted that we knew the history and the culture of the game, and that we respected it. I was intrigued by how interesting the game was. The game was made as a form of war. Lacrosse was sometimes even referred to as “Little brother of war”. It would be called this because injury, even death were common during a lacrosse game. When two tribes had a disagreement, but didn 't feel the need to have a legitimate war, the opposing tribes would send their best warriors to the battlefield and play a lacrosse game. Games would be played to a score of 5-7, but considering how long the fields could be, these games could take hours, days even, however long it took for one of the tribes to win,

1). The reason for the construction of the Iroquois confederacy, or the league of the Iroquois, (Haudenosaunee) was the impeding factor of disunity between the tribes. Hienwatha, a Mohawk Iroquois, lived in Ontario and observed the disunity between the Iroquois tribes. In an attempt to unify the nations, he approached rival tribes and argued the benefits of unification. Initially, his idea is shut down by the elders of each tribe. The changing climate that started to occur, however, increased confrontations between tribes. Hienwatha yet again tries to explain to the Iroquois people about the possibility of peace and is rejected again. He then alludes the nations to a weaved belt of wampum shells which supposedly illustrated the connectedness of the five Iroquois nations. He traveled among the nations, of which all then supported the idea of unity, and was able to form a seemingly impenetrable force.

| Native Americans (American Indians)As the name suggests, these were the first people (natives) who lived in North America, Alaska and Hawaii. After Europeans settled in the U.S., native

More the 325,000 Indians inhabited the Southwest, the Great Plains, California, and the Pacific Northwest in the 1840, when the great migration of white settlers into the region began.