Iroquois
'Iroquois Live in longhouses so then then the got supplies and got ready for this event Beginning in 1609, the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against the French, their Huron allies, and other neighboring tribes, including the Petun, Erie, and Susquehannock.[79] Trying to control access to game for the lucrative fur trade, they invaded the Algonquian peoples of the Atlantic coast (the Lenape, or Delaware), the Anishinaabe of the boreal Canadian Shield region, and not infrequently the English colonies as well. During the Beaver Wars, they were said to have defeated and assimilated the Huron (1649), Petun (1650), the Neutral Nation (1651),[82][83] Erie Tribe (1657), and Susquehannock (1680).[84] The traditional view is that these wars were a way to control the lucrative fur trade to purchase European goods on which they had become dependent.[85][86] Starna questions this view.[87]
Recent scholarship has elaborated on this view, arguing that the Beaver Wars were an escalation of the Iroquoian tradition of "Mourning Wars".[88] This view suggests that the Iroquois launched large-scale attacks against neighboring tribes to avenge or replace the many dead from battles and smallpox epidemics.
In 1628, the Mohawk defeated the Mahican to gain a monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange (present-day Albany), New Netherland. The Mohawk would not allow northern native peoples to trade with the Dutch.[79] By 1640, there were almost no beavers left on their lands, reducing the Iroquois to middlemen in the fur trade between Indian peoples to the west and north, and Europeans eager for the valuable thick beaver pelts.[79] In 1645, a tentative peace was forged between the Iroquois and the Huron, Algonquin, and French. Post-war After the Revolutionary War, the ancient central fireplace of the League was re-established at Buffalo Creek. The U.S. and the Iroquois signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784, whereby the Iroquois ceded much of their historical homeland to the Americans, followed by another treaty in 1794 at Canandaigua where they ceded even more land to the Americans.[141] The governor of New York state, George Clinton, was constantly pressuring the Iroquois to sell their land to white settlers, and as alcoholism became a major problem in the Iroquois communities, many did sell their land to buy more alcohol, usually to unscrupulous agents of land companies.[142] At the same time, American settlers continued to push into the lands beyond the Ohio river, leading to a war between the Western Confederacy and the U.S.[141] One of the Iroquois chiefs, Cornplanter, persuaded the Iroquois in New York state to remain neutral and not to join the Western Confederacy.[141] At the same time, American policies to make the Iroquois more settled were starting to have some effect. Traditionally for the Iroquois, farming was woman's work and hunting was men's work; by the early 19th century, American policies to have the men farm the land and cease hunting were having effect.[143] During this time, the Iroquois living in New York state become demoralized, as more of their land was sold to land speculators while alcoholism, violence, and broken families became major problems on their reservations.[143] The Oneida and the Cayuga sold almost all of their land and moved out of their traditional homelands.[143]During World War I, it was Canadian policy to encourage men from the First Nations to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), where their skills at hunting made them excellent as snipers and scouts.[151] As the Iroquois Six Nations were considered the most martial of Canada's First Nations, and, in turn, the Mohawk the most warlike of the Six Nations, the Canadian government especially encouraged the Iroquois, and particularly the Mohawks, to join.[152] About half of the 4,000 or so First Nations men who served in the CEF were Iroquois.[153] Men from the Six Nations reserve at Brantford were encouraged to join the 114th Haldimand Battalion (also known as "Brock's Rangers) of the CEF, where two entire companies including the officers were all Iroquois. The 114th Battalion was formed in December 1915, and broken up in November 1916 to provide reinforcements for other battalions.[151] A Mohawk from Brantford, William Forster Lickers, who enlisted in the CEF in September 1914, was captured at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, where he was savagely beaten by his captors, as one German officer wanted to see if "Indians could feel pain".[154] Lickers was beaten so badly that he was left paralyzed for the rest of his life, though the officer was well pleased to establish that Indians did indeed feel pain.[154]
References
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