Iroquois

The Iroquois, a term historically used for a group of Indigenous peoples in the northeastern part of North America, are commonly known in their own languages as the Haudenosaunee, or the People of the Longhouse. They speak languages of the Iroquoian language family and historically formed a political and cultural alliance known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

The core nations traditionally included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, with the Tuscarora joining the confederacy in the 18th century. The Haudenosaunee inhabited areas in present-day upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and parts of southern Ontario and Quebec. The Confederacy functioned under the Great Law of Peace, a constitutional framework that emphasizes collective decision making, consensus, and balance among the nations. The Grand Council, composed of representatives from each nation, operates alongside clan mothers who select chiefs and guide important matters.

Culturally, the Haudenosaunee practiced a mixed economy of farming, hunting, and fishing, with the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) playing a central role in nutrition. Longhouses symbolized their communal living, and wampum belts served as records of treaties and history. The Iroquoian-speaking peoples engaged in extensive diplomacy and, in the 17th century, participated in broader regional conflicts and alliances with European powers.

Today, Haudenosaunee communities remain active in the United States and Canada, preserving language, governance traditions, and cultural practices through contemporary nations and reserves, such as the Six Nations of the Grand River. Some historians note potential influences of Haudenosaunee governance on the development of constitutional ideas in later colonial societies, though this connection is debated.