Haudenosaunee

The autonym Haudenosaunee means "people of the longhouse", in reference to the metaphorical longhouse formed by the five original nations of the League. This "longhouse" stretched from the Mohawk Nation in the east to the Seneca Nation in the west, the former being designated the "Keepers of the Eastern Door" and the latter the "Keepers of the Western Door". Iroquois, the traditional exonym for the Haudenosaunee, is of obscure and debated origin. It first appeared in 1603, in the writings of the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, and presumably came from the language of one of the Algonquian peoples he encountered. The descriptive term "Five Nations" (or, after 1722, "Six Nations") is also used, particularly in historical documents. A less common, older autonym for the people of the League is Ongweh’onweh, meaning "original people". The Haudenosaunee country has been called Iroquoia and Haudenosauneega in English, and Iroquoisie in French.

The Haudenosaunee were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy. Modern scholars of the Haudenosaunee distinguish between the League and the Confederacy. According to this interpretation, the Haudenosaunee League is the ceremonial and cultural institution embodied in the Grand Council, which still exists, while the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was the decentralized political and diplomatic entity that emerged in response to European colonization and was dissolved after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War. Today's Haudenosaunee do not make such a distinction, and use the terms interchangeably, but prefer the name "Haudenosaunee Confederacy".

The Haudenosaunee League was established prior to European contact, with the banding together of five Iroquoian peoples living south of the Great Lakes into "The Great League of Peace". Many archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the League was formed about 1450, though arguments have been made for dates as early as the solar eclipse of August 31, 1142.

The founders of the League are traditionally held to be Dekanawida the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha, and Jigonhsasee the Mother of Nations, whose home acted as a sort of United Nations. They brought the Peacemaker's Great Law of Peace to the five Iroquoian nations who were fighting, raiding, and feuding with each other and with other tribes, both Algonkian and Iroquoian. From east to west, the League was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. Each nation involved had a distinct Iroquoian language, territory, and function in the League. The League itself is embodied in its Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs, each representing a clan of a nation.

There were many other independent Iroquoian-speaking peoples outside the Haudenosaunee League. The Erie, Susquehannock, and Wendat (Huron) lived at various times along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes, often competing and warring with neighboring nations of the League. In the American Southeast, the Cherokee were another Iroquoian-language people who had migrated to that area centuries before European contact.

Haudenosaunee contact with European settlers began with Dutch settlement of Fort Nassau, with whom the Haudenosaunee swiftly established a trading relationship. Haudenosaunee oral tradition holds that this meeting coincided with the establishment of the Two Row Wampum Treaty, a mutual agreement of coexistence and non-interference.

Beginning in 1609, the League fought the decades-long Beaver Wars against the French, their Wendat allies, and other neighboring tribes, including the Petun, Erie, and Susquehannock. 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 Algonquian Anishinaabe of the boreal Canadian Shield region, and not infrequently the English colonies as well. During the Beaver Wars, they defeated and assimilated most of the Wendat (1649), Petun (1650), the Neutral Nation (1651), Erie (1657), and Susquehannock (1680). Some Haudenosaunee settled in mission villages along the St. Lawrence River, becoming more closely tied to the French. While they participated in French-led raids on Dutch and English colonial settlements, where some Mohawk and other Haudenosaunee settled, in general the Haudenosaunee resisted attacking their own peoples.

By the end of the century, the Haudenosaunee continued several wars against the French. During King William's War (North American part of the War of the Grand Alliance), the Haudenosaunee allied with the English. In July 1701, they concluded the "Nanfan Treaty", deeding some of their conquered land to the English (a large tract north of the Ohio River). Meanwhile, the Haudenosaunee were negotiating peace with the French; together they signed the Great Peace of Montreal that same year, with the participation of the leading Wyandot diplomat Kondiaronk.

In about 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora joined the League, having migrated northwards from the Carolinas after a bloody conflict with European settlers. A shared cultural background with the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee, as well as a sponsorship from the Oneida, led to acceptance of the Tuscarora as the sixth nation in the confederacy in 1722; the Haudenosaunee become known afterwards as the Six Nations.

The Haudenosaunee continued to be involved in wars between France and England in the eighteenth century. During Queen Anne's War (the North American part of the War of the Spanish Succession), they helped plan attacks against the French. During the French and Indian War, the Haudenosaunee briefly fought on both sides while trying to maintain neutrality. By the end, the Haudenosaunee joined the British after they took Louisbourg and Fort Frontenac. After the war, to protect their alliance, the British government issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, forbidding white settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. American colonists resented and largely ignored the order, and the British had insufficient soldiers to enforce it. Faced with confrontations, the Haudenosaunee agreed to adjust the line again in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768).

During the American Revolution, traditional League unity broke down in the face of requests for aid from the British Crown.. The Oneida and Tuscarora supported the American colonists, while the rest of the Haudenosaunee League (the Cayuga, Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca) sided with the British and Loyalists. At the war's conclusion with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British ceded Haudenosaunee territory in New York to the United States without provisions for the Haudenosaunee. The Crown gave the Haudenosaunee land in Canada in compensation for the five million acres they had lost in the south, but it was not equivalent to earlier territory.

After the migration of a majority to Canada, the Haudenosaunee remaining in New York were required to live mostly on reservations. In 1784, a remnant of 6,000 Haudenosaunee faced 240,000 New Yorkers, with land-hungry New Englanders poised to migrate west. "Oneidas alone, who were only 600 strong, owned six million acres, or about 2.4 million hectares. Iroquoia was a land rush waiting to happen." By the War of 1812, the Haudenosaunee had lost control of much territory. Another Treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed with the new United States in 1784, whereby the Haudenosaunee ceded much of their historical homeland to the United States, followed by the 1794 treaty of Canandaigua which ceded even more land to the Americans. After this, the Haudenosaunee in New York become demoralized, as more of their land was sold to land speculators while alcoholism, violence, and broken families plagued their reservations. The Oneida and the Cayuga sold almost all their land and moved to Canada or the Ohio Country.

Many Haudenosaunee (mostly Mohawk) and Haudenosaunee-descended Métis people living in Lower Canada (primarily at Kahnawake) took employment with the Montreal-based North West Company during its existence from 1779 to 1821, and became voyageurs or free traders in the North American fur trade as far west as the Rocky Mountains. They are known to have settled around Jasper's House and possibly as far west as the Finlay River and north as far as the Pouce Coupe and Dunvegan areas.

During the 18th century, the Catholic Canadian Haudenosaunee outside Montreal reestablished ties with the League Haudenosaunee. During the American Revolution, the Canadian Haudenosaunee declared their neutrality and refused to fight for the Crown, despite the offers of Sir Guy Carleton, the governor of Quebec. In the War of 1812, the Canadian Haudenosaunee again declared neutrality. The Canadian Haudenosaunee communities at Kanesatake and Kahnawake were prosperous settlements in the 19th century, supporting themselves with farming and the sale of sleds, snowshoes, boats, and baskets. In 1884, about 100 Canadian Haudenosaunee were hired by the British government to serve as river pilots and boatmen for the relief expedition of the besieged General Charles Gordon in Khartoum in the Sudan, taking the force commanded by Field Marshal Wolseley up the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum. On their way back to Canada, the Canadian Haudenosaunee river pilots and boatmen stopped in London, where they were personally thanked by Queen Victoria for their services. In 1886, when a bridge was being built at the St. Lawrence, a number of Haudenosaunee men from Kahnawke were hired to help in the construction, and proved so skilled as steelwork erectors that since that time, a number of bridges and skyscrapers in Canada and the U.S. have been built by Haudenosaunee steelmen.

During World War I, Canada encouraged First Nations men to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), where their hunting skills made them excellent snipers and scouts, particularly the warlike Haudenosee and the especially fierce Mohawk. About half the 4,000 or so First Nations men who served in the CEF were Haudenosaunee. Men from the Six Nations reserve at Brantford were encouraged to join the 114th Haldimand Battalion (Brock's Rangers) of the CEF, where two entire companies including officers were all Haudenosaunee. The 114th Battalion was formed in December 1915, and broken up in November 1916 to provide reinforcements for other battalions. 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". Lickers was left paralyzed for life, while the officer was well pleased to see that Indians did indeed feel pain.

The Six Nations council at Brantford tended to see themselves as a sovereign nation allied to the Crown through the Covenant Chain going back to the 17th century, and thus allied to King George V personally, rather than under the authority of Canada. One Haudenosaunee clan mother, in a letter of August 1916 to a CEF recruiting sergeant who refused her teenage son as underage, declared the Six Nations were not subject to the laws of Canada and he had no right to refuse him. As she explained, the Haudenosaunee were not serving Canada, but giving military support directly to their ally King George V.

At the end of the War of 1812, Britain shifted Indian affairs from the military to civilian control. With the creation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867, civil authority, and thus Indian affairs, passed to Canadian officials with Britain retaining control of military and security matters. During World War I, an act attempted to conscript Six Nations men for military service. Under the Soldiers Resettlement Act, legislation was introduced to redistribute native land. Finally in 1920, an Act was proposed to force citizenship on "Indians" with or without their consent, which would then automatically remove their share of any tribal lands from tribal trust and make the land and the person subject to the laws of Canada.

The Haudenosaunee hired a lawyer to defend their rights in the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court refused to take the case, declaring that the members of the Six Nations were British citizens. In effect, as Canada was at the time a division of the British government, it was not an international state, as defined by international law. In contrast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had been making treaties and functioning as a state since 1643 and all of their treaties had been negotiated with Britain, not Canada. As a result, a decision was made in 1921 to send a delegation to petition the King George V, whereupon Canada's External Affairs division blocked issuing passports. In response, the Haudenosaunee began issuing their own passports and sent Levi General, the Cayuga chief Deskaheh, to England with their attorney. Winston Churchill dismissed their complaint claiming that it was within the realm of Canadian jurisdiction and referred them back to Canadian officials.

On December 4, 1922, Charles Stewart, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs traveled to Brantford to negotiate a settlement on the issues with the Six Nations. After the meeting, the Native delegation brought the offer to the tribal council, as was customary under Haudenosaunee law.

In 1644 Johannes Megapolensis described Mohawk as going nearly-nude in the summer and wearing various furs in winter, combined with unsewn Dutch duffels. On their feet the Haudenosaunee wore moccasins.

Traditionally, the bodies and faces of Haudenosaunee men were heavily painted with geometric designs and their noses and ears were pieced with rings made up of wampum or silver. The men usually shaved most of their hair and leaving only a tuft in the center, giving the name Mohawk to their hairstyle. Married women wore their hair in a single braid held in place by a comb made of bone, antler or silver while unmarried wore their hair in several braids. Warriors wore moccasins, leggings and short kilts and on occasion wore robes that were highly decorated with painted designs. During times of war, the faces and bodies of the warriors were painted half red, half black. A cap made of buckskin or cloth tied to wood splints called the gustoweh was decorated with feathers was often worn by men. Later, feathers in the gustoweh denote the wearer's nation by their number and positioning.

Haudenosaunee clothing changed rapidly following the introduction of scissors, needles, and textiles obtained from the Europeans. In the 17th century women normally went topless with a buckskin skirt in the warm months, covering their upper bodies with a cape-like upper garment with an opening for the head in winter. By the 18th century, red and blue cloth obtained from Europeans became the standard material for clothing, with the men and women wearing blouses and shirts, usually decorated with beadwork, quillwork, and ribbons, and often worn alongside silver accessories. Reflecting European influence, Haudenosaunee women began to abandon their traditional topless style of dressing in the warm months in favor of long, loose-fitting overdresses Men's clothing, initially made of buckskin and decorated with porcupine quill-work, was likewise later made of broadcloth obtained from Europeans.

By the 1900s most Haudenosaunee were wearing the same clothing as their non-Haudenosaunee neighbors. Today most nations primarily wear their traditional clothing to ceremonies or special events.

In recent times, traditional medicine has co-existed with western medicine, with traditional practices more prevalent among followers of the Gaihwi꞉io (Longhouse Religion). People may resort to traditional practices for certain types of ailments, and to western medicine for other types, or they may use both traditional and western medicine to treat the same ailment as a form of double security.

The Haudenosaunee societies are active in maintaining the practice of traditional medicine.

The Haudenosaunee have historically followed a matriarchal system. Men and women have traditionally had separate roles but both hold real power in the Nations. No person is entitled to 'own' land, but it is believed that the Creator appointed women as stewards of the land. Traditionally, the Clan Mothers appoint leaders, as they have raised children and are therefore held to a higher regard. By the same token, if a leader does not prove sound, becomes corrupt or does not listen to the people, the Clan Mothers have the power to strip him of his leadership. The chief of a clan can be removed at any time by a council of the women elders of that clan. The chief's sister has historically been responsible for nominating his successor. The clan mothers, the elder women of each clan, are highly respected.

Haudenosaunee kinship is matrilineal, and hereditary leadership passes through the female line of descent, that is, from a mother to her children. The children of a traditional marriage belong to their mother's clan and gain their social status through hers. Her brothers are important teachers and mentors to the children, especially introducing boys to men's roles and societies. If a couple separates, the woman traditionally keeps the children. It is regarded as incest by the Haudenosaunee to marry within one's matrilineal clan, but considered acceptable to marry someone from the same patrilineal clan.

The teachings of Handsome Lake also expanded to influence the wider Haudenosaunee society. The power centered around the mode of food production and the social sphere in general. Handsome Lake's teaching tried to center the nuclear family and transferred the women's sphere to be relegated to the home while the men's sphere focused on horticulture. Also, the Handsome Lake code shifted from the family structure from the maternal one to one that centers around the patriarch.

Moreover, several other factors influenced the position of Haudenosaunee women. The exhaustion of the beavers' population led to men traveling for longer distances; this resulted in women having a more influential role in their societies because of the long absence of men. Another factor that influenced women's position shift was the reorganization of the political structure. The changes were influential as elected representatives instead of women-appointed chiefs.

The status of Haudenosaunee women inspired and had an impact on the early American Feminist movement. This was seen in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the first feminist convention. For example, Matilda Gage, a prominent member of the convention, wrote extensively about the Haudenosaunee throughout her life. Elizabeth Cady lived in close proximity to the Seneca nation of the Haudenosaunee and had a relative and a neighbor who was adopted by the Seneca.

Women also held an important position as Agoianders. The Agoianders were named for their perceived good qualities. They served a wide variety of social, political and diplomatic functions.

Historically women have held the dwellings, horses and farmed land, and a woman's property before marriage has stayed in her possession without being mixed with that of her husband. The work of a woman's hands is hers to do with as she sees fit.

Historically, at marriage, a young couple lived in the longhouse of the wife's family (matrilocality). A woman choosing to divorce a shiftless or otherwise unsatisfactory husband is able to ask him to leave the dwelling and take his possessions with him.

Like many cultures, the Haudenosaunee's spiritual beliefs changed over time and varied across the constituent nations. Generally, the Haudenosaunee believed in numerous deities, including the Creator or Great Spirit, the Thunderer, and the Three Sisters (the spirits of beans, maize, and squash). The Great Spirit was thought to have created plants, animals, and humans to control "the forces of good in nature", and to guide ordinary people. Orenda is the proposed Iroquoian name for the magical potence found in people and their environment. The Haudenosaunee are argued to have believed in the orenda, the spiritual force that flowed through all things, and believed if people were respectful of nature, then the orenda would be harnessed to bring about positive results. There were three types of spirits for the Haudenosaunee: 1) Those living on the earth 2) Those living above the earth and 3) the highest level of spirits controlling the universe from high above with the highest of those beings known variously as the Great Spirit, the Great Creator or the Master of Life.

Sources provide different stories about Haudenosaunee creation beliefs. Brascoupé and Etmanskie focus on the first person to walk the earth, called Sky Woman or Aientsik. Aientsik's daughter Tekawerahkwa gave birth to twins, Tawiskaron, who created vicious animals and river rapids, while Okwiraseh created "all that is pure and beautiful". After a battle where Okwiraseh defeated Tawiskaron, Tawiskaron was confined to "the dark areas of the world", where he governed the night and destructive creatures. Other scholars present the "twins" as the Creator and his brother, Flint. The Creator was responsible for game animals, while Flint created predators and disease. Saraydar (1990) suggests the Haudenosaunee do not see the twins as polar opposites but understood their relationship to be more complex, noting "Perfection is not to be found in gods or humans or the worlds they inhabit."

Haudenosaunee spiritual history consistently refer to dark times of terror and misery prior to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, ended by the arrival of the Great Peacemaker. Tradition asserts that the Peacemaker demonstrated his authority as the Creator's messenger by climbing a tall tree above a waterfall, having the people cut down the tree, and reappearing the next morning unharmed. Along with Jigonhsasee, the Peacemaker restored mental health to a few of the most "violent and dangerous men", Hiawatha and Tadodaho, who then helped him bear the message of peace to others..

After the arrival of the Europeans, some Haudenosaunee became Christians, among them the first Native American Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, a young woman of Mohawk-Algonquin parents. The Seneca chief Handsome Lake, also known as Ganeodiyo, introduced a new religious system to the Haudenosaunee in the late 18th century, which incorporated Quaker beliefs along with traditional Iroquoian culture. Handsome Lake's teachings include a focus on parenting, appreciation of life, and peace. A key aspect of Handsome Lake's teachings is the principle of equilibrium, wherein each person's talents combined into a functional community. By the 1960s, at least 50% of Haudenosaunee followed this religion.

Dreams play a significant role in Haudenosaunee spirituality, providing information about a person's desires and prompting individuals to fulfill dreams. To communicate upward, humans can send prayers to spirits by burning tobacco.

Condolence ceremonies are conducted by the Haudenosaunee for both ordinary and important people, but most notably when a royaner (chief) died. Such ceremonies were still held on Haudenosaunee reservations as late as the 1970s. After death, the soul is thought to embark on a journey, undergo a series of ordeals, and arrive in the sky world. This journey is thought to take one year, during which the Haudenosaunee mourn for the dead. After the mourning period, a feast is held to celebrate the soul's arrival in the skyworld.

Faithkeepers are part-time specialists who conduct religious ceremonies. Both men and women can be appointed as Faithkeepers by Haudenosaunee elders.

The Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address is a central prayer in Haudenosaunee tradition recited daily in the beginning of school days as well as social, cultural, and political events. The address gives thanks to the parts of nature necessary to ecosystem sustainability and emphasizes the ideology that all animals and plants within an ecosystem are connected and each plays a vital role in it.

The phrasing of the address may vary depending on the speaker but is usually composed of 17 main sections and ends with a closing prayer. The 17 main sections are: 1) The people, 2) The Earth Mother, 3) The waters, 4) The fish, 5) plants, 6) food plants,7) medicine herbs, 8) animals, 9) trees, 10) birds, 11) four winds, 12) The Thunderers, 13) The Sun, 14) Grandmother Moon, 15) The stars, 16) The Enlightened Teachers, and 17) The Creator. Within each section, gratitude is given for the gifts that section provides to humanity.

The address serves as a pledge of gratitude as well as a "scientific inventory of the natural world".

The Grand Council of the Six Nations is an assembly of 56 Hoyenah (chiefs). Chief offices are hereditary within their clan. When a position becomes vacant a candidate is selected from among the members of the clan and "raised up" by a council of all chiefs. The new chief gives up his old name and is thereafter addressed by the title.

Today, the seats on the Council are distributed among the Six Nations as follows:

14 Onondaga

10 Cayuga

9 Oneida

9 Mohawk

8 Seneca

6 Tuscarora

When anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan studied the Grand Council in the 19th century, he interpreted it as a central government. This interpretation became influential, but Richter argues that while the Grand Council served an important ceremonial role, it was not a government in the sense that Morgan thought. According to this view, Haudenosaunee political and diplomatic decisions are made on the local level and are based on assessments of community consensus. A central government that develops policy and implements it for the people at large is not the Haudenosaunee model of government.

Unanimity in public acts was essential to the Council. In 1855, Minnie Myrtle observed that no Haudenosaunee treaty was binding unless it was ratified by 75% of the male voters and 75% of the mothers of the nation. In revising Council laws and customs, a consent of two-thirds of the mothers was required. The need for a double supermajority to make major changes made the Confederacy a de facto consensus government.

The women traditionally held real power, particularly the power to veto treaties or declarations of war. The members of the Grand Council of Chiefs were chosen by the mothers of each clan. If any leader failed to comply with the wishes of the women of his nation and the Great Law of Peace, the mother of his clan could demote him, a process called "dehorning". The deer antlers, an emblem of leadership, were removed from his headgear, thus returning him to private life.

Councils of the mothers of each nation were held separately from the men's councils. The women used men as runners to send word of their decisions to concerned parties, or a woman could appear at the men's council as an orator, presenting the view of the women. Women often took the initiative in suggesting legislation.

The term "wampum" refers to beads made from purple and white mollusk shells on threads of elm bark. Species used to make wampum include the highly prized quahog clam which produces the famous purple colored beads. For white colored beads the shells from the channeled whelk, knobbed whelk, lightning whelk, and snow whelk are used.

Wampum was primarily used to make wampum belts by the Haudenosaunee, which Haudenosaunee tradition claims was invented by Hiawatha to console chiefs and clan mothers who lost family members to war. Wampum belts played a major role in the Condolence Ceremony and in the raising of new chiefs. Both chiefs and clan mothers wear wampum belts as symbol of their offices. Wampum belts are also used to signify the importance of a specific message being presented. Treaty making often involved wampum belts to signify the importance of the treaty.

The Hiawatha Belt is the national belt of the Haudenosaunee and is represented in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy flag. The belt has four squares and a tree in the middle which represents the original Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee that were united by the Peacemaker and Hiawatha. Going from left to right the squares represent the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Mohawk. The Onondaga are represented by an eastern white pine which represents the Tree of Peace, an Eastern White Pine, the needles of which are clustered in groups of five. Traditionally the Onondaga are the peace keepers of the confederacy. The placement of the nations on the belt represents the actual geographical distribution of the six nations over their shared territory, with the Seneca in the far west and the Mohawk in the far east of Haudenosaunee territory. The Haudenosaunee flag created in the 1980s is based on the Hiawatha Belt ... created from purple and white wampum beads centuries ago to symbolize the union forged when the former enemies buried their weapons under the Great Tree of Peace."

Treaty belts were later presented to symbolically represent treaties between the Haudenosaunee and European colonists. The Two Row Wampum was originally presented to the Dutch settlers, and then French, with two lines representing a canoe and a sailboat moving side-by-side along the river of life, not interfering with the other's course. All non-Native settlers are, by associations, members of this treaty.

"The Covenant Belt" was presented to the Haudenosaunee at the signing of the Canandaigua Treaty. The belt has a design of thirteen human figures representing symbolically the Thirteen Colonies of the U.S. The house and the two figures directly next to the house represent the Haudenosaunee people and the symbolic longhouse. The figure on the left of the house represent the Seneca Nation who are the symbolic guardians of the western door (western edge of Haudenosaunee territory) and the figure to the right of the house represents the Mohawk who are the keepers of the eastern door (eastern edge of Haudenosaunee territory).

Historians in the 20th century have suggested the Haudenosaunee system of government influenced the development of the U.S. government, although the extent and nature of this influence has been disputed. Bruce Johansen proposes that the Haudenosaunee had a representative form of government.

Consensus has not been reached on how influential the Haudenosaunee model was to the development of U.S. documents such as the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. The influence thesis has been discussed by historians such as Donald Grinde and Bruce Johansen. In 1987, Cornell University held a conference on the link between the Haudenosaunee's government and the U.S. Constitution. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution to recognize the influence of the Haudenosaunee League upon the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Scholars such as Jack N. Rakove challenge this thesis. Stanford University historian Rakove writes, "The voluminous records we have for the constitutional debates of the late 1780s contain no significant references to the Iroquois" and notes that there are ample European precedents to the democratic institutions of the U.S. In reply, journalist Charles C. Mann wrote that while he agreed that the specific form of government created for the U.S. was "not at all like" that of the Haudenosaunee, available evidence does support "a cultural argument – that the well-known democratic spirit had much to do with colonial contact with the Indians of the eastern seaboard, including and especially the Haudenosaunee," and (quoting Rakove) "that prolonged contact between the aboriginal and colonizing populations were important elements [sic] in the shaping of colonial society and culture." Historian Francis Jennings noted that supporters of the thesis frequently cite the following statement by Benjamin Franklin, made in a letter from Benjamin Franklin to James Parker in 1751: "It would be a very strange thing, if six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such a Union ... and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies," but he disagrees that it establishes influence. Rather, he thinks Franklin was promoting union against the "ignorant savages" and called the idea "absurd".

The anthropologist Dean Snow has stated that although Franklin's Albany Plan may have drawn inspiration from the Haudenosaunee League, there is little evidence that either the Plan or the Constitution drew substantially from that source. He argues that "such claims muddle and denigrate the subtle and remarkable features of Haudenosaunee government. The two forms of government are distinctive and individually remarkable in conception."

Similarly, the anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker has concluded that "there is virtually no evidence that the framers borrowed from the Iroquois." She argues that the idea is a myth resulting from a claim made by linguist and ethnographer J.N.B. Hewitt that was exaggerated and misunderstood after his death in 1937. According to Tooker, the original Haudenosaunee constitution did not involve representative democracy and elections; deceased chiefs' successors were selected by the most senior woman within the hereditary lineage in consultation with other women in the tribe.

The Haudenosaunee people, living mainly in present-day New York and Pennsylvania, had many encounters with European colonial powers, primarily the English, Dutch, and French.

The Dutch respected Haudenosaunee land claims and were peaceful with the Haudenosaunee, specifically the Mohawk people. Trying to avoid their own Black Legend, the Dutch established trade and an allyship with the Mohawk people. By the 1640s Dutch traders were exporting thousands of furs a year, most of which were traded from the Mohawks. The Mohawks used their monopoly over the Fort Orange (Albany) market to set prices. Many of the furs the Mohawks sold were stolen from other Indigenous enemies around the St Lawrence River region and then traded to the Dutch. While the Dutch had strong relations with the Mohawks, they fell into conflict with other Indigenous peoples like the Delawares.

Initially, English rule around the Haudenosaunee strengthened their position. In the mid-1670s, New York governor Sir Edmund Andros allied with the Haudenosaunee in what was known as the Covenant Chain. During the Covenant Chain, the English and Haudenosaunee reinforced each other. The English and Haudenosaunee would join to fight Native rivals and the French. Andros accepted the Haudenosaunee land claim in the vast area stretching to the Ohio River. Starting in the 1680s, natives around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley would regroup and with French aid pushed the Haudenosaunee back east. The Haudenosaunee would continue to support the English during the Seven Years' War from 1754 to 1763. English respect of Haudenosaunee land claims was starting to diminish and by the end of the 18th century, the Haudenosaunee would adopt a policy of neutrality with the European empires while continuing to profit off the fur trade.

The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy declared war on Germany in 1917 during World War I and again in 1942 in World War II.

The Haudenosaunee government has issued passports since 1923, when Haudenosaunee authorities issued a passport to Cayuga statesman Deskaheh (Levi General) to travel to the League of Nations headquarters.

More recently, passports have been issued since 1997. Before 2001 these were accepted by various nations for international travel, but with increased security concerns across the world since the September 11 attacks, this is no longer the case.

In 2010, the Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team was allowed by the U.S. to travel on their own passports to the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship in England only after the personal intervention of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However, the British government refused to recognize the Haudenosaunee passports and denied the team members entry into the United Kingdom.

The Onondaga Nation spent $1.5 million on an upgrade to the passports designed to meet 21st-century international security requirements.

The first five nations listed below formed the original Five Nations (listed from east to west, as they were oriented to the sunrise); the Tuscarora became the sixth nation in 1722.

Within each of the Six Nations, people belonged to a number of matrilineal clans. The number of clans varies by nation, currently from three to eight, with a total of nine different clan names.

Modern scholarly estimates of the 17th century population of the Haudenosaunee have ranged from 5,500 to more than 100,000. When it comes to eye-witness estimates (that is, contemporary estimates) Marc Lescarbot estimated the Haudenosaunee in year 1609 at 8,000 warriors (that is around 40,000 people) and baron L. A. de Lahontan estimated the Haudenosaunee population around year 1690 at 70,000 people (on average 14,000 in each of five nations). Haudenosaunee territory in the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century was over 75,000 square km (over 29,000 square mi). John R. Swanton enumerated a total of 226 Haudenosaunee villages and towns (but most were not occupied at the same time as the Haudenosaunee moved villages every five to twenty years). On the contrary Lewis H. Morgan in his 1851 book estimated the Haudenosaunee population in 1650 at 25,000 people, including 10,000 Seneca, 5,000 Mohawk, 4,000 Onondaga, 3,000 Oneida and 3,000 Cayuga. The Seneca were also estimated at 13,000 in year 1672 and 15,000 in year 1687. In 1713–1722, the Haudenosaunee population was augmented when the Tuscarora migrated north to New York and joined them as the sixth nation.

More recent estimates by Snow and Jones of the Haudenosaunee population have been about 20,000. Jones' estimate applies to the period preceding the first known epidemics of Old World diseases impacting the Haudenosaunee in the mid-17th century. After an archaeological investigation and dating of all 125 Haudenosaunee villages known to have been occupied between 1500 and 1700 (fewer than 226 listed by Swanton occupied at any time), Jones estimated the total pre-epidemic Haudenosaunee population at 20,000 in 1620–1634. In the post-epidemic period from 1634 to 1660 he estimates the total Haudenosaunee population at 8,000. The latter figure does not include the thousands of people adopted into the Haudenosaunee from conquered ethnic groups. The Haudenosaunee had a liberal and successful adoption policy that allowed them to recoup their population losses and gave them an adaptive advantage over their foes who were unable to do the same. In 1658, the Jesuits noted that the Haudenosaunee contained more adopted foreigners than natives of the country.

In 1779 between 40 and 60 Haudenosaunee towns and villages were destroyed by the Sullivan Expedition in a scorched earth operation. More than 5,000 Haudenosaunee fled to British Canada and an unknown number remained in the U.S. According to one estimate 4,500 died in the aftermath of the expedition, including many who fled to Canada.

In 1907 there were 17,630 Haudenosaunee and in 1923 there were 8,696 Haudenosaunee in the USA and 11,355 in Canada, for a total of 20,051.

According to data compiled in 1995 by Doug George-Kanentiio, a total of 51,255 Six Nations people lived in Canada. These included 15,631 Mohawk in Quebec; 14,051 Mohawk in Ontario; 3,970 Oneida in Ontario; and a total of 17,603 of the Six Nations at the Grand River Reserve in Ontario. More recently according to the Six Nations Elected Council, some 12,436 on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, the largest First Nations reserve in Canada, as of December 2014 and 26,034 total in Canada.

In 1995, tribal registrations among the Six Nations in the U.S. numbered about 30,000 in total, with the majority of 17,566 in New York. The remainder were more than 10,000 Oneida in Wisconsin, and about 2200 Seneca-Cayuga in Oklahoma. As the nations individually determine their rules for membership or citizenship, they report the official numbers. (Some traditional members of the nations refuse to be counted.) There is no federally recognized Haudenosaunee nation or tribe, nor are any Native Americans enrolled as Haudenosaunee.

In the 2000 U.S. census, 80,822 people identified as having Haudenosaunee ethnicity, with 45,217 claiming only Haudenosaunee ancestry. There are multiple reservations in New York: Cayuga Nation of New York(~450,) St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (3,288), Onondaga Reservation (468), Oneida Indian Nation (~ 1000), Seneca Nation of New York (533) and the Tuscarora Reservation (1,138 in 2000). Some 21,000 lived at the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, according to the 2000 census. Seneca-Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma has more than 5,000 people in 2011. In the 2010 census, 81,002 persons identified as Haudenosaunee, and 40,570 as Haudenosaunee only across the U.S. Including the Haudenosaunee in Canada, the total population numbered over 125,000 as of 2009.

In the 2020 U.S. census in total 113,814 people identified as Haudenosaunee.

Several communities exist of people descended from the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Kahnawake Mohawk in Quebec

Kanesatake Mohawk in Quebec

Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne in Ontario and Quebec

Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario

Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario

Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario

Wahta Mohawk Territory in Ontario

Cayuga Nation in New York

Ganienkeh Mohawk in New York – not federally recognized

Kanatsiohareke Mohawk in New York

Onondaga Nation in New York

Oneida Indian Nation in New York

Oneida Nation in Wisconsin

St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York

Seneca Nation in New York

Seneca–Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma

Tonawanda Seneca Nation of New York

Tuscarora Nation of New York