Two centuries ago, many hundreds of Iroquois – principally from what is now Kahnawà:ke – left home without leaving behind their ways of life. Recruited to man the large canoes that transported trade goods and animal pelts from and to Montreal, some Iroquois soon returned, while others were enticed ever further west by the rapidly expanding fur trade. Recounting stories of Indigenous self-determination and self-sufficiency, Iroquois in the West tracks four clusters of travellers across time, place, and generations: a band that settled in Montana, another ranging across the American West, others opting for British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, and a group in Alberta who were evicted when their longtime home became Jasper National Park. Reclaiming slivers of Iroquois knowledge, anecdotes, and memories from the shadows of the past, Jean Barman draws on sources that range from descendants' recollections to fur-trade and government records to travellers' accounts. What becomes clear is that, no matter the places or the circumstances, the Iroquois never abandoned their senses of self. Opening up new ways of thinking about Indigenous peoples through time, Iroquois in the West shares the fascinating adventures of a people who have waited over two hundred years to be heard.

Two centuries ago, many hundreds of Iroquois – principally from what is now Kahnawà:ke – left home without leaving behind their ways of life. Recruited to man the large canoes that transported trade goods and animal pelts from and to Montreal, some Iroquois soon returned, while others were enticed ever further west by the rapidly expanding fur trade. Recounting stories of Indigenous self-determination and self-sufficiency, Iroquois in the West tracks four clusters of travellers across time, place, and generations: a band that settled in Montana, another ranging across the American West, others opting for British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, and a group in Alberta who were evicted when their longtime home became Jasper National Park. Reclaiming slivers of Iroquois knowledge, anecdotes, and memories from the shadows of the past, Jean Barman draws on sources that range from descendants' recollections to fur-trade and government records to travellers' accounts. What becomes clear is that, no matter the places or the circumstances, the Iroquois never abandoned their senses of self. Opening up new ways of thinking about Indigenous peoples through time, Iroquois in the West shares the fascinating adventures of a people who have waited over two hundred years to be heard.

Back in print. George T. Hunt’s classic 1940 study of the Iroquois during the middle and late seventeenth century presents warfare as a result of depletion of natural resources in the Iroquois homeland and tribal efforts to assume the role of middlemen in the fur trade between the Indians to the west and the Europeans.

A vivid portrait of the Iroquois nation during colonial America offers insight into their formidable influence over regional politics, their active participation in period trade, and their neutral stance throughout the Anglo-French imperial wars. 15,000 first printing.

An authoritative illustrated study of the People of the Longhouse. In this handsome book, Michael G. Johnson, the author of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes and its companion, Arts and Crafts of the North American Tribes, looks at the people of the Iroquois Confederacy. The tribes were the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and -- admitted into the Iroquois as a sixth nation by 1722 -- the Tuscarora. Iroquois: People of the Longhouse details their story up to the present day, when perhaps 50,000 people of Iroquois descent still live on, or near, their reserves in Canada and the U.S., with that many again living in cities. Rich with archival, contemporary and modern photographs, maps and illustrations, Iroquois: People of the Longhouse contains certainty: The Origins of the Iroquois Confederacy The Six Nations and Incorporated Tribes History 1500-1750 The French and Indian War 1754-1766 New Wars in the Old Northwest The American Revolution and the Aftermath Disintegration, Reformation and Perseverance 1783 to the Present Iroquois in the West Iroquois Social & Political Warfare Food and Flora Religion and Rituals Material Culture: Longhouses, Dress, Wampum, Masks, Decorative Art, Beadwork Important People in Six Nations History. An Iroquois gazetteer, bibliography and list of Iroquois reserves and reservations and their populations complete this authoritative reference.

Unconquered explores the complex world of Iroquois warfare, providing a narrative overview of nearly two hundred years of Iroquois conflict during the colonial era of North America. Detailing Iroquois wars against the French, English, Americans, and a host of Indian enemies, Unconquered builds upon decades of modern scholarship to reveal the vital importance of warfare in Iroquois society and culture, at the same time exploring the diverse motivations—especially Iroquoian spiritual and cultural beliefs—that guided such warfare. Economic competition and rivalry for trade were important factors in Iroquois warfare, but they often provided less motivation for waging war than Iroquoian spiritual and cultural beliefs, including the important tradition of the mourning war. Nor were European agendas particularly important to Iroquois warfare, except in that they occasionally coincided with Iroquois designs. Europeans influenced and incited, both directly and indirectly, conflict within the Iroquois League and with other Indian nations, but the peoples of the Iroquois League waged war according to their own cultural beliefs and by their own rules. In reality, the Iroquoi League rarely waged war against anyone. Rather its individual member nations drove the warfare often attributed to the whole, creating a shifting, amorphous political and military position that allowed member nations to pursue separate policies of war and peace against common foes and multiple enemies. Unconquered also seeks to dispel longstanding beliefs about the invincible Iroquois empire, myths that have been dispelled by focused academic studies, but still retain a powerful resonance among popular conceptions of the Iroquois League. While the Iroquois created far-reaching networks of trade and destroyed or dispersed Indian peoples along their borders, they created no expansive territorial empires. Nor were Iroquois warriors unequaled in battle. Europeans, Americans, and Indians defeated Iroquois warriors and burned Iroquois villages as often as they tasted defeat, and on more than one occasion they brought the Iroquois League to the brink of utter ruin. Yet the Iroquois were never completely destroyed.

Looks at the customs, family life, history, government, culture, and daily life of the Iroquois nations of New York and Ontario.