The Haudenosaunee, commonly known as the Iroquois or the "Five Civilized Tribes", were the first to develop democracy in the world. The Iroquois were primarily found in upstate New York, Canada, and Wisconsin surrounding the Great Lakes and along the St. Lawrence River. The Iroquois were a swidden culture who also incorporated hunting and gathering as part of their culture. Haudenosaunee means "people building a longhouse" which is a technological advancement for the basis of the Iroquois culture. The longhouse housed up to thirty families that lived together and is a symbol of the Great Law that the Five Civilized Tribes was to abide. The Iroquois nation was actually many different tribes that were very warlike and in some cases cannibalistic that came together to form one nation of peace and the first democracy known to man.
The Iroquois primarily lived in upstate New York along the St.
English: 1914 - Buffalo New York, Panoramic View o...
English: A collection of Public Domain images of t...
English: An Iroquois longhouse.Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. The original tribes consisted of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and later the Tucarora. Traveling through upstate New York would be a cultural experience just in the names of the towns, rivers, and most evident in the counties and lakes. Canada received its name from an extinct form Algonquin language when a sixteenth century explorer, Jacques Cartier, was looking for the village of Stadacona, the future site of Quebec. The Iroquois pointed in the direction using the word kanata, which means settlement, thus Canada received its name (Munroe).
Before the Five Tribes united, the Iroquois people were diverse in their subsistence patterns. Some tribes were primarily swidden farmers while others were hunter-gatherers. Upon the uniting of the Iroquois, neither form of subsistence was abandoned but was incorporated into their way of life. The men did hunting and boys could join in on...