Iroquois

[bobbo008]

I was just watching a show about Custer, and they mentioned, what I think were the Iroquois. To my knowledge, the Iroquois are out East, so we don't hear much about them in the Midwest, compared to the local ones like the Ojibwa and Ho Chunk.

Anyways, the show pronounced it,
"ee-rick-o-wa" or something like that, but I always thought it was "ee-row-coy". Am I stupid, were they right, why did they choose the Iroquois, why are we here?

[Willem]

Originally posted by bobbo008
I was just watching a show about Custer, and they mentioned, what I think were the Iroquois. To my knowledge, the Iroquois are out East, so we don't hear much about them in the Midwest, compared to the local ones like the Ojibwa and Ho Chunk.

Anyways, the show pronounced it,
"ee-rick-o-wa" or something like that, but I always thought it was "ee-row-coy". Am I stupid, were they right, why did they choose the Iroquois, why are we here?

I don't know why they would mention the Iroquois along with Custer. You're right, they lived in the East. Their territory was in the New England area, south of the Great Lakes. What's now New York, Michigan, Maine etc.

During the war of independence, they sided with the British and were kicked out of the US because of it. Because of their help, the British gave them land on the Grand River in Ontario, I think it was a mile on each on each side from mouth to source.

They still have a reservation outside Brantford. Which was named after the Iroquois leader Joseph Brant, and the place where he forded the river and set up the original settlement. I know all this stuff because Brantford was my home town.

So aside from a few pockets of Iroquois living near the St.Lawrence river, what's now the Kananaskis (sp?) reserve, they weren't even in the US during the time of Custer.

Incidentally, the Iroquois nation was actually a federation of sorts composed of 6 different tribes. If my memory serves me, they were the Tuscarora, the Onieda, the Onondaga, the Iroquois of course, the Cayuga and one more I can't remember.

[Mad Bomber]

The Iroquois federation consisted of: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca. After 1722 the Tuscarora were added to the League as a sixth, but non-voting, member.

The original homeland of the Iroquois was in upstate New York between the Adirondack Mountains and Niagara Falls. Through conquest and migration, they gained control of most of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. At its maximum in 1680, their empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and adjacent parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake.

In the United States, much of the Iroquois homeland was surrendered to New York land speculators in a series of treaties following the Revolutionary War. Despite this, most Seneca, Tuscarora, and Onondaga avoided removal during the 1830s and have remained in New York. There are also sizeable groups of Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Caughnawaga still in the state. Most of the Oneida, however, relocated in 1838 to a reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[Willem]

Thanks for the info, a few things there I wasn't aware of. It's been a long time since I thought about any of that stuff, and I didn't get into it to deeply to begin with. Just a few basics any self-respecting former Brantford resident should know.

I still don't understand what Custer has to do with them. Unless he had some dealings in his early military career.

[bobbo008]

"I don't know why they would mention the Iroquois along with Custer"

He just had several scouts that happened to be Iroquois, and that's as far as it got into with them.

Were they correct on the pronunciation?

[Willem]

Originally posted by bobbo008


Were they correct on the pronunciation?

Not quite, though I'm not sure exactly how to explain it using phonics. It's primarily a French name, though you were closer than they were. It's just that last syllable that was off, at least with the way we pronounce it in English Canada. A Quebecois (same ending) might have a different idea! It's more like "qu-wa", though not quite. Definitely a "wa" sound at the end, not "coy"

[bobbo008]

Thank you much, now I just have to get over the habit of pronouncing it wrong. Were the Iroquois even the best choice for a Native American civ?

[Willem]

Sure. As Mad Bomber pointed out, they covered alot of territory in their prime. And they were one of the most powerful nations in the east. They didn't really have any rivals in the area, except for the Algonquin people in the north, and they were being pushed back by the Iroqouis and losing ground when the Europeans arrived on the scene. They were often noted for their ruthlessness in battle.

[bobbo008]

I've heard a lot about the Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow, etc., but hardly ever heard of the Iroquois (not enough to know how to pronounce their name), but maybe its just because I don't live in the East

[High_Lord]

Ahm frum Teksis an round hera we call em EAR-a-kwa, or jes INJUN

my font is bigger in TEKSIS!!

[bobbo008]

... aren't you special