Iroquois: People of the Longhouse

OVERVIEW

The Haudenosaunee people whos name translates to " people of the long house" are an Algonquian

based nation who inhabited and migrated through the east coast for thousands of years in America.

Migrating thru modern day New York to the Carolinas even as far Tennessee & Ohio region since

ancient times. Currently located in New York , Quebec, & Montreal region of Canada they are one of

the most dominant nations in the world today misnomered as "Iroquois Indians" .

The Haudenosaunee people speak dialects of the Eastern Algonquian language. The war and conflict

between European contact and other tribes changed the make up of tribes later during the eighteenth

and nineteenth century. The Haudenosaunee is broken into six bands known as: the Seneca, Tuscarora,

Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk Tribes. During war with Europeans the numbers dwindled at

contact. Tuscarora after 1722 migrated from North Carolina to New York to join the nation. As it is

cited in the text of "The Indian Slave Trade by Alan Gallay" that the Tuscarora people are ethnically

linked and of the same linguistic stock of the Seneca (Seneques). In the beginning we see an natural

order of different families & clans living in long wooden houses along upstate New York. Tuscarora are

Skarù·ręʔ translated to "people of the shirt" , the Oneida are Onᐱyoteʔa·ká (people of the standing

stone) , Mohawks are Kanien’kehá:ka "people of the flint" , Seneca are Onödowa’ga (people of the great

hill) , Cayuga are Gayogo̱hó:nǫ ’ "people of the great swamp" , and Onondaga are Onoñda’gega’ (people

of the hills).

Excerpt from "Iroquois : People of the Long house" by Michael G. Johnson. With a chart on the

breakdown of the Haudonosaunee linguistic family amongst the people of the east.