Iroquoian

Iroquoian languages include Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Erie, Neutral, Tobacco, and Huron. Iroquoian speakers occupied territories from Lake Erie to the mouth of the St. Lawrence.

Iroquoian society was matrilineal, which means that the female lineage is observed. Family names were matrilineal and all family relations were organised according to the mother's lineage. The family's dwelling, or longhouse, was owned by the elder women and the activities within it were directed by them. Responsibilities of the female elders included organising agricultural labour, mediation, allocation of land, and food storage and distribution, which endowed these women with power over the village. For example, if warfare was proposed and the women did not approve, the warriors would not be fed. The conflict, therefore, had to be handled in a different manner. An Iroquois woman lived with her intended husband for a trial period prior to marriage, and divorce was accepted. Sexual abstinence lasted two to three years after a child was born to provide uninterrupted breastfeeding. Like the Huron, the Iroquois were divided into exogamous matrilineal clans, each with its own totem animal identifying that clan. Despite this potential for unity there was a time when the nations of the Iroquois warred among themselves.

The Iroquois and Huron participated in healing societies. One such group of healers called its society "Keeper of Faith". There was also the Iroquois False Face Curing Society, which was perhaps the most famous. In this society, carved wooden masks used in the healing rite were believed to possess spiritual force and depicted an order of mythical beings. Each wooden mask gave special curing powers to the society member who wore the mask.

Religion was a unifying force, both socially and politically, for the Iroquoian peoples. The various clans spent the winter months socialising and participating in festivals. Both male and female members organised ritual activities such as the harvest and mid-winter celebrations. They performed healing rites and made tobacco offerings, and they prayed and danced. By singing, drumming, and participating in the ritual use of tobacco, it was possible to build up one's power, or manitou, the spirit that lived in all human beings and in nature. The drum was the most important of the musical instruments. The Iroquoian used both the tambourine and a double-headed drum. There was also a small, barrel-shaped water drum that made an echoing note capable of carrying a long distance.

The Ononharoia was the main Huron winter festival. It was a soul-curing ritual. The ceremony was celebrated to rid the village of the evil spirits associated with illness or depression. During this three-day celebration, people broke into houses, upset furniture, and shattered pots. Those who were sick then went about the village seeking out objects that had appeared in their dreams. If they got what they were looking for, it meant that their troubles were over.

The Huron believed that everything, including the things they made, had a soul and was immortal. A soul having the power to influence human beings is called oki, and because it controlled the seasons and other natural phenomena, the oki of the sky was considered the most powerful.

The most important of all Huron festivals was the Feast of the Dead. This feast was held every ten years and it usually involved several satellite communities. This feast was a celebration of the dead and a social gathering. The community's dead, who had not had a violent demise, were removed from their individual graves and reburied in a common burial plot. During the ten-day feast, eight days were spent in careful preparation of the corpses, whose flesh was stripped and then burned. The souls of the dead were now free to travel west to the land of the souls. This land was similar to the villages of the deceased, but complete with dead members of the family. Here all members of a family lived together as they had when they were alive. During the feast, presents brought by family mourners were collected and redistributed by a village headman. For the Huron, the Feast of the Dead was an act of reverence that also promoted good will among neighbouring communities.

The Iroquois annually held six to eight festivals relating to the cultivation of the soil and the ripening of fruits and berries. There was a seven-day festival when corn was planted, another when it was green, and a third when it was harvested. The leading event in the Iroquois ceremonial year was the mid-winter festival that extended over a week, with the final three days being reserved for games. During the festival, tobacco was burned and the Creator was asked for success in the coming agricultural year.

Young Huron males performed vision quests to seek a personal guardian spirit who would reveal the personal war chant that they were to sing in times of danger. Young girls also performed vision quests. At time of first menses a girl becomes a woman in the social hierarchy of the band. For two or three years, she wears an elaborately decorated collar and is confined away from the camp to learn womanly duties. A number of taboos protect her, and she is secluded until she is ready for marriage.

The Five Nations Confederacy was apparently formed in the fifteenth century in response to growing violence and conflict among First Nations groups. Dekanawidah was the heavenly messenger who initiated the confederacy, and Hiawatha was his disciple. Dekanawidah was a peacemaker and taught moral lessons that encouraged co-operation and alliance. A single white pine symbolised the Tree of Peace. The Iroquois buried war clubs and hatchets at the base of the tree, and an eagle perched at the top watched for threats to the peace. The tree's branches signified the protection members received from the alliance. The roots provided the essential moral basis of mind, body, justice, and equality, which are achieved through communal lifeways and collective military power.