The French made their way into Iroquois territory in the early 17th century. A fur trapping and trading expedition, led by Samuel de Champlain made a trading allegiance with the Huron, the Iroquois’ bitter rival to the north. (Pearce, 52) When the Mohawks and the rest of the league were made aware of the French presence, the Iroquois were enraged and hostile towards the French explorers. (Axtell, 34) Several skirmishes erupted between the French and Iroquois but never anything serious enough to be made enemies of the French Empire. In 1610, Dutch traders made contact with the Iroquois of the Hudson River Valley in New York. (Sultzman) The Dutch quickly formed an informal allegiance with the Iroquois and supplied the Iroquois with guns and ammunition in return for beaver hides. The Dutch believed that if they could supply the Iroquois with enough firepower to defeat their enemies to the north the French monopoly, on the fur trade would be terminated, and the Dutch would not be to blame.
Dutch support and armaments began an intertribal war over trade with Europe that would last seven decades. The Beaver Wars (Sultzman) began because of the demand for beaver and other hides from Europe. The Iroquois had decimated the already small beaver population in their territory and they were forced to expand and conquer to supply the Europeans with furs. The French-Iroquois relationship had become much better, mostly because the Iroquois had found that they could play both sides of the fur trade, remain neutral, and prosper. Great Britain began colonizing New England in the 1620’s and became a factor in the fur trade as well. (Sultzman) The Beaver Wars were an important part in the history of the Iroquois because they gained diplomatic control over the fur trade and were able to gain power and land from armaments received during trading.
The Iroquois, when they were adequately armed, were able to trade with multiple nations without forming trade allegiances like many other Indian tribes. The Iroquois were able to exploit their power and gain economic success: “At this point, no power in North America could have stood against the Iroquois League, even the Europeans. However, rather than choosing to confront the Europeans, the Iroquois decided to deal with them as equals and use their firearms and trade goods to their own advantage.” (Hoxie, 100-103) Because the Iroquois were such a great power, they were also able to eliminate their competition without consequence from the Europeans. However, such neutrality would soon dissolve as the British Colonies pushed into French Territory.
As English Settlers pressed on into the Frontier and the Seven Year’s War raged on in Europe, a war was waged on the frontier, and the Iroquois were stuck in the middle of the battle. The mortal enemies of the Iroquois, the Huron Indians, had sided with the French. Naturally the Iroquois decided to side with the British, not only because they refused to ally themselves with the Huron, but also because Iroquois elders felt that if they sided with the British, their lands would be protected from English expansion. The fighting was costly for both sides, but ended in a peace agreement of 1759. The English controlled all of the French claimed lands of North America, and the Iroquois were now even stronger allies with the British.
In 1763, Great Britain declared that all lands west of the Appalachian Mountains were Indian territory, and no lands could be legally claimed beyond that point. However, many tribes, which were preexisting in colonized land, were literally exported to the Ohio River Valley. (Weeks, 82-87) This mandate made by the British was seen as a sign of good faith to the Iroquois. However, the numerous tribes entering their territory were a problem for the Six Nations. Because settlers and native tribes alike were trying to over-take Iroquois land, the individual tribes of the Iroquois became more and more secular and concerned only with the matters of their respective tribes, not for the nation as a whole. This gap beginning to form between the nations would grow wider and wider for 40 years until the Iroquois nation would dissolve.
The proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” for the Iroquois was the American Revolution. The Iroquois were convinced by British commanders that the Americans would fail in their attempt at revolution, which would allow Great Britain to tighten their grip on the colonies and in turn prevent settlers from seeping into Iroquois land. Sheer logistics would have the English Army easily defeating the Colonial Army, and the Iroquois used a logical approach: “when the French lost and we fought for the English, England helped us with our problem, therefore if we help the British again against the colonist’s, we will have another problem taken care of”. This logic is what brought the Iroquois into the American Revolution.
The Iroquois participated in ambushes and other guerrilla tactics with Tories and other unorganized militia. These militia would raid small towns, and American held forts, and casualties for each incident were relatively small for both sides of the conflict. However, with the Treaty of Paris of 1783, American government was now in control and one of the first actions passed by the new government allowed the colonization of the so-called “Northwest Territory”, the very lands which the Iroquois inhabited (Sultzman) The Iroquois Nation had no way of defending its lands because it was concerned with its dwindling population, and the secularism circulating throughout the tribes. The Iroquois suffered great losses at the hands of the colonists: “From a pre-war population of 8,000, fewer than 5,000 Iroquois survived the war, 2,000 of whom had moved to Canada.” (Sultzman) With a population of 3,000 the Iroquois “dynasty” in North America had ended.
The Iroquois were a dominant civilization that spanned approximately four centuries. Their way of life was primitive; they had no written language. Yet they were truly civilized in their unique form of government, one that influenced the United States. The image of the noble “savage” does not apply to the Iroquois. For 200 years they were the most dominate force on continent of North America. It was the Iroquois rational thought and diplomacy that brought its civilization to an abrupt halt, and ended an era of Native Influence on the global economy.
Bibliography
Axtell, James. After Columbus: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial America. New York: Oxford UP, 1988.
Bial, Raymond. The Iroquois. New York: Benchmark Books, 1999
The Constitution of The Iroquois Nation. Ed. Page, Melvin E.. June 2001. East Tennessee University, Department of History. 17 September 2002 <http://www.etsu.edu/cas/history/docs/irioqconst.htm>
Hoxie, Fredrick E.. Indians in American History. Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, Inc.: 1988
Iroquois. Ed. Lee Sultzman. 17 September 2002
Iroquois Confederacy and the U.S. Constitution. Ed. Micki M. Caskey, Ph.D. 1 October 2001. Portland State University, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government 21 September 2002 <http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/>
Pearce, Roy Harvey. Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind. Berkeley: California UP, 1988
Weeks, Philip. The American Experience, A Profile: 1524 to the Present. Arlington Heights, IL: Forum Press, 1988.
