Iroquois Longhouse and The Six Nations


As early as the 1300's and possibly before, the Haudenosaunee, "People of the Longhouse" (Iroquois), built what is called a Longhouse to house their extended families in. The Longhouse was usually 180 to 220 feet long, the length depended on the size and needs of the family, and was typically 20 feet wide by 20 feet high. Archaeologists, however, have discovered two such constructions over 300 feet long.

The roofs of these houses were rounded and covered in bark. The sides were also covered in sheets of bark. Although the houses were long, there were only two doors, one at either end and sometimes only one door and these were coverd in animal skins to keep the cold out. Sometimes, a small flat roofed structure was built at the doorway. Above the doors were carved animal symbols representing the name of the clan that lived there. There were no windows. Inside, at one end of the house, if it was short, was a fire pit and a smoke hole above. If the house was longer and had two doors, it had smaller fire pits in the center aisle to be shared by two families occupying the spaces across from each other. These spaces were usually six by nine feet and used by individual families for storage and sleeping.

These houses were homes to large, extended families consisting of the parents and their children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Each member of the clan was descended from the same ancestor on the mother's side. Each person born in the clan remained members in that clan for their entire life. Members of the clan could not intermarry. The men married a woman from another clan and moved in to her longhouse, but remained a member of his own family's clan. The children were life-time members of the mother's clan.

A woman of the clan owned the Longhouse. It was passed down to her from her mother and traced back to the woman who originally started the clan. The women were powerful figures of the clans for they not only owned the Longhouse, they were in control of the land and were the ones to choose who the chief of the tribe would be.

The Haudenosuanee were farmers and the villags they lived in usually consisted of two, three or more longhouses, each housing a different clan, and their gardens where they grew vegetables. The people hunted wild animals and birds, fished and gathered wild plants, berries, seeds and nuts to supplement their diet. Corn, beans and squash (the Three Sisters) were dried and stored for winter months, along with meats and other foods. The entire area was sometimes surrounded by tall wooden fences called palisades, usually eighteen feet tall to protect the village from enemies.

Though few in numbers, considering the size of their enemies, the Iroquois were formidable people, wise and calculating in battle and managed to fend off two European empires until well into the eighteenth century. The People established peace throughout eastern North America. They lived along the St. Lawrence River in what is now the northern part of the state of New York. During the time of contact with the English colonies, they were living along the lower Mohawk River and the Genesee. In later years they moved up to defensible hills yet stayed close to their farmlands.

The following paragraph is through the
Courtesy of the New York State Museum (n.d.). Iroquois Longhouse. In A Mohawk Iroquois Village. http//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/construction.html.:

"To the Iroquois people, the longhouse meant much more than the building where they lived. The longhouse was also a symbol for many of the traditions of their society. Five nations formed the original Iroquois Confederacy. These nations shared a territory they thought of as a large longhouse. The Senecas, who lived in the western end of this territory, were the "Keepers of the Western Door" of the Longhouse. The Mohawks, who lived in the eastern end of the territory, were the "Keepers of the Eastern Door". The Onondagas held the important role of "Keepers of the Central Council Fire and Wampum". To the modern Iroquois people, the Longhouse remains a powerful symbol of the ancient union and is important to many traditions."

The original Five Nations, which probably evolved around 1450, consisted of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. The Peacemaker, a legendary man of visions, told the People, around 1140 AD when war was predominant, that he had a vision of the five Peoples peacefully coming together in one long house. The Tuscarora Nation joined the People in approximately 1714, which made the Confederacy the Six Nations. The People of this confederacy had a tremendous impact and influence on American history because of their political organization which was extremely advanced for that era.