The pattern and scale of Iroquois war appear to have changed dramatically soon after the first Europeans began to settle in the northeast and trade with the Iroquois and other nations. There is little doubt that prior to contact with Europeans the Iroquois nations fought with their neighbors: evidence includes the fact that the institution of war chiefs was intact and the larger settlements of the Iroquois nations consisted of 30-150 longhouses surrounded by wooden fortifications that Europeans would later describe as “castles” or palisades. The Iroquois also had a fierce reputation. But, whereas native war before contact with Europeans primarily consisted of blood feuds and territorial skirmishes, several new motives and pressures for war were introduced with the European presence.
First, with the Europeans came the epidemic diseases that led to a dramatic decline in Native American populations; the Iroquois increasingly resorted to war to boost their population by “adopting” war captives. “The thousands of deaths from disease led women to demand continual mourning-wars and inspired young men to seize even more captives to requicken the dead” (Richter 1992: 60; also Colden 1964: 8; Wright 1992: 123-24). For example, Richter notes that some of the Iroquois went to war against Native nations in the Carolinas after a small pox epidemic in 1679, and observers in the mid-1600s believed that as many as two-thirds of the people in some Iroquois villages were adoptees (ibid. 65-66, 145).
Second, the fur trade changed the international relations ofNative nations in important ways: those nations with access to the fur trade also had access to European weapons, and often allied with a European power. Added firepower also altered the balance of power among native nations. And third, European settlers increasingly encroached on Iroquois land. So, with European settlement of the northeast, the Iroquois began to fight for access to trade goods, to retain their influence in the region among other Native groups and between themselves and the Europeans, and to protect their land from encroachment by the settlers and traders. Often the several reasons for war (desire for captives, access to the fur trade, and control of territory) were intertwined.
From the 1600s to the late 1700s, the Iroquois League members were frequently at war with the other native nations, the British, French, and later, the young United States. Relations with the Dutch, who occupied New Netherland from 1614 to the mid 1700s, were much less antagonistic, and almost entirely focused on trade (Dennis 1993: 119-79). The wars and treaties involving League nations during these years number in the dozens, and no single source has a comprehensive summary of both treaties and wars. Apart from League treaties, the five and six Iroquois nations also made separate treaties with other Native American nations and the Europeans. While it is impossible to discuss all the wars, treaties and alliances of these centuries here, tables 20.1 and 20.2 illustrate the main wars and treaties of select periods.
World History
