Lifeways

For their villages, the Haudenosaunee made clearings in the woods, usually near streams or rivers, and surrounded them with palisades, tall walls made from sharpened logs stuck upright in the earth. They lived in longhouses made of elm bark. These structures, from 50 to 100 feet long, were communal with more than one family sharing the space. The longhouses, sometimes crowded with as many as 20 families, plus their dogs, were noisy and smelly. And because inhabitants used only holes in the roof to let out smoke from the fires, they were smoky.

The Haudenosaunee used the longhouse as a symbol for their confederacy. They thought of their league as one big longhouse extending across their territory, with the Mohawk guarding the Eastern Door and the Seneca guarding the Western Door.

Like the Algonquians, the Haudenosaunee often are referred to as Woodland peoples and were skilled in chasing and trapping the animals of the northern forests. They used their catch for both food and clothing. They made deerskin shirts, skirts, leggings, breechcloths, and moccasins. They made robes and mittens from beaver and bear furs. They used feathers and porcupine quills for decoration. They used seashells to make belts of wampum that served as public records of treaties, and

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Haudenosaunee elm-bark longhouse

After the arrival of Europeans, as a form of money. The Haudenosaunee considered animals their kindred spirits and took animal names to identify clans: for example, the Beaver Clan, the Deer Clan, the Wolf Clan, the Bear Clan, the Turtle Clan, the Hawk Clan, the Heron Clan, the Snipe Clan, and the Eel Clan.

The Haudenosaunee were skilled farmers, using stone, bone, antler, and wooden implements to work the soil. Their three most important crops—corn, beans, and squash—were the Three Sisters in their religion. Three important festivals related to the growing of corn: the Corn-Planting Festival, the Green Corn Festival, and the Corn-Gathering Festival. Two of the other festivals involved wild plant foods: the Maple-Sugar Festival and the Strawberry Festival. The other most important festival was the New Year Festival, at the first new moon of the new year.

Haudenosaunee society was matrilineal, with descent and property passed through the female line. Women owned the crops and chose the sachems.

In healing ceremonies, Haudenosaunee shamans wore masks, known as False Faces, that were carved from a living tree. Wearing these sometimes fierce and sometimes comical faces, the shamans danced, waved turtle-shell rattles, and sprinkled tobacco. They invoked the good spirits to drive away the evil spirits that made people sick. The Iroquois believed that the most powerful spirit of all was Orenda, the Great Spirit and the Creator, from whom all other spirits were derived.

The Haudenosaunee version of lacrosse was much rougher than the modern game, and many of the participants suffered injuries. Warriors from different villages competed, and spectators placed bets on them. Another favorite Haudenosaunee sport was snowsnake, in which a player would see how far he could slide a javelin along a trench dug in the snow.

The Haudenosaunee traveled to hunt and to make war. They covered their canoes with elm or spruce bark.

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IHaudenosaunee, lacrosse stick

These boats were sturdy, but not as fast or nimble as the birch-bark canoes made by their Algonquian neighbors. But Haudenosaunee canoes possessed other advantages. Because of the thick, rough bark, they could be used as ladders to scale enemy walls or as shields to block enemy arrows.

Haudenosaunee toy elm-bark canoe

Haudenosaunee boys began developing military skills when young, practicing with knives, warclubs, and bows and arrows. By the time they were teenagers, they were ready for their first raids against hostile bands of other Indians or against intruding non-Indians. Through military exploits they could gain respect in their society. A man who gained great prestige in this way might become a war chief.

Although women and children captured in raids were sometimes adopted by the Haudenosaunee, male prisoners were usually forced to run the gauntlet. The prisoners had to move between two lines of men, women, and children, who lashed out at them with sticks or thorny branches. Those who made it all the way to the end might be accepted into the tribe. Those who did not might be given to the widows of Haudenosaunee warriors, who would avenge the death of their husbands by torturing the prisoners. In order to extend their influence, the Haudenosaunee also followed the practice of adopting whole tribes as allies.