The Iroquois, or Six Nations, were a confederation of North American Indian tribes including the Mohawks, Oneidas and Senecas. They lived on the shores of the Mohawk river, and spread through to the Mississippi. In the seventeenth century they carried on extensive hostilities against the French and suffered severe losses, some of the tribes being wiped out by the settlers. The Iroquois allied themselves with the Dutch and subsequently with the English, though they afterward joined Pontiac.
Peace was restored, but in 1774 a part of the western bands took up arms against the whites. During the American War of Independence the Iroquois, with the exception of those in Canada, favoured England. They fought against the colonists and committed extensive ravages. At the close of the war nearly all emigrated to Canada, except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, with whom the Government made a treaty in 1784. In 1785 and 1788, the Indians began to cedelands. In the War of 1812, the English and American Iroquois were arrayed against each other, but peace was soon restored. The tribes became scattered some going west and being imprisoned on squalid reservations, and others seeking their relatives in Canada. Research Iroquois
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Research Iroquois