Iroquois Confederacy

1. Iroquois Confederacy January 7, 2013

2. Iroquois Confederacy • Lived in the forested valleys of the St. Lawrence River • Formed themselves into six tribes • “People of the Longhouses” • But were called the “Iroquois Confederacy” by the settlers of New France • Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, Onondaga, Cayuga

3. Six Nations

6. What is this?

11. Allies • Joined up with the British against New France • British were regular trading partners • American settlers began to move in • They made new towns, hunted, and started farms on traditional native hunting grounds • Wild animals were becoming scarce • Iroquois needed to change traditional ways • Farmed corn, beans and squash

12. American Revolutionary War What choice would the Iroquois Make?

13. Neutrality? • Tried Neutrality but… • In 1779 an American patriot raiding party destroyed an Iroquois village • Iroquois feared for their lives and sought British Protection

14. Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) • Mohawk chief • Made full captain of British Army • Lead Mohawks against several successful battles against Americans • When Americans lost, the Iroquois fled north

15. Joseph Brant • He made a deal with the British • Governor of Canada granted 675,000 acres of land for his people along Grand River • This became known as “Grand River Six Nations Reserve” • Eventually over 5000 natives fled the newly founded United States of America to live in the Canadas

16. Grand River

18. Brant was invited to meet…

19. A Royal Meeting • Brant was rewarded for his loyalty • Given money to help rebuild new community in Upper Canada • He built: a town council hall, a school, a church, a saw mill, a grist mill (for grinding grain into flour) • The Church he built in 1786 was called “Her Majesty’s Chapel of the Mohawks” • Oldest Protestant church in Ontario

20. Died in 1807 • Memorial in Brantford, Ontario