Tribe: The Mohawk, the first nation to join the Iroquois League, followed by the Seneca, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga and, in 1722, the Tuscarora.
Meaning of Name: "Mohawk" is the name given to them by the Dutch, who were friends of the Mohicans, who were the enemies of the Mohawk. The Mohawk called themselves the "Kahniakenhaka," the "People of the Flint Place."
Location: Since at least 1000 AD, upstate New York, Quebec, Ontario, Montreal, and Vermont. At one time, the Mohawk were the largest tribe in the Iroquois League, which was formed either in either 1142 AD or in 1451 AD. As such, they were the "Keepers of the Eastern Door," because they guarded the (at that time) Five Nations against the Mohicans and the other tribes. Mohawk land in New York was rich with flint quarries, and flint, also called "chert," was needed for making arrowheads, spears, fire-starters, and cutting tools. Those who owned the quarries could and did make a fortune. When the British lost the Colonies and Vermont and New York were absorbed into the United States, many of the Mohawk moved to Mohawk land in Quebec, Ontario and Montreal.
Original Language: Iroquoian. The dialect used by the Mohawks were the lingua franca of the Iroquois League.
Tribal Affiliations: The Dutch, the other members of the Iroquois League, and later, the British.
Traditional Enemies: The Mohicans, especially regarding fur and flint issues, and the French, who were friends of the Mohicans. Also the Algonquin, the Pequot, the Huron-Wendat and the Ojibwe. Later, the Pokanokets and the American Colonists.
Traditional Style of Housing: The Mohawk lived in permanent wood-frame buildings called "longhouses" which were made of elm bark, rounded on top and were up to one hundred feet long. These longhouses were partitioned, with storage areas and a stone hearth or fireplace for cooking and baking, and could hold as many as sixty people, usually extended family members. The entire Mohawk village, which contained some five or six longhouses and probably included storehouses, sweat-lodges, smokehouses, menstrual lodges and a town hall, was protected against other tribes and wild animals by a palisade, a tall wooden wall.
Traditional Attire: Before contact with the Europeans, Mohawk women wore shin-length deerskin dresses over longer wraparound deerskin skirts and a pair of deerskin leggings, with deerskin moccasins. They didn't wear their hair in the "Mohawk" style, but loose and long, or in a long braid, perhaps adorned with feathers trailing down the back or a beaded tiara. They only cut their hair short when they were in mourning. For men, the modern "Mohawk" hairstyle, of a completely shaved male head except for a long tuft of hair running front to back, is not actually a Mohawk hairstyle but Mohican. Real Mohawk men had their hair plucked out by the roots until all that was left was a square on the back of their heads. This square of long hair would then be braided into three long thin braids and adorned with three upright feathers, which signified that they were Mohawk. Mohawk men wore breechcloths and moccasins during the hot sweaty months, and then in winter, they added a mantle or blanket, deerskin leggings and a deerskin shirt. Mohawk clothing, which was made of animal hide sewn together with deer sinews, was so durable that it could be passed to future generations. The men wore a great deal more jewelry and adornment than the women did.
Traditional Foods: The Mohawk were a settled, agrarian people, so the women own corn, beans and squash. They foraged or grew roots crops such as carrots, turnips and rutabagas, fiddleheads, wild onions, cabbages, pumpkin, Jerusalem artichokes, sunflower seeds and oil, Indian potatoes, wild herbs, mushrooms, leeks, ramps, wintergreen, walnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts, greens, strawberries, crabapples, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, honey, plums, mulberries, elderberries, serviceberries, maple syrup and honey. They also made cornbread, corn soup, and stews and dried and stored much of their food for later consumption. The Mohawk men, on the other hand, hunted or trapped deer, elk, bear, , rabbits, grouse, pheasant, wild turkeys, migratory birds such as Canadian geese, muskrat and beaver, and fished for salmon, trout, bass, perch, and whitefish.
Position of Women: Extremely high, almost matriarchal. Like most of the nations in the Iroquois League, the Mohawk were matrilineal and matrilocal. Mohawk men moved into the longhouses that belonged to their wives' grandmothers or mothers. Mohawk women could inherit and bequeath property and were the heads of household, and Mohawk husbands could do nothing without consulting their wives first. The nine Clan Mothers of the Mohawk tribe had the final say regarding choice of mates, and were completely responsible for the selection of the nine male chiefs who would represent the tribe at the Grand Council meetings of the Iroquois League. These were men whom the women felt could be trusted to look after the needs of the entire tribe when it came to trade and war, and who would do the women's bidding. Mohawk women were also responsible for establishing the social status of their families, and for the fate of captives taken in war. (See "Slavery and the Mohawk.") They were in charge of child-rearing, food production, clothing production, housework, the healing arts, and the usual domestic chores. The men, on the other hand, managed to get out of the house and away from the women by fishing, hunting, waging war (with the permission of the women), quarrying the flint, making the arrowheads and tools, and playing sports, specifically Lacrosse.
Mohawk Courtship: If a young Mohawk man wanted to court a Mohawk woman, he would play sweet flute music outside of her mother's longhouse. If she peeked outside, saw who was playing, and accepted his suit, she would invite him in, at which time, he was probably mercilessly grilled by her mother, her grandmother and her aunts. If they all agreed that it was a good match, preparations would be made for a big fancy wedding complete with a reception in which the couple would be given everything that they would need for their lives together. The Mohawk bride and groom wore white rabbit leather, which was probably symbolic, and their marriage was expected to last forever, so divorce was uncommon. However, if a Mohawk wife did feel that her husband were worthless or lacking in some way, all that she would have to do would be to put his blanket and few belongings outside the longhouse, and he had to be gone, so divorces, while rare, were very simple.
Interesting Tidbits: The nine Mohawk chiefs, who are chosen by the nine Clan Mothers, are part of the legislative branch of the Grand Council of the Iroquois Nations.....Many Mohawk men today and in recent history work in the steel industry and construction, partly because they were said to be unafraid of heights. They were instrumental in building the Empire State Building and the One World Trade Center.... The Mohawk at one time practiced cannibalism.... Most Mohawk babies were given "white" first names during any naming ceremony, probably by their mothers and grandmothers.... The Mohawk used sleds and wore snowshoes to get from place to place in the winter, and they used dogs as pack animals because, apparently, they didn't have travois.... The Mohawk have three clans- the Wolf Clan, the Bear Clan and the Turtle Clan, each with their own particular area of expertise, and these clans are each divided into three parts. These were maternal lines that cross all Iroquois tribes, so that if a person from the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk tribe needed to travel across the country, he or she could count on being welcomed and obtaining temporary lodging with his or her fellow Wolf Clan members in the Seneca tribe, the Cayuga tribe, the Onondaga tribe, the Oneida tribe and later, the Tuscarora tribe.
Traditional Religion: Animism, Longhouse Religion, and later, Catholicism and Anglicanism.
Slavery and the Mohawk: Because they were rich, and their land contained flint quarries, the Mohawk had to fiercely guard their properties against marauding tribes who were not part of the Iroquois League, which led to raids and wars. When a son or husband was killed in a raid or war, captured warriors of the enemy tribes were brought back to the Mohawk village and either tortured and then executed and, in an earlier time, possibly eaten. If he managed to survive the torture without whimpering or begging, he was given to the widow or grieving mother to replace her missing son or husband, and if she liked him, he might be adopted into the tribe. This was completely at the discretion of the grieving widow or mother. Otherwise, according to the Binding Laws of Peace, which was the living agreement between the Five (and later Six) Nations, slavery was illegal.
Current Population: There are about 5600 registered Mohawk living in New York and about 24,000 Mohawk living in Ontario in Canada.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: There are court cases pending for the establishment of Mohawk casinos in New York.
Famous Mohawk: According to Iroquois legend, Hiawatha was a Mohawk Chief who helped Deganawida form the Iroquois League and the Great Law of Peace....Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk virgin and convert to Catholicism, was the first Native American saint..... And Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto in the old "Lone Ranger" show, was a Mohawk, and probably one of the few actual Native Americans to pay a Native American. (Ed Ames, who played Mingo in "Daniel Boone," was an Eastern European Jewish person.)
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