The Five Nation: The Iroquois Tribe

Iroquois tribe are an indigenous group, which was made up of Six Nations in the eighteenth century, but is now known as the Five Nations. The Five Nations are Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, |Senecas, who are presently living in New York State and southern Quebec and Ontario. The Iroquois called themselves, Haudenosaunee, which means people of the longhouse. Most families in the tribe are related through the female line.
The Iroquois didn’t travel from place to place for food, very often, since they could provide for themselves by means of hunting, fishing, gathering wild berries and they grow corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins, which was gathered and handle typically by women and children. Most of their celebration coincide with
292) stated it best, “Rituals are particularly rich in meaning because of the density and complexity of symbols in their “objects, activities, relationships, events, gestures, and spatial units” (Turner 1967, 19). For instance, the Iroquois would hold a “Feast of the Dead” to send their relatives to the other world, they would use this celebration to unite smaller clans and families together.
The Iroquois religious beliefs follow the Christian faith, for example, they believe in an all-knowing “Great Spirit,” who created them. They worship the “Handsome Lake,” the Iroquois prophet, with respect. The Iroquois belief that ordinary people can indirectly communicate with the Great Spirit by burning tobacco, which carries their prayers to the lesser spirits of good. They as well regard dreams as important and paramount to an individual, because dreams are supernatural signs, which express the desire of the
The women choose to work as they please and in event of a divorce, the man is asked to leave the dwelling, with his possessions. Children are educated by matriarchal members of the tribe. Additionally, there have never been instances of domestic violence against women. (Iroquois Tribe: What You Know, 2016).
One of the key symbols for the Iroquois people is their impotence of the wampum or wampumpeag beads (shell bead), which was a form of gift exchange but became currency in a trade transaction. The wampum is also the written script across the globe, giving that the tribe doesn’t have a writing system, and hence, they follow orally illustrated traditions and history. (Iroquois Tribe: What You Know, 2016).
(Ortner 1973, 1339) noted, symbols are “ultimately the only source from which the (participants) discover, rediscover, and transform their own culture, generation after generation” (Omohundro, J. T. 2008, p.283). Thus, the beads aid the tribe by using each bead to record and represent momentous events in their