The Mohawk Tribe

1 The Mohawk Tribe The Mohawk tribe resided around the Great Lakes and parts of what is now Canada and the state of New York also knows as the Mohawk Valley. Their territory spread among the south of The Mohawk river, and the westward border from the Oneida Nation's territory, and eastward to the Green Mountains of Vermont . They were one of the five tribes of the Iroquois Confederation, or League. The Mohawk tribe was the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois League. Since they where the most eastern tribe and one of the original tribes they were known as the “Keepers of the Eastern Door”. Their role was to defend the Iroquois league from rival tribes and other invaders that came from that direction. The Iroquois League was compose of five tribes them being the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes. Three centuries earlier, hardships, that included famine and warfare, forced these groups to abandon their homeland in the Mississippi Valley and make an exodus to the New York area. The Iroquois invasion was a gradual process in which the tribes carved out separate homelands by ousting the resident Algonquians. (Jameson, J. Franklin (ed.), Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664 (1909); Ellis, David M. (et al), A Short History of New York State (1957).) The Mohawk Nation is known by many name. In there language there name was Kanien'kehake, which mean “People of the Place of Flint” or “People of the Light”. For them Kanien'kehake or people of the flint cames form their original territory, The Mohawk Valley. The Mohawk Valley contained deposits of flint, which they used as material for tools and weapons as well gave them their name “People of the Place of Flint”. When the Europeans made contact with them their name