Economy of the Iroquois

The Haudenosaunee (also known as The Iroquois Confederacy) was formed around the Great Law of Peace Kaianere'kó:wa, a constitution detailing a shared value system which informs the policy and economics of their society.

Historically, the Haudenosaunee economy was based on communal production and combined elements of both horticulture and hunter-gatherer systems.

[1] The tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy and other Northern Huron had their traditional territory in what is now New York State and the southern areas bordering the Great Lakes.

The confederacy was originally composed of five tribes; the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca, who had created an alliance long before European contact.

The Iroquoian people were predominantly agricultural, harvesting the "Three Sisters" commonly grown by Native American groups: corn, beans, and squash.

This system was characterized by such components as common ownership of land, division of labor by gender, and trade mostly based on gift economy.

At first, they became important trading partners, but the expansion of European settlement upset the balance of the Iroquois economy.

By 1800, following the American Revolutionary War, in which most of the nations supported the British and had to share their defeat, the Iroquois were reduced to reservations, primarily in New York in the United States, and Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

In the 20th century, some of the Iroquois nations in the United States have benefited from their sovereign status by founding gambling and recreation facilities, which have yielded greater revenues than some other enterprises.

Food from such lands, called kěndiǔ"gwǎ'ge' hodi'yěn'tho, would be used at festivals and large council gatherings.

[7] The Iroquois men carried out hunting and fishing, trading, and fighting, while the women took care of farming, food gathering and processing, rearing of children, and housekeeping.

According to Mary Jemison, a white woman who assimilated with the Seneca while young, the collective effort averted "every jealousy of one having done more or less work than another.

[13] The men organized hunting parties where they used extensive cooperation to kill a large amount of game.

This form of trade ties to the Iroquois culture's tendency to share property and cooperate in labor.

They showered the Iroquois with European goods, making them dependent on such items as rifles and metal axes.

For a time, the access to guns gave the Mohawk and other Iroquois advantages over other tribes, and they entered trading seriously.

The idealized Iroquois man was a good warrior and productive hunter while the perfect woman excelled in agriculture and housekeeping.

[24] By emphasizing an individual's usefulness to society, the Iroquois created a mindset that encouraged their members to contribute even though they received similar benefits no matter how hard they worked.

At the same time, the child would have to participate in a communal culture, children were taught to think as individuals but work for the community.

Most of the other Iroquois nations were forced to give up their territory and retreated to Canada, where they received some land in compensation from the Crown, in addition to existing settlements along the St. Lawrence River.

While this system was not wholly collective, as land was distributed for use to individual family groups, the Iroquois lacked the Western conception of property as a commodity.

The Council distinguished the "Western European concepts of land ownership" from the Iroquois view that "the earth is sacred" and "was created for all to use forever—not to be exploited merely for this present generation."

[31] The Iroquois idea that land came into one's possession if cared for and reverted to public control if left alone was used in reservation property law.

In one property dispute case, the Iroquois Council sided with a claimant who had made improvements and cultivated the land over one who had left it alone.

The Iroquois have been involved in the steel construction industry for over a hundred years, with many men from the Mohawk nations working on such high-steel projects as the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center.

[36] The Seneca make use of their sovereignty to sell gasoline and cigarettes tax-free and run high-stakes bingo operations.

The Tribe manages more than $16 million in federal and private grants, and a wide range of programs, including those authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

[39] The Oneida business ventures have brought millions of dollars into the community and improved the standard of living in the region.