Iroquois

Introduction:

Have you ever imagined yourself living with Indians, talking and interacting with them? Well here is your chance to form part of the Iroquois Indians. Thanks to mother technology we are going back in time, that’s right back in time, to an Iroquois village. Here we are going to learn how they lived, how they built their houses, how did they govern themselves, their language and religious beliefs. You are also going to be able to trade with them. We hope that our classmates and teacher can experience this tribe with the same emotion that we did and for all of us to learn from the amazing past. And at the end you will go through the Iroquois initiation and become a temporary member of the village.

Economy:

The Iroquois liked to have land so they could go hunting and trapping beaver and deer. They really never lived in Ohio; they just went there to hunt. For a long time other Indians were afraid to live there without the permission of the Iroquois. The Iroquois participated in fur trade with the first Dutch and then the English people.

Housing:

The Iroquois village consisted of several longhouses and was built near streams in the beginning. The Indians usually built a strong, huge wooden palisade wall around the village and watch towers as well to provide protection for the people. Later they realized hilltops can be defended more successfully, so they started to build their villages on (or move the older ones) to hilltops to protect the inhabitants from invading tribes.

A longhouse was a large wood-frame building covered with sheets of elm bark that were large enough to provide housing for several hundred people at a time, usually even for 10-15 families. Each longhouse was about 7-40 meters long and 5-8 meters wide. The door was usually covered with a special curtain made by Iroquois women, who produced it from animal skins, like deer or beaver. Inside the house there was a wide path in the middle, which ran through the whole building. Each of the families living in the longhouse had a pre-defined 'personal space' that was about 2-3 meters and they could separate themselves from the rest of the occupants by rugged clothes or leather curtains.

Festivals:

The Iroquois believed in special good spirits. To thank them for the food, health and happiness,

The Indians held six huge festivals each year, like: the Strawberry Festival,the Harvest Festival, the New Year Festival or the Corn Planting Festival.

During these celebrations people shook special rattles (made from shells) and beat drums.

Conclusion:

The Iroquois tribe has things in common with other tribes such as hunting or wanting more land, but things like having

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