What gods did the Iroquois worship? Religious Beliefs. The Iroquois believed that Great Spirit The Great Spirit, known as Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, Gitche Manitou in Algonquian, and in many Native American and First Nations cultures as the divine or the sacred, is the supreme being, God, or a conception of universal spiritual force. According to Lakota activist Russell Means, a better translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery.Great Spirit
What was the religion of the Iroquois?
In this lesson, you will receive a brief overview of Iroquois religion and mythology. This will include some brief descriptions of gods and the creation myth. Most of our knowledge of Iroquois religion tells us that the Iroquois were a deeply spiritual people who worshiped the Great Spirit, a single creation entity.
What was the role of the Iroquois gods?
Iroquois Gods: Key Players in the Iroquois Creation Myth. Geha: Geha was the god of the winds. Like many wind gods in Native American myths, Geha was considered a patron of heroes and often aided them in their quests or gave them the swiftness to finish them. He was also the god of music, as many musical instruments were wind instruments.
What did the Iroquois pray for?
The first part includes prayers of thanksgiving for the earth, waters, plants and trees, animals, birds, and the "three sisters" (the staple Iroquois foodstuffs — maize, beans, and squash). The second section gives thanks to those spirit forces that have greater power: wind, thunder, sun, moon, and stars.
What is an Iroquois?
Written By: Iroquois, any member of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family—notably the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.
What religion did the Iroquois believe in?
Gai'wiio, (Seneca: “Good Message”) also called Longhouse Religion, new religious movement that emerged among the Seneca Indians of the northeastern United States, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, in the early 19th century.
Who was the Iroquois God?
Hahgwehdiyu (also called Ha-Wen-Neyu, Rawenniyo, or Hawenniyo) is the Iroquois god of goodness and light, as well as a creator god. He and his twin brother Hahgwehdaetgah, the god of evil, were children of Atahensic (or in some versions her daughter, the Earth Mother), whom Hahgwehdaetgah killed in childbirth.
Did the Iroquois have gods?
Iroquois (northeast U.S.) [In the Iroquois theogony] there seem to have been three classes of supernatural phenomena: spirits, ghosts of the dead, and the gods. In addition there was a Great Spirit, together with his satanic counterpart.
What is the Iroquois view of gods?
The Iroquois believed in a number of supernatural beings, both good and evil. Their most important god was the Great Spirit, who guided everyone's lives and sent his daughter, Sky Woman, to bring light to the world. Burning tobacco was believed to carry the people's prayers and wishes so that the gods would hear them.
What are some Iroquois names?
The five original Iroquois nations were the Mohawk (self-name: Kanien'kehá:ka [“People of the Flint”]), Oneida (self-name: Onᐱyoteʔa∙ká [“People of the Standing Stone”]), Onondaga (self-name: Onoñda'gega' [“People of the Hills”]), Cayuga (self-name: Gayogo̱hó:nǫ' [“People of the Great Swamp”]), and Seneca (self-name: ...
What does the name Iroquois mean?
people of the long houseThese people called themselves "Haudenosaunee" or "people of the long house". The name "Iroquois" is a French variant on a term for "snake" given these people by the Hurons. There were other tribes who spoke a similar language, but who were not part of the confederacy.
Did the Iroquois worship the sun?
In many Native American cultures, such as the Iroquois and Plains peoples, the sun was recognized as a life-giving force. Many of the Plains tribes still perform a Sun Dance each year, which is seen as a renewal of the bond man has with life, earth, and the growing season.
Are there any Iroquois left?
The Iroquois Today Close to 10,000 Mohawk live in Canada, many on the St. Regis and the Six Nations reserves in Ontario and the Caughnawaga Reserve in Quebec. Many Cayuga, who were strong allies of the British, also live on the Six Nations Reserve, which is open to all members of the confederacy.
What is special about the Iroquois?
The Iroquoi Tribes, also known as the Haudenosuanee, are known for many things. But they are best known for their longhouses. Each longhouse was home to many members of a Haudenosuanee family. The longhouse was the center of Iroquois life.
What are three Iroquois traditions?
The Corn-Planting Festival, the Green Corn Festival, and the Corn-Gathering Festival were among the most important of Iroquois celebrations. They also held a Maple-Sugar Festival and a Strawberry Festival.
What are three cultural values of the Iroquois?
Values of the Iroquois ConfederacyRespect for diversity:Role of Women:Cooperation and teamwork:Using consensus:
What language did the Iroquois speak?
Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, all originally spoken in New York, along with Tuscarora (originally spoken in North Carolina) and Cherokee (originally spoken in the southern Appalachians), are still spoken. No native speakers are known for the other Iroquoian languages, some long extinct.
What was the Iroquois creation myth?
According to the Iroquois creation story, the world was created when the pregnant Sky Woman fell from the floating island in the sky, down to the vast ocean underneath. Birds and fish already existed, and they helped Sky Woman create the Earth, by giving her soil to put on a giant turtle's back.
Who is the Iroquois creator?
The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee is believed to have been founded by the Great Peacemaker at an unknown date estimated between 1450 and 1660, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into "The Great League of Peace".
Who were the Iroquois Indians?
The Iroquois were a League or Confederacy of Native American nations in the Northeastern part of America. Originally they were formed by five nations: the Cayuga, Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, and Oneida. Later, in the 1700s, the Tuscarora joined.
What are the Iroquois beliefs about good and evil?
The Iroquois were a very spiritual people who believed in the Great Spirit, the creator of all living things. They also believed in a Good Spirit and an Evil Spirit, who were in charge of good things and bad things that happened on the Earth.
What is the thrust of the Iroquois religion?
The general thrust of Iroquois religion is toward increasing and renewing the power of those forces that sustain life and reducing or eliminating those forces that diminish life, such as disease and pain.
What were the Iroquois doing at contact?
At contact the Iroquois were a matrilineal and matrilocal people living in clusters of longhouses situated on hilltops. The villages were usually palisaded and semipermanent. The men involved themselves in hunting, fishing, and making war; the women took care of the fields and gathered berries, nuts, and roots.
What is the Iroquois attitude toward the benevolent spirit-forces of the universe?
The fundamental attitude of the Iroquois community toward the benevolent spirit-forces of the universe is thanksgiving. Thus all Iroquois ceremonies begin and end with a thanksgiving address, a paean to all the forces of earth, sky, and the sky world that create, support, and renew life.
What is the Longhouse religion?
The Longhouse religion, as it is practiced today, is a synthesis of elements from the hunter-gatherer traditions of the Middle Woodland and early Late Woodland periods (300 – 1000 ce) and the agricultural complex that gradually took hold during the Late Woodland period (1000 – 1500 ce).
What were the tribes of the Iroquois?
IROQUOIS RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS . The League of the Iroquois consisted, at the time of contact with Europeans, of five "nations" (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca). In 1724, these groups were joined by the Tuscarora to form the Six Nations of the Iroquois. These tribes form part of a larger complex of Iroquoian-speaking peoples. The northern language group of which the members of the league are a part also includes the Saint Lawrence Iroquois, Huron, Wyandot, Susquehanna, Nottoway, Erie, Wenro, and Neutrals. The Cherokee form the southern language group. The separation between the northern and southern groups probably occurred between three and four thousand years ago, with further dialects developing over time.
Where do Iroquois live today?
Today the majority of Iroquois live on reservations in Canada and New York State.
When did the Iroquois split?
The separation between the northern and southern groups probably occurred between three and four thousand years ago, with further dialects developing over time. Geographically, the early-seventeenth-century Iroquois inhabited the area from 42 ° to 44 ° north latitude and from 74 ° to 78 ° west longitude.
What is the Iroquois culture?
Iroquois Culture. People. The Iroquois enjoy a rich and varied culture that is more of a melting pot. They have, in time, included captives to replace those lost in war and non-members, who were part of the vengeance strategy.
How do Iroquois communicate with the Great Spirit?
The Iroquois people are of the view that ordinary humans can indirectly communicate with the Great Spirit by burning tobacco, which carries their prayers to the lesser spirits of good. Dreams are regarded dreams as important supernatural signs which express the desire of the soul. The Iroquois pay serious attention to dream interpretation and fulfillment of a dream is of paramount importance to an individual.
What is the Iroquois Confederacy?
The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee is unique in culture and religious beliefs. This 'League of Peace and Power' or 'People of the Longhouse' as they call themselves, are the result of a merger of the Onondaga, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Seneca, the Cayuga and the Tuscarora natives.
What tribe guarded the western door?
For example, while the Seneca guarded the ‘western door’, the Mohawk protected the ‘eastern door’ and the Onondagas were guardians of the ‘central flame’. The Haudenosaunee have a common cultural and historical origin, and very slight differences in their languages. Typical Characteristics of the Iroquois Tribe.
What did the Iroquois people believe about Handsome Lake?
They show great respect and reverence at the mention of Handsome Lake, the Iroquois prophet. The Iroquois people are of the view that ordinary humans can indirectly communicate with the Great Spirit by burning tobacco, which carries their prayers to the lesser spirits of good.
What tribes were in the Longhouse?
This ‘League of Peace and Power’ or ‘People of the Longhouse’ as they call themselves, are the result of a merger of the Onondaga, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Seneca, the Cayuga and the Tuscarora natives . The origin of the Iroquois tribe dates back centuries, much before the Europeans settlers first arrived on North American soil.
What are the fish that the Iroquois eat?
In fish, their preferences are for salmon, bass, trout, whitefish and perch. Festivals. Most of their festivals coincide with events in agriculture, like the Iroquois harvest festival of Thanksgiving.
What is the Iroquois religion based on?
The elaborate religious cosmology of the Iroquois was based on an origin tradition in which a woman fell from the sky; other parts of the religious tradition featured deluge and earth-diver motifs, supernatural aggression and cruelty, sorcery, torture, cannibalism, star myths, and journeys to the otherworld.
What is an iroquois?
See Article History. Iroquois, any member of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family —notably the Cayuga, ...
What was the conflict between the Iroquois and Huron based on?
The conflict between the Iroquois and Huron was based on trade rivalries that had existed before European settlement.
What is the Iroquois cosmology?
The elaborate religious cosmologyof the Iroquois was based on an origin tradition in which a woman fell from the sky; other parts of the religious tradition featured delugeand earth-diver motifs, supernatural aggression and cruelty, sorcery, torture, cannibalism, star myths, and journeys to the otherworld. The formal ceremonial cycle consisted of six agricultural festivals featuring long prayers of thanks. There were also rites for sanctioning political activity, such as treatymaking.
What was the effect of the French-Huron alliance on the Iroquois?
As the French-Huron alliance tightened, Iroquois hostility toward both parties increased, a case of traditional tribal trade rivalries being exacerbated by newer trade rivalries involving Europeans. The introduction of European weapons and the imperatives of the fur trade transformed the nature of warfare between First Nations peoples, which once had…
What tribes spoke Iroquois?
Iroquois, any member of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family —notably the Cayuga, Cherokee, Huron, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The peoples who spoke Iroquoian languages occupied a continuous territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie in present-day New York state and Pennsylvania ...
What was the Iroquois's preference for meeting?
Iroquois speakers were fond of meetings, spending considerable time in council. Council attendance was determined by locality, sex, age, and the specific question at hand; each council had its own protocol and devices for gaining consensus, which was the primary mode of decision-making.
What were the Iroquois' beliefs?
Creation and Spiritual Beliefs. The Iroquois believed that in the beginning there was the Sky World. In the middle of the Sky World was a great tree that gave life to that world, but the tree was uprooted and the Sky Woman fell through the hole. Below her was water, but two swans flew up and carried her to the back of a great turtle.
How many religious ceremonies are there in the Iroquois?
Celebrations. The Iroquois have six major religious ceremonies each year: New Year -- during midwinter, celebrated for seven days. Maple Dance-- in late February a dance was held to thank the Creator for maple.
What did the Sky Woman bring to the Earth?
The Sky Woman had brought seeds with her to the earth, and planted it. Eventually she had a daughter who in turn had to sons: one evil and one good. The evil son created everything that was evil in the world, and the good son created everything that was good (Doherty 22-24).
What is the Iroquois mythology?
Much of the mythology of the Iroquois (a confederacy of originally Five, later Six Nations of Native Americans) has been preserved, including creation stories and some folktales. Recorded in wampum as recitations, written down later, the spellings of names differed as transliteration varies and spellings even in European languages were not entirely ...
What is the Iroquois Indian sitting on a turtle?
19th-century decoration of an unidentified ship: Iroquois Indian sitting on a turtle, in reference to the Great Turtle that carries the Earth in Iroquois mythology. By the sculpture workshop of Brest, France naval arsenal. Much of the mythology of the Iroquois (a confederacy of originally Five, later Six Nations of Native Americans) ...
Where did the crow come from?
Ga-gaah, the Crow, came from the sun land carrying a grain of corn in his ear. Hah-gweh-di-yu planted the corn above his mother's body, and it became the first grain. Ga-gaah hovers over the corn fields, guarding them from harm but also claiming his share.
How did Hé-no rescue her village?
Later Hé-no rescued her village from a huge serpent which was devastating it with disease. He lured the serpent to a spot on Buffalo Creek where he struck it with a thunderbolt. Fatally wounded, the serpent tried to escape to the safety of Lake Erie, but died before he could get away. His body floated downstream and stuck at the head of Niagara Falls, stretching nearly across the river and arching backward. The dammed up water broke the rocks, and the whole verge of the Falls along with the snake's body fell onto the rocks below. The break formed Horseshoe Falls, but in the process destroyed Hé-no's home.
Cosmology
- The cosmological structuring of space into three tiers provides the Iroquois with the basic categories with which to interpret human experience. The sky world and the underworld represent extremes of both a spatial and an existential nature. The sky world is order, goodness, warmth, light, and life. The underworld is chaos, evil, coldness, darkness, and death. In the in-between w…
Community Rituals
- To live in harmony with the spirit-forces is the essential requirement of Iroquois religion. These fundamental relationships that sustain community life are renewed, intensified, and celebrated in the calendrical cycles of the Longhouse religion. This final form of the Iroquois ceremonial cycle crystallized in the nineteenth century under the influence of the Seneca prophet Handsome Lak…
Medicine Societies
- Not only has Iroquois religion been concerned with affirming and intensifying life, it has also been concerned with countering those things that diminish life. The spirit-forces that assist humans in this battle revealed themselves long ago and entered into covenants with individuals, families, and societies. Through fasting, dream-visions, and ecs...
The Individual
- In traditional (i.e., pre-nineteenth-century) Iroquois lore, access to the power and guidance of the spirit-forces was not limited to the community (through its collective ceremonial life) nor to the curing societies. The individual Iroquois had an array of spiritually vital allies, including charms, medicine bundles, guardian spirits, and his or her own soul. The most common medium for com…
Bibliography
- The main source for information on seventeenth-century Huron religion, which also provides some insight into Iroquois life, is The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 39 vols. (1896–1901), edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites (New York, 1959). The nineteenth century marked the beginning of modern studies on Iroquois religion. Midcentury produced Lewis H. Morgan's classic The Lea…