Leaders and leadership among the Iroquois : native politics and relations with the English, 1748-1764

Abstract

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Iroquois Confederacy, or Five Nations, exercised great influences and power on the northern colonial frontier. Because of their geographic location, military prowess, and ability to influence other Indian groups, the Iroquois became an important element in the colonial policies of France and England. Yet, by the end of the eighteenth century, the once-powerful Five Nations were a broken, powerless people. Historians, in dealing with the relations of the Iroquois to the colonial powers, particularly England, have tended to emphasize the chronological extremes of a two-centuries-long relationship. Thus, on one hand, studies have dealt with the causes and consequences of the expansive period of Iroquois history in the early seventeenth century. On the other hand, historians have chronicled the decline and dislocation of the Five Nations during and after the American Revolution. What has been lacking in the historiography of Iroquois-English relations, however, has been an Iroquois-centered study of the period between the height of Five Nations power, in 1701, and the decline of the Confederacy after 1777. More specifically, little has been done to ascertain how relations between the Five Nations and the English colonies changed over time and the reasons for the decline of the Confederacy.

Within the past decade, political anthropologists and ethnohistorians have developed tools and methods useful in a study of Iroquois- English relations from the perspective of the Five Nations. Two of these: a political approach to Iroquois history, and an emphasis on interest group interaction, seem particularly well suited for such a study. By focusing on the Iroquois political process, much can be learned about the nature and function of local and Confederacy decision-making as it applied to relations with the colonies. By emphasizing interest group behavior, Iroquois politics and leaders can be placed in a cultural context wherein issues, leaders, and definitions of leadership can be assessed and changes due to native perceptions of British policies identified and explained. By the application of these methods to a behavioral study of Iroquois responses to two crises in relations with the English in the eighteenth century, changes in policies and attitudes are revealed that help explain both the nature of Iroquois politics at a critical time and the decline of Five Nations power late in the century.