Year |
History |
1100 |
Approximate
beginning of longhouse construction |
1300's |
Introduction of
cultivation of corn |
1450-75 |
Formation of
Onondaga tribe |
1535 |
Iroquois met by
Cartier |
1542 |
Iroquois met by
Cartier on second voyage; Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Mohawk
at war; tribes killed 35 of Cartier crew |
1570 |
Approximate date of
the confederation of the Iroquois League with the arrival of
"Peacemaker" Deganawida with concurrence of Mohawk war chief
Hiawatha (some say as early as A. D. 900); Iroquois drove the Algonquian
tribes from the Adirondack Mountains and the upper St. Lawrence River |
1603 |
Champlain cemented
alliances with Huron and Algonquian tribes against Iroquois;
the five tribes had confederated |
1606 |
Mohawk attacked
Pocomtuc |
1609 |
French reached the
vicinity of Montreal where the Algonkin and Montagnias were being
harrrassed by the Mohawk; Champlain routed a party of Mohawk on behalf
of the Huron, Montagnais, and Algonkin |
1610 |
Mohawk driven from
the St. Lawrence River; Dutch traders arrived in the Hudson Valley of
New York but the Mahicans blocked access to the Dutch traders unless a
tribute was paid |
1615 |
French participated
in an attack on the Onondaga with the Huron |
1617 |
Mohawk and Mahican
fighting forced closure of Ft. Nassau near present Albany |
1624 |
Dutch built Fort
Orange closer to the Mohawk; war broke out between Mohawk and Mahican
and their Abenaki and Pocomtuc allies |
1626 |
Dutch joined a
Mahican war party losing several |
1628 |
Mohawk defeated
Mahican and forced them east of the Hudson River, Dutch accepted the
Mohawk as
their major trading partner; Mahican forced to pay tribute to Mohawk;
Iroquois began to dominate trade on the St. Lawrence River; Tionontati,
Ottawa, and Neutral acquired guns from the French and expanded their
beaver trapping into lower Michigan and Ohio Valley territories of
Algonquian and Siouan tribes |
1629 |
Beginning of Beaver
Wars; Mohawk continued attacks on Abenaki and Pennacook; English
privateers under Sir David Kirke captured Quebec; Mohawk destroyed
Montagnais village at Trois Rivieres and continued routing Montagnais
and Algonkin |
1632 |
Quebec restored to
France by Treaty of St. Germaine en Laye; Iroquois exhausted beaver in
their territories and began to range into neighboring territories |
1633 |
Iroquois attempts to
negotiate with Huron for expanded hunting territories failed and a all
out war broke out between the two nations; Iroquois outnumbered more
than two to one advanced into Huron territories |
1634 |
Mohawk smallpox
epidemic |
1635 |
Seneca handed Huron
a major defeat |
1636 |
Iroquois offensive
drove Algonkin deep into upper Ottawa Valley |
1637 |
Smallpox among Huron
resulted in 50% depopulation and left them vulnerable to the Iroquois |
1638 |
Swedes established a
colony on the lower Delaware, began to sell arms to Iroquois enemies the
Susquehannock |
1639 |
Overran small
Iroquoian tribe, the Wenro |
1640 |
New England traders
tried to break Dutch monopoly by supplying arms to the Iroquois; French
missionaries began to visit Iroquois |
1641 |
Dutch began
supplying the Iroquois with all the arms they needed |
1642 |
French established
Montreal but Iroquois easily attacked Huron trying to transport furs to
the new site; Abenaki allied with the Mohawk; Mohawk and Mahican began
demanding tributes from the Wappinger and Munsee Delaware on the lower
Hudson River forcing the Wappinger to remove to Manhattan Island; French
Jesuit mission St. Marie established among Mohawk |
1643 |
Surviving Wenro took
refuge with Huron and Neutrals |
1644 |
Iroquois captured
three Huron flotillas attempting to deliver furs to Montreal and drove
Algonkin further north |
1645 |
Combined Mohawk,
Abenaki, Mahican force attacked main Algonkin village at Sillery,
Quebec; Mohawk and Mahican came to the aid of the Dutch in war with the
Munsee Delaware and Wappinger ultimately killed more than 1,600;
temporary treaty with French; mission St. Marie destroyed by Mohawk |
1647 |
War began anew with
Huron over violations of French treaty; Iroquois destroyed Huron
villages cutting off access to Montreal; beginning of Mohawk/Oneida war
with Abenaki |
1648 |
A 250 man Huron
flotilla fought its way through to Montreal but Iroquois attacked and
destroyed Huron village of St. Joseph and torturing and killing its
Jesuit missionary St. Jean de Brebeuf |
1649 |
Dutch supplied more
arms to the Iroquois; 2,000 Mohawk and Seneca destroyed Huron villages
of St. Ignace and St. Louis and tortured and killed their missionaries
and capturing or killing hundreds of Hurons with the survivors
scattering and fleeing to be later captured and killed; Iroquois down to
1,000 warriors began a massive adoption program |
1650 |
Iroquois overran
main Tionontati village which had taken in Huron refugees, fewer than
1,000 escaped; Tahonaenrat Huron took refuge among Neutrals who
heretofore had been Neutral in the Iroquois/Huron wars |
1651 |
Combined Huron and
Tionontati merged to form Wyandot and took temporary refuge at Mackinac
Island but were soon forced to remove further west to Green Bay where
they were once again overran by the Iroquois, survivors fled to Ojibwa
(about 8,000 Tionontati and 10,000 Huron had been killed in the
conflicts); Mohawk and Oneida attacked Susquehannock; Neutrals
fort fell to Seneca with about 9,000 being killed; some Huron
surrendered and were incorporated into the Seneca but others and the
surviving Neutrals fled south to take refuge among the Erie |
1653 |
Iroquois/Erie peace
conference erupted into violence; Iroquois made peace with French before
attacking Erie; Iroquois/Eire three year war began; Iroquois attacked
Ottawa forcing them west to Wisconsin and upper Michigan |
1654 |
Jesuit mission
established among Onondaga due to wishes of Christian adoptees |
1655 |
Seneca attacked
Illinois forcing them west of the Mississippi; war stalemate resulted in
peace between Mohawk/Oneida and Susquehannock; Dutch took over Swedish
settlements; Susquehannock war began with Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga;
Susquehannock allied in war with Shawnee, Delaware, Nanticoke, Conoy,
Saponi, and Tutelo |
1656 |
Surviving Erie
adopted into the Iroquois (about 18,000 Erie killed in the conflicts) |
1660 |
Mohawk killed
hundreds of Munsee Delaware in Esopus Valley War ultimately subjugating
tribe; war with French and British supported Abenaki, Pocomtuc,
Pennacook, and Montagnais in which Mohawk ultimately prevailed; Seneca,
Cayuga, and Onondaga attacked Delaware and Shawnee separately and soon
began fighting the Cherokee and Catawba |
1661 |
Susquehannock
smallpox epidemic leaving only 300 warriors |
1662 |
Iroquois inflicted
severe losses in conflict with the Mahican forcing them to abandon most
of the Hudson Valley |
1664 |
British seized New
York from the Dutch |
1665 |
French Crown took
formal possession of New France, 1,200 man French regiment set out to
attack Iroquois but got lost in the woods |
1666 |
French regiment
destroyed two Mohawk villages; Mowhawk asked the British for help,
British agreed subject to Mahican and Abenaki peace, Abenaki refused;
Mohawk attacked Pennacook while Abenaki were attacking a Mohawk village;
another French attack resulted in an ambush by the Mohawk |
1667 |
French/Iroquois peace treaty: |
|
Establishment of a
Christian settlement of Mohawk and Oneida |
|
Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox, Mascouten had fled from
lower Michigan to Wisconsin |
|
Kickapoo and Miami had been forced from Ohio and
Indiana to Wisconsin |
|
Shawnee had been forced from Ohio and Indiana to
scatter to Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, South Carolina, and
Pennsylvania |
|
Dhegiha Sioux (Osage, Kansa, Ponca, Omaha, and
Quapaw) abandoned the lower Wabash Valley and moved west to the
Missouri River though the Quapaw went further south |
|
Ottawa had left their original location on the
islands of Lake Huron and moved west to upper Michigan |
|
Southern bands of the Ojibwa had been forced
north to the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie |
|
Numerous other tribes had vanished and are only
remembered by name |
|
|
1668 |
Mohawk drove
Pennacook east across New Hampshire to take refuge with the Abenaki |
1669 |
Abenaki and Mahican
retaliated against the Mohawk but were ambushed on return trip taking
severe losses |
1672 |
Mahican surrendered |
1675 |
Susquehannock
surrendereed |
1676 |
Iroquois interceded
into King Philip's War forcing the Wampanoag to remove to Massachusetts
and the Abenaki and Pennacook to retreat to northern Maine and Canada
and into an alliance with the French; Caughnawaga grew so rapidly part
of the population moved across the St. Lawrence to start a second
village at Kanesatake |
1677 |
Iroquois established
Covenant Clan of tribes subjugated by the Iroquois with the Mahican the
first member |
1679 |
Iroquois smallpox
epidemic, 10% losses |
1680 |
An Illinois killed a
Seneca sachem at a Ottawa village restarting the Beaver Wars; the Seneca
wiped out three Illinois bands; Christian Mohawk warriors were living
near the French at Caughnawaga rather than in the Mohawk homeland |
1682 |
Maryland made peace
with the Iroquois League; Iroquois conducted raids against the Saponi
and Tutelo in Virginia |
1684 |
Huge Iroquois war
party defeated by Algonquian tribes at Fort St. Louis, turning point in
Beaver Wars though French retaliation raid failed miserably, French
signed treaty with Iroquois ceding most of Illinois |
1685 |
Iroquois defeated
the Nanticoke and Conoy and forced them into the Covenant Clan |
1687 |
Algonquian alliance
(Ojibwa, Ottawa, Wyandot, Sauk, Fox, Miami, Mascouten, Winnebago,
Menominee, and Illinois) began offensive against Iroquois; French
attacked Seneca and Onondaga village in New York |
1689 |
Massive Iroquois
raid against the French at Lachine, after which the Caughnawaga Mohawk
entered the war as French allies |
1690 |
Iroquois smallpox
epidemic |
1694 |
Iroquois overtures
for peace with French ignored |
1696 |
Iroquois had
abandoned most of their holdings except eastern Ohio, northern
Pennsylvania, and their New York homeland |
1697 |
Treaty of Ryswick
ended the war between Britain and France; Iroquois League placed under
the protection of the British against Iroquois wishes |
1701 |
End of Beaver Wars,
peace signed with French and their Indian allies; Iroquois remained
neutral in Queen Anne's War between British and French |
1712 |
Iroquois joined by
part of the Tuscarora |
1714 |
Iroquois war parties
went south to punish the Catawba for helping the British against the
Tuscarora |
1717 |
Ottawa began to
trade with the Iroquois and the British |
1720 |
Lake of the Two
Mountains mission was built for the Iroquois of the Mountain who would
become the modern Mohawk community of Oka |
1722 |
Iroquois joined by
part of the Tuscarora who became a sixth but non-voting member of the
League |
1727 |
Iroquois allowed the
British in to build Fort Oswego in their homeland to shorten the travel
distance for the Great Lakes tribes soon capturing 80% of the beaver
market |
1730 |
Iroquois adoptees
established as Mingo |
1737 |
Iroquois gave
away Covenant Clan Delaware and Shawnee Pennsylvania lands in
Walking Purchase |
1744 |
Outbreak of King
George's War between Britain and France, League remained neutral except
for Mohawk who supported the British; Pennsylvania and Virginia claimed
Ohio as a result of the Treaty of Lancaster |
1747 |
Virginia chartered
Ohio Company began settlements in area of Pittsburg |
1748 |
Oswegatchie and the
La Presentation mission (Ogdensburg, New York) established for the
Onondaga, Oneida, and Cayuga |
1752 |
Iroquois signed
Logstown Treaty with British ceding Ohio |
1755 |
Inexperienced Major
George Washington capture and confession started French and Indian War;
Iroquois wanting British assistance against the French ceded much of
Pennsylvania except for lands reserved for Covenant Clan; Seneca war
party en route to attack Catawba killed by Virginia militia; Seneca,
Cayuga, and Onomdaga allied with French, the Mohawk and Oneida allied
with the British due to influence of trusted Irishman William Johnson;
Mohawk chief Hendrick leading 200 warriors killed in battle against
French at Crown Point on Lake Champlain; the Caughnawaga were also there
with the French, but when they saw Mohawk fighting for the English, they
suddenly retired and sat out the fight; 13 year old Mohawk Joseph Brant
(Thayendanegea) distinguished in battle, later knighted in England |
1756 |
St. Regis mission
established among the Mohawk at Caughnawaga |
1759 |
Mohawk also
accompanied William Johnson in the capture of Fort Niagara |
1763 |
The Covenant Clan
had been joined by Shawnee, Miami, Delaware, Conestoga (Susquehannock),
Nanticoke, Saponi, Tutelo, Munsee Delaware, Mahican, Conoy, Cherokee
Creek, Choctaw, Catawba, and Chickasaw though Chickasaw, Creek,
Cherokee, Catawba, and Choctaw refused to submit to Iroquois authority;
Seneca joined Pontiac Rebellion and laid siege to Fort Niagara but
Niagara held; White settlement took Abenaki lands as well Caughnawaga
lands around Lake Champlain; Proclamation of 1763 attempted to protect
Caughnawaga lands |
1768 |
Remaining tribes of
Pennsylvania Covenant Chain crowded out by White settler and removed to
Iroquois homeland in New York; Treaty of Fort Stanwix between the
Iroquois and the British on behalf of Ohio tribes and colonists
respectively ceded much of western Pennsylvania and the the entire Ohio
Valley |
1774 |
Lord Dunmore's War,
aided the Shawnee against the British |
1776 |
The Iroquois League
decided to be neutral in the Revolutionary War; Joseph Brant defied the
Iroquois council and led his warriors north to stop the American attempt
to capture Canada |
1777 |
The Seneca and
Cayuga joined most of the Mohawk against Americans; the Oneida and
Onondaga supported the Americans; the Onondaga dowsed the council fire
and the Iroquois League was ended; Oneida warriors with the Americans
and Mohawk and Seneca warriors with the British fought and killed each
other as American and British forces met at the Battle of Oriskany;
Oneida served as scouts in the American victory over Burgoyne at
Saratoga and brought food to feed to Washington's starving army at
Valley Forge |
1778 |
The the British and
Iroquois launched a series of raids against the frontier that put the
Americans on the defensive in New York and Pennsylvania; Joseph Brant
led the Cherry Valley massacre; he followed this with a raid on the
settlement at Minisink Island on the Delaware River between Pennsylvania
and New Jersey which left several farms in flames and ambushed the
American militia upon his retreat; later the Americans destroyed Brant's
villages at Unadilla and Oquaga on the Susquehanna |
1779 |
George Washington
sent three converging armies to destroy the Iroquois homeland led by
generals Sullivan and Clinton and Col. Brodhead; the Americans won the
second Battle of Oriskany defeating Brant and capturing the Iroquois
capital; Brant war party attacked the Oneida villages killing hundreds
in this Iroquois civil war, and the Oneida fled to the Americans at
Schenectady; Brant blocked an attempt by the Seneca Red Jacket to make
peace with the Americans, and the Iroquois continued to attack the
frontier in support of the British |
1781 |
Brant ambushed a
group of Pennsylvania militia near the mouth of the Miami River; Brant
tried to ambush George Rogers Clark on the Ohio River, but Clark avoided
this and reached safety at Fort Nelson (Louisville, Kentucky) |
1783 |
Brant's final foray
into the Mohawk Valley was stopped at Johnstown; Joseph Brant crossed
into Canada and settled along the Grand River in southern Ontario with
almost 2,000 mostly Mohawk and Cayuga followers, though followers
included a few Delaware Munsee, Saponi, Nanticoke, and Tutelo; a second
group of Iroquois settled at Tyendenaga on the north shore of Lake
Ontario just west of Kingston, Ontario |
1784 |
Treaty of Fort
Stanwix ceded large tracts of Iroquois land |
1785 |
Oneida signed a
treaty with New York governor George Clinton ceding most of their
original 6 million acres in exchange for a smaller reservation |
1794 |
United States signed
the Canandaigua (Pickering) Treaty to establish definite boundaries for
Iroquois |
1796 |
The Caughnawaga
signed a treaty with the United States at New York City on
behalf of the Seven Nations of Canada relinquishing their claims to land
in New York with the exception of 36 square miles on the New York-Quebec
border which was preserved as the St. Regis Reservation |
1797 |
Seneca surrendered a
large tract at Big Tree; Brant ceded the Mohawk lands in New York in a
treaty signed at Albany |
1799 |
Seneca Handsome Lake
(Ganiodayo) had a spiritual vision which not only changed his life but
the Iroquois history preaching the "Kaiwicyoch" (Good Message)
and founded the Longhouse religion - a blend of the traditional Iroquois
values and Christianity |
1803 |
Canadian Iroquois no
longer participated in Iroquois council |
1807 |
Cayuga had sold the
last of their New York lands |
1822 |
The Onondaga sold
much of their reservation to New York; the Oneida had disagreements over
Quaker missions versus traditional religion, they sold their land and
half agreed to relocate to Wisconsin, Christian Stockbridge and
Brotherton went with them |
1838 |
More than 600 Oneida
were living near Green Bay; Treaty of Buffalo Creek (Treaty with the New
York Indians) signed where the Iroquois agreed to move to southeastern
Kansas as a result of the Removal Act never went into effect; Wisconsin
recognized the Wisconsin Oneida |
1839 |
Oneida purchased
land near London, Ontario |
1846 |
210 New York Seneca
had moved to Kansas; different groups Seneca of Sandusky merged to form
the modern Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma |
1877 |
The Canadian
government established a reserve for the Iroquois band of Chief Michel
Calihoo near Villeneuve |
1886 |
Mohawk iron working
tradition began |
1907 |
33 Mohawk ironworkers
killed in bridge collapse across St. Lawrence River |
1924 |
Canada imposed an
election system on the Six Nations |