 | |
| Proportion | 3:5 |
|---|---|
| Adopted | 1980s |
| Design | A purple flag with four connected, white squares and an eastern white pine tree in the center. |
| Designed by | Rick Hill; Harold and Tim Johnson |
The flag of the Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee flag is the flag used to represent the six nations of the Iroquois. It is a purple flag with four connected white squares and an eastern white pine tree in the center. [1]
In the 1980s, the Iroquois men's national lacrosse team needed a flag ahead of a competition in Australia to represent the Haudenosaunee as an independent entity. Rick Hill, a Tuscarora artist, writer, and educator associated with the lacrosse team, worked with Mohawk father-son duo Harold and Tim Johnson of North Tonawanda, New York, to create the design. Harold Johnson ran a t-shirt shop in Niagara Falls, New York, and his son Tim Johnson was a student at the University at Buffalo. Hill's original draft was inspired by Onondaga faithkeeper Oren Lyons and adapted by the Johnsons. The lacrosse team accepted the design and it later became a symbol for the Haudenosaunee. [2]
The flag's design is based on the Hiawatha belt, a symbol which dates back to the original uniting of the five tribes of the Haudenosaunee. [1] The wampum belt was a symbol of unity between the five (and later six) tribes for hundreds of years prior to its adaptation for use as a flag. [3]
Purple is considered "the color of the Iroquois", as it is the color derived from the mollusk shells used in making the wampum. [2] The four squares and one tree each represent one of the original five nations of the Haudenosaunee. From left to right they are: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga (the tree), Oneida, and Mohawk. [4] Their placement on the flag mirrors their geographic placement. [4] The eastern white pine tree also represents the Tree of Peace within the Onondaga nation, where the five nations united to form the Haudenosaunee. [4] Fittingly, the needles of the eastern white pine are clustered in groups of five. [3]
Hiawatha, also known as Ayenwatha or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and cofounder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some accounts, he was born an Onondaga but adopted into the Mohawks.
Among the Haudenosaunee the Great Law of Peace, also known as Gayanashagowa, is the oral constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy. The law was represented by symbols on wampum belts which functioned as mnemonic devices for storytellers, conceived by Dekanawidah, known as the Great Peacemaker, and his spokesman Hiawatha. The original five member nations ratified this constitution near modern-day Victor, New York, with the sixth nation being added in 1722.
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam.
The Onondaga people are one of the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in the Northeastern Woodlands. Their historical homelands are in and around present-day Onondaga County, New York, south of Lake Ontario.
The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. First met in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Iroquois councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indian tribes, as well as among the tribes, from New England to the Colony of Virginia.
The Haudenosaunee 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.
The Great Peacemaker, sometimes referred to as Deganawida or Tekanawí:ta in Mohawk was by tradition, along with Jigonhsasee and Hiawatha, the founder of the Haudenosaunee, commonly called the Iroquois Confederacy. This is a political and cultural union of six Iroquoian-speaking Native American tribes governing parts of the present-day state of New York, northern Pennsylvania, and the eastern portion of the provinces of Ontario, and Quebec Canada, recognized as sovereign by both the USA and Canada.
The Two Row Wampum Treaty, also known as Guswenta or Kaswentha and as the Tawagonshi Agreement of 1613 or the Tawagonshi Treaty, is a mutual treaty agreement, made in 1613 between representatives of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and representatives of the Dutch government in what is now upstate New York. The agreement is considered by the Haudenosaunee to be the basis of all of their subsequent treaties with European and North American governments, and the citizens of those nations, including the Covenant Chain treaty with the British in 1677 and the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States in 1794.
"Bury the hatchet" is a North American English idiom meaning "to make peace". The phrase is an allusion to the figurative or literal practice of putting away weapons at the cessation of hostilities among or by Indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Eastern United States and Canada.
The Haudenosuanee 'Tree of Peace' finds its roots in a man named [Dekanawida], the peace-giver. The legends surrounding his place amongst the [Iroquois] is based in his role in creating the Five Nations Confederacy, which consisted of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and his place as a cultural hero to the Haudenosaunee Nation, commonly known in Western culture as "Iroquois". The official title of the confederacy is, Kayanerenh-kowa as described by Paul A. Wallace, "it is also known as Kanonsionni, a term that describes both its geographical extent and its constitutional form". The myths and legends surrounding Dekanawida have the roots in the oral histories that followed many Native American tribes throughout their histories.
The Iroquois, also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, while the English simply called them the "Five Nations". The peoples of the Iroquois included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people from the southeast were accepted into the confederacy, from which point it was known as the "Six Nations".
Tadodaho was a Native American Hoyenah (sachem) of the Onondaga nation before the Deganawidah and Hiawatha formed the Iroquois League, or "Haudenosaunee". According to oral tradition, he had extraordinary characteristics and was widely feared, but he was persuaded to support the confederacy of the Five Nations.
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee passport is a passport issued by the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Tree of Peace Society was founded in 1984 and incorporated in New York State on October 17, 1994, as a "foreign" not-for-profit corporation. Its headquarters are located on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in Hogansburg, New York, which borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, Canada, along the St. Lawrence River.
First Nations Lacrosse Association is the governing body of lacrosse for First Nations within Canada and Native American tribes within the United States.
John Arthur Gibson (1850–1912) was a chief of the Seneca nation of the North American Iroquois confederation. Part Onondaga and part Seneca, he resided within the reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. Knowledgeable about Iroquois (Haudosaunee) culture, he is best known for the versions he provided of the Iroquois oral constitution, the Great Law of Peace. He acted as an advisor to the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs in matters relating both to Iroquois and non-Iroquois indigenous people. He was a well-respected player of the traditional Iroquois sport of lacrosse until he was blinded during a game when he was 31.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals Men’s Lacrosse Team, formerly known as the Iroquois Nationals, represents the Iroquois Confederacy in international field lacrosse competition. They are currently ranked third in the world by World Lacrosse after winning Bronze at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship.
A Dish With One Spoon, also known as One Dish One Spoon, is a law used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas since at least 1142 CE to describe an agreement for sharing hunting territory among two or more nations. People are all eating out of the single dish, that is, all hunting in the shared territory. One spoon signifies that all Peoples sharing the territory are expected to limit the game they take to leave enough for others, and for the continued abundance and viability of the hunting grounds into the future. Sometimes the Indigenous language word is rendered in English as bowl or kettle rather than dish.
John Buck, titled Skanawati among other variants, was a leader of the Onondaga who lived near Ontario's Grand River. He was the official keeper of the wampum records of the Iroquois, sometimes described as a firekeeper. He took on the role of wampum keeper in 1843. Buck was described in a contemporary account as "a capable ruler and an able and trustworthy negotiator". Kenyon and Kenyon identify him as a "follower of Handsome Lake".
Leon Shenandoah was an Onondaga politician who headed the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy from 1968 to his death.
