Daily Life in Olden Times Northeast Iroquois Nation Village Life   How did they live?   Villages: The Iroquois lived in villages. The Iroquois honored the needs of other people, just as they honored the land and animals. No one went hungry. Everyone in the village would share their food, even in the hardest times.  Clans: Iroquois tribes divided their tribe into groups called clans. Clans were family groups. It was forbidden to marry someone from your own clan. When a man married, he joined his wife's clan. When children were born, they became members of their mother's clan. The clan mother headed each clan. Most nations were divided into three clans. The Seneca had eight clans. The Clan Mother: The clan mother had a great deal of power. She selected the Council members. Before the Council met to make decisions for the clan, the clan mother offered each member advice. Council members were usually chosen for life. But, if the clan mother felt she had made a mistake, she could fire a council member and choose someone new in his place. So, although the men ruled, they had to do so in a way that would please the clan mother. Sacred Trees: According to Iroquois legend, the Great Spirit had told them that the animals and the things of the forest were their helpers. They knew they needed trees and plants and animals to live. But they were still sorry when they had to take a life. They were very careful to take only what they absolutely needed. To the Iroquois and other Woodland Indians, it would have been an insult to kill something and then waste it. A tree was living, and therefore sacred. If you were going to chop down a tree, every part of it had to be helpful. They used young trees to make poles for their longhouses. They carefully saved the leaves and twigs to start campfires. They used the bark to cover their homes to keep out the rain, and to line clay storage pots to keep dried food safe from mice. Twigs were also used to make baskets, hunting tools, and weapons. Twigs were used to make designs on clay pots. They used tree and plant fibers as weaving materials. They used everything over and over, even the smallest scraps, to avoid killing needlessly. Their beliefs forced them to be inventive. They even invented games to use up left over pieces of wood. Some of these games became so popular that they turned into annual events, like the Snow Snake Games. Longhouses: Because animal and plant life were plentiful, big groups could live easily together. Clans lived in longhouses. The distinctive clan longhouses were really long - they could be over 200 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 25 feet high. That's huge! To get an idea of how big they were, measure the distance from floor to ceiling in your own house. Building a longhouse was hard work, and it took a long time. First, the people had to gather the materials - the wood and the hides. Since nothing could be wasted, it was not the gathering of materials that took a long time - it was using every part of every piece they gathered, as the materials they needed to build a longhouse began to pile up. First, they made a frame out of long poles of wood. Then, they tied young trees to the frame, trees young enough to bend and shape. Once they had the shape of the longhouse in place, they covered the house with bark. They added a few smoke holes and two doors - one at each end. The Iroquois rigged a flap on the smoke holes. When it snowed or rained, the holes could be opened and closed as needed. Later, the people might go back and add to the longhouse, making it even longer as needed. Longhouses, once built, lasted about twenty years. Many longhouses had a huge pole fence built around them for additional protection. Stairs were built on the inside of the fence, so that archers could easily climb up and defend against attack. The poles ended in long sharp points to discourage anyone from climbing over. Many families lived together in one longhouse. Each was assigned their own section. Fireplaces and fire pits ran down the middle of the longhouse for heat and for people to share as a place to cook food. Houses were not measured by feet. They were measured by camp fires. A house might be 10 fires long, or 12 fires long. Longhouses were so important to the Iroquois way of life that the Iroquois call themselves "the People of the Longhouse". Marriage/Family Life: In the Iroquois world, the husband had no real authority over his wife. Whatever you might have read on the web about wife-purchase is not accurate. Marriage was by mutual consent. Customs varied from tribe to tribe, but for the most part, a woman could leave her husband when she wished. When a man married, he moved into his wife's longhouse. It was forbidden to marry anyone from your own clan, so when any woman married, a new man arrived in the longhouse. The men only brought a few things with them, perhaps a weapon or two and some clothing. When a baby was born, that child was a member of the wife's clan. When the boys grew up and married, they left their home and moved to their wife's longhouse. And so it went. The men  cleared the land for the garden crops. They hunted and fished and participated as fierce warriors as needed. Women controlled life in the longhouse. Out of all the women, the elder women were the ones who were in charge. The women tended the gardens and harvested the crops, as the men were too busy hunting to help much. Women raised the kids, made clothes, cooked food, and prepared food for storage. They were the gatherers, gathering wild fruits and vegetables. Women were usually the potters. They made the beautiful clay pots used for storage and cooking. Children learned from their parents, uncles, and aunts. Girls helped their mothers. Boys helped their fathers. Both played games to strengthen their bodies and skills. Iroquois Warriors: The men cleared the fields, and built and repaired the longhouses. Other than that, their time was spent in trading and hunting, and in war and preparing for war. The men made many types of weapons. They made bows and arrows out of hickory or ash wood. The tips of the arrows were made out of turtle, antler bone, and deer bone. They were very hard. They made blowguns and darts out of wood and hollow reeds, which were used to hunt birds. They made spears with sharp ends. Iroquois Battle Techniques: Iroquois warriors taught the European settlers valuable lessons in how to use geography to win a battle. The early American colonists learned by watching the Iroquois warriors how to blend into the landscape and fight like guerillas. They watched and learned how to attack quickly, and how to use a small number of men to sneak into enemy territory. The early colonists used the techniques they had learned from Iroquois when fighting the British during the American Revolution.   What did they wear? They made clothes from soft deerskin. The women and men wore leggings, shirts, and moccasins. The women wore a skirt or a dress that covered most of their leggings. In the winter, the men added a smock that went down to their knees for warmth. They decorated their clothes with dyed porcupine quills. The women wore their hair long. Warriors wore their hair in a "mohawk" - a wide stripe of hair left down the middle of their head. Men removed all body hair by scraping it off. Both men and women decorated their bodies with tattoos. How did they travel? Travel was by canoe on the water or by foot on land. They did not use wheeled vehicles or ride animals.   Return to the Iroquois Index      All Rights Reserved Counter start date January 2006     Have a great year!