Iroquois Confederacy

The Iroquois Confederacy, known to its own members as the Haudenosaunee, is a confederacy of Iroquoian speaking indigenous nations in what is now northeastern North America, traditionally established under the Great Law of Peace by the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha and Jigonhsasee, though scholars debate whether this founding occurred between 1142 and 1660. It originally united five nations arranged from east to west, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, and around 1722 the Tuscarora joined after migrating north, creating the Six Nations structure that persists today. The confederacy governed through a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs each representing a clan of a nation, which allowed consensus based decision making across member nations while each retained its own territory and autonomy.