Northeast Woodland Native American Warfare & the Iroquois Response to the Colonial Era

Abstract

The Iroquois are the second most studied native group in U.S. history behind the Navajo. They played a major role in the development of the United States, both geographically and politically. Given their importance, I wanted the capstone of three years of graduate studies to be centered on them and the teaching of Iroquois history. My project’s aim was to first outline the way the Iroquois and other Northeast Woodland Native Americans fought wars before European contact, and then discuss how the Iroquois responded to the colonial era. The first part of my project is a simple historiography following how historians have approached Northeast Woodland Native American warfare from the 1940s until more recently. During part two of my project, I aimed at explaining to the reader what the Iroquois response was to colonial contact and the massive changes in their culture that that contact brought. Finally, part three of my project centered on the creation of the website (pathtodiplomacy.ucoz.com). The goal of this website is to not only disseminate some of the information that I have come across over the past year, but also to provide a venue for other scholars to share their thoughts on the topic of Iroquois history.