Mohawk people

The Mohawk people (Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east. Historically, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka people were originally based in the valley of the Mohawk River in present-day upstate New York, west of the Hudson River. Their territory ranged north to the St. Lawrence River, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario; south to greater New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to the Green Mountains of Vermont; and westward to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation's traditional homeland territory. Members of the Kanienʼkehá:ka people now live in settlements in northern New York State and southeastern Canada. Many Kanienʼkehá:ka communities have two sets of chiefs, who are in some sense competing governmental rivals. One group are the hereditary chiefs (royaner), nominated by Clan Mother matriarchs in the traditional Kanienʼkehá꞉ka fashion. Kanienʼkehá꞉ka of most of the reserves have established constitutions with elected chiefs and councilors, with whom the Canadian and U.S. governments usually prefer to deal exclusively. The self-governing communities are listed below, grouped by broad geographical cluster, with notes on the character of community governance found in each. Northern New York: Kanièn:ke (Ganienkeh) "Place of the flint". Traditional governance. Kanaʼtsioharè:ke "Place of the washed pail". Traditional governance. Along the St Lawrence in Quebec: Ahkwesáhsne (St. Regis, New York and Quebec/Ontario, Canada) "Where the partridge drums". Traditional governance, band/tribal elections. Kahnawà:ke (south of Montréal) "On the rapids".

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Related concepts (65)

Mohawk people

Iroquois

The Iroquois (ˈɪrəkwɔɪ or ˈɪrəkwɑː), also known as the Five Nations or the Six Nations and by the autonym Haudenosaunee (,hoʊdinoʊˈʃoʊni: meaning "people who are building the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America and Upstate New York. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the "Iroquois League", and later as the "Iroquois Confederacy".

Algonquin people

The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe (including Oji-Cree), Mississaugas, and Nipissing, with whom they form the larger Anicinàpe (Anishinaabeg). Algonquins call themselves Omàmiwinini (plural: Omàmiwininiwak) or the more generalised name of Anicinàpe.