This class focuses on early Native adaptations to the creation of European settler colonies and the circulation of European goods. The readings describe seventeenth-century contact and European concepts of land and property. 

Also, always be sure to consider how to evaluate the multi-faceted sources, keeping in mind who created these texts and why. Whose perspectives are included? How were these texts created? Who was the intended audience and what is the goal of the text?  These questions will add to our understanding of the texts and to our discussions of history.

The third reading is related to the political system of the Iroquois or the Hodenosaunee. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch, English, and French encountered the five Iroquoian nations that made up a league of peace. The Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas occupied a region encompassing the Hudson Valley and going as far west as Lake Erie. This league of peace was meant to address a violent cycle of killing and retribution that Haudenosaunee perpetuation through mourning wars in which they tried to replace deceased family or clan members through warfare and captive-taking and also avenge the death of loved ones and important tribal members. According to Hodenosaunee stories, Hiawatha learned condolence rituals from Dekanahwideh, a Huron or Mohawk man, that allowed him to console grief without further killings and these rituals became part of the Iroquois League. The Five Nations met in a council for common affairs and since they were no longer fighting each other, they were able to expand their territory and often negotiated with Europeans from a position of strength. The text here is an "official version" of the laws of the confederacy written down in 1900 by the Six Nations Council of Grand River in Ontario (the sixth nation, the Tuscaroras joined in in the eighteenth century). 

 Study Questions

1. What do you remember about the story of the purchase of Manhattan? How has it been mythologized? Read Peter Schagen’s letter to learn more about the purchase. What does his letter demonstrate about the purchase of Manhattan from the Lenape and also about the Dutch colony of New Netherland?
2. In "The Dutch Arrive on Manhattan," John Heckwelder records a story told by Delaware and Mahican individuals that details the arrival of the Dutch on ships. How do you read a story told about an event (or series of events) that occured over 100 years earlier? What can you learn from this story? What parts of contact between the Dutch and the Delawares (Lenape) and Mahicans stand out and what does this tell us about Indian perceptions of Europeans? 
3. How did the Iroquois Confederacy work? What are the duties and rights of the chiefs? What role do women play in the Confederacy?
4. What purpose do the metaphors and rituals serve and what are their meanings? Do any of the symbols seem familiar? Do the rules and workings of the confederacy seem similar to other forms of government?  

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Study Questions