Long before the Europeans arrived on this continent there was born to the Huron people a man who had a vision of bringing peace to his people. In his vision he saw a great pine tree. The roots of this tree were five powerful nations. From these roots, the tree grew so high that its tip pierced through the sky and on top there was an eagle watching to see that none of the nations broke the peace among them. This Peacemaker was a man named Deganawida (also spelled Deganawidah).
Deganawida’s vision, articulated through the great Mohawk orator Hiawatha, united five Iroquois-speaking nations – the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Onondaga, the Oneida, and the Mohawk– into the League of Five Nations. Later the Tuscarora would join them to form the League of Six Nations. The League is also called the Iroquois Confederacy. They refer to themselves as Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse).
While the designation “Iroquois” is often used to refer to the Five or Six Nations, it should be remembered that not all Iroquois-speaking nations in the Northeast were members of the League. Deganawida’s own nation – the Huron – did not join.
In general, the subsistence patterns of the Iroquois nations were based on slash-and-burn agriculture which was supplemented by some hunting and fishing and by the gathering of certain wild plants for both food and fiber. While the stereotype of Indians places emphasis on hunting, in actuality hunted meat was relatively unimportant as a source of calories on a daily basis. Corn, beans, and squash provided about two-thirds of the Iroquois caloric intake.
Farming centered around the Three Sisters: corn, beans, squash. Anthropologist William Fenton in his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, reports:
“These crops provided the foundation of subsistence and afforded the leisure to develop institutions of sedentary life. They yielded a surplus in good years and could be dried and stored for winter use, even held over into lean years.”
The three crops complemented each other. In her chapter in Science and Native American Communities: Legacies of Pain, Visions of Promise, Jane Mt. Pleasant reports:
“Beans, because they are legumes, add nitrogen to the soil that the other two plants need.”
The corn stalks provide support for the bean vines. In his book Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in Seventeenth-Century America, Matthew Dennis writes:
“As the beans grew, they wound their way around corn stocks for support and helped to shelter lower plants and collect rain. Such horticulture proved remarkably efficient and conservative at high levels of yield.”
Jane Mt. Pleasant points out:
“Now the squash, because it grows low to the ground and has very big leaves, reduces the ability of weeds to grow and interfere with the food crops.”
When the three foods are eaten together, they provide a balanced diet of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and the full complement of amino acids for protein.
With regard to the relationship between people and corn, Jane Mt. Pleasant writes:
“Successful corn production depends upon a delicate balance between soil, plant, and atmosphere, but it also requires the knowledgeable and respectful participation of human beings. Corn will not survive without people to plant, tend, and harvest it.”
The Iroquois cultivated about 15 different varieties of corn, 60 different varieties of beans, and 8 different kinds of squash. Farming was women’s work and therefore women owned the crops.
Among the Huron, agriculture produced about three fourths of the food which they consumed. As with other Iroquoian groups, the farming was done by the women in fields which had been cleared by the men. According to anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker, in her book An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649:
“All uncleared land was common property. An individual could clear and plant as much as he wished. This land then remained his for as long as he cultivated it.”
The land was cleared by first girding the trees and then burning the underbrush and trees. In addition to providing a clear space for their fields, the ash from the fire also provided additional nutrients. Generally, the cleared land would wear out in about a decade, forcing the Iroquois to clear new land, usually farther from the village. For the smaller villages – those with about 200 inhabitants – by the time the walking distance to the farthest field reached about 1 kilometer, the oldest abandoned fields could be re-opened. For the larger villages, however, it took about 50 years for the productive fields to become too distant and requiring the village itself to move.
Matthew Dennis writes:
“Iroquois fields varied from ten or twenty acres to several hundred acres, according to the size of the community.”
Matthew Dennis also reports:
“Iroquois women planted these vast tracts by placing corn, bean, and squash or pumpkin seeds together in single mounds. Observing planting taboos, they disturbed the earth as little as possible, often planting in the same mounds each spring, in hollows left from the removal of the previous year’s corn stalks, and hoeing and weeding only minimally.”
Planting would usually begin when the white oak leaves were the size of a red squirrel’s foot. While men would assist in the initial clearing of the fields, planting was done by a party of women under the supervision of the clan mothers. In his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, Anthony Wallace reports:
“Women did virtually all the agricultural work—planting, weeding, and harvesting.”
In order to prevent drought, a little tobacco was burned in the fields every day to honor the sky. The Mohawk soaked seeds in a potion of hellebore to poison crows.
By 1630 it is estimated that the Huron, with a population of about 21,000, were harvesting 189,000 bushels of corn from 7,000 acres.
Indians 101
Twice each week Indians 101 explores different American Indian topics. More from this series:
Indians 101: A Short Overview of the Huron Indians
Indians 101: Aboriginal Farming in New England
Indians 101: The Iroquois Longhouse
Indians 101: Animism and Shamanism Among New England Tribes
Indians 101: The Eastern Woodlands Culture Area
Indians 101: Acoma Farming
Indians 101: Southeastern Agriculture
Indians 101: Northern Plains Agriculture