'League of Iroquois' - A place with no language, but culture 500 A.D., the times when the earth was...

'League of Iroquois' - A place with no language, but culture

500 A.D., the times when the earth was seemed to be the center of everything, from Adirondacks to the Great Lakes, in what is now Pennsylvania and upper New York, lived the most powerful tribe, 'League of Iroquois' which included:
- Mohawks (people of flint)
- Oneidas (people of stone)
- Onondagas (people of mountain)
- Cayugas (people of landing)
- Senecas (Great Hill People)

In the villages of Iroquois, 
- Land was owned in common
- Worked in common
- Hunting was done together
- Catch was divided among family members
Houses were considered common property and shared by several families. Concept of private ownership was foreign to them. Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common.

- Women were important and respected
- Families were matrilineal i.e. family line went down through female members, whose husbands joined the family while sons joined their wives' families. Each extended family lived in a 'long house'. When a woman wanted a divorce, she set her husband's things outside door.
- Families were grouped in clans and a dozen or more clans might make up a village
- Senior women in village named the men who represented clans & 49 cheifs who were ruling council of 5 nations
- Women tended crops & took general charge of village affairs while men were always hunting or fishing
- Since, they supplied food & mocccasins for warring expeditions, they had some control over military matters
- Children were taught cultural heritage & solidarity, to be independent, not to submit to overbearing authority. They were taught equality & sharing of possessions

"Thus power was shared between the sexes. European idea of male dominance & female subordination in all things was absent in Iroquois society." - Gary B. Nash (Book - Red, White & Black)

All of this was in sharp contrast to European values as brought by first colonist, a society of rich & poor, controlled by priests, governors, by male heads of families.

- Howard Zinn (Book: A People's History of United States)