The Mohawk: Indians of North America

Examines the history, culture, changing fortunes, and current situation of the Mohawk Indians.
Mohawk, self-name Kanien’kehá:ka (“People of the Flint”), Iroquoian-speaking North American Indian tribe and the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy. Within the confederacy they were considered to be the “keepers of the eastern door.” At the time of European colonization, they occupied three villages west of what is now Schenectady, New York.
Like the other Iroquois tribes, the Mohawk were semisedentary. Women engaged in corn (maize) agriculture; men hunted during the fall and winter and fished during the summer. Related families lived together in longhouses, a symbol of Iroquois society. Each Mohawk community also had a local council that guided the village chief or chiefs.