94-727: Deed from the Five Nations to the King, of their Beaver Hunting Ground , more commonly known as the Nanfan Treaty , was an agreement made between representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy with John Nanfan , the acting colonial governor of New York, on behalf of The Crown . The treaty was conducted in Albany, New York , on July 19, 1701, and amended by both parties on September 14, 1726. The Five Nations (which became
188-805: A patriarchal society, was the matrilineal kinship system of Iroquois society and the related power of women. The Canadian historian D. Peter MacLeod wrote about the Canadian Iroquois and the French in the time of the Seven Years' War: Most critically, the importance of clan mothers, who possessed considerable economic and political power within Canadian Iroquois communities, was blithely overlooked by patriarchal European scribes. Those references that do exist, show clan mothers meeting in council with their male counterparts to take decisions regarding war and peace and joining in delegations to confront
282-708: A Mohawk war party by the shores of what is now called Lake Champlain, and again in June 1610, Champlain fought against the Mohawks. The Iroquois became well known in the southern colonies in the 17th century by this time. After the first English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia (1607), numerous 17th-century accounts describe a powerful people known to the Powhatan Confederacy as the Massawomeck , and to
376-807: A derogatory name adopted from the traditional enemies of the Haudenosaunee. A less common, older autonym for the confederation is Ongweh’onweh , meaning "original people". Haudenosaunee derives from two phonetically similar but etymologically distinct words in the Seneca language : Hodínöhšö:ni:h , meaning "those of the extended house", and Hodínöhsö:ni:h , meaning "house builders". The name "Haudenosaunee" first appears in English in Lewis Henry Morgan 's work (1851), where he writes it as Ho-dé-no-sau-nee . The spelling "Hotinnonsionni"
470-680: A distinct language, territory, and function in the League. The League is composed of a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs or sachems , each representing a clan of a nation. When Europeans first arrived in North America, the Haudenosaunee ( Iroquois League to the French, Five Nations to the British) were based in what is now central and west New York State including the Finger Lakes region, occupying large areas north to
564-851: A result of the Beaver Wars, they pushed Siouan -speaking tribes out and reserved the territory as a hunting ground by right of conquest . They finally sold to British colonists their remaining claim to the lands south of the Ohio in 1768 at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix . Historian Pekka Hämäläinen writes of the League, "There had never been anything like the Five Nations League in North America. No other Indigenous nation or confederacy had ever reached so far, conducted such an ambitious foreign policy, or commanded such fear and respect. The Five Nations blended diplomacy, intimidation, and violence as
658-535: Is 1,344,200 square kilometres (518,998.5 sq mi), of which 839,200 km (324,016.9 sq mi) is in Canada and 505,000 km (194,981.6 sq mi) is in the United States. The basin covers parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, parts of Minnesota , Wisconsin , Illinois , Indiana , Ohio , Pennsylvania , New York , Vermont , and nearly the entirety of the state of Michigan in
752-480: Is also attested from later in the nineteenth century. An alternative designation, Ganonsyoni , is occasionally encountered as well, from the Mohawk kanǫhsyǫ́·ni "the extended house", or from a cognate expression in a related Iroquoian language; in earlier sources it is variously spelled "Kanosoni", "akwanoschioni", "Aquanuschioni", "Cannassoone", "Canossoone", "Ke-nunctioni", or "Konossioni". More transparently,
846-403: Is attested in any Indian language as a name for any Iroquoian group, and the ultimate origin and meaning of the name are unknown." Jesuit priest and missionary Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix wrote in 1744: The name Iroquois is purely French, and is formed from the [Iroquoian-language] term Hiro or Hero , which means I have said —with which these Indians close all their addresses, as
940-470: Is in Samuel de Champlain 's account of his journey to Tadoussac in 1603. Other early French spellings include "Erocoise", "Hiroquois", "Hyroquoise", "Irecoies", "Iriquois", "Iroquaes", "Irroquois", and "Yroquois", pronounced at the time as [irokwe] or [irokwɛ]. Competing theories have been proposed for this term's origin, but none have gained widespread acceptance. By 1978 Ives Goddard wrote: "No such form
1034-607: Is now Canada and gave the river names such as the Grand fleuve de Hochelaga and the Grande rivière du Canada , where fleuve and rivière are two French words ( fleuve being a river that flows into the sea). The river's present name has been used since 1604 when it was recorded on a map by Samuel de Champlain Champlain opted for the names Grande riviere de sainct Laurens and Fleuve sainct Laurens in his writings, supplanting
SECTION 10
#17327721147541128-606: Is often cited by scientists as the largest in the world. Significant natural landmarks of the river and estuary include the 1,864 river islands of the Thousand Islands , the endangered whales of Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park , and the limestone monoliths of the Mingan Archipelago . Long a transportation route to Indigenous peoples , the St. Lawrence River has played a key role in the history of Canada and in
1222-588: Is that country's sixth oldest surviving European place-name. The earliest regular Europeans in the area were the Basques , who came to the St Lawrence Gulf and River in pursuit of whales from the early 16th century. The Basque whalers and fishermen traded with indigenous Americans and set up settlements, leaving vestiges all over the coast of eastern Canada and deep into the St. Lawrence River. Basque commercial and fishing activity reached its peak before
1316-524: Is the second longest river in Canada. Lake Champlain and the Ottawa , Richelieu , Saint-Maurice , Saint-François , Chaudière and Saguenay rivers drain into the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence River is in a seismically active zone where fault reactivation is believed to occur along late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of the Iapetus Ocean . The faults in
1410-641: The Armada Invencible ' s disaster (1588), when the Basque whaling fleet was confiscated by King Philip II of Spain . Initially, the whaling galleons from Labourd were not affected by the Spanish defeat. Until the early 17th century, the French used the name Rivière du Canada to designate the St. Lawrence upstream to Montreal and the Ottawa River after Montreal. The St. Lawrence River served as
1504-595: The Champlain Sea , due to a rebounding continent from the Last Glacial Maximum , the St. Lawrence River was formed. The Champlain Sea lasted from about 13,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago and was continuously shrinking during that time, a process that continues today. The head of the St. Lawrence River, near Lake Ontario, is home to the Thousand Islands . Today, the St. Lawrence River begins at
1598-710: The Gulf of St. Lawrence , traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border . As the primary drainage outflow of the Great Lakes Basin , the St. Lawrence has the second-highest discharge of any river in North America (after the Mississippi River ) and the 16th-highest in the world. The estuary of St. Lawrence
1692-729: The Gulf of St. Lawrence : Flowing through and adjacent to numerous Indigenous homelands, the river was a primary thoroughfare for many peoples. Beginning in Dawnland at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the river borders Mi'kma'ki in the South (what is today known as the Canadian Maritimes ), and Nitassinan in the North, the national territory of the Innu people . On the south shore beyond
1786-507: The Hudson River . The Accommodation with ten passengers made her maiden voyage from Montreal to Quebec City in 66 hours, for 30 of which she was at anchor. She had a keel of 75 feet, and a length overall of 85 feet. The cost of a ticket was eight dollars upstream, and nine dollars down. She had berths that year for twenty passengers. Within a decade, daily service was available in the hotly-contested Montreal-Quebec route. Because of
1880-861: The Mi'kmaw district of Gespe'gewa'ki , the river passes Wolastokuk (the Maliseet homeland), Pαnawαhpskewahki (the Penobscot homeland), and Ndakinna (the Abenaki homeland). Continuing, the river passes through the former country of the St. Lawrence Iroquois and then three of the six homelands of the Haudenosaunee : the Mohawk or Kanienʼkehá꞉ka , the Oneida or Onyota'a:ka , and the Onondaga or Onöñda’gaga’ . In
1974-552: The Neutral Nation (1651), Erie Tribe (1657), and Susquehannock (1680). The traditional view is that these wars were a way to control the lucrative fur trade to purchase European goods on which they had become dependent. Starna questions this view. Recent scholarship has elaborated on this view, arguing that the Beaver Wars were an escalation of the Iroquoian tradition of "Mourning Wars". This view suggests that
SECTION 20
#17327721147542068-685: The Ohio Valley . From east to west, the League was composed of the Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca nations . In about 1722, the Iroquoian -speaking Tuscarora joined the League, having migrated northwards from the Carolinas after a bloody conflict with white settlers. A shared cultural background with the Five Nations of the Iroquois (and a sponsorship from the Oneida) led
2162-713: The Onontio [the Iroquois term for the French governor-general] and the French leadership in Montreal, but only hint at the real influence wielded by these women. Eighteenth-century English historiography focuses on the diplomatic relations with the Iroquois, supplemented by such images as John Verelst 's Four Mohawk Kings , and publications such as the Anglo-Iroquoian treaty proceedings printed by Benjamin Franklin . A persistent 19th and 20th century narrative casts
2256-735: The Petun , Erie, and Susquehannock. Trying to control access to game for the lucrative fur trade, they invaded the Algonquian peoples of the Atlantic coast (the Lenape , or Delaware ), the Anishinaabe of the boreal Canadian Shield region, and not infrequently the English colonies as well. During the Beaver Wars, they were said to have defeated and assimilated the Huron (1649), Petun (1650),
2350-696: The Thousand Islands chain near Alexandria Bay, New York and Kingston, Ontario ; the Hochelaga Archipelago , including the Island of Montreal and Île Jésus ( Laval ); the Lake St. Pierre Archipelago (classified a biosphere world reserve by the UNESCO in 2000) and the smaller Mingan Archipelago . Other islands include Île d'Orléans near Quebec City and Anticosti Island north of the Gaspé . It
2444-465: The corn/beans/squash agricultural complex enabled them to support a large population. They made war primarily against neighboring Algonquian peoples . Muir uses archaeological data to argue that the Iroquois expansion onto Algonquian lands was checked by the Algonquian adoption of agriculture. This enabled them to support their own populations large enough to resist Iroquois conquest. The People of
2538-491: The 'Six Nations' after 1720) granted "after mature deliberation out of a deep sense of the many Royal favours extended to us by the present great Monarch of England King William the Third " the title to a vast area of land, covering significant portions of the present-day Midwestern United States and southern Ontario that they had claimed as a hunting ground, as far west as 'Quadoge' (now Chicago ), by right of conquest during
2632-537: The 19th century. The historiography of the Iroquois peoples is a topic of much debate, especially regarding the American colonial period. French Jesuit accounts of the Iroquois portrayed them as savages lacking government, law, letters, and religion. But the Jesuits made considerable effort to study their languages and cultures, and some came to respect them. A source of confusion for European sources, coming from
2726-480: The Algonquian names for their Iroquois competitors. The Iroquois Confederacy is believed to have been founded by the Great Peacemaker at an unknown date estimated between 1450 and 1660, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into "The Great League of Peace". Other research, however, suggests the founding occurred in 1142. Each nation within this Iroquoian confederacy had
2820-624: The Allegheny mountains into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into the Ohio Valley . The St. Lawrence Iroquoians , Wendat (Huron), Erie , and Susquehannock , all independent peoples known to the European colonists, also spoke Iroquoian languages . They are considered Iroquoian in a larger cultural sense, all being descended from the Proto-Iroquoian people and language. Historically, however, they were competitors and enemies of
2914-714: The Appalachian division at all. The source of the North River in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota (Seven Beaver Lake) is considered to be the source of the St. Lawrence River. Because it crosses so many lakes, the water system frequently changes its name. From source to mouth, the names are: The St. Lawrence River also passes through Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Pierre in Quebec. The St. Lawrence River and
Nanfan Treaty - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-569: The Atlantic Ocean; from the St. Lawrence River to the Chesapeake Bay . Michael O. Varhola has argued their success in conquering and subduing surrounding nations had paradoxically weakened a Native response to European growth, thereby becoming victims of their own success. The Five Nations of the League established a trading relationship with the Dutch at Fort Orange (modern Albany, New York), trading furs for European goods, an economic relationship that profoundly changed their way of life and led to much over-hunting of beavers. Between 1665 and 1670,
3102-427: The British National Archives . Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( / ˈ ɪr ə k w ɔɪ , - k w ɑː / IRR -ə-kwoy, -kwah ), also known as the Five Nations , and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee ( / ˌ h oʊ d ɪ n oʊ ˈ ʃ oʊ n i / HOH -din-oh- SHOH -nee ; lit. ' people who are building
3196-416: The Confederacy dispute this historical interpretation, regarding the League of the Great Peace as the foundation of their heritage. The Iroquois may be the Kwedech described in the oral legends of the Mi'kmaq nation of Eastern Canada. These legends relate that the Mi'kmaq in the late pre-contact period had gradually driven their enemies – the Kwedech – westward across New Brunswick , and finally out of
3290-420: The French as the Antouhonoron . They were said to come from the north, beyond the Susquehannock territory. Historians have often identified the Massawomeck / Antouhonoron as the Haudenosaunee. In 1649, an Iroquois war party, consisting mostly of Senecas and Mohawks, destroyed the Huron village of Wendake . In turn, this ultimately resulted in the breakup of the Huron nation. With no northern enemy remaining,
3384-407: The Grand Council, which still exists. The Iroquois Confederacy was the decentralized political and diplomatic entity that emerged in response to European colonization, which was dissolved after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War . Today's Iroquois/Six Nations people do not make any such distinction, use the terms interchangeably, but prefer the name Haudenosaunee Confederacy. After
3478-405: The Great Lakes. Many archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the League was formed about 1450, though arguments have been made for an earlier date. One theory argues that the League formed shortly after a solar eclipse on August 31, 1142, an event thought to be expressed in oral tradition about the League's origins. Some sources link an early origin of the Iroquois confederacy to
3572-608: The Haudenosaunee League. Those on the borders of Haudenosaunee territory in the Great Lakes region competed and warred with the nations of the League. French, Dutch, and English colonists, both in New France (Canada) and what became the Thirteen Colonies , recognized a need to gain favor with the Iroquois people, who occupied a significant portion of lands west of the colonial settlements. Their first relations were for fur trading , which became highly lucrative for both sides. The colonists also sought to establish friendly relations to secure their settlement borders. For nearly 200 years,
3666-405: The Haudenosaunee confederacy is often referred to as the Six Nations (or, for the period before the entry of the Tuscarora in 1722, the Five Nations). The word is Rotinonshón:ni in the Mohawk language . The origins of the name Iroquois are somewhat obscure, although the term has historically been more common among English texts than Haudenosaunee. Its first written appearance as "Irocois"
3760-407: The Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people from the southeast were accepted into the confederacy, from which point it was known as the "Six Nations". The Confederacy likely came about between the years 1450 CE and 1660 CE as a result of the Great Law of Peace , said to have been composed by the Deganawidah the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha , and Jigonsaseh the Mother of Nations. For nearly 200 years,
3854-399: The Iroquois Confederacy nations. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, and over 81,000 in the United States. Haudenosaunee ("People of the Longhouse") is the autonym by which the Six Nations refer to themselves. While its exact etymology is debated, the term Iroquois is of colonial origin. Some scholars of Native American history consider "Iroquois"
Nanfan Treaty - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-453: The Iroquois League. The explorer Robert La Salle in the 17th century identified the Mosopelea as among the Ohio Valley peoples defeated by the Iroquois in the early 1670s. The Erie and peoples of the upper Allegheny valley declined earlier during the Beaver Wars . By 1676 the power of the Susquehannock was broken from the effects of three years of epidemic disease, war with the Iroquois, and frontier battles, as settlers took advantage of
4042-473: The Iroquois as "an expansive military and political power ... [who] subjugated their enemies by violent force and for almost two centuries acted as the fulcrum in the balance of power in colonial North America". Historian Scott Stevens noted that the Iroquois themselves began to influence the writing of their history in the 19th century, including Joseph Brant (Mohawk), and David Cusick (Tuscarora, c. 1780–1840). John Arthur Gibson (Seneca, 1850–1912)
4136-408: The Iroquois established seven villages on the northern shores of Lake Ontario in present-day Ontario , collectively known as the "Iroquois du Nord" villages . The villages were all abandoned by 1701. Over the years 1670–1710, the Five Nations achieved political dominance of much of Virginia west of the Fall Line and extending to the Ohio River valley in present-day West Virginia and Kentucky. As
4230-529: The Iroquois had "such absolute Notions of Liberty that they allow no Kind of Superiority of one over another, and banish all Servitude from their Territories". As raids between the member tribes ended and they directed warfare against competitors, the Iroquois increased in numbers while their rivals declined. The political cohesion of the Iroquois rapidly became one of the strongest forces in 17th- and 18th-century northeastern North America. The League's Council of Fifty ruled on disputes and sought consensus. However,
4324-416: The Iroquois had lost control of considerable territory. Knowledge of Iroquois history stem from Haudenosaunee oral tradition , archaeological evidence, accounts from Jesuit missionaries, and subsequent European historians. Historian Scott Stevens credits the early modern European value of written sources over oral tradition as contributing to a racialized, prejudiced perspective about the Iroquois through
4418-442: The Iroquois launched large-scale attacks against neighboring tribes to avenge or replace the many dead from battles and smallpox epidemics. In 1628, the Mohawk defeated the Mahican to gain a monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange (present-day Albany), New Netherland . The Mohawk would not allow northern native peoples to trade with the Dutch. By 1640, there were almost no beavers left on their lands, reducing
4512-402: The Iroquois resisted attacking their own peoples. The Iroquois remained a large politically united Native American polity until the American Revolution , when the League was divided by their conflicting views on how to respond to requests for aid from the British Crown. After their defeat, the British ceded Iroquois territory without consultation, and many Iroquois had to abandon their lands in
4606-403: The Iroquois to middlemen in the fur trade between Indian peoples to the west and north, and Europeans eager for the valuable thick beaver pelts. In 1645, a tentative peace was forged between the Iroquois and the Huron, Algonquin, and French. In 1646, Jesuit missionaries at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons went as envoys to the Mohawk lands to protect the precarious peace. Mohawk attitudes toward
4700-404: The Iroquois turned their forces on the Neutral Nations on the north shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario, the Susquehannocks, their southern neighbor. Then they destroyed other Iroquoian-language tribes, including the Erie , to the west, in 1654, over competition for the fur trade. Then they destroyed the Mohicans . After their victories, they reigned supreme in an area from the Mississippi River to
4794-485: The Iroquois were a powerful factor in North American colonial policy. Alliance with the Iroquois offered political and strategic advantages to the European powers, but the Iroquois preserved considerable independence. Some of their people settled in mission villages along the St. Lawrence River , becoming more closely tied to the French. While they participated in French-led raids on Dutch and English colonial settlements, where some Mohawk and other Iroquois settled, in general
SECTION 50
#17327721147544888-425: The Latins did of old with their dixi —and of Koué , which is a cry sometimes of sadness, when it is prolonged, and sometimes of joy, when it is pronounced shorter. In 1883, Horatio Hale wrote that Charlevoix's etymology was dubious, and that "no other nation or tribe of which we have any knowledge has ever borne a name composed in this whimsical fashion". Hale suggested instead that the term came from Huron , and
4982-457: The League, giving rise to the many historic references to "Five Nations of the Iroquois". With the addition of the southern Tuscarora in the 18th century, these original five tribes still compose the Haudenosaunee in the early 21st century: the Mohawk , Onondaga , Oneida , Cayuga , and Seneca . According to legend, an evil Onondaga chieftain named Tadodaho was the last converted to the ways of peace by The Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha. He
5076-428: The Lower St. Lawrence River region. The Mi'kmaq named the last-conquered land Gespedeg or "last land", from which the French derived Gaspé . The "Kwedech" are generally considered to have been Iroquois, specifically the Mohawk ; their expulsion from Gaspé by the Mi'kmaq has been estimated as occurring c. 1535–1600. Around 1535, Jacques Cartier reported Iroquoian-speaking groups on the Gaspé peninsula and along
5170-440: The Mohawk Valley and elsewhere and relocate to the northern lands retained by the British. The Crown gave them land in compensation for the five million acres they had lost in the south, but it was not equivalent to earlier territory. Modern scholars of the Iroquois distinguish between the League and the Confederacy. According to this interpretation, the Iroquois League refers to the ceremonial and cultural institution embodied in
5264-458: The Six Nations/Haudenosaunee Confederacy were a powerful factor in North American colonial policy, with some scholars arguing for the concept of the Middle Ground, in that European powers were used by the Iroquois just as much as Europeans used them. At its peak around 1700, Iroquois power extended from what is today New York State, north into present-day Ontario and Quebec along the lower Great Lakes – upper St. Lawrence , and south on both sides of
5358-406: The St. Lawrence River includes: Large marine mammals travel in all the seas of the earth, the research and observations of these giants concern fishermen and shipping industry , exercise a fascination and a keen interest for laymen and, subjects of endless studies for scientists from Quebec, Canada and around the world. Thirteen species of cetaceans frequent the waters of the estuary and
5452-399: The St. Lawrence River, east to Montreal and the Hudson River , and south into what is today northwestern Pennsylvania. At its peak around 1700, Iroquois power extended from what is today New York State, north into present-day Ontario and Quebec along the lower Great Lakes – upper St. Lawrence , and south on both sides of the Allegheny Mountains into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into
5546-412: The St. Lawrence River. Archeologists and anthropologists have defined the St. Lawrence Iroquoians as a distinct and separate group (and possibly several discrete groups), living in the villages of Hochelaga and others nearby (near present-day Montreal), which had been visited by Cartier. By 1608, when Samuel de Champlain visited the area, that part of the St. Lawrence River valley had no settlements, but
5640-424: The St. Lawrence to attack the city from the west, which they successfully did at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham . The river was used again by the British to defeat the French siege of Quebec under the Chevalier de Lévis in 1760. In 1809, the first steamboat to ply its trade on the St. Lawrence was built and operated by John Molson and associates, a scant two years after Fulton's steam-powered navigation of
5734-509: The Tuscarora to becoming accepted as the sixth nation in the confederacy in 1722; the Iroquois become known afterwards as the Six Nations. Other independent Iroquoian-speaking peoples, such as the Erie , Susquehannock , Huron (Wendat) and Wyandot , lived at various times along the St. Lawrence River , and around the Great Lakes . In the American Southeast, the Cherokee were an Iroquoian-language people who had migrated to that area centuries before European contact. None of these were part of
SECTION 60
#17327721147545828-554: The United States). The Seaway (including the Welland Canal ) now permits ocean-going vessels to pass all the way to Lake Superior . During the Second World War , the Battle of the St. Lawrence involved submarine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence , Strait of Belle Isle and Cabot Strait from May to October 1942, September 1943, and again in October and November 1944. During this time, German U-boats sank several merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships. In
5922-523: The United States. The average discharge below the Saguenay River is 16,800 cubic metres per second (590,000 cu ft/s). At Quebec City, it is 12,101 m /s (427,300 cu ft/s). The average discharge at the river's source, the outflow of Lake Ontario, is 7,410 m /s (262,000 cu ft/s). The St. Lawrence River includes Lake Saint Francis at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield , Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal and Lake Saint Pierre east of Montreal. It encompasses four archipelagoes :
6016-480: The adoption of corn as a staple crop. Archaeologist Dean Snow argues that the archaeological evidence does not support a date earlier than 1450. He has said that recent claims for a much earlier date "may be for contemporary political purposes". Other scholars note that anthropological researchers consulted only male informants, thus losing the half of the historical story told in the distinct oral traditions of women. For this reason, origin tales tend to emphasize
6110-412: The area are rift -related and comprise the Saint Lawrence rift system . According to the United States Geological Survey, the St. Lawrence Valley is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, containing the Champlain section. However, in Canada, where most of the valley is, it is instead considered part of a distinct St. Lawrence Lowlands physiographic division, and not part of
6204-404: The circumstances dictated, creating a measured instability that only they could navigate. Their guiding principle was to avoid becoming attached to any single colony, which would restrict their options and risk exposure to external manipulation." Beginning in 1609, the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against the French, their Huron allies, and other neighboring tribes, including
6298-499: The confederacy did not speak for all five tribes, which continued to act independently and form their own war bands. Around 1678, the council began to exert more power in negotiations with the colonial governments of Pennsylvania and New York, and the Iroquois became very adroit at diplomacy, playing off the French against the British as individual tribes had earlier played the Swedes, Dutch, and English. Iroquoian-language peoples were involved in warfare and trading with nearby members of
6392-405: The development of cities such as Montreal and Quebec City . The river remains an important shipping route as the backbone of the St. Lawrence Seaway , a lock and canal system that enables world marine traffic to access the inland ports of the Great Lakes Waterway . The river has been called a variety of names by local First Nations . Beginning in the 16th century, French explorers visited what
6486-424: The earlier names. In contemporary French, the name is rendered as the fleuve Saint-Laurent . The name Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence) was originally applied to the eponymous bay by Jacques Cartier upon his arrival into the region on the 10th of August feast day for Saint Lawrence in 1535. Indigenous people use the following names: In winter, the St. Lawrence River begins producing ice in December, with
6580-416: The early 17th century, the Huron-Wendat Nation migrated from their original country of Huronia to what is now known as Nionwentsïo centred around Wendake . Nionwentsïo occupies both the north and south shores of the river, overlapping with Nitassinan and the more western Wabanaki or Dawnland countries. Adjacent on the north shore is the Atikamekw territorial homeland of Nitaskinan and, upstream,
6674-414: The farthest headwater to the mouth and 1,197 km (743.8 mi) from the outflow of Lake Ontario. These numbers include the estuary; without the estuary, the length from Lake Ontario is c. 500 km (c. 300 mi). The farthest headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing , Minnesota. Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes, the world's largest system of freshwater lakes,
6768-463: The formation of ice cubes between Montreal and Quebec City . The prevailing winds and currents push this ice towards the estuary, and it reaches the east of Les Méchins at the end of December. Ice covers the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence in January and February. Ice helps navigation by preventing the formation of waves, and therefore spray, and prevents the icing of ships. With the draining of
6862-471: The further reaches of Anishinaabewaki, specifically the homelands of the Algonquin and Mississauga Nations. The Norse explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 11th century and were followed by fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century European mariners, such as John Cabot , and the brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real . The first European explorer known to have sailed up the St. Lawrence River itself
6956-639: The indigenous nations sometimes tried to remain neutral in the various colonial frontier wars, some also allied with Europeans, as in the French and Indian War , the North American front of the Seven Years' War. The Six Nations were split in their alliances between the French and British in that war. In Reflections in Bullough's Pond , historian Diana Muir argues that the pre-contact Iroquois were an imperialist, expansionist culture whose cultivation of
7050-608: The largest tributaries of the Great Lakes . The St. Lawrence River tributaries are listed upstream from the mouth. The major tributaries of the inter-lake sections are also shown, as well as the major rivers that flow into the Great Lakes. Great Lakes tributaries are listed in alphabetical order. The list includes all tributaries with a drainage area of at least 1,000 square kilometres and an average flow of more than 10 cubic metres per second. tributary The diversity of
7144-610: The later Beaver Wars of the 17th century. As the vast majority of the Beaver Hunting Grounds described in the Nanfan Treaty were also claimed by New France or its Algonquian Indian allies, the French did not recognize the treaty (they did, however, recognize the suzerainty of the British crown over the Iroquois in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ) and the English made no real attempt to settle these parts for
7238-511: The longhouse ' ) are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League , and later as the Iroquois Confederacy , while the English simply called them the "Five Nations". The peoples of the Iroquois included (from east to west) the Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca . After 1722,
7332-458: The main route for European exploration of the North American interior, first pioneered by French explorer Samuel de Champlain . Control of the river was crucial to British strategy to capture New France in the Seven Years' War . Having captured Louisbourg in 1758, the British sailed up to Quebec the following year thanks to charts drawn up by James Cook . British troops were ferried via
7426-507: The migration of a majority to Canada, the Iroquois remaining in New York were required to live mostly on reservations. In 1784, a total of 6,000 Iroquois faced 240,000 New Yorkers, with land-hungry New Englanders poised to migrate west. "Oneidas alone, who were only 600 strong, owned six million acres, or about 2.4 million hectares. Iroquoia was a land rush waiting to happen." By the War of 1812 ,
7520-488: The outflow of Lake Ontario and flows adjacent to Gananoque , Brockville , Morristown , Ogdensburg , Massena , Cornwall , Montreal , Trois-Rivières , and Quebec City before draining into the Gulf of St. Lawrence , often given as the largest estuary in the world. The estuary begins at the eastern tip of Île d'Orléans , just downstream from Quebec City. The river becomes tidal around Quebec City. The St. Lawrence River runs 3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi ) from
7614-484: The peace soured while the Jesuits were traveling, and their warriors attacked the party en route. The missionaries were taken to Ossernenon village, Kanienkeh (Mohawk Nation) (near present-day Auriesville , New York), where the moderate Turtle and Wolf clans recommended setting them free, but angry members of the Bear clan killed Jean de Lalande and Isaac Jogues on October 18, 1646. The Catholic Church has commemorated
7708-568: The region. These tribes migrated to regions around the Mississippi River and the Piedmont regions of the east coast. Other Iroquoian-language peoples, including the populous Wyandot (Huron) , with related social organization and cultures, became extinct as tribes as a result of disease and war. They did not join the League when invited and were much reduced after the Beaver Wars and high mortality from Eurasian infectious diseases. While
7802-501: The second element kwédač , he suggests a relation to kouetakiou , kȣetat-chiȣin , and goéṭètjg – names used by neighboring Algonquian tribes to refer to the Iroquois, Huron, and Laurentian peoples. The Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America attests the origin of Iroquois to Iroqu , Algonquian for "rattlesnake". The French encountered the Algonquian-speaking tribes first, and would have learned
7896-417: The time being. In the amended agreement 25 years later, the strip of land 60 miles wide adjoining Lakes Erie and Ontario, starting at Sandusky Creek , was reserved for continued Six Nations occupation and use, with the permission of its owner under the 1701 agreement, the King of Great Britain. A copy of the treaty, containing the totem images of more than a dozen Iroquois chiefs, is part of the collections of
7990-504: The two French priests and Jesuit lay brother René Goupil (killed September 29, 1642) as among the eight North American Martyrs . St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River ( French : Fleuve Saint-Laurent ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean . Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to
8084-744: The two men Deganawidah and Hiawatha , while the woman Jigonsaseh , who plays a prominent role in the female tradition, remains largely unknown. The founders of League are traditionally held to be Dekanawida the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha, and Jigonhsasee the Mother of Nations, whose home acted as a sort of United Nations. They brought the Peacemaker's Great Law of Peace to the squabbling Iroquoian nations who were fighting, raiding, and feuding with each other and with other tribes, both Algonkian and Iroquoian . Five nations originally joined in
8178-469: The virtually impassable Lachine Rapids , the St. Lawrence was once continuously navigable only as far as Montreal. Opened in 1825, the Lachine Canal was the first to allow ships to pass the rapids. An extensive system of canals and locks, known as the St. Lawrence Seaway , was officially opened on 26 June 1959 by Elizabeth II (representing Canada) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (representing
8272-659: The weakened tribe. According to one theory of early Iroquois history, after becoming united in the League, the Iroquois invaded the Ohio River Valley in the territories that would become the eastern Ohio Country down as far as present-day Kentucky to seek additional hunting grounds. They displaced about 1,200 Siouan -speaking tribepeople of the Ohio River valley, such as the Quapaw (Akansea), Ofo ( Mosopelea ), and Tutelo and other closely related tribes out of
8366-415: Was Jacques Cartier . At that time, the land along the river described as "about two leagues, a mountain as tall as a heap of wheat" was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians . During Cartier's second voyage in 1535, because Cartier arrived in the estuary on Saint Lawrence 's feast day 10 August, he named it the Gulf of Saint Lawrence . The St. Lawrence River is today partly within the U.S. and as such
8460-472: Was advocated by Gordon M. Day in 1968, elaborating upon Charles Arnaud from 1880. Arnaud had claimed that the word came from Montagnais irnokué , meaning "terrible man", via the reduced form irokue . Day proposed a hypothetical Montagnais phrase irno kwédač , meaning "a man, an Iroquois", as the origin of this term. For the first element irno , Day cites cognates from other attested Montagnais dialects: irinou , iriniȣ , and ilnu ; and for
8554-508: Was an important figure of his generation in recounting versions of Iroquois history in epics on the Peacemaker . Notable women historians among the Iroquois emerged in the following decades, including Laura "Minnie" Kellogg (Oneida, 1880–1949) and Alice Lee Jemison (Seneca, 1901–1964). The Iroquois League was established prior to European contact , with the banding together of five of the many Iroquoian peoples who had emerged south of
8648-520: Was cognate with the Mohawk ierokwa "they who smoke", or Cayuga iakwai "a bear". In 1888, J. N. B. Hewitt expressed doubts that either of those words exist in the respective languages. He preferred the etymology from Montagnais irin "true, real" and ako "snake", plus the French -ois suffix. Later he revised this to Algonquin Iriⁿakhoiw as the origin. A more modern etymology
8742-457: Was controlled by the Mohawk as a hunting ground. The fate of the Iroquoian people that Cartier encountered remains a mystery, and all that can be stated for certain is when Champlain arrived, they were gone. On the Gaspé peninsula, Champlain encountered Algonquian-speaking groups. The precise identity of any of these groups is still debated. On July 29, 1609, Champlain assisted his allies in defeating
8836-509: Was offered the position as the titular chair of the League's Council, representing the unity of all nations of the League. This is said to have occurred at Onondaga Lake near present-day Syracuse, New York . The title Tadodaho is still used for the League's chair, the fiftieth chief who sits with the Onondaga in council. The Iroquois subsequently created a highly egalitarian society. One British colonial administrator declared in 1749 that
#753246