St. Lawrence Iroquoians

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The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were an

The

The name of the country of Canada is probably derived from the Iroquoian word kanata, which means village or settlement.[5]

Historical issues

For years historians, archeologists and related scholars debated the identity of the Iroquoian cultural group in the St. Lawrence valley which

• Huron-Mohawk Option:

  Several historians combined data from early French reports, vocabulary lists, and oral histories of accounts by Native tribes to theorize the early inhabitants were Iroquoian-speaking Huron or Mohawk, two tribes well known in later colonial history. There has not been sufficient documentation to support this conclusion according to 20th-century standards. In addition, archaeological finds and linguistic studies since the 1950s have discredited this theory.[8]

• Mohawk Identity Option:

  Based in part on material from the 18th century,

  Mohawk

  (in some cases, they also postulated Onondaga and Oneida) had migrated and settled in the St. Lawrence River valley before relocating to their historic territory of present-day New York. Pendergast says that attribution of Stadacona or Hochelaga as Mohawk, Onondaga or Oneida has not been supported by the archaeological data.

  "Since the 1950s a vast accumulation of archaeological material from Ontario, Quebec,

  New York State consistently has provided compelling evidence to demonstrate that neither the Mohawk, the Onondaga, nor the Oneida homelands originated in the St Lawrence Valley."^[9]

• Laurentian Iroquoian and Laurentian Iroquois Identity: based on language studies, with material added since 1940;[10]

and

• St. Lawrence Iroquoian and St. Lawrence Iroquois Identity:

Since the 1950s, anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists and

As the historian Pendergast argues, the determination of identity for the St. Lawrence Iroquoians is important because, "our understanding of relations between Europeans and Iroquoians during the contact era throughout Iroquoia hinges largely upon the tribe or confederacy to which Stadacona and Hochelaga are attributed."[12]

Culture and subsistence

Prehistoric Iroquoian culture and maize agriculture in Canada is first detected by archaeologists in 500 CE at the Princess Point site in Hamilton, Ontario. Iroquoian culture is detected in the Saguenay River region of Quebec in about 1000 CE. By 1250 or 1300 maize was being grown in what would become the Quebec City area. By about 1300, four distinct subculture areas of St. Lawrence Iroquoian culture existed: (1) Jefferson County, New York with a population of about 2,500; Grenville County, Ontario with a population of 2,500; the Lake St. Francis basin west of Montreal with a population of 1,000; and the Montreal and Quebec city areas with a population of 2,000 to 3,000.^[13] There were also settlements in northernmost Vermont and neighboring Ontario near Lake Champlain.^[14]

Most of the St. Lawrence Iroquoian villages were located in inland locations a few kilometers from the river itself. By the end of the 15th century they were encircled by earthworks and palisades, indicating a need for defense. The villages usually were 2 hectares (4.9 acres) to 3.25 hectares (8.0 acres) in area. Inside the palisades the St. Lawrence people lived in

The Iroquoians occupied their villages for ten or more years until their longhouses deteriorated and the fertility of the soil for their crops declined. Then, they built a new village and cleared land for crops, usually only a few miles from their previous home.[17] The frequent changes of location has given problems to archaeologists in estimating the numbers on the St. Lawrence Iroquoian people. Dating techniques may not be precise enough to determine whether villages were occupied simultaneously or sequentially.^[18]

In addition to the characteristic villages, the St. Lawrence Iroquoian peoples had "a mixed economy, in which they drew their subsistence from growing

In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier commented on cultural differences between the people of Hochelaga (Montreal area) and Stadacona (Quebec area). Cartier described the large and productive maize fields surrounding Hochelaga, and said its inhabitants were sedentary, as compared to the people of Stadacona who were migratory.[22] The Stadaconans were closer to the salt-water resources (fish, seals, and whales) of the lower St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St Lawrence and ranged widely in their birch bark canoes in search of marine animals. Moreover, the Quebec area was the most northerly location in northeastern North America in which agriculture was practiced, especially during the cooler temperatures of the Little Ice Age in the 16th century. For Stadaconans, depending on agriculture was a riskier subsistence strategy than for the people of Hochelaga and they probably relied less on agriculture and more on exploitation of sea mammals, fishing, and hunting.^[23][24]

The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were not united politically and villages and cultural groups may have been unfriendly and competitive with each other, as well as being hostile to the neighboring Algonquian peoples and other Iroquoian groups.^[25]

European contacts

The archaeologist Anthony Wonderley found 500-year-old ceramic pipes in present-day Jefferson County, New York that were associated with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and the tribes of the Haudenosaunee. Their use appear to have been related to diplomatic visits among the peoples, and he suggests they indicate a territory of interaction that may have preceded the Iroquois confederacy. Related design elements and long recounting in Iroquois oral histories have been significant.^[32]

By the time the explorer

By the time Champlain arrived, the Algonquins and Mohawks were both using the Saint-Lawrence Valley for hunting grounds, as well as a route for war parties and raiding. Neither nation had any permanent settlements upriver above Tadoussac, the trading post in the lower St. Lawrence Valley which had been important for years in the fur trade.^[3]

Historical debates

Although historians and other scholars have been studying the St. Lawrence Iroquoians for some time, such knowledge has been slower to be part of common historical understanding. The hypothesis about the St. Lawrence Iroquoians helps explain apparent contradictions in the historical record about French encounters with natives in this area.

The origins of the word

The account of Canada's name origin reflects theories first advanced in the 18th and 19th centuries. General texts have not kept up with the discrediting of such earlier theories by the linguistic comparative studies of the later 20th century. For instance, the "Huron-Iroquois theory" of word origin appeared in the article on "Canada" in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1996.

The earlier mystery of