IROQUOIS  , or Six NATIONS, a celebrated

confederation of North American Indians . The name is that given them by the French . It is suggested that it was formed of two ceremonial words constantly used by the tribesmen, meaning " real adders," with the French addition of ois . The league was originally composed of five tribes or nations, viz . Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas . The confederation probably took place towards the close of the 16th century and in 1722 the Tuscaroras were admitted, the league being then called that of " the Six Nations." At that time their total number was estimated at 11,65o, including 2150 warriors . They were unquestionably the most powerful confederation of Indians on the continent . Their home was the central and western parts of New York state . In the American War of Independence they fought on the English side, and in the repeated battles their power was nearly destroyed . They are now to the number of 17,000 or more scattered about on various reservations in New York state, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Canada . The Iroquoian stock, the larger group of kindred tribes, of which the five nations were the most powerful, had their early home in the St Lawrence region . Besides the five nations, the Neutral nation, Huron, Erie, Conestoga, Nottoway, Meherrin, Tuscarora and Cherokee were the most important tribes of the stock .

The hostility of the Algonquian tribes seems to have been the cause of the southward

migration of the Iroquoian peoples . In 1535 Jacques Cartier found an Iroquoian tribe in possession of the land upon which now stand Montreal and Quebec; but seventy years later it was in the hands of Algonquians- See L . H . Morgan, League of the Hodeno Swanee or Iroquois (Rochester,N.Y.,1854); Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907) . Also INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN .