User:Sharp-shinned.hawk/sandbox/Iroquois Historiography

Historiography

Knowledge of Iroquois history stems from Haudenosaunee oral tradition, archaeological evidence, accounts from Jesuit missionaries, and subsequent European historians. The historiography of the Iroquois people is therefore a topic of much debate, especially regarding the American colonial period.,

Jesuit accounts of the Iroquois portrayed them as savages because of comparisons to French culture; the Jesuits perceived them to lack government, law, letters, and religion. Eighteenth-century English historiography focuses on the diplomatic relations with the Iroquois, with visualizations such as John Verelst's Four Mohawk Kings and publications such as the AngloIroquoian treaty proceedings printed by Benjamin Franklin. One historical narrative persistent in the 19th and 20th centuries casts 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", but historian Scott Stevens notes that the Iroquois also began to influence the writing of their history in the 19th century, most notably the Mohawk Joseph Brant, and Tuscarora David Cusick. Notable women historians among the Iroquois emerged in the following decades, including Laura "Minnie" Kellog (Oneida, 1880-1949) and Alice Lee Jemison (Seneca, 1901-1964). Reading of Iroquois history should therefore always take into consideration the source and motivations of those making the account.