Six Nations (Noun)
Meaning
A league of Iroquois tribes including originally the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca (the Five Nations); after 1722 they were joined by the Tuscarora (the Six Nations).
Classification
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects.
Examples
- The unified Iroquois Confederacy, comprising the original Five Nations plus the Tuscarora, became known as the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
- The Six Nations were instrumental in brokering peace between the British and other Native American tribes during the American Revolution.
- The name Six Nations refers to a powerful league of Iroquois tribes originally formed by five key nations who later welcomed the sixth, the Tuscarora.
- For various reasons, the confederacy of the Six Nations originally settled and controlled most of what is now New York state and stretching into southern Ontario and Pennsylvania.
- The well-known league of the Six Nations that formed around the year 1570 remains as important cultural representation and source of pride for Native American Iroquois descendants today.