The Iroquois Confederacy is a political union of North American Indian nations who acted (and act) in war and peace, in trade alliances and treaties of goodwill, as a single nation. The term Iroquois was derived from the Algonquian word Irinakhoiw, which the French spelled with the suffix -ois. The word, which translates as "real adders," illustrates a common phenomenon in which a derisive term used by a native group's enemy becomes the accepted designation of the group in the European languages. The English knew them as the Five Indian Nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. In 1722, when the Tuscaroras joined their league, the confederacy became known as the Six Indian Nations or Six Nations Confederacy. The people of the Six Nations designate themselves Haudenosaunee, which translates loosely as "people of the longhouse." The confederacy was long in existence when Europeans arrived and became conscious of it in the early seventeenth century. No one knows the exact date of its founding, but a conservative estimate finds it in existence late in the fifteenth century. Some Iroquois oral tradition projects the founding date at several centuries earlier. The oral tradition recounting the founding of the league is called the Gayaneshakgowa, or Great Law of Peace. This tradition identifies a Huron individual, Deganawida (known in Iroquois tradition as the Peacemaker), as a prophet who was inspired with a plan to end human beings' abuses of other human beings. This mission began at a time of great confusion and blood feuding, when assassinations and murder were common and when war parties were often dispatched to distant lands to avenge an act of violence, which then escalated into warfare between clans, villages, and whole nations. The Peacemaker enlisted the assistance of a former Onondaga chief, Hiawatha, to carry his message to the nations. The message they brought was complex, and the tradition that relates it requires over a week in the telling. The Peacemaker proposed that the leaders of the communities organize for the purpose of creating a forum at which "thinking will replace violence." This assembly of leaders became the Grand Council, and eventually there were fifty sachems, or chiefs, from the various nations: nine Mohawks, nine Oneidas, fourteen Onondagas, ten Cayugas, and eight Senecas. They would assemble at Onondaga, at the geographical center of the country of the Five Nations, and would gather under what the Peacemaker called the Great Tree of Peace. There, reason would prevail. The Haudenosaunee took their identity from their custom of building permanent towns and, within the towns, longhouses that served as communal dwellings and ceremonial buildings. The largest of these were about sixty feet wide by over a hundred yards long. The Peacemaker compared the Great League to a long-house with the sky as its roof, the earth as its floor, and the fires of the nations burning within. The various nations had been organized into clans, and the Peacemaker adapted this tradition to the new political order, facilitating the renaming of the clans. There would be nine clans in all, but different nations would have different configurations. The clans are Turtle, Bear, Wolf, Heron, Hawk, Snipe, Beaver, Deer, and Eel. The women of the clans would meet under the leadership of a clan mother and select the men who would assemble as chiefs in the Grand Council. The Peacemaker proposed that the People of the Longhouse would be united in a brotherhood so strong that the people of the Turtle clan of the Senecas would view the people of the Turtle clan of the Mohawks as their own blood kin, and as such it would be unlawful for a person of one of these nations to marry a person of the other who was of the same clan, just as it would be wrong for a person to marry a sibling. There was initial opposition to the plan of unity from a powerful Onondaga war chief whose name was Tadodaho. He was said to be the embodiment of evil, an individual who had woven snakes into his hair to intimidate all in his presence, and he had no interest in supporting a league dedicated to peace. The Peacemaker and Hayanwatah despaired of ever converting him until they voiced their concerns to Jikohnsaseh, a woman chief of the Cat (or Neutral) Nation. She suggested that he could be won over by being offered the chairmanship of the Great League. When the nations assembled to make their offer, Tadodaho accepted. Jikohnsaseh, who came to be described as the Mother of Nations or the Peace Queen, seized the horns of authority and placed them on Tadodaho's head in a gesture symbolic of the power of women in Iroquois polity. The Grand Council was empowered to treat with foreign nations and peoples and to settle disputes among the Five Nations. The Iroquois Confederacy is divided into houses or, in their own parlance, "brotherhoods." The elder brothers are the Mohawks and Senecas. The younger brothers are the Oneidas, Cayugas, and, since 1722, the Tuscaroras. The Onondagas are known as the "Firekeepers." The Senecas and Mohawks confer as a "house," and the Cayugas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras confer in a separate caucus, in a structure similar to that found in upper and lower houses in some parliamentary systems. Issues that arise before the council are considered first by the Mohawk and Seneca "side," then by the Cayugas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras in council. If these two "sides" are unable to reach agreement, the matter is sent to the Onondagas, who then cast the deciding vote. If the two "sides" reach agreement, the Onondagas have no veto power and must confirm the decision. In each of their deliberations there is an effort to reach unanimity, but when unanimity is impossible to achieve a vote is taken to determine the sense of the assembly. If the measure is favored by a significant majority, a second vote is taken at which those who dissented are expected to express solidarity with the others.(cont'd with The Iroquois Warrior)