Mohawk (cognate with the Narraganset Mohowa¨´uck, 'they eat (animate) things,' hence 'man-eaters') The most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They called themselves Kaniengehaga, 'people of the place of the flint.' In the federal council and in other intertribal assemblies the Mohawk sit with the tribal phratry, which is formally called the "Three Elder Brothers" and of which the other members are the Seneca and the Onondaga. Like the Oneida, the Mohawk have only 3 clans, namely, the Bear, the Wolf, and the Turtle. The tribe is represented in the federal council by 9 chiefs of the rank of roianer (see Chiefs), being 3 from every clan. These chiefships were known by specific names, which were conferred with the office. These official titles are Tekarihoken, Haienhwatha, and Satekarihwate, of the first group; Orenrehkowa, Deionhehkon, and Sharenhowanen, of the second group; and Dehennakarine, Rastawenserontha, and Shoskoharowanen, of the third group. The first two groups or clans formed an intratribal phratry, while the last, or Bear clan group, was the other phratry. The people at all times assembled by phratries, and each phratry occupied aside of the council fire opposite that occupied by the other phratry. The second title in the foregoing list has been Anglicized into Hiawatha From the Jesuit Relation for 1660 it is learned that the Mohawk, during a period of 60 years, had been many times both at the top and the bottom of the ladder of success; that, being insolent and warlike, they had attacked the Abnaki and their congeners at the east, the Conestoga at the south, the Hurons at the west and north, and the Algonquian tribes at the north; that at the close of the 16th century the Algonkin had so reduced them that there appeared to be none left, but that the remainder increased so rapidly that in a few years they in turn had overthrown the Algonkin. This success did not last long. The Conestoga waged war against them so vigorously for 10 years that for the second time the Mohawk were overthrown so completely that they appeared to be extinct. About this time (?1614) the Dutch arrived in their country, and, being attracted by their beaver skins, they furnished the Mohawk and their congeners with firearms, in order that the pelts might be obtained in greater abundance. The purpose of the Dutch was admirably served, but the possession of firearms by the Mohawk and their confederates rendered it easy for them to conquer their adversaries, whom they routed and filled with terror not alone by the deadly effect but even by the there sound of these weapons, which hitherto had been unknown. Thenceforth the Mohawk and their confederates became formidable adversaries and were victorious most everywhere, so that by 1660 the conquests of the Iroquois confederates, although they were not numerous, extended over nearly 600 leagues of territory. The Mohawk at that time numbered not more than 500 warriors and dwelt in 4 or 5 wretched villages. The accounts of Mohawk migrations previous to the historical period are largely conjectural. Some writers do not clearly differentiate between the Mohawk and the Huron tribes at the north and west and from their own confederates as a whole. Besides fragmentary and untrustworthy traditions little that is definite is known regarding the migratory movements of the Mohawk. In 1603, Champlain, while at Tadousac, heard of the Mohawk and their country. On July 30, 1609, he encountered on the lake to which he gave his own name a party of nearly 200 Iroquois warriors, under 3 chiefs. In a skirmish in which he shot two of the chiefs dead and wounded the third, he defeated this party, which was most probably largely Mohawk. Dismayed by the firearms of the Frenchman, whom they now met for the first time, the Indians fled. The Iroquois of this party wore arrow-proof armor and had both stone and iron hatchets, the latter having been obtained in trade. The fact that in Capt. Hendricksen's report to the States General, Aug. 18, 1616, he says that he had "bought from the inhabitants, the Minquaes [Conestoga], 3 persons, being people belonging to this company," who were "employed in the service of the Mohawks and Machicans," giving, he says, for them, in exchange, "kettles, beads, and merchandise," shows how extensively the inland trade was carried on between the Dutch and the Mohawk. The latter were at war with the Mohegan and other New England tribes with only intermittent periods of peace. In 1623 a Mohegan fort stood opposite Castle island. in the Hudson and was "built against their enemies, the Maquaes, a powerful people." In 1626 the Dutch commander of Ft Orange (Albany), and 6 of his men, joined the Mohegan in an expedition to invade the Mohawk country. They were met a league from the fort by a party of Mohawk armed only with bows and arrows, and were defeated, the Dutch commander and 3 of his men being killed, and of whom one, probably the commander, was cooked and eaten by the Mohawk.