Overview

any Indian nations occupied the North American woodlands during the early seventeenth century. The Iroquois-speaking peoples included the Huron, Cherokee, Neutrals, Tuscarora, Wenro, Erie, and Susquehannock, as well as the political confederates known as the Five Nations Iroquois. The five nations are, from west to east:

Seneca , Keepers of the Western Door
Cayuga, People of the Muckland
Onondaga, Keepers of the Central Fire
Oneida, People of the Standing Stone
Mohawk, Keepers of the Eastern Door

The French called these nations the Iroquois, the English referred to them as the Five Nations, but they called themselves Haudenosaunee. In 1714, the Tuscarora came from what is now North Carolina to join the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and henceforth the English called the Confederacy the Six Nations.