The Iroquois
An internet  hunt by Nancy Riggs
Candor Elementary School
Candor, New York

Could you have survived in the wilderness 400 years ago? Find out about the daily life of the Iroquois as you become a modern day hunter, hunting in Cyberspace instead of with a bow and arrow.  When you are finished with the hunt, be ready to tell why the Iroquois were so dependent on nature.

Who are the Iroquois?

Go to The Indians of the Northeast
1.  What did the Iroquois call themselves?
2.  What did it mean?
3.  In what area of the present United States did they live?
4.  Write the names of the 6 tribes  (Look at the top of this page)

Click on the highlighted words to find the answers to these questions.
5.  What were the nicknames of the  Seneca, Onondaga, and       Mohawk tribes? 
6.  Why  do you think they were they called that?
7.  In the Iroquois culture, everyone belongs to the clan of his __?
8.  What were the three main clan animals?  
   









From an illustration by 
Ronald Himler
Iroquois villages and homes
Click on the highlighted words to find the answers to these questions
  9.  What is a longhouse?
10.  Why were the homes called longhouses?
11.  Why were villages built on plateaus? 
12.  What is a palisade? 
13.  Why were villages built near water? 

Go to About the Longhouse to answer the questions below.
14.  When did they cut the wood for the longhouses?
15.  Why did they cut it at that time?

Go to Eastern Woodland Indians  to answer the questions below.
16.  How many families lived in a longhouse?
17.  Describe how a longhouse was made.
18.  Describe what a longhouse looked like on the inside.











Food
Go to Eastern Woodland Indians to answer the questions below. 
19.  How did the Iroquois get their food? 
20.  What were the Three Sisters?
21.  How was the hunter able to sneak up on the  deer in order to kill it?
22.  What did they eat when food was impossible to find?
Click on the highlighted word to find the answer to this question.
23.  How many deer did each family need for one week?




 
Clothing
Go to Eastern Woodland Indians to answer the questions below
24.  What did the men wear in winter?
25.  What did the men wear in summer? 
26.  What did the women wear in winter?
27.  What did the women wear in summer?
28.  What did the children wear in summer? 
Go to Headdress and answer the questions below
29.  What was the Haudenosaunee headdress called?
30.  What does that mean?
31.  What kind of feather is the one that stands up?
32.  What kind of feathers were the others?
33.  What did the Onondaga headdress look like?
          (Look at the top of this page)






Wampum
Go to Eastern Woodland Indians to answer the questions below
34.  What two things did the Iroquois use wampum
        belts for?
35.  What were wampum belts made from?
36.  What are the colors of the shells?
Birch bark painting 
of Oren Lyons by Kanatiyosh
Medicine
Scroll to the words False Face Masks, and answer the questions below
37.  What  did the False Face Society do for an injured or ill Iroquois?
38.  From what were the False Face Masks made ?
39.  How were the masks made?
Festivals
Scroll to the word Festivals, and answer the questions
40.  How many festivals were held each year?
41.  What are the names of the festivals?
42.  Why are the festivals held?
Games
Click here and play some virtual Native American games!



The Big Question
Use what you have learned about the Iroquois to answer the following question.
Why were the tribes of the Iroquois Nation so dependent on nature?
***Extra             A Virtual Tour
Take a virtual tour of what it was like in the Eastern Woodlands where the Iroquois lived in the year 1550.  You can find out how they made their tools, how they  took a bath, more games they played,  how they learned  to shoot their arrows, and many more things. Visit as many areas as you wish just by clicking on the links on  the Virtual Tour of the Eastern Woodlands .  Have Fun!

Background by Silverhawk Graphics
Line drawings of Iroquois tribes by John Fadden
Last updated 10/17/06