Iroquois

The Iroquois (/ˈɪrəkwɔɪ/ or /ˈɪrəkwɑː/), also known as the Haudenosaunee /ˈhoʊdənɵˈʃoʊni/, are a historically powerful and important northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the "Iroquois League" and later as the "Iroquois Confederacy", and to the English as the "Five Nations" (before 1722) and later as the "Six Nations", comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations.

The Iroquois peoples have absorbed many others into their cultures by adoption and by offering shelter to displaced nations. They have the concept of "Orenda", meaning "spiritual force", which historically meant the adoption of other peoples, including war captives, to replace the loss of spiritual force by death. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, and about 80,000 in the United States.

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