Nation Iroquoise presents an intriguing mystery. Found in the Bibliotheque Mazarine in Paris and in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, the unsigned and undated manuscript Nation Iroquoise is an absorbing and informative eyewitness account of the daily life and societal structure of the Oneida Iroquois in the seventeenth century.

 

The Nation Iroquoise manuscript is arguably one of the earliest known comprehensive descriptions of an Iroquois group. Rich in ethnographic detail, the work is replete with valuable information about the traditional Oneidas: the role of women in tribal councils; mortuary customs; religious beliefs and rituals; warfare; the function of the clan system in tribal governance; the impact of alcohol; and the topography, flora, and fauna of the Oneida territory. It also offers important information about the famed Iroquois Confederacy during the 1600s.

 

Drawing on multiple strands of evidence and following a trail of clues within the Nation Iroquoise manuscript and elsewhere, José António Brandão presents the results of a fascinating and convincing piece of detective work. He explains who might have written the manuscript as well as its contribution to our understanding of the Iroquois and their culture.

 

The book includes the original French transcription and its English translation. Brandão also provides an illuminating overview of Iroquois culture and of Iroquois-French relations during the period in which the Nation Iroquoise manuscript was likely written.

José António Brandão is an associate professor of history at Western Michigan University. He is the author of "Your fyre shall burn no more": Iroquois Policy toward New France and Its Native Allies to 1701 (Nebraska 1997). K. Janet Ritch teaches at York University and the University of Toronto and is a professional translator in Middle and Modern French.

“A first-rate piece of scholarship that adds significantly to our knowledge of Iroquoian life since its time period falls between two major descriptions of Iroquoian life--the Van den Bogaert journal (1634–1635) and the classic of Iroquois ethnography written by Jesuit Father Joseph-Francois Lafitau in 1727. . . . This carefully edited and translated edition has real value to scholars of the Iroquois as well as to specialists of New York’s colonial past.”—Laurence M. Hauptman, New York History

“Thanks to this book, readers of English now have access to an important though little known account of Iroqois life in the early 1660s transcribed from the original in the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris. . . . This is necessary reading for anyone seriously interested in the ethnology and history of native people in northeastern North America.”—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“Scholars will likely embrace this edition as the most authoritative to date, and English-speaking researchers will appreciate the availability of a brief and highly readable seventeenth-century Iroquois ethnography in translation.”—Peter Cook, Social History