The Ordeal of the Longhouse

The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization is a historical survey by American author Daniel K. Richter. Published in 2011, the work explores the history of the tribes collectively known as the Iroquois League and their struggle against American imperialism and colonization. Richter analyzes how each of these tribes—the Tuscaroras, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and Onondagas—responded to colonialist aggression, adapting their traditions and norms to their new situation in order to ensure their survival. Richter’s thesis is that by the early 1700s, the so-called “peoples of the Longhouse” were radically different than past generations. Their adaptations incurred a great cultural cost but allowed them to hold on to their land and indigenous identities. The book has received positive reviews for its accessible reading of a complex and under-researched segment of anthropological history.

Richter traverses many topics and key moments in Iroquois history from the first centuries of American colonization. One of the most tragic events was the Iroquois’ acquisition of foreign diseases when Europeans came to their lands. Though many of these diseases were innocuous to the Europeans, the Iroquois had had no exposure to them, and therefore, none of the Europeans’ biological resistance. As a result, thousands upon thousands of Iroquois died of communicable disease in the seventeenth century. Richter leaves open the question of whether indigenous history would be different had so many Iroquois not succumbed to illness.

Focusing on the years roughly between 1600 and 1750, Richter argues that Iroquois culture, society, politics, and trade evolved rapidly as Europeans colonized their lands. He contrasts the aggressive and systematic oppression of the Iroquois orchestrated by the Europeans from the 1500s when the Iroquois were untouched by early colonists. This was due to the presence of other indigenous nations on the Atlantic coast, which acted as a buffer. Eventually, hundreds of settlements overwhelmed that buffer, and many coastal indigenous communities eroded. Richter notes that the earth, during the colonial era, was relatively uninhabited by today’s terms. Any settlement that numbered in the thousands was considered extremely large. The Iroquois towns were also highly mobile, shifting locations every few decades after they used up all of their local resources.



Richter also debunks multiple beliefs about Iroquois people. One prominent mistruth is that almost all of the League’s nations, including the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida, lived in the area now considered New York. The Iroquois nations were constantly on the move within and without the New York region and covered North America from the Atlantic as far west as the Great Lakes. Moreover, they regularly engaged in trade with bordering nations, including the eastern Algonquians and Abenakis, the northern Nipissings and Ojibwas, the southern Shawnees and Susquehannocks, and the western Potawatomis and Wyandots. Tribal relations were not always peaceful and economic: they often engaged in bloody war, even as the greater threat of European colonialism loomed.

To contextualize the Iroquois’ plight in the broader goals of the British Empire, Richter also turns to Asia, analyzing the “Great Game.” This was a drawn-out geopolitical contest between the Russians and British over who would claim control over central Asia. Though this game was tense, Richter argues that it pales in comparison to the far more complex games waged between the Iroquois and their nemeses during the 1600s and 1700s. Indeed, the Iroquois learned the governmental structures and patterns of the colonists in order to mirror them in diplomatic endeavors. They spoke often to New England, New Amsterdam, and New France, and were acutely aware of political developments over in Europe. Later, when the Iroquois started losing power and New France and New England seemed poised to strike, they forged new trade alliances with Pennsylvanian settlers to keep afloat. Richter explains that there was also division within the Iroquois: some favored French relationships; others the British; and still others wanted nothing to do with either.

At the end of his book, Richter argues that Iroquois history not only endured, but thrived beyond the eighteenth century. Since the emergence of the United States and Canada as nation-states, the Iroquois nations have continued to evolve. These precedents of survival suggest that the peoples of the Longhouse will survive in our modern world.