| |
| | languagehat.com: Comment on THE IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES. |
 | | I'll throw in an additional monkey wrench to the effect that in the context of the historic Iroquois confederacy I always understood that by virtue of geography the Onondaga nation was the "central" meeting-place and that, pretty much by consensus and default, the Onondaga language was used in confederate council meetings as the "official language". |
 | | In particular, there was a lot of tension between the Mohawk, who considered themselves the preeminent "eastern door of the longhouse," and the western members, especially the Onondaga, who were the "name givers" of the League and considered themselves entitled to speak for it. |
 | | When Garakontié, the chief diplomat of the Onondaga, made a peace treaty with the French in 1654, the Mohawk were extremely pissed off, and "the two sides fought with each other until the ground was stained with blood and murder" (quoted in S.S. Webb, 1676). |
| www.languagehat.com /mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2034 (780 words) |
|