Indigenous Confederacies
Modern flag of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Himasaram, Wikimedia Commons
1450 to 1550
About 500 years ago, the various Iroquoian nations of the eastern Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region began to organize themselves into confederacies. The most famous and successful of these was the Haudenosaunee (people of the longhouse) Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois League or League of the Five Nations, which established a lasting peace. This confederacy — now a league of six nations — exists to the present day. North of Lake Ontario, the Huron-Wendat formed a similar confederacy, also of five nations. Iroquoian confederacies played a major and often decisive role in later colonial history.
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