Iroquois diplomacy on the early American frontier Hardback - 2008

From the publisher

A vividly drawn portrait of the powerful Iroquois nation during colonial America In the fourth title in The Penguin Library of American Indian History, Timothy J. Shannon tells the story of the most influential Native American confederacy of the colonial era. The Iroquois occupied a strategic region between Canada and New York and engaged in active trade and diplomacy with their colonial Dutch, French, and British neighbors. While they were famous as fierce warriors, it was actually their intercultural diplomacy that accounted for the span and endurance of their power in early America. By carefully maintaining their neutrality in the Anglo-French imperial wars in North America, they were able to claim an unrivaled influence in colonial America at a time when other Indian nations experienced dispossession and dispersal. Europeans who wanted to remain in the good graces of the Iroquois had to learn the ceremonies and the use of sacred objects that their diplomacy entailed. Shannonas portrayal contradicts the notion of the anoble savage, a showing just how politically savvyaand at times treacherousathe Iroquois Nation was in the face of colonialism.