The term Iroquois describes one of American history's most influential Native American confederacies, the Haudenosaunee, or "People of the Longhouse." Based mainly in present-day New York State, they played a major role in regional trade and diplomacy. The Iroquois also helped influence the democratic ways of life in the new United States through Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father. Enduring the theft of much of their traditional land base, the Iroquois fought proposals to force them to leave their homelands. The Iroquois describes the significant influence these people had on the creation of the modern United States and their continued roles in American society.

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An agricultural and matrilineal (the women owned all property and determined kinship) society, the Iroquois Confederacy was made up of six nations–Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.