This is a comprehensive account of the five tribes - Onandagas, Senecas, Mohawks, Oneidas and Cayugas - who together made up the Iriquois nation, form their origins in prehistory to their dispersal and confinement after the American Revolution. This accessible account by the leading schlolar in the filed draws on the widest possible range of archaeological evidence to provide a narrative interpretation of a people whose beliefs and culture have remained to Americans matters of mystery.