The distribution of these kettles, and distinctive fragments from them, assist in reconstructing late 16th-and early 17th-century exchange networks between the Canadian Maritimes and the lower Great Lakes.The Onondaga were one of the original member tribes of the League of the Iroquois or the Five Nations Confederacy.are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy.They were known during the colonial years to the French as the "Iroquois League," and later as the "Iroquois Confederacy," and to the English as the "Five Nations" (before 1722), and later as the "Six Nations," comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora peoples.

Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Bradley's important book, , re-released with a new afterword in 2005, is as pertinent today as it was when it first appeared almost two decades ago in 1987.The early history of the Onondaga Iroquois and their cultural responses to the European invasion are illuminated in this valuable study, Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois.Drawing on a wealth of archaeological evidence and historical documents, James W.Onondaga village was the site of the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy and was considered to be its capital. The Onondaga held fourteen of the fifty hereditary sachem positions in the council of the League of the Iroquois, one of which was the chief of the council, and were known as the "Keepers of the Council Fire." Blau, Harold (1967). Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois: Accommodating Change, 1500-1655. Second was the need to get beyond the conceptual roadblock of "The Iroquois" and their league.To explore these questions, a particular native group, the ONondage Iroquois, is examined as well as how their culture changed as a consequence of European contact.