<P> The Iroquois Confederacy is believed to have been founded by the Peacemaker in 1142, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into "The Great League of Peace". Each nation within this Iroquoian confederacy had a distinct language, territory, and function in the League . Iroquois influence at the peak of its power extended into present - day Canada, westward along the Great Lakes and down both sides of the Allegheny mountains into present - day Virginia and Kentucky and into the Ohio Valley . </P> <P> The League is governed by a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs or sachems, each representing one of the clans of one of the nations . </P> <P> The original Iroquois League (as the French knew them) or Five Nations (as the British knew them), occupied large areas of present - day New York State up to the St. Lawrence River, west of the Hudson River, and south into northwestern Pennsylvania . From east to west, the League was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations . In or close to 1722, the Tuscarora tribe joined the League, having migrated from the Carolinas after being displaced by Anglo - European settlement . Also an Iroquoian - speaking people, the Tuscarora were accepted into what became the Six Nations . </P> <P> Other independent Iroquoian - speaking peoples, such as the Erie, Susquehannock, Huron (Wendat) and Wyandot, lived at various times along the St. Lawrence River, and around the Great Lakes . In the American Southeast, the Cherokee were an Iroquoian - language people who had migrated to that area centuries before European contact . None of these was part of the Haudenosaunee . Those on the borders of Haudenosaunee territory in the Great Lakes region competed and warred with the member nations . </P>

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