Political-Economic-Military alliances between Iroquoian speaking peoplesdestroyed and disperced by 1650s; some nations, especially those which moved further west, became known as the Ouendat or Wyndot
These were a group of about 7 different villages along the St. Lawrence R. who were living there when Cartier made his visits in 1534, 1535, and 1541-42. When Champlain arrived there half a century later in 1608 (Kebek), these people where gone as where the considerable villages at Stadacona and Hochelega. Scholars do not agree and what exactly happened to these people (warfare? epidemics? migration?)
The Haudenosaunee or Rotinonshón:ni"people of the longhouse" formed this politico-economic-cultural alliance sometime prior to direct contact with Europeans, initially to ensure peaceful relations among themselves and with their neighbours. Throughout most of the 17th century, they were at war with the French (who had allied themselves with their enemies, the Huron and the Algonkian speaking groups along the St. Lawrence), but in the 18th century they became the allies of the French against the British. The League/Confederacy was destroyed through factionalism during the American Revolutionary wars (mid-1770s to early 1780s) but many of its elements were rebuilt and reorganized in subsequent generations