Mohawk

Mohawk, a tribe of North American Indians, the chief people of the Iroquois confederacy. The name probably means "man-eaters"; they call themselves Kaniengehaga, " flint people." Their villages were in the valley of the Mohawk river, New York. Their territory extended northward to the St Lawrence and southward to the Delaware river and Catskill Mountains. They were thus early in touch with Dutch and English, and were the first Indians to obtain firearms. In the War of Independence they fought with the English, and finally took refuge in Canada, where most of them have remained.

See North American Indians. For Mohawk cosmology see 21st Annual Report Bureau Amer. Ethnol. (1899-1900).