Mohawk people

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Mohawk

Kanienʼkehá꞉ka
Painting of Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant, by Gilbert Stuart (1786)
Regions with significant populations
Canada (Quebec, Ontario)	33,330[1]
United States (New York)	5,632
Languages
English, Mohawk, French, Formerly: Dutch, Mohawk Dutch
Religion
Karihwiio, Kanohʼhonʼio, Kahniʼkwiʼio, Christianity, Longhouse, Handsome Lake, Other Indigenous Religion
Related ethnic groups
Seneca Nation of New York, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Cayuga Nation of New York, Onondaga Nation, Tuscarora Nation, other Iroquoian peoples

The Mohawk, or Kanien'kehá:ka (transl. "People of the flint";^[2]) are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy.

Mohawk are an Iroquoian-speaking people with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League, the Mohawk are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door who are the guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east.

Today, Mohawk people belong to the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation, Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke, Mohawks of Kanesatake, Six Nations of the Grand River, and Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, a federally recognized tribe in the United States.^[3]

At the time of European contact, Mohawk people were based in the valley of the Mohawk River in present-day upstate New York, west of the Hudson River. Their territory ranged north to the St. Lawrence River, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario; south to greater New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to the Green Mountains of Vermont; and westward to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation's traditional homeland territory.