True name of the Mohawk nation is '
KANIEN’KEHAKE': 'People
of the Flint'. The name ‘Mohawk’ was given them by the
Algonquin Nation, and it was later picked up by
Europeans
who found it much easier to spell and pronounce than
KANIEN’KEHAKE. The Mohawks were (and still are) part of the
Iroquois Confederacy which, according to Iroquois
oral
tradition was formed some time between 1000 and 1450 AD.
Some writers say as late as 1600, but it is agreed that it
happened before the arrival of Europeans.
Mohawks today live over the border between northern New
York and Southern Canada near the
St. Lawrence River. This
area has always been their traditional hunting grounds, but
the area itself used to be much larger. During the Summer,
for example, they used to migrate down to what is now
Central New York, an area still called the 'Mohawk Valley'.