The Iroquois are a “great group” of the northern continent, known for adopting firearms, forging their own iron weapons and shifting alliances between the French and the English. They are called “real bastards” (unos jodidos), and “the Iroquois beings also like to be vipers”.
| Type | People |
| Territory | The north; the Indian reservation |
| Spanish entry | Iroqueses |
Arms
Having gotten along with the French, they and the Cherokee “took up firearms” and learned them “very well and very fast”. Then they “made their own weapons, but of iron”, becoming independent of their suppliers.
Silver mines
The silver mines are “the chains”, a real object as well as a symbol. A pact with the English “that never quite took shape” has these mines as its sign; the object that seals the union is also the disputed resource. The Iroquois also pursue the chains of the green dragon, and their territory overlaps with them.
Alliances
They were allied “with vipers or the French… and also with the English depending on when it suits them”, and were ready to destroy the other tribes. At present they are “allied to these europanos” (“Europeans”), in an alliance — or “impossible alliance” — with one or more European nations, sharing territory and resources. Peter seeks them as a conquest; the company has discussed “making an alliance with the Iroquois”.
They belonged to the Iron Confederacy and occupied the Indian reservation. With the Cherokee they form a bloc, “those three groups”.
Conflicting accounts
- One account: they allied with the French and fought the English in the war before American Independence.
- Another: they dealt with both according to the moment.
Open questions
- Their bodies, dress, villages and iron weapons are not described.
- Whether “vipers” names a real power or is an epithet for themselves.
- Whether the Iron Confederacy is the Iroquois confederation itself or distinct, and whether it still stands.
- Which nations the “europanos” are, and why the alliance is “impossible”.
- How the three groups are organized; their borders and distance to the mines.