Editing History of the Americas (section)

====Cahokia====
{{main|Cahokia}}
Cahokia was a major regional [[chiefdom]], with trade and tributary chiefdoms located in a range of areas from bordering the [[Great Lakes]] to the [[Gulf of Mexico]].

===== Haudenosaune =====
{{main|Iroquois}}
The [[Iroquois|Iroquois League of Nations]] or "People of the Long House", based in present-day upstate and western [[New York (state)|New York]], had a [[Confederation|confederacy]] model from the mid-15th&nbsp;century. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the later United States government. Their system of affiliation was a kind of federation, different from the strong, centralized European monarchies.<ref>{{cite book |title=33 questions about American history you're not supposed to ask |first=Thomas E |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |last= Woods |page=62|publisher=Crown Forum |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-34668-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=R |year=2005 |title=Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas |publisher=Mariner Books |isbn=978-0-618-49240-4}}</ref><ref name="Tooker">{{cite book |editor=Clifton JA |title=The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARbVmr941TsC&pg=PA107|publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |year=1990 |pages=107–128 |chapter=The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League |isbn=978-1-56000-745-6|author=Tooker E}}</ref>

Leadership was restricted to a group of 50 [[sachem]] [[Tribal chief|chief]]s, each representing one [[clan]] within a tribe; the [[Oneida people|Oneida]] and [[Mohawk people]] had nine seats each; the [[Onondaga people|Onondagas]] held fourteen; the [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]] had ten seats; and the [[Seneca people|Seneca]] had eight. Representation was not based on population numbers, as the Seneca tribe greatly outnumbered the others. When a sachem chief died, his successor was chosen by the senior woman of his tribe in consultation with other female members of the clan; property and hereditary leadership were passed [[matrilineality|matrilineally]]. Decisions were not made through voting but through consensus decision making, with each sachem chief holding theoretical [[Veto|veto power]]. The Onondaga were the "[[firekeeper]]s", responsible for raising topics to be discussed. They occupied one side of a three-sided fire (the Mohawk and Seneca sat on one side of the fire, the Oneida and Cayuga sat on the third side.)<ref name="Tooker"/>

Long-distance trading did not prevent warfare and displacement among the indigenous peoples, and their oral histories tell of numerous migrations to the historic territories where Europeans encountered them. The Iroquois invaded and attacked tribes in the Ohio River area of present-day Kentucky and claimed the hunting grounds. Historians have placed these events as occurring as early as the 13th&nbsp;century, or in the 17th&nbsp;century [[Beaver Wars]].<ref name="Burns">{{cite web|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |title=Osage |publisher=Oklahoma Encyclopedia of History and Culture |access-date=2010-11-29 |last=Burns |first=LF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102050914/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |archive-date=2011-01-02 }}</ref>

Through warfare, the Iroquois drove several tribes to migrate west to what became known as their historically traditional lands west of the Mississippi River. Tribes originating in the Ohio Valley who moved west included the [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Kaw people|Kaw]], [[Ponca]] and [[Omaha people]]. By the mid-17th century, they had resettled in their historical lands in present-day [[Kansas]], [[Nebraska]], [[Arkansas]] and [[Oklahoma]]. The Osage warred with [[Caddo]]-speaking Native Americans, displacing them in turn by the mid-18th century and dominating their new historical territories.<ref name="Burns"/>