The
Mohawk people (who identify as
Kanien'kehá:ka) are the most easterly tribe of the
Iroquois Confederacy, and are also known as the “People of the Flint Place.” They are an
Iroquoian-speaking
indigenous people of
North America. They were historically based in the
Mohawk Valley in present-day upstate
New York west of Albany; their territory ranged to the St. Lawrence River and present-day southern
Quebec and eastern
Ontario, greater
New Jersey, and southward into present-day Pennsylvania, eastward to the
Green Mountains of
Vermont, and westward to the border with the
Oneida Nation's traditional homeland territory. As one of the five original members of the
Iroquois League, or
Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk were known as the
Keepers of the Eastern Door. For hundreds of years, they guarded the Iroquois Confederation against invasion from that direction by tribes from the New England and lower New York areas. Their current major settlements include areas around
Lake Ontario and the
St Lawrence River in
Canada and New York.