Which got me to thinking, what sort of houses did the Iroquois live in at this time and what sort of fortifications did they have?
Traditionally, the Iroquois lived in multi-family longhouses in walled villages. Many illustrations of them exist. I've included several below, but before you look at them, let's think a bit. Did the Iroquois live in the longhouses at the time of the American Revolution?
For the record, Iroquois still live today and today they do not live in longhouses. Even at the most traditional Mohawk and/ or Iroquois settlements today, you are not going to find people living in longhouses. (In fact, my father once helped with a construction project at Ganienkeh, a radical, Mohawk / Iroquois separatist community with both a Mohawk language school and a stubborn insistence that they are part of the sovereign Mohawk nation, not subject to US or Canadian law. He helped build some houses. They were, for the record, of modern design and not longhouses.)
So when did the architectural shift take place? Like so much in Iroquois history and society, the shift, it seems took place in the mid-eighteenth century.But first let's look a bit at the traditional housing and styles of community lay out.
According to Graymont, pages 9-10, while some of the longhouses were single family, most were multi-family, The number of longhouses in a community varied widely, depending, as one would expect on the size of the community. "Small hamlets" might have just four to five longhouses, while the largest Iroquois communities could have over one hundred longhouses, as well as walls and structures for smoking food and other necessities of community life. The smallest longhouses were "20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 15 feet high" (about 6m. by 5m. by 5m) according to Graymont, while the average was "60 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet high" (about 18m. by 5.5m by 5.5m) again according to Graymont. The largest on record, she says, was 334 feet long by 23 feet wide. (about 102m. long by 7m wide). She gives no height but as longhouses were curved in shape, I think it's safe to estimate it was between 18 and 23 feet high ( 5.5m to 7m. approximately). She also gives detailed descriptions of the construction and other architectural details of these longhouses. As these are easily found through a websearch, I see no need to share them here.
Again according to Graymont, these traditional settlements were often fortified. As this is a detail of much interest to wargamers, it seems worth quoting the entire paragraph from the book in full:
"The Iroquois lived in stockaded villages located usually in easily defensible high places near a supply of water. The log palisades were from fifteen to twenty feet in height, in single, double, triple, or quadruple lines, interlaced, and then reinforced with heavy bark. A deep ditch might surround the palisades with the dirt being thrown up to form an embankment next to the palisade. A bark battlement might also run along the top and, in time of war, be supplied with piles of stone to hurl down upon the enemy and jars of water to extinguish fires started by burning arrows. After 1600, when the power of the Iroquois Confederacy was at its height, and particularly after 1700, with the end of the Iroquois wars, fewer of the inner villages of the Five Nations were heavily palisaded. A more modest type enclosure was all that was needed to keep the forest animals from scavenging in the village," (Graymont, pp. 9-10)
However, we are talking about the time of the American Revolution (or as they say in the UK, "the American War of Independence" ), a period when Iroquois culture and politics was in great flux, a time when, as one science fiction series says in the prologue, "everything changed."
So did the Iroquois live in such houses at this time? It seems some did but an increasing numbers of others were adopting White housing styles. Again, it seems worthwhile to include Graymont's entire paragraph on this:
"Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Iroquois began to build the same type of log houses used by the white frontier settlers. An occasional well-to-do Indian would even build a frame house in imitation of his more affluent white neighbors. Bark houses survived to some extent well into the middle of the nineteenth century but gradually gave way to the sturdier dwellings copied from the whites." (Graymont, p. 10)
This house is a modern reconstruction of a house on the Saratoga Battlefield, a National Historic Park. It is shared merely to show a typical house of the time and place discussed. You may see other photos at https://benedictarnold.smugmug.com/Battles-of-Saratoga/John-Neilson-House/ I did not wish to infringe upon the copyright of those photos but there is one there that includes people and clearly shows the small size of the house, not uncommon in those days.
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Graymont also includes an interesting story about an Oneida church built in the 1770s. While the missionary who promoted the church in the first place, Samuel Kirkland, followed a school of theology known as "the New Light Principle" which held that churches need not have steeples and Baptism with water was not essential for salvation (Note: I hope to research this more. It sounds like the teachings of the Religious Society of Friends / "Quakers" may have had an influence here.) his local parishners, Oneida felt otherwise and in 1774 when the church was two years old decided, over his objections that it was unnecessary, that their church should have a steeple insisting, in Graymont's words, that "if white people could have steeples over their churches, so could they. Indian religion was worth no less than the white man's religion." (Graymont, p. 46)While it was not this church, you may see photos of another Iroquois built church (Mohawk-built) from this era here: https://indiancastle.church/
As for Iroquois fortifications of the era, they are mentioned in several places in this work and in the histories of that time. Lacking knowledge to the contrary (at least at this time of writing), I would assume they would have been a mix of the fortifications described above along with the White style of frontier fortifications of the time.
Stillwater, New York Blockhouse Museum ( https://www.albany.org/listing/stillwater-blockhouse-museum/1006/ )
The Old Stone Fort from Schoharie New York ( see https://theoldstonefort.org/our-museums/old-stone-fort/ )
WARGAMING
I am painting a large quantity of northeastern woodland Indians from that era, a large bag of 25mm Old Glory French and Indian War figures that were donated to me by a friend who never got around to paint them. ( Product ID: FIW-01 Natives Advancing with muskets ) Although in my mind they are supposedly Iroquois, I do not guarantee the details are correct, some of the hairstyles in particular look quite "iffy" but they are good enough for wargaming particularly as I did get them for free.
They will supplement the old RAFM Flint and Feather figures that I bought and painted years, really decades, ago. ( RAFM Flint and Feather ) I'll try to post pictures later. I also hope to do some supplements with figures from other ranges as well. Perry Brothers and Warlord Games both have some nice looking figures for the period but I am sure they are not alone. Bob Murch and Crucible Crush have an exciting looking line called "Flint and Feather" of pre-European and time of European contact Iroquois and Algonquins that while not quite right for this period seems nevertheless definitely worth mentioning.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
A New York State Museum exhibit and presentation on Iroquois longhouses.http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/iroquoisvillage/
Another website with lovely pictures of longhouses and Iroquois architecture.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2016/04/the-iroquois-longhouse.html
Should you wish to purchase one, this company makes resin models of Iroquois longhouses for wargaming. Although I've linked to a particularly nice looking one, there are others on their site, as well as a blockhouse and stockade walls, under the "American Frontier" section. Please note I have not done business with this company or seen their products in person.
https://achesoncreations.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=82&virtuemart_category_id=16
A fun website that gives instructions on how to build your own model longhouses for wargaming if you do not wish or are not able to spend money on resin cast models.
https://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-build-no1-fiw-indian-longhouses.html
I stumbled across this while researching this blog, a biography of Samuel Kirkland, the missionary to the Iroquois mentioned above. I have not read it yet but it seemed worth noting and sharing.
https://archive.org/details/samuelkirklandsm00lenn
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