Native American Religion

 

 

   

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

"War is a necessary exercise for the Iroquois. For besides the usual motives which people have in declaring it against troublesome neighbours...it is indispensable to them also being one of their fundamental laws of being" (Joseph Francois Lafitau)

 

 

    

      Furthermore, war for the Iroquois was a necessary part of maintaining everydaylife. "When a person died, the power of his or her lineage was diminished in proportion to his or her individual strength." (Ritchter 65) In order to revive the strength that was once lost, captives were taken from various tribes who were then adopted, replacing the life lost. For example, a father who has lost his son adopts a young prisoner in his place. Moreover, captives sometimes were not only used as replacements, but were also used as a way for mourners to let out their grief. "The Iroquois believed that grief inspired by a relatives death could, if uncontrolled, plunge survivors into the depths of despair that robbed them of their reason and disposed them to fits of rage potentially harmful to themselves and the community." (65) Ten days of intense mourning was assigned to mourners, yet if their pain continued, raids often took place in hope that captives would be gathered for the mourners to release violent  energy. In these rituals, captives would be tourtured (mainly men) recieving pains such as heavy blows to the head and the tearing out of finger nails. However, after several hours, captives were allowed to rest and eat "and later made to dance for their captors while their fate was decided. " (66) Usually captives that integrated into Iroquios society made an effort to belong and have the customs of the tribe. Captives who did not were unceremoniously killed.

 

 

 

"We are not like you Christians for when you have taken prisoners of one another you send them home, by such means you can never rout one another."

 

 

 

Although  the mourning war was useful in fixing the pain of lost ones, it was also useful on a societal level. This is because mourning wars helped fill in the gaps of the lives lost in their ranks, which also helped the growth of the population and the power of the Iroquois as a whole. All in all, mourning wars were an ingrained part of Iroquois society. Because of the way in which they viewed war as sacred, the Iroquois used it as both a religious and physical way to deal with the pain of loss and for the betterment of their society as a whole.