Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians

This is a remarkable artifact from the late 19th century, one of the earliest attempts by an Indigenous author to reclaim the narrative around Native American peoples. Elias Johnson, likely of Tuscarora descent, wrote to challenge the wave of misconceptions and prejudices that had characterized most published accounts of Indigenous life. The book presents the Iroquois Confederacy (the Six Nations) and the Tuscarora not as vanishing savages but as a people with sophisticated governmental structures, rich oral traditions, and enduring laws that shaped a resilient civilization. Johnson draws on legends and traditions to reveal spiritual and philosophical foundations, details governmental systems that influenced early American political thought, and offers a history of the Tuscarora that contextualizes their relationship with the Iroquois Confederacy. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Indigenous history from an Indigenous perspective, particularly during an era when such voices were routinely silenced or overwritten.