Museum & Library

Our permanent exhibit has been compiled to share the rich culture and history of the Kanien’kehá:ka with visitors from around the world. Beginning with the foundation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the 1990 Oka Crisis, the permanent exhibit features key cultural and historical areas that best explain who we are as Kanien’kehá:ka.

The Library at the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center is frequented by community members, students and scholars from around the world. The library holds a wealth of resources such as Eastern Door archives, historical photos and Kanien’kéha language resources, grammatical workbooks & dictionaries. Information on a range topics can be found from Haudenosaunee history, traditional medicines and work from modern-day Indigenous authors, the Resource Library can point you in the right direction.

Please note: we are not a lending library.

Haudenosaunee Recommended Reading Book List

• Haudenosaunee Recommended Reading Book List •

1. Journey into Mohawk and Oneida Country 1634-1635

By: HM Van der Bogaert

This is the first record of non-natives entering the Mohawk Valley, including statistical information on each village. Also available in comic book form.

2. Conservatism Among the Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve

By: Annemarie Shimony

An elaborate account of ceremonial and political functions at Grand River during the 1960’s.

3. The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701

By: Jon Parmenter

A detailed representation of how the Iroquois used their geographic knowledge and communal ties to their advantage from the 16th to 18th century.

4. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca

By: Anthony Wallace

An excellent book that focuses on the Seneca during the American Revolution and the origins of the Handsome Lake Code.

5. Iroquois Book of Rites

By: Horatio Hale

It contains detailed information on the origin of the Confederacy and specifically on the Haudenosaunee Condolence Ceremony.

6. Concerning the League – The League Traditional as Dictation in Onondaga

By: John Arthur Gibson

The most elaborate and detailed version of the founding of the Great Law, translated from Onondaga word-for-word.

7. League of the Iroquois

By: Lewis Henry Morgan

A classic overall study on the spiritual and political organization of the Seneca in the 1840s.

8. Les Moeurs des Sauvages - Customs of the American Indians

By: Father Lafitau

Provides a rare picture of Kahnawake's spiritual, political, and economic organization in 1724.

9. Kahnawà:ke -Factionalism, Traditionalism, and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community

By Gerald Reid

This book examines Kahnawake’s political atmosphere from 1850-1940, and specifically looks at Kahnawake’s return to the Longhouse in the 1920’s and conditions that led to this movement.

10. The Great Law and the Longhouse

By: William Fenton

The collected ethnographic works of William Fenton's career of studying the Iroquois.

Honorable Mentions:

Back to the Rez

By: Brian Maracle

The personal story of Brian Maracle’s return to Grand River after a couple of decades and discovering his lost ways.

People of the Pines

By: Geoffrey York

The most accurate book on the Oka Crisis and details of the internal politics of the Confederacy in the last 50 years.

Sovereignty and Symbol – Indian Conflict at Ganienkeh

By: Gail H. Landsman

A good account of the land repossession at Moss Lake and the internalized conflict within Ganienkeh concerning the people’s different perceptions of what sovereignty means.

Iroquois Cosmology

By: JNB Hewitt

A classic and rare book that compiles various and detailed versions of the Haudenosaunee Creation Story from the likes of John Arthur Gibson, Seth Newhouse, and John Buck.