Pre-Industrial Economy

• The Iroquois had a pre-industrial economy based upon agriculture and hunting. Families produced much of their own food from their gardens and from their hunting efforts and they made their clothing from deer skins and furs. These skins were decorated with paint, shells and shell beads, and porcupine quill embroidery. However, people always specialize. A gifted embroiderer might be well-paid in furs to make a beautiful dress or bow case, moccasins or knife sheath and belt for the trapper or his family. A skilled hunter who was unmarried would trade meat for corn, squash and beans, the "three sisters" that were the core of Indian agriculture.
  
  

Wampum

• The Iroquois did not use wampum, the drilled shell beads of whelks and the quahog clam, as money until after European contact. Being an inland confederation, the Iroquois made little, if any, wampum themselves. Instead, they traded for it and claimed it as tribute from such coastal tribes as the Narragansett and Pequot Indians. Even after wampum became an informal currency, the Iroquois continued to use it for religious and spiritual ceremonies. They also used wampum belts to record their history and in diplomacy, including calling tribes to war and making peace. Wampum was also used in courtship.
  
  

Furs

• The Iroquois lived in the northern United States and southern Canada in a time without indoor heating, during an era known as the Little Ice Age (1560-1850). Furs were essential to their survival and greatly improved the comfort of many Europeans. The European hunger for beaver fur felt, used in utterly impractical hats, and the Iroquois' willingness to supply the skins nearly exterminated the beaver. The Iroquois traded skins for rifles and ammunition, sugar, flour, cloth and metal objects of all sorts and glass beads, as well as alcohol; none of which they produced themselves. From 1650 to 1700, the Iroquois waged the Beaver Wars with utmost ferocity against Indians in the Ohio Country to control their fur-producing lands. The fur trade defined Iroquois relations with the Europeans and their neighbors.
  
  

The Tourist Trade

• As the Iroquois lost much of their lands and the animal population continued to decline, they had to supplement their income from farming and hunting. This led Iroquois women to produce traditional crafts for tourists, particularly basketry and opulent, richly colored beadwork on accessories and decorative items such as purses and pincushions. Sometimes these accessories were sold for cash; other items would have been consigned to a trading post for goods the craftswoman needed.