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Show i8oo] EASTERN INDIANS 161 although the perpetrators had no right to demand assistance or recognition. ^ e close interrelation of the confederacy with the social organization of the group gave it more than political significance. \ The essential unit is the clan, and the sachems of the general council were primarily clan representatives. The communal house life served to emphasize and bring into constant practical prominence the clan feature, and it seems to have been recognized even by the Iroquois themselves as the prototype of their league, since they called themselves " People of the Long House/' a figurative reference to the narrow line of confederated bands stretching from the Hudson to Niagara. \ The formation of the League of the Iroquois entirely changed the political aspect of affairs over a vast territory. The Iroquois tribes, who had been driven from their homes on the St. Lawrence and were being steadily beaten back by their Algonquian enemies, at once stood firm and began to assume the defensive. They harried the Indians to the north and the south until they were virtual masters of the territory from Hudson Bay to North Carolina, and east and west they pushed their conquests until their borders were free from danger. Thfeir northwestern extension was checked by the powerful Ojibwa at the eastern end of Lake Superior; and their own kindred, the Cherokee, were able to stop their progress southward. The important r61e VOL. II.- IX |