The materiality and temporality of St. Lawrence Iroquoian incorporation in late precolonial northern Iroquoia

Abstract

Research on regional depopulation is often framed around identifying external causal factors and subsequent effects on adjacent societies. This has been the case for studies of the depopulation of the St. Lawrence River Valley (SLRV) of northeastern North America. During the sixteenth century CE, an estimated 8,000–10,000 St. Lawrence Iroquoians (SLI) left the valley in response to climatic and social disruptions. We argue that preexisting sets of relations between people residing in the SLRV and neighboring groups were equally important for structuring the relocation and incorporation of SLI peoples and traditions. To evaluate this process, we employ high-resolution radiocarbon timeframes and data on the quantity, nature, and distribution of SLI material culture to examine when and how objects associated with SLI practices appeared and remained within six community sequences belonging to ancestral Wendat, Onoñda’gegá, and Kanien’kehá:ka traditions. Our results demonstrate that localized SLI material practices first appear outside of the SLRV by 1450 and continue to appear in each sequence, though with meaningful variation. We argue that while SLI individuals and groups extended their familial and cultural connections through strategic interactions and movements, the ways in which those identities were expressed varied as per distinct cultural and historical contexts.