In the League these peoples would be stronger together against their enemies. One of the most significant consequences of European
settlement in North America during the seventeenth century was the intensification of hostilities among Indian. Disagreement among Indians and their susceptibility to infectious disease
left them defenseless to exploitation by whites and other Indians.
In the interior of New York, however, a different situation occurred. There the tribes of the Iroquois shaped an alliance so strong that the outnumbered Dutch and, later, English traders were forced to work with Indians in exploiting the lucrative beaver trade. By the early 1600s, some fifty sachems (chiefs) governed the 12,000 members of the Iroquois League or Iroquois Confederacy. The sachems made decisions for all the villages and mediated tribal rivalries and dissension within the Confederacy.
