AH challenge- Iroquois League major power post-1783

Could anybody design a POD where the League of the Iroquois remains a substantial native American power after the British defeat in 1783 ? Of course, obvious factors would need to be that the League somehow avoids splitting up as occurred OTL with the Oneida and Tuscarora opting to fight for the Americans while the rest under Joseph Brant's leadership took up arms for the British cause, and also that Gen John Sullivan doesn't get the opportunity to lead, under Washington's orders (the 'Destroyer of Towns'), his ruinous march of depradation and burning into Iroquois territory. What other factors must've occurred so that the Iroquois could survive to the present day as a large, influential native American nation of similar stature to the Navaho or Cherokee ?
 
Melvin Loh said:
Could anybody design a POD where the League of the Iroquois remains a substantial native American power after the British defeat in 1783 ? Of course, obvious factors would need to be that the League somehow avoids splitting up as occurred OTL with the Oneida and Tuscarora opting to fight for the Americans while the rest under Joseph Brant's leadership took up arms for the British cause, and also that Gen John Sullivan doesn't get the opportunity to lead, under Washington's orders (the 'Destroyer of Towns'), his ruinous march of depradation and burning into Iroquois territory. What other factors must've occurred so that the Iroquois could survive to the present day as a large, influential native American nation of similar stature to the Navaho or Cherokee ?

I think your answer is in your question. The Iroquois only had a unified domestic policy. They did not have a unified foreign policy, except that they agreed to defend each other from outside forces. Have a charismatic leader come and convince the tribal delegates that the League needs to be unified in its military actions against foreign tribes. Iroquois tradition held that unanimity was required for all decisions, so that, in the case of the American Revolution, they will end up neutral since there will be no unanimity. When the war ends, the Iroquois can choose to align themselves with the winners and negotiate from there. They were pretty slick in holding off French and British colonists by pitting them against each other, for hundreds of years, so I see no reason this would change. If they play their cards right, they trade their way into the modern age.
 
The western half of New York, maybe a quarter to a third of northwestern Pennsylvania, and part of Ohio's Erie coastline. Of course, they also claimed indirect sovereignty over subject tribes in the Ohio Valley and Ontario Peninsula.
 
Top