Iroquoian

Branch of the American Indian Macro-Siouan language family, formerly one of the dominant language groups of the northeast region of the USA and Canada. Iroquoian dialects were spoken in the lower Great Lakes and St Lawrence, upper Hudson, and Susquehanna river region by the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga (the Five Nations of the Iroquois League); and by the Huron, Erie, and Susquehannock peoples. The Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora and Cherokee migrated to the southern Appalachian Mountains before European contact. While the Iroquoian dialect adopted by the Cherokee now has over 22,500 speakers in Oklahoma and North Carolina, the Huron, Erie, and Susquehannock dialects are extinct, and Tuscaroran Iroquoian is near extinction.