During the seventeenth century, when european fur traders arrived, the iroquois changed from a peace-loving tribe to fierce enemies of their neighbors, the hurons. this suggests that

The Iroquois wanted to control the fur trade with the Europeans, specifically the French. The French fur traders had been using the Huron as intermediaries for their trading with the Native tribes in the Great Lake region. There were altercations among the Native people as they vied for access to the French. The Iroquois were able to obtain guns and they began to make war with the people trading with the French so that they could dominate the fur trade.