“The date of the Confederacy's founding is uncertain: tradition places it in time immemorial, Mann and Fields proposed 31 August 1142, and archaeological work points to peaceful Mohawk–Seneca contact by about 1590–1605.”

Context. Henige argues there is no serious evidence for the 1142 eclipse date; Kuhn and Sempowski's pipe data indicate likely coalescence around 1590–1605.