Anyone up for a big fight need only mention to an Iroquois the dates offered by Western scholars for the founding of the Rotinonshon:ni (Haudenosaunee) League. In the main, Western historians posit two possible inception times: one post- and one precontact. The postcontact "date" has been vague, falling somewhere in the mid-sixteenth century until quite recently, when Dean Snow ably associated it with a 1536 eclipse. The precontact date is barely so, occurring only a generation before contact in the year 1451, also as fixed by an eclipse. In 1982, historian Bruce Johansen nudged discussion back another four hundred years, citing Haudenosaunee "Keepers," or oral historians, who have always maintained the absolute antiquity of the League. Based on both Western and Native sources, the authors will show that the Keepers have been correct all along: the Haudenosaunee League was founded on the pleasant afternoon of August 31, 1142. THE MID-SIXTEENTH CENTURY CLAIM Since the mid-sixteenth century is favored by conservative scholars who have mainly guided discussion to date, an examination of the mid-sixteenth century claim is necessary. Except for Snow’s rather precise 1536 eclipse which will be taken up separately in our eclipse discussion below, the evidence for dating the League to the mid-sixteenth century is all fairly speculative, relating especially to pottery (which is never mentioned in tradition) or to the palisades (which are mentioned in tradition).