In these longhouses lived several families, each with their own fire, but they still shared the heat and cooking facilities of these fires with the other families living in the longhouse. As such, the Iroquois population was a very close group who purported to know one another very well. .
The closeness, as it relates to the longhouse is visible when one looks at the Iroquois confederation with greater scrutiny. Though the federation was consisted of five, and later six, unique Indian nations they united to accomplish common goals. According to historian Joseph E. Illick, each distinct nation "retained its sovereignty almost intact, without, however, weakening the whole." The Iroquois confederation was a highly organized unit. Each clan had chiefs who would represent them at the Great Council of the confederacy, also known as the Onondaga council, where each group had specific obligations and privileges. For example, the Mohawks had the power to veto the council, and the Senecas were in charge of appointing the two war chiefs that were in charge of the confederacy's military. The presiding chief of the Onondaga's also held the position of head chief of the confederacy. The other chiefs present from the Onondaga clan would be the steering committee, preparing the agenda and making sure that they tended to necessary business. When a topic of importance came up in the council it was not permitted to be debated until such time as the chiefs could deliberate and delegate, which would remove the result of a snap judgment. Illick also states that, if at a council meeting a general consensus could not be met between the clans then each "member nation was permitted to go its own way." .
Though the Iroquois were very close to having a democratic government it was not completely so. Being chief was a hereditary right, if one was not born into the line there was no way to become one.