Onondaga (Onoñtǎ’′ge‘,'on, or on top of, the hill or mountain'). An important
tribe of the Iroquois confederation, formerly living on the mountain, lake, and
creek bearing their name, in the present Onondaga county, N. Y., and extending
northward to Lake Ontario and southward perhaps to the waters of the Susquehanna.
In the Iroquois councils they are known as Hodiseñnageta, 'they (are) the name
bearers.' Their principal village, also the capital of the confederation, was
called Onondaga, later Onondaga Castle; it was situated from before 1654 to 1681
on Indian hill, in the present town of Pompey, and in 1677 contained 140 cabins.
It was removed to Butternut creek, where the fort was burned in 1696. In 1720 it
was again removed to Onondaga creek, and their present reserve is in that valley,
a few miles south of the lake (Beauchamp, inf'n, 1907).
The Onondaga of Grand River reservation, Canada, have 9 clans, namely:
Wolf,
Tortoise
(Turtle?),
Bear,
Deer,
Eel,
Beaver,
Ball,
Plover (Snipe?), and
Pigeonhawk.
The
Wolf, Bear, Plover, Ball, and Pigeonhawk clans have each only one federal
chiefship; the Beaver, Tortoise, and Eel clans have each two federal chiefships,
while the Deer clan has three. The reason for this marked difference in the
quotas of chiefships for the several clans is not definitely known, but it may
be due to the adoption of groups of persons who already possessed chiefship
titles. In federal ceremonial and social assemblies the Onondaga by right of
membership therein take their places with the tribal phratry of the "Three
Brothers," of which the Mohawk and the
Seneca are the other two members; but in
federal councils-those in which sit the federal representatives of all the five
(latterly six) Iroquois tribes-the Onondaga tribe itself constitutes a tribal
phratry, while the Mohawk and the Seneca together form a second, and the
Oneida
and the Cayuga originally, and latterly the
Tuscarora, a third tribal phratry.
The federal council is organized on the basis of these three tribal phratries.
The functions of the Onondaga phratry are in many respects similar to those of a
judge holding court with a jury. The question before the council is discussed
respectively by the Mohawk and Seneca tribes on the one side, and then by the
Oneida, the Cayuga, and, latterly, the Tuscarora tribes on the other, within
their own phratries. When these two phratries have independently reached the
same or a differing opinion, it is then submitted to the Onondaga phratry for
confirmation or rejection. The confirmation of a common opinion or of one of the
two differing opinions makes that the decree of the council. In refusing to
confirm an opinion the Onondaga must show that it is in conflict with established custom or
with public policy; when two differing opinions are rejected the Onondaga may
suggest to the two phratries a course by which they may be able to reach a
common opinion; but the Onondaga may confirm one of two differing opinions
submitted to it. Each chieftain has the right to discuss and argue the question
before the council either for or against its adoption by the council, in a
speech or speeches addressed to the entire body of councilors and to the public.
Champlain related that in 1622 the Montagnais, the Etchemin, and the
Hurons had
been engaged for a long time in seeking to bring about peace between themselves
and the Iroquois, but that up to that time there was always some serious
obstacle to the consummation of an agreement on account of the fixed distrust
which each side had of the faith of the other. Many times did they ask Champlain
himself to aid them in making a firm and durable peace. They informed him that
they understood by making a treaty that the interview of the ambassadors must he
amicable, the one side accepting the words and faith of the other not to harm or
prevent them from hunting throughout the country, and they on their side
agreeing to act in like manner toward their enemies, in this case the
Iroquois,
and that they had no other agreements or compacts precedent to the making of a
firm peace. They importuned Champlain many times to give them his advice in this
matter, which they promised faithfully to follow. They assured him that they
were then exhausted and weary of the wars which they had waged against each
other for more than fifty years, and that, on account of their burning desire
for revenge for the murder of their kin and friends, their ancestors had never
before thought of peace. In this last statement is probably found approximately
the epoch of that historic feud mentioned in the Jesuit Relation for 1660 (chap.
II) and by Nicholas Perrot, which made the Iroquois tribes, on the one hand, and
the Algonkin on the
Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers, on the other, inveterate
enemies, although this may have been but a renewal and widening of a still
earlier quarrel. In 1535 Cartier learned from the Iroquoian tribes on the St
Lawrence that they were continually tormented by enemies dwelling to the
southward, called Toudamani (probably identical with Tsonnontouan, or
Seneca, a
name then meaning 'Upper Iroquois'), who continually waged war on them.
In Sept. 1655 the Onondaga sent a delegation of 18 persons to Quebec to confer
with Governor de Lauson and
with the Algonkin and Hurons. The Onondaga spokesman used 24 wampum belts in his
address; the first 8 were presents to the Hurons and the Algonkin, whose leading
chiefs were there; each present had its own particular name. The Onondaga
professed to speak for the "four upper Iroquois nations," namely, the Seneca,
Cayuga, Oneida, and Onondaga, thus leaving only the Mohawk, the "lower Iroquois,
from this peace conference, but the Onondaga speaker promised to persuade the
Mohawk to change their minds and to make peace. The Onondaga asked for priests
to dwell among them and for French soldiers to aid them in their war against the
Erie.
In May 1657, 10 years after the dispersion of the Hurons from their motherland,
the Onondaga sought by the giving of numerous presents and by covert threats of
war to persuade the Hurons who had fled to the vicinity of Quebec to remove to
their country and to form with them a single people. The Mohawk and the Seneca
also were engaged in this business. Finally, the Hurons were forced to submit to
the persistent demands of the Iroquois tribes.
In 1686 the Onondaga were at war against the Chererrnons (Shawnee?). They were
divided into two bands, one of 50 and another of 250, 50 of the latter being
from other tribes. But in 1688 the Onondaga were much under French influence and
were regarded as the chief among the Iroquois tribes.
In 1682, at Albany, the Onondaga, with the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Cayuga, and
the Seneca, entered into a treaty of peace with the commissioners from the
colony of Maryland, who contracted not only for the white settlers, but also for
the Piscataway Indians.
With the exception of a part of the Seneca, the Onondaga were the last of the
five tribes originally forming the League of the Iroquois to accept fully the
principles of the universal peace proposed by Dekanawida and Hiawatha.
Early in 1647 a band of Onondaga on approaching the Huron country was defeated
by a troop of Huron warriors, the Onondaga chief being killed and a number taken
prisoners. Among the latter was Annenraes, a man of character and authority
among the Onondaga. In the following spring he learned that some of the Hurons
who had been bitterly disappointed because his life had been spared
intended to kill him. To some of his Huron friends he related what he had
heard, and that he intended to escape to his own country. His resolution,
with the reason for making it, having been reported to the leading Huron
chiefs of the council, they concluded to aid him in his purpose, trusting
that he
would render them some valuable service in return. Giving him some presents and
provisions, they sent hin off secretly at night. Crossing Lake Ontario, he
unexpectedly encountered 300 Onondaga making canoes to cross the lake for the
purpose of avenging his death (believing he had been killed by the Hurons), and
awaiting the arrival of 800 Seneca and Cayuga re-enforcements. His countrymen
regarded Annenraes as one risen from the dead. He so conducted himself that he
persuaded the 300 Onondaga to give up all thought of war for that of peace,
whereupon the band, without waiting for the expected re-enforcements, returned to
Onondaga, where a tribal council was held, in which it was resolved to send an
embassy with presents to the Hurons for the purpose of commencing negotiations
for peace. The chief of this embassy was by birth a Huron named Soionés, so
naturalized in the country of his adoption that it was said of him that "no
Iroquois had done more massacres in these countries, nor blows more wicked than
he." He was accompanied by three other Hurons, who had not long been captives at
Onondaga. The embassy arrived at St Ignace July 9, 1647, finding the Hurons
divided as to the expediency of acquiescing in the Onondaga proposals, the Bear
tribe of the Hurons justly fearing the duplicity of the enemy even though
bearing presents. But the Rock tribe and many villages desired the conclusion of
peace in the hope that a number of their kin, then captive at Onondaga, would be
returned to them. After many councils and conferences it was found expedient to
send an embassy to Onondaga in order the better to fathom this matter. For
presents the Hurons took valuable furs, while the Iroquois Onondaga used belts
of wampum. The Huron embassy was well received at Onondaga, where a month was
spent in holding councils. Finally the Onondaga resolved to send back a second
embassy, headed by Skanawati (Scandaouati), a federal chieftain, 60 years of
age, who was to be accompanied by two other Onondaga and by 15 Huron captives.
One of the Huron embassy remained as a hostage. This embassy was 30 days on the
way, although it was in fact only 10 days' journey. Jean Baptiste, the returning
Huron delegate, brought back 7 wampum belts of the largest kind, each composed
of 3,000 or 4,000 beads. By these belts the Onondaga sought to confirm the
peace, assuring the Hurons that they could hope for the deliverance of at least
100 more of their captive kin. The Onondaga desired this peace not only because
the life of Annenraes had been spared, but also because they were jealous lest
the Mohawk, who had become insolent from their victories and were overbearing
even to their allies, might become too much so should the Hurons fail to
unite all their forces against them, and further because of fear of the
power of the Conestoga. In this Onondaga project of peace the Cavuga and
Oneida showed favorable interest, but the Seneca would not listen to it,
and the Mohawk were still more averse to it as they were jealous of what
had been done by the Onondaga. Hence these last two tribes sent forces to
assail the village of St Ignace at the end of the winter of 1647-48.
The following incidents show the character of some of the chief men and
statesmen of the Ononamdaga:
Early in Jan. 1648 the Hurons decided to
send another embassy to Onondaga. They sent 6 men, accompanied by one of the 3 Onondaga ambassadors then in
their country, the other two, including Skanawati, the head of the Onondaga
embassy, remaining as hostages. But
unfortunately the new Huron embassy was captured and killed by a force of 100 Mohawk
and Seneca who had come to the borders of the Huron country. The Onondaga
accompanying this embassy was spared, and two Hurons escaped. Early in
April, when the distressing news reached the ears of
that, after they had regained somewhat Skanawati, the proud Onondaga ambassador
remaining with the Hurons as a hostage, he suddenly disappeared. The Hurons believed that he had stolen away,
but, a few days after his disappearance,
his corpse was found in the forest lying on a bed of fir branches, where he had taken his
own life by cutting his throat. His
companion, who was notified in order to
exonerate the Hurons, said that the cause of his despair was the shame he felt at the
contempt shown for the sacredness of his person by the Seneca and the Mohawk in
going to the Huron country and massacring the Huron people while his
life was in pledge for the keeping of the still faith of his people. Of such men was
the great federal council of the Iroquois composed.
The Onondaga had good reason for fearing the
Conestoga, for the Jesuit Relation for 1647-48 states that in a single
village of the latter people there were at that time 1,300 men capable of
bearing arms, indicating for this village alone a population of more
than 4,500.
At this time the Conestoga chiefs, They also joined in treaties between the
through two messengers, informed the Hurons that if they felt too weak to defend
themselves they should send the Conestoga word by an embassy. The Hurons
eagerly seized this opportunity by sending on this mission 4 Christian
Indians and 4 "infidels," headed by one Charles Ondaaiondiont.
They arrived at Conestoga early in June1047. The Huron deputies informed
their Conestoga friends that they had come from a land of souls, where war
and the fear of their enemies had spread desolation everywhere, where the
fields were covered with blood and the lodges were filled with corpses,
and they themselves had only life enough left to enable them to come to
ask their friends to save their country, which was drawing rapidly toward
its end. This spirited but laconic address moved the Conestoga to send an
embassy into the Iroquois country to urge on the Iroquois the advantage of
making a lasting peace with their Huron adversaries. Jean Baptiste, a
Huron ambassador mentioned before, being at Onondaga at the end of summer,
learned that this embassy of the Conestoga had reached the Iroquois
country, as he even saw some of the Conestoga presents. It was the purpose
of the Conestoga to bring about firm peace with the Hurons and the
Onondaga, the Oneida and the Cayuga, and, if possible, the Seneca, and to
renew the war against the Mohawk, should they then refuse to become
parties to it. The Conestoga did not fear the Mohawk. The Jesuit Relation
for 1660 states that about the year 1600 the Mohawk had been greatly
humbled by the Algonkin, and that, after they had regained somewhat their
former standing, the Conestoga, in a war lasting 10 years, had nearly
exterminated the Mohawk, who since, however, had partially recovered from
the defeat.
Many of the Onondaga joined the Catholic Iroquois colonies on the St
Lawrence, and in 1751 about half the tribe was said to be living in
Canada. On the breaking out of the american Revolution in 1775 nearly all
the Onondaga, together with the majority of the other Iroquois tribes,
joined the British, and at the close of the war the British government
granted them a tract on Grand r., Ontario, where a portion of then still
reside. The rest are still in New York, the greater number being on the
Onondaga res., and the others with the Seneca and Tuscarora on their
several reservations.
The Onondaga made or joined in treaties with the
State of New York at Ft Schuyler (formerly Ft Stanwix), Sept. 12, 1788;
Onondaga, Nov. 18, 1793; Cayuga Ferry, July 28, 1795;
Albany, Feb. 25, 1817, Feb. 11, 1822, and Feb. 28,1829.
They also joined in treaties between the
Six Nations and the United States at Ft Stanwix, N. Y., Oct. 22, 1784;
Ft Harmar, O., Jan. 9,1789; Canandaigua, N. Y., Nov. 11, 1794, and
Buffalo Creek, N. Y., Jan. 15, 1838.
In 1660 the Jesuits estimated the Onondaga at about
1,500 souls, while Greenhalgh in 1677 placed them at 1,750, probably their
greatest strength. Later authorities give the numbers as 1,250 (1721),
1,000 (1736), 1,300 (1765), and 1,150 (1778), but these figures do not
include those on the St Lawrence. In 1851 Morgan estimated their total
number at about 900, including 400 on Grand river. In 1906 those in New
York numbered 553, the rest of the tribe being with the Six Nations in
Canada.
The Onondaga towns, so far as known, were:
