Onondaga
History & Culture
The Onondaga, or the “People of the Hills” are an Indigenous American group originally located near the greater Syracuse area (“The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution”). At the start of the American Revolution they were part of what is now known as the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois. Their heritage and clan is traced back through mothers (“Culture”). The nine clans of the Onondaga include the wolf, turtle, beaver, snipe, heron, deer, eel, bear, and hawk (“Culture”). They lived in communal longhouses made out of bark that gave shelter to all of the people in their “family” or “clan” (“Onondaga”). Their major food sources included the “Three Sisters” (corn, squash, and beans), deer and small game, as well as an assortment of wild plants like dandelions, wild onion, and milkweed (“Onondaga”). Originally, all of their clothes were made of animal skins until they learned to weave hemp into shirts (“Onondaga”). One of their most famous accessories for men to wear is called a gustoweh (“Onondaga”).
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Source: National Parks Service
Source: League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or Iroquois, by Lewis H. Morgan. by Morgan, Lewis Henry.
Published 1904.
Source: NYPL
The Revolutionary War
The Onondaga fought for the British during the American Revolution. They joined the war later than some other tribes, and were noted for taking part in battles such as the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777. On April 21, 1779 the Onondaga village was attacked in a 3 prong plan led by George Washington known as the “Sullivan Campaign.” Most of the warriors had fled the village by the time the soldiers had arrived, but the Patriot soldiers managed to burn their village to the ground, extinguish their sacred fire, raid their crops, and capture at least a dozen of their tribe members (“A Chronology of Major Events Affecting the Onondagas Before and After the American Revolution 1763-1832; “Goose Van Schaick Leads the Onondaga Expedition”). When the tribe asked Congress to investigate the rape and abuse of their members during and after the attack by Patriot soldiers, Congress stated that they saw no signs of wrong-doing, and thanked the Patriots that fought that day for serving their new country (“Goose Van Schaick Leads the Onondaga Expedition”). In 1786 delegates of New York divided the 13 million acres of Haudenosaunee tribal lands, which included the Onondaga lands, for colonists to claim without any Haudenosaunee representative present. Between 1790 and 1829 the Onondaga signed off on six treaties ceding their land to the state of New York (“A Chronology of Major Events Affecting the Onondagas Before and After the American Revolution 1763-1832”). The tribe kept hunting and fishing rights, as well as their rights to harvest salt from the lakes (“Today in History: Revolutionary War Veterans Draw for Lots
in the Military Tract”). In total, between the years of 1788 and 1822, the Onondaga had lost 95% of their ancestral lands to colonists that continued to move into their territory (“Today in History: Revolutionary War Veterans Draw for Lots in the Military Tract”).