Oneida Peoples

History & Culture

“The People of the Standing Stone” or Oneida, were very similarly to other communities within the League of Six Nations as they cultivated corn and lived in longhouses. Quite similarly to the other groups we’ve examined, the Oneida also grew crops such as squash and foraged for other subsistence (“Oneida”). The Oneida had several traditional recipes, such as cornbread, that were passed down through generations (“Beliefs and Traditions”).

The Revolutionary War

During the American Revolution, the Oneida supported the American troops, serving as spies and within military campaigns (“Revolutionary War”). Similarly, they also participated in several battles, such as that Oriskany (1777) and Saratoga (1777) (“Revolutionary War”). Although the Oneida supported the colonial Patriots in their fight for independence, it would not end well for them. Similar to the Tuscarora, the Oneida were not included in the Treaty of Paris and would be refused the majority of their rewards (“The Six Nations Confederacy during the American”). They too would lose ownership of their territory, and with the conclusion of the war, Oneida territory shrunk from “six million acres to 4,500 acres by 1839” (“Oneida History”). As a result, the Oneida were forced out of their ancestral lands into modern-day Wisconsin, leaving behind their sacred spaces and cultural homeland (“Oneida History”).