CAYUGA NATION
History & Culture
The Cayuga Nation inhabited the Great Lake region of
modern-day New York for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. Cayuga communities are reflective of the larger Haudenosaunee culture, in which they practiced matrilineal descent and communal organizations (Berkin, 108-109). Unlike the colonists who would settle in their ancestral homelands, women within Cayuga communities maintained agricultural fields and were able to hold socio-political positions of power (Berkin, 108-109). Women traditionally grew a variety of crops, including maize and fruit trees, while men hunted game for other subsistence (Berkin, 108-109).
Households were further reflective of their communal organization, in which the Cayuga lived in large longhouses that could hold many families tied to a matrilineal lineage (Speck and General, 49-55). Longhouses also served important functions within communal ceremonies, as rennual rites, such as the Midwinter Ceremony, would take place within these structures (Speck and General 41).
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Source: Library of Congress
The Revolutionary War
With the onslaught of the American Revolution, the Cayuga would be directly involved and affected by the conflict. Although the Cayuga would originally declare neutrality like the other groups of the League of Six Nations, they would soon support become involved at the forefront of the Revolutionary War (Kane 90). With the war wreaking havoc on their communities and land, Cayuga communities would be devastated by food shortages, in which British Loyalists promised the Cayuga supplies and the return of the ancestral land with the conclusion of the Revolution (Schmidt 131-132). Breaking their initial declaration of neutrality, the Cayuga would accept the terms of the British, and supplied men and allegiance to the Crown (Schmidt 136).