All this region, and the lands westward beyond the Central Lake
District of New York, was the home of that noted Indian Confederation
of America which the French named the Iroquois. When the earliest
French explorers found them, they were the "Five Nations"--the
Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks. Their name as a
league was Hodenosaunee, meaning "they form a cabin,"--this being
their idea of a combination, offensive and defensive, and within their
figurative cabin the fire was in the centre at Onondaga, while the
Mohawk was the door. They were great warriors, and their tradition was
that the Algonquins had driven them from Canada to the south side of
Lake Ontario. Subsequently a portion of the Tuscaroras came up from
the South, and being admitted to the Confederacy, it became the "Six
Nations." They had considerable warlike knowledge. Near Elmira, which
is close to the Pennsylvania boundary south of Seneca Lake, their
ancient fortifications are still visible, having been located with the
skill of a military engineer as a defense against attacks. Fort Hill
at Auburn was also an Iroquois fortification that has yielded many
relics, and other works constructed by them are shown in various
places. The league carried on almost continuous warfare against the
neighboring tribes and the frontier colonists, and were conspicuous in
all the colonial wars. When in their greatest prosperity they numbered
about fifteen thousand, and over ten thousand now exist, being located
on Canadian reservations adjacent to the St. Lawrence River, and on
eight reservations in New York, where there are about five thousand,
in civilized life, chiefly engaged in agriculture. In the ancient
league they were ruled by the Council of Sachems of the various
tribes, the central council-fire being upon the shore of Onondaga
Lake, and the Atotarho, or head sachem of the Onondagas, being chief
of the league.
In colonial New York the westernmost tribe was the Senecas, whose
hunting-grounds extended from the Central Lake District to Lakes
Ontario and Erie. When the Dutch pioneers encountered these Indians
they were found to have the almost unpronounceable name of
"Tsonnundawaonos," meaning the "great hill people," and the nearest
the Dutch could come to it was to call them "Sinnekaas," which in time
was changed to Senecas. The Quakers took great interest in them, with
such fostering care that three thousand Senecas now live on the
sixty-six thousand acres in their reservations. They have their own
Indian language and special alphabet, and portions of the Scriptures
are printed in it. In their days of power they had two famous
chiefs--Cornplanter, also called Captain O'Beel, the name of his white
father, he being a half-breed, and Red Jacket. The latter lived till
1830 in the Senecas' village near Buffalo. His original Indian name
was Otetiani, or "Always Ready," and the popular title came from a
richly-embroidered scarlet jacket given him by a British officer,
which he always had great pride in wearing. He was a leader among the
Indians of his time and an impressive orator. Next eastward of the
Senecas were the Cayugas, who, when discovered by the French on the
banks of their lake, had about three hundred warriors, and in the
seventeenth century, under French tutelage, their chiefs became
Christians. A remnant of the tribe is in the Indian Territory. The
Onondagas were the "men of the mountain," getting their name from the
highlands where they lived, south of Onondaga Lake. There are about
three hundred now on their reservation and as many more in Canada.
Their language is regarded as the purest of the Iroquois dialects, and
its dictionary has been published. Farther eastward, where the granite
outcroppings of the southern Adirondack ranges appeared, were the
Oneidas, the "tribe of the granite rock," now having on their
reservation at Oneida Castle over two hundred, with many more in
Wisconsin and Canada. The Tuscaroras came into the league in 1713, and
were given a location on the southeastern shore of Oneida Lake, and
they are now on a reservation in Western New York, where over three
hundred live, with more in Canada. Their name was of modern adoption,
after they had assumed some of the habits of the whites, and means the
"shirt-wearers."
The Mohawks lived farther east, in the Mohawk Valley, among the
limestone and granitic formations of the Adirondacks and Eastern New
York, and they were the Agmaque, meaning "the possessors of the
flint." Within the league their name was Ganniagwari, or the
"She-Bear," whence the Algonquins called them Mahaque, which the
English gradually corrupted into Mohawk, the name being also adopted
for their river. The early Dutch settlers at Albany made a treaty with
them which was lasting, and the English also had their friendship.
Their most noted chief was Thayendanega, better known as Joseph Brant,
who espoused the English cause in the Revolution and held a post in
the Canadian Indian Department, his tribe then extending throughout
the whole region between the St. Lawrence and the Hudson. He visited
England in 1786 and collected money to build a church for his people,
and published the Prayer-Book and the Gospel of Mark in Mohawk and
English. He steadily exerted himself after the Revolution to maintain
peace between the frontier Indians and the United States, being
zealously devoted to the welfare of his tribe. He had an estate on the
shore of Lake Ontario, where he died in 1807.