Onondaga

Geographically located at the center of the region occupied by the Five Nations IROQUOIS, the Onondaga (“People of the Hills”) were one of the smaller of these tribes at the time of contact by Europeans but played a critical role in the formation and maintenance of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Situated in what is now central New York State near Onondaga Lake, the group’s two main villages were well protected on the eastern and western flanks by their allies but remained vulnerable to attack by the French-HURON alliance in the north and other indigenous enemies from the south. It was the Onondaga chief Hiawatha who helped found the Iroquois League and overcame the resistance of a rival leader in establishing this political structure.

Within the league’s grand council, or governing body, the Onondaga were represented by the largest number of chiefs (14), who acted as the “Firekeepers” of the Five Nations and had veto power over the two “houses” of this political system in cases of disagreement. Furthermore, due to its central location, the grand council convened its meetings in Onondaga country. This key role in the confederacy gave the Onondaga a prestige in Iroquoia that extended far beyond their small numbers.

Like the other Five Nations, the Onondaga became heavily involved in the fur trade with competing European powers by the early 17th century. This commerce increased the tribe’s wealth and power but in time brought with it disruptions and calamities in the form of growing reliance on new goods, repeated exposure to Old World diseases (such as SMALLPOx), and eventual displacement.

Further reading: Harold Blau, Jack Campisi, and Elisabeth Tooker, “Onondaga,” in William Sturtevant, ed., Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, Northeast, vol. ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian

Institution Press, 1978), 591-599; Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992); Daniel K. Richter and James H. Merrell, eds., Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800 (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1987).

—Eric P. Anderson