Chapter IV: Introduction: The Seneca

The following brief description of the Seneca is taken, with slight alterations, from the article on that tribe in the Handbook of American Indians:

The Seneca (= Place of the Stone) are a noted and influential tribe
of the Iroquois, or the so-called Five Nations of New York. When
first known they occupied a region in central New York, lying
between the western watershed of the Genesee r. and the lands of
the Cayuga about Seneca lake, having their council fire at
Tsonontowan, near Naples, in Ontario co. After the political
destruction of the Erie and Neuters, about the middle of the 17th
century, the Seneca and other Iroquois people carried their
settlements westward to L. Erie and southward along the Alleghany
into Pennsylvania. They are now settled chiefly on the Allegany,
Cattaraugus, and Tonawanda res., N. Y., and some live on Grand
River res., Ontario. Various local bands have been known as
Buffalo, Tonawanda, and Cornplanter Indians; and the Mingo,
formerly in Ohio, have become officially known as Seneca from the
large number of that tribe among them.

In the third quarter of the 16th century the Seneca was the last
but one of the Iroquois tribes to give its suffrage in favor of the
abolition of murder and war, the suppression of cannibalism, and
the establishment of the principles upon which the League of the
Iroquois was founded. However, a large division of the tribe did
not adopt at once the course of the main body, but, on obtaining
coveted privileges and prerogatives, the recalcitrant body was
admitted as a constituent member in the structure of the League.
The two chiefships last added to the quota of the Seneca were
admitted on condition of their exercising functions belonging to a
sergeant-at-arms of a modern legislative body as well as those
belonging to a modern secretary of state for foreign affairs, in
addition to their duties as federal chieftains; indeed, they became
the warders of the famous “Great Black Doorway” of the League of
the Iroquois, called Kaʻnhoʻhwădjiʼgōʹnăʻ by the Onondaga.

In historical times the Seneca have been by far the most populous
of the five tribes originally composing the League of the Iroquois.
The Seneca belong in the federal organization to the tribal phratry
known by the political name Hoñdoñnīsʹʻĕⁿʼ, meaning, ‘they are
clansmen of the fathers,’ of which the Mohawk are the other member,
when the tribes are organized as a federal council; but when
ceremonially organized the Onondaga also belong to this phratry. In
the federal council the Seneca are represented by eight federal
chiefs, but two of these were added to the original six present at
the first federal council, to give representation to that part of
the tribe which had at first refused to join the League. Since the
organization of the League of the Iroquois, approximately in the
third quarter of the 16th century, the number of Seneca clans,
which are organized into two phratries for the performance of both
ceremonial and civil functions, have varied. The names of the
following nine have been recorded: Wolf, Hoñnatʻhaiioñʹnĭʻ; Bear,
Hodidjioñniʹʼgā; Beaver, Hodigĕⁿʹʼgegāʼ; Turtle, Hadiniăʹʻdĕñʻ;
Hawk, Hadisʻhweⁿʹʼgaiiuʼ; Sandpiper, Hodiʼneʻsiʹiuʼ, sometimes also
called Snipe, Plover, and Killdeer; Deer, Hadinioñʹgwaiiuʼ; Doe,
Hodinoⁿʹʼdeogāʼ, sometimes Hoñnoñtʹgoñdjĕⁿʻ; Heron, Hodidaioⁿʹʼgāʼ.
In a list of clan names made in 1838 by Gen. Dearborn from
information given him by Mr Cone, an interpreter of the Tonawanda
band, the Heron clan is called the Swan clan with the native name
given above. Of these clans only five had an unequal representation
in the federal council of the League; namely, the Sandpiper, three,
the Turtle, two, the Hawk, one, the Wolf, one, and the Bear, one.

One of the earliest known references to the ethnic name Seneca is
that on the Original Carte Figurative, annexed to the Memorial
presented to the States-General of the Netherlands, Aug. 18, 1616,
on which it appears with the Dutch plural as Sennecas. This map is
remarkable also for the first known mention of the ancient Erie,
sometimes called Gahkwas or Kahkwah; on this map they appear under
the name last cited, Gachoi (ch = kh), and were placed on the N.
side of the W. branch of the Susquehanna. The name did not
originally belong to the Seneca, but to the Oneida, as the
following lines will show.

In the early part of December, 1634, three Dutchmen made a journey
(the itinerary of which was duly recorded in a Journal [1]) in the
interests of the fur-trade from Fort Orange, now Albany, N. Y., to
the Mohawk and the “Sinnekens” to thwart French intrigue there.
Strictly speaking, the latter name designated the Oneida, but at
this time it was a general name, usually comprising the Onondaga,
the Cayuga, and the Seneca, in addition. At that period the Dutch
and the French commonly divided the Five Iroquois tribes into two
identical groups; to the first, the Dutch gave the name Maquas
(Mohawk), and to the latter, Sinnekens (Seneca, the final -ens
being the Dutch genitive plural), with the connotation of the four
tribes mentioned above. The French gave to the latter group the
general name “les Iroquois Superieurs”, “les Hiroquois d’eu haut”,
i.e. the Upper Iroquois, “les Hiroquois des pays plus hauts, nommés
Sontouaheronnons” (literally, ‘the Iroquois of the upper country,
called Sontouaheronnons’), the latter being only another form of
“les Tsonnontouans” (the Seneca); and to the first group the
designations “les Iroquois inférieurs” (the Lower Iroquois), and
“les Hiroquois d’en bas, nommés Agnechronnons” (the Mohawk;
literally, ‘the Iroquois from below, named Agnechronnons’). This
geographical rather than political division of the Iroquois tribes,
first made by Champlain and the early Dutch at Ft. Orange,
prevailed until about the third quarter of the 17th century.
Indeed, Governor Andros, two years after Greenhalgh’s visit to the
several tribes of the Iroquois in 1677, still wrote, “Ye Oneidas
deemed ye first nation of sineques:” The Journal of the Dutchmen,
mentioned above, records the interesting fact that during their
visit to the tribes they celebrated the New Year of 1635 at a place
called Enneyuttehaga or Sinnekens. The first of these names was the
Iroquois, and the second, the Mohegan, name for the place, or,
preferably, the Mohegan translation of the Iroquois name. The Dutch
received their first knowledge of the Iroquois tribes through the
Mohegan. The name Enneyuttehaga is evidently written for
Onĕñiuteʼagāʹʼgeʻ, ‘at the place of the people of the standing
(projecting) stone.’ At that date this was the chief town of the
Oneida. The Dutch Journal identifies the name Sinnekens with this
town, which is presumptive evidence that it is the Mohegan
rendering of the Iroquois local name Onĕñʹiuteʼ, ‘it is a standing
or projecting stone’, employed as an ethnic appellative. The
derivation of Sinnekens from Mohegan appears to be as follows:
aʻsinni, ‘a stone, or rock’, -ika or -iga, denotive of ‘place of’,
or ‘abundance of’, and the final -ens supplied by the Dutch
genitive plural ending, the whole Mohegan synthesis meaning ‘place
of the standing stone’; and with a suitable pronominal affix, like
o- or wă-, which was not recorded by the Dutch writers, the
translation signifies, ‘they are of the place of the standing
stone.’ This etymology is confirmed by the Delaware name,
Wʼtassone, for the Oneida, which has a similar derivation. The
initial w- represents approximately an o-sound, and is the affix of
verbs and nouns denotive of the third person; the intercalary -t-
is merely euphonic, being employed to prevent the coalescence of
the two vowel sounds; and it is evident that assone is only another
form of aʻsinni, ‘stone’, cited above. Hence it appears that the
Mohegan and Delaware names for the Oneida are cognate in derivation
and identical in signification. Heckewelder erroneously translated
Wʼtassone by ‘stone pipe makers.’

Thus, the Iroquois Onĕñiuteʼāʹgăʼ, the Mohegan Sinnekens, and the
Delaware Wʼtassone are synonymous and are homologous in derivation.
But the Dutch, followed by other Europeans, used the Mohegan term
to designate a group of four tribes, to only one of which, the
Oneida, was it strictly applicable. The name Sinnekens, or
Sennecaas (Visscher’s map, ca. 1660), became the tribal name of the
Seneca by a process of elimination which excluded from the group
and from the connotation of the general name the nearer tribes as
each with its own proper native name became known to the Europeans.
Obviously, the last remaining tribe of the group would finally
acquire as its own the general name of the group. The Delaware name
for the Seneca was Mexaxtĭnʹnĭ (the Maechachtinni of Heckewelder),
which signifies ‘great mountain’; this is, of course, a Delaware
rendering of the Iroquois name for the Seneca,
Djiionoñdowānĕñʹʻākă, or Djiionoñdowānĕñʻroñʹnoⁿʼ, ‘People of the
Great Mountain.’ This name appears disguised as Trudamani (Cartier,
1534–35), Entouhonorons, Chouontouaroüon = Chonontouaronon
(Champlain, 1615), Onentouaronons (Champlain, 1627), and
Tsonontouan or Sonontouan (Jes. Rel., passim).

Previous to the defeat and despoliation of the Neuters in 1651 and
the Erie in 1656, the Seneca occupied the territory drained by
Genesee r., eastward to the lands of the Cayuga along the line of
the watershed between Seneca and Cayuga lakes.

The political history of the Seneca is largely that of the League
of the Iroquois, although owing to petty jealousies among the
various tribes the Seneca, like the others, sometimes acted
independently in their dealings with aliens. But their independent
action appears never to have been a serious and deliberate rupture
of the bonds uniting them with the federal government of the
League, thus vindicating the wisdom and foresight of its founders
in permitting every tribe to retain and exercise a large measure of
autonomy in the structure of the federal government. It was
sometimes apparently imperative that one of the tribes should enter
into a treaty or other compact with its enemies, while the others
might still maintain a hostile attitude toward the alien
contracting party.

During 1622 the Montagnais, the Algonkin, and the Hurons sought to
conclude peace with the Iroquois (Yroquois = Mohawk division?),
because “they were weary and fatigued with the wars which they had
had for more than 50 years.” The armistice was concluded in 1624,
but was broken by the continued guerrilla warfare of the Algonkin
warriors; for this reason the Seneca (“Ouentouoronons d’autre
nation, amis desdits Yrocois”) killed in the “village of the
Yrocois” the embassy composed of a Frenchman, Pierre Magnan, and
three Algonquian ambassadors. This resulted in the renewal of the
war. So in Sept. 1627, the Iroquois, including the Seneca, declared
war against the Indians and the French on the St. Lawrence and its
northern affluents by sending various parties of warriors against
them.

From the Jesuit Relation for 1635 (p. 34, 1858) it is learned that
the Seneca, after defeating the Hurons in the spring of 1634, made
peace with them. The Hurons in the following year sent an embassy
to Sonontouan, the chief town of the Seneca, to ratify the peace,
and while there learned that the Onondaga, the Oneida, the Cayuga,
and the Mohawk were desirous of becoming parties to the treaty.

In 1639 the war was renewed by the Hurons, who in May captured 12
prisoners from the Seneca, then regarded as a powerful people. The
war continued with varying success. The Jesuit Relation for 1641
(p. 75, 1858) says the Seneca were the most feared of the enemies
of the Hurons, and that they were only one day’s journey from
Ongniaahra (Niagara), the most easterly town of the Neuters. [2]
The Relation for 1643 (p. 61) says that the Seneca (i.e. “les
Hiroquois d’en haut”), including the Cayuga, the Oneida, and the
Onondaga, equaled, if they did not exceed, in number and power the
Hurons, who previously had had this advantage; and that the Mohawk
at this time had three villages with 700 or 800 men of arms who
possessed 300 arquebuses that they had obtained from the Dutch and
which they used with skill and boldness. According to the Jesuit
Relation for 1648 (p. 49, 1858), 300 Seneca attacked the village of
the Aondironnon, and killed or captured as many of its inhabitants
as possible, although this people were a dependency of the Neuters
who were at peace with the Seneca at this time. This affront nearly
precipitated war between the Iroquois and the Neuters. [3]

The Seneca warriors composed the larger part of the Iroquois
warriors who in 1648–49 assailed, destroyed, and dispersed the
Huron tribes; it was likewise they who in 1649 sacked the chief
towns of the Tionontati, or Tobacco tribe; and the Seneca also took
a leading part in the defeat and subjugation of the Neuters in 1651
and of the Erie in 1656. From the Journal des PP. Jésuites for
1651–52 (Jes. Rel., Thwaites’ ed., XXXVII, 97, 1898) it is learned
that in 1651 the Seneca, in waging war against the Neuters, had
been so signally defeated that their women and children were
compelled to flee from Sonontowan, their capital, to seek refuge
among the neighboring Cayuga.

In 1652 the Seneca were plotting with the Mohawk to destroy and
ruin the French settlements on the St. Lawrence. Two years later
the Seneca sent an embassy to the French for the purpose of making
peace with them, a movement which was probably brought about by
their rupture with the Erie. But the Mohawk not desiring peace at
that time with the French, perhaps on account of their desire to
attack the Hurons on Orleans id., murdered two of the three Seneca
ambassadors, the other having remained as a hostage with the
French. This act almost resulted in war between the two hostile
tribes; foreign affairs, however, were in such condition as to
prevent the beginning of actual hostility. On Sept. 19, 1655,
Fathers Chaumonot and Dablon, after pressing invitations to do so,
started from Quebec to visit and view the Seneca country, and to
establish there a French habitation and teach the Seneca the
articles of their faith.

In 1657 the Seneca, in carrying out the policy of the League to
adopt conquered tribes upon submission and the expression of a
desire to live under the form of government established by the
League, had thus incorporated eleven different tribes into their
body politic.

In 1652 Maryland bought from the Minqua, or Susquehanna Indians,
i.e. the Conestoga, all their land claims on both sides of
Chesapeake bay up to the mouth of Susquehanna r. In 1663, 800
Seneca and Cayuga warriors from the Confederation of the Five
Nations were defeated by the Minqua, aided by the Marylanders. The
Iroquois did not terminate their hostilities until famine had so
reduced the Conestoga that in 1675, when the Marylanders had
disagreed with them and had withdrawn their alliance, the Conestoga
were completely subdued by the Five Nations, who thereafter claimed
a right to the Minqua lands to the head of Chesapeake bay.

In 1744 the influence of the French was rapidly gaining ground
among the Seneca; meanwhile the astute and persuasive Col. Johnson
was gradually winning the Mohawk as close allies of the British,
while the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Oneida, under strong
pressure from Pennsylvania and Virginia, sought to be neutral.

In 1686, 200 Seneca warriors went W. against the Miami, the
Illinois in the meantime having been overcome by the Iroquois in a
war lasting about five years. In 1687 the Marquis Denonville
assembled a great horde of Indians from the region of the upper
lakes and from the St. Lawrence—Hurons, Ottawa, Chippewa,
Mississauga, Miami, Illinois, Montagnais, Amikwa, and others—under
Durantaye, DuLuth, and Tonti, to serve as an auxiliary force to
about 1,200 French and colonial levies, to be employed in attacking
and destroying the Seneca. Having reached Irondequoit, the Seneca
landing-place on L. Ontario, Denonville built there a stockade in
which he left a garrison of 440 men. Thence advancing to attack the
Seneca villages, he was ambushed by 600 or 800 Seneca, who charged
and drove back the colonial levies and their Indian allies, and
threw the veteran regiments into disorder. Only by the overwhelming
numbers of his force was the traitorous Denonville saved from
disastrous defeat.

In 1763, at Bloody Run and the Devil’s Hole, situated on Niagara r.
about 4 m. below the falls, the Seneca ambushed a British supply
train on the portage road from Ft Schlosser to Ft Niagara, only
three escaping from a force of nearly 100. At a short distance from
this place the same Seneca ambushed a British force composed of two
companies of troops who were hastening to the aid of the supply
train, only eight of whom escaped massacre. These bloody and harsh
measures were the direct result of the general unrest of the Six
Nations and the western tribes, arising from the manner of the
recent occupancy of the posts by the British, after the surrender
of Canada by the French on Sept. 8, 1760. They contrasted the
sympathetic and bountiful paternalism of the French régime with the
neglect and niggardliness that characterized the British rule. Such
was the state of affairs that on July 29, 1761, Sir Wm. Johnson
wrote to General Amherst: “I see plainly that there appears to be
an universal jealousy amongst every nation, on account of the hasty
steps they look upon we are taking towards getting possession of
this country, which measures, I am certain, will never subside
whilst we encroach within the limits which you may recollect have
been put under the protection of the King in the year 1726, and
confirmed to them by him and his successors ever since and by the
orders sent to the governors not to allow any one of his subjects
settling thereon ... but that it should remain their absolute
property.” But, by the beginning of the American Revolution, so
well had the British agents reconciled them to the rule of Great
Britain that the Seneca, together with a large majority of the
people of the Six Nations, notwithstanding their pledges to the
contrary, reluctantly espoused the cause of the British against the
colonies. Consequently they suffered retribution for their folly
when Gen. Sullivan, in 1779, after defeating their warriors, burned
their villages and destroyed their crops.

There is no historical evidence that the Seneca who were on the
Ohio and the s. shore of L. Erie in the 18th and 19th centuries
were chiefly an outlying colony from the Iroquois tribe of that
name dwelling in New York. The significant fact that in historical
times their affiliations were never with the Iroquois, but rather
with tribes usually hostile to them, is to be explained on the
presumption that they were rather some remnant of a subjugated
tribe dependent on the Seneca and dwelling on lands under the
jurisdiction of their conquerors. It is a fair inference that they
were largely subjugated Erie and Conestoga.

The earliest estimates of the numbers of the Seneca, in 1660 and
1677, give them about 5,000. Later estimates of the population are:
3,500 (1721); 1,750 (1736); 5,000 (1765); 3,250 (1778); 2,000
(1783); 3,000 (1783), and 1,780 (1796). In 1825 those in New York
were reported at 2,325. In 1850, according to Morgan, those in New
York numbered 2,712, while about 210 more were on Grand River res.
in Canada. In 1909 those in New York numbered 2,749 on the three
reservations, which, with those on Grand r., Ontario, would give
them a total of 2,962. The proportion of Seneca now among the 4,071
Iroquois at Caughnawaga, St Regis, and Lake of Two Mountains,
Quebec, can not be estimated.

CHARACTERIZATION OF CONTENTS

The Seneca material embodied in the following pages consists of two parts.