August 6th marks the anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Oriskany. Fought as an American relief column marched to aid the besieged Fort Stanwix, about 800 Tryon County militiamen and 60 allied Oneida warriors under Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer were ambushed by British, Loyalist, and Indigenous forces (including Mohawk and Seneca warriors). [Read more…] about August 6th Marks 1777 Battle of Oriskany Anniversary
Oneida Indian Nation
George Washington’s Lands in Oneida County
America’s first President George Washington owned 316 acres of land in today’s Town of Kirkland, Oneida County, NY, in partnership with New York State’s first Governor George Clinton.
The Oneida Indian Nation lived in what is now Oneida County, even after the area’s settlement by Europeans, which started in the 1600s. The French traveled through the area in the 1500s. [Read more…] about George Washington’s Lands in Oneida County
The 1780s Settling of Clinton in Oneida County
The Revolutionary War led settlers beyond the confines of the Palatine settlements in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys into what is today the Herkimer village area.
As early as 1776, seven pairs of brothers, from as many different families in Plymonth, in western Connecticut, enlisted under the command of Captain David Smith and were marched west into the Mohawk Valley. [Read more…] about The 1780s Settling of Clinton in Oneida County
Some Early History of Glens Falls
Human presence in the Adirondacks, including Warren County, dates back thousands of years. The rugged peaks, valleys, and lakes of the Adirondacks were the hunting grounds for several Native American people, notably the Mohicans, Mohawk, and the Abenaki.
The Haudenosaunee arrived in the region around 1,200 to 4,000 years ago. Both the Mohawk and Oneidas claimed the Adirondacks as part of their territory. [Read more…] about Some Early History of Glens Falls
Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
Tyonajanegan, who Europeans called Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen or Two Kettles Together, was a mother of four who took up arms alongside her husband as their Oneida Nation chose to support the colonists in the American Revolution.
Almost nothing is known about her early life, although at least one family historian reports that she was “taken prisoner with her sister Katy from the Shawanoes, & remained with the Mohawks.”
However, she and her husband and his family had significant roles in early New York history. [Read more…] about Two Kettles Together: Sarah Martin Tyonajanegen
Treaties Between the Six Nations and the United States
Immediately following the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), states in the newly created United States competed for control and settlement of Indigenous lands. This included much of Western New York, which was within Indian lands designated by the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which set the boundary line between the colonies and native nations.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 did not include the allied Native nations, leaving their legacy treaties with different European parties unresolved and their future to be determined through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Treaties Between the Six Nations and the United States
How The American Revolution Divided & Weakened The Six Nations
As tensions leading to the American Revolution developed, Native nations were divided in their loyalties to England, the American rebels, and their own alliances. Initially, Haudenosaunee Nations viewed the conflict as a civil war between colonists and chose to remain neutral.
Over time, it became clear to Haudenosaunee leaders that the winners of the revolution would ultimately be the parties they negotiated their futures with. Loyalties and allyship among the Nations diverged, weakening the overall power of the Iroquois Confederacy. [Read more…] about How The American Revolution Divided & Weakened The Six Nations
Pontiac’s Uprising: The American Indian War for Independence
In April 1763, the American Indian War for Independence (1763-1766) — also called Pontiac’s Rebellion or Pontiac’s Uprising for the Ottawa Nation leader who organized a coalition against European colonial powers — started with the siege of Fort Detroit.
In July 1764, an English colonial force that included 500 Native fighters departed from Oswego for operations against Pontiac’s forces to the west. Attacks by Native forces spread east and south as a result of continued European colonists’ trespassing and settlement on Native lands. [Read more…] about Pontiac’s Uprising: The American Indian War for Independence
A Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change
Longtime New York Almanack contributor Bruce Dearstyne has edited a collection of essays exploring how New York State understanding of freedom and liberty has evolved, and its relevance in American and world history.
Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change (SUNY Press Excelsior Editions, 2025) collects essays from several experts focusing on the struggle to fulfill the American Revolution‘s ideals of freedom and equality for all people over the history of New York. The State has often led the nation toward expanding its peoples’ rights. [Read more…] about A Revolutionary New York: 250 Years of Social Change
The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
New York’s canal building boom and the urban explosion that it triggered dramatically accelerated the dispossession and disruption of traditional life ways of the region’s Native American inhabitants that had been initiated by the introduction of European trade, diseases, colonial wars, the American Revolution, and encroaching settlement by non-natives. [Read more…] about The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
William Starna’s History of the Mahican
From Homeland to New Land: A History of the Mahican Indians, 1600-1830 (University of Nebraska Press, 2013), is by William A. Starna, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.
This history of the Mahicans begins with the appearance of Europeans on the Hudson River in 1609 and ends with the removal of these Native peoples to Wisconsin in the 1830s. [Read more…] about William Starna’s History of the Mahican
Eleazer Williams: Professional Indian
Michael Leroy Oberg’s new book Professional Indian: The American Odyseey of Eleazer Williams (2015, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press) follows Eleazer Williams on his odyssey across the early American republic and through the shifting spheres of the Iroquois – Haudenosaunee in an era of dispossession.
Oberg describes Williams as a “professional Indian,” who cultivated many political interests and personas in order to survive during a time of shrinking options for native peoples. [Read more…] about Eleazer Williams: Professional Indian
Fort Rickey: On The Edge of Empires at Oneida Carry
Fort Rickey was a small palisaded fortification that was initially constructed in ca. 1759 to support the British occupation of the Oneida Carry.
This strategic location at the confluence of the Mohawk River and Wood Creek was an important British military outpost that guarded the western end of the carry to Oneida Lake. It was the northern point of the Fort Stanwix Treaty Line of 1768. [Read more…] about Fort Rickey: On The Edge of Empires at Oneida Carry
Hamilton-Oneida Academy & The Origins of Hamilton College
Hamilton-Oneida Academy, the predecessor of Hamilton College, was chartered on January 31, 1793 with a document signed by the state’s first governor, George Clinton.
The plan was for a school for children of New England settlers who were moving into Central New York in the 1790s and the Oneida people. The town of Clinton’s first settlers arrived in 1787. The area was organized in the newly formed Herkimer County, which was created in 1792. [Read more…] about Hamilton-Oneida Academy & The Origins of Hamilton College
Lafayette’s Visits to the Mohawk Valley
In 1824 and 1825 Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who volunteered and became an invaluable leader during the American Revolution and was then the war’s last surviving major general, toured the United States in a celebrated “Farewell Tour.”
He visited several sites in the Mohawk Valley, his third time there. [Read more…] about Lafayette’s Visits to the Mohawk Valley
The Great Seneca Turnpike
Today’s State Route 5 crosses New York State from Buffalo to Albany and parallels state Route 20 and the New York State Thruway. The part of Route 5 between Utica and Canandaigua in Ontario County, some 105 miles, is still called the Seneca Turnpike.
Originally a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) path, the route has been referred to in various accounts as the Great Genesee Road, the Great Genesee Trail, the Genesee Turnpike, the Great Seneca Turnpike or Seneca Road. Previously it had been known as the part of the Great Indian Trail or Iroquois Trail. [Read more…] about The Great Seneca Turnpike
The Stockbridge – Munsee Community in New York State
Most readers well be familiar with Oneida people occupying major parts of Oneida County in the colonial period and up to the present day having purchased much land back from locals in towns of Vernona and Vernon which were part of the original Oneida (Iroquois – Haudenosaunee) lands. [Read more…] about The Stockbridge – Munsee Community in New York State
Early Upstate New York Roads: Some History
What is now New York State saw multitudes of American settlers moving inland from the Atlantic seaboard, especially those “locusts of the east” from New England. Traveling long distances overland before the 20th century was however, difficult to say the least.
In the 1600s their movement was constrained by topography, and settlements were limited to areas in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys previously inhabited or improved by Indigenous People. Some Indigenous portage trails were described by the earliest settlers as wide paths that a capable ox team and wagon could manage. [Read more…] about Early Upstate New York Roads: Some History
Early Settlers Near Rome, NY
Johannis Rueff (later anglicized as John Roof) was born in Durlach, a district in what is now Karlsruhe, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, on January 9, 1730. He married Annie Mira Leonardo of Heildelberg on January 13, 1759. They migrated to the American colonies and landed in Philadelphia in October 1759 and moved north to Fort Stanwix on the New York frontier.
There he traded with Indigenous People, most likely the Oneida and other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) he encountered, and the few traders moving over the portage known as the Great Carry or Carrying Place, which connected Wood Creek with Oneida Lake, at what is now Rome, NY. [Read more…] about Early Settlers Near Rome, NY
DEC Relations with Indigenous Nations
November is Native American Heritage Month, a nationwide celebration of the contributions of Indigenous peoples and celebration of their heritage, traditions, culture, art, and history while acknowledging how society has impacted Indigenous peoples and culture. New York State was the first state to recognize “American Indian Day” in 1916, originally observed on the second Saturday in May. [Read more…] about DEC Relations with Indigenous Nations