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Seneca Nation

The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

Early illustration of the Iroquois Confederacy, by a EuropeanInitially, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) claimed neutrality during the conflict between Britain and the colonists, seeing the disagreement as a civil war and valuing loyalty to their families and to their lands above all else. When the political discontent erupted into the American Revolutionary War, the member nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy split their support between the British and newly formed American forces. [Read more…] about The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Newtown, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Finger Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Loyalism, Military History, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition, Tioga County, Tuscarora

The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective

August 31, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Miniature of Fort Prince George under attack by French troops (diorama in the Fort Pitt Museum, Pittsburgh)In the early 1750s, the French were establishing trading posts and building forts along western the frontiers of the British colonies. In the fall of 1753, in part to protect his own land claims, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie had sent 22-year-old George Washington (then a militia leader and surveyor) to deliver a letter to Fort Le Boeuf at what is today Waterford in northwest Pennsylvania, demanding they stop.

When Washington returned without success, Dinwiddie sent a small force to build Fort Prince George at the confluence of the Allegheny  and Monongahela Rivers (today Pittsburgh). Soon a larger French force arrived, torn down the small British fort, and began and built Fort Duquesne, named for then Governor-General of New France, Marquis Duquesne. [Read more…] about The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Appalachian Mountains, Battle of Carillon, Battle of Lake George, Canada, Crown Point, Detroit, Edward Braddock, Ephraim Williams, Essex County, Fort Carillon, Fort Duquesne, Fort Edward, Fort Frontenac, Fort Oriskany, Fort Oswego, Fort St. Frederic, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry, French And Indian War, French History, George Monro, George Washington, Hendrick Theyanoguin, Hudson River, Indigenous History, James Abercromby, James Wolfe, Jean-Armand Dieskau, John Bradstreet, Joseph Blanchard, Joseph Brant, Lake Erie, Lake George, Lord Howe, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, Military History, Mohawk, Mohawk River, Montreal, New France, Niagara River, Ohio, Ohio River Valley, Old Fort Johnson, Old Fort Niagara, Oneida Lake, Oswego, Oswego River, Pennsylvania, Philip Schuyler, Pontiac's War, Quebec, Robert Rogers, Rogers' Rangers, Saratoga County, Seneca Nation, Seven Years War, Siege of Fort William Henry, Virginia, Virginia History, Warren County, William Shirley

Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

August 27, 2023 by Guest Contributor 7 Comments

Map of the State of New York (1802) by Simeon DeWitt, (Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division)The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended hostilities between the British and Americans; however, the treaty did not include the allied Indian Nations, leaving their legacy treaties with the Europeans unresolved and their future to be resolved through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Auburn, Auburn Prison, Canandaigua, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Finger Lakes, Genesee River, Geneva, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Religious History, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca Nation, Seneca River, Skaneateles Lake, Social History, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tompkins County, Transportation History, Treaty of Canandaigua, Waterloo, Wayne County, Yates County

Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

August 14, 2023 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Lamoka Site diorama at the New York State MuseumAccording to archeological records, groups of nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled through the Finger Lakes region approximately 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Small bands of these hunters and gatherers followed large game during the last stages of the Ice Age when the glaciers that formed the area’s notable lakes were receding.

Somewhat more recent early archaic archeological sites scattered across Western New York reflect a culture that was highly mobile and left little in terms of an archeological record. [Read more…] about Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Algonquin, Archaeology, Broome County, Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Finger Lakes, French And Indian War, fur trade, Geology, Grass lake, Haudenosaunee, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Lamoka, Lenape, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Material Culture, Monroe County, New France, New Netherland, Oneida Indian Nation, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Paleontology, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Seven Years War, Skaneateles Lake, Spencer, Steuben County, Susquehanna River, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Treaty of Fort Stanwix, Tuscarora, Valley Heads Moraine, Waneta-Lamoka WMA, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, William Johnson, Yates County

National Park Service Declares Finger Lakes Eligble For National Heritage Designation

July 19, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

National Park Service NPSOn Tuesday, July 18th, the National Park Service delivered the Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study to Congress. The feasibility study determined that the study area in the Finger Lakes region of New York state meets the criteria to be eligible for inclusion as part of the National Heritage Area System. [Read more…] about National Park Service Declares Finger Lakes Eligble For National Heritage Designation

Filed Under: History, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Erie Canalway Heritage Corridor, Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes National Heritage Area, Geology, Grass lake, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Indigenous History, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, National Park Service, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Skaneateles Lake, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Valley Heads Moraine, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, Yates County

White Pines: Physically & Culturally Colossal

July 15, 2023 by Paul Hetzler 1 Comment

1a Twitchell White PineThe eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) isn’t really a crop-bearing tree, but it has borne priceless fruit for American democracy. Physically as well as culturally massive, there are many accounts from the early 1800s of white pines over 200 feet tall being harvested. One credible report pegs a white pine at 247 feet, and unverified accounts have claimed that 300-foot-tall leviathans were cut back then. [Read more…] about White Pines: Physically & Culturally Colossal

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Cayuga Nation, Cultural History, Forestry, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Paul Smith's College, Political History, Seneca Nation, trees, Tuscarora, White Pine, Women's Rights NHP, womens history

SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students

May 10, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

SUNY Albany's Indian Pond in 2015, renamed Parker Pond in 2023 (photo by Paul Miller of SUNY Albany)The New York State University at Albany’s University Council voted Friday, May 5th, to formally change the name of Indian Pond to Parker Pond, and Indian Pond Lane to Parker Pond Lane. The new names acknowledge and honor the contributions of the Parker family, of which three siblings — Caroline (Ga:hahno), Nicholson (Gye-wah-go-wa) and Isaac Newton (Gane-yo-squa-ga-oh) — were among the first nine Indigenous students to enroll at UAlbany around 1850. [Read more…] about SUNY Albany Renames Pond in Honor of First Indigenous Students

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Education, Haudenosaunee, Iroquois, Lewis Henry Morgan, Seneca Nation, SUNY Albany

Schenectady’s Relationship to Native America

July 7, 2022 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Mohawk “squaw,” watercolorFor many people, “American” history begins with European exploration of the continent. From there, the narrative invariably centers on the colonial perspective and, after 1776, the perspective of the United States.

Consequently, the general public is generally uninformed about the history of Indigenous People that both predates New Netherland and the Pilgrims and persists to the present. And this article is by no means capable of addressing this broad historical issue. So let’s turn from this historical macrocosm to the microcosm of one city, Schenectady. [Read more…] about Schenectady’s Relationship to Native America

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Algonquin, American Revolution, Arendt Van Curler, French And Indian War, French History, fur trade, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, King William’s War, Military History, Mohawk, Mohawk River, New France, Oneida Carrying Place, Oneida Indian Nation, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Schenectady County Historical Society, Seneca Nation, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition

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