Oneida tribe

The Oneida (Onayotekaono or the People of the Upright Stone) are a tribe of American Indians and comprise one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

The Iroquois call themselves Haudenosaunee ("The people of the longhouses") in reference to their communal lifestyle and the construction of their dwellings.

Originally the Oneida inhabited the area that later became central New York, particularly around Oneida Lake and Oneida County. They broke with the other nations of the Haudenosaunee to side with the United States in the Revolutionary War, in particular aiding George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777. After the war they were displaced by retaliatory and other raids. In 1794 they, along with other Haudenosaunee nations, signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States. They were granted 6 million acres (24,000 km²) of lands, primarily in New York; this was effectively the first Indian reservation in the United States. Subsequent treaties and actions by the State of New York pared this down to 32 acres (0.1 km²). In the 1830s many of the Oneida relocated into Canada and Wisconsin, due to the rising tide of Indian Removal.

In 1974 and 1985 the US Supreme Court ruled that the treaties between the State of New York and the Oneida that had deprived them of these lands were illegal. Litigation in these matters is ongoing.

Oneida bands today

Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, in and around Green Bay, Wisconsin
Onyota'a:ka First Nation in Southwold, Ontario
Oneida at Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario
Oneida Indian Nation in New York

External links

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