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Onondaga

Onondagas \On`on*da"gas\, n. pl.; sing. Onondaga. (Ethnol.) A tribe of Indians formerly inhabiting what is now a part of the State of New York. They were the central or head tribe of the Five Nations.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Onondaga

tribe in the Iroquois Confederacy, 1684, named for its principal settlement, from Onondaga onontake, literally "on the hill."

Gazetteer
Onondaga -- U.S. County in New York
Population (2000): 458336
Housing Units (2000): 196633
Land area (2000): 780.293445 sq. miles (2020.950659 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 25.400019 sq. miles (65.785744 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 805.693464 sq. miles (2086.736403 sq. km)
Located within: New York (NY), FIPS 36
Location: 43.048433 N, 76.179117 W
Headwords:
Onondaga
Onondaga, NY
Onondaga County
Onondaga County, NY
Wikipedia
Onondaga

Onondaga may refer to:

Onondaga (village)

Onondaga was a village that served as the capital of the Iroquois League and the primary settlement of the Onondaga nation. It was the meeting place of the Iroquois Grand Council. The clan mothers named the men representing the clans at village and tribal councils and appointed the 49 sachems who met here periodically as the ruling council for the confederated Five Nations.

The location of the village changed periodically. In 1600, it was located near present Cazenovia, New York, but was situated near present Pompey, New York from 1609 to 1615. After that, Onondaga was located at several sites near present Delphi, New York, until 1640, when it moved to present Manlius, New York. In 1720, it was moved to Onondaga Creek.

After many Onondagas sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War, Onondaga was targeted by the Continental Army in an expedition led by Col. Goose Van Schaick. In April 1779, the Onondagas fled as the army approached. American troops methodically destroyed the abandoned settlement, razing about 50 houses along Onondaga Creek.

The present meeting place of the Iroquois Grand Council is on the Onondaga Reservation in New York.

Usage examples of "onondaga".

With his aid the league was formed, and the solemn agreement, never broken, was made at the Onondaga Lake.

The chests of the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca head chiefs were also bared to the glow.

The chiefs presently came forth from the Council House or, as it was more generally called, the Long House, and, despite the greatness of Thayendanegea, those of the Onondaga tribe, in virtue of their ancient and undisputed place as the political leaders and high priests of the Six Nations, led the way.

They were men of stature and fine countenance, proud of the titular primacy that belonged to them because it was the Onondaga, Hiawatha, who had formed the great confederacy more than four hundred years before our day, or just about the time Columbus was landing on the shores of the New World.

The role he was about to assume belonged to Atotarho, the Onondaga, but the old Onondaga assigned it for the occasion to Thayendanegea, and there was no objection.

Old Skanawati, the Onondaga, old Atotarho, Onondaga, too, Satekariwate, the Mohawk, Kanokarih, the Seneca, and others, head chiefs though they were of the three senior tribes, did not hesitate to eat as the rich Romans of the Empire ate, swallowing immense quantities of all kinds of meat, and drinking a sort of cider that the women made.

The Onondaga runners were still carrying the wampum belts of purple shells, sign of war, to distant villages of the tribes, and parties of warriors were still coming in.

That night an Onondaga runner arrived from one of the farthest villages of the Mohawks, far east toward Albany.

He was about to cry out, but the Onondaga turned and struck him such a violent blow with the butt of a pistol, snatched from under his deerskin tunic, that he fell senseless.

Say, Sol, how wuz it that you talked Onondaga when you played the part uv that Onondaga runner.

It was an Onondaga who fell this time, and he lay with his head on the window sill until another Indian pulled him inside.

Such at least was the opinion of Lamberville, Jesuit missionary at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital.

The site of Onondaga, like that of all the Iroquois towns, was changed from time to time, as the soil of the neighborhood became impoverished, and the supply of wood exhausted.

He was a famous Onondaga orator named Otreonati, and called also Big Mouth, whether by reason of the dimensions of that feature or the greatness of the wisdom that issued from it.

While these things were passing at Onondaga, La Barre had finished his preparations, and was now in full campaign.