The second of the five nations that composed the original
Iroquois Confederacy (q. v.). Their domain extended from a point east of
Utica to
Deep Spring, near
Manlius, south of
Syracuse, in Onondaga county, N. Y. Divided into three clans—the
Wolf, Bear, and Turtle—their tribal totem was a stone in a forked stick, and their name meant “tribe of the granite rock.”
Tradition says that when the great confederacy was formed, Hiawatha said to them: “You, Oneidas, a people who recline your bodies against the ‘Everlasting
Stone,’ that cannot be moved, shall be the second nation, because you give wise counsel.”
Very soon after the settlement of
Canada they became involved in wars with the
French and their
Huron and Montagnais allies.
In 1653 they joined their neighbors, the Onondagas, in a treaty of peace with the
French, and received missionaries from the latter.
At that time they had been so reduced by war with southern tribes that they had only 150 warriors.
In the
general peace with the
French, in 1700, they joined their sister nations; and when the
Revolutionary War was kindling they alone, of the then Six Nations in the great council, opposed an alliance with the
English.
They remained faithful to the
English-American colonists to the end. In this attitude they were largely held by the influence of
Samuel Kirkland, a Protestant missionary, and
Gen. Philip Schuyler.
Because of this attitude they were subjected to great losses by the ravages of Tories and their neighbors, for which the
United States compensated them by a treaty in 1794.
They had previously ceded their lands to the
State of New York, reserving a tract, now in
Oneida county, where some of them still remain.
They had been joined by the Stockbridge and
Brotherton Indians.
Some of them emigrated to
Canada, and settled on the
Thames; and in 1821 a large band purchased a tract on
Green Bay, Wis. They have all advanced in civilization and the mechanic arts, as well as in agriculture, and have schools and churches.
In 1899 there were 270 Oneidas at the New York agency, and 1,945 at the
Green Bay agency.
