Oneida

A member tribe of the Five Nations IROQUOIS, the Oneida (or On‘yote,’ “People of the Standing Stone”) lived to the west of their MoHAWK neighbors in the upper Mohawk Valley of modern-day New York near the lake that today bears their name.

Occupying one central village, the Oneida were the least populous group within the Iroquois Confederacy when Europeans arrived and shared the status of “younger brother” with the CAYUGA in the grand council uniting the five tribes. Nonetheless, the Oneida shared equal representation with the significantly larger Mohawk, each having nine sachems, or chiefs, in the governing body. In addition, their small numbers belied their prowess on the warpath. As a 17th century Jesuit priest observed, it was “a marvel that so few people work such havoc and render themselves so redoubtable to so great a number of tribes who, on all sides, bow before this conqueror.” They particularly earned this reputation due to continual practice of the mourning war ritual to replenish war casualties they could ill afford to lose.

As did the other Iroquois nations, the Oneida became intensely involved in the fur trade early in the 17th century and prospered after securing intermediary status in the trade routes that linked key western tribes and the Dutch and English. They likewise became increasingly reliant on the new European goods won in exchange while maintaining the bulk of their traditional beliefs and customs. Nevertheless, while they adopted foreign clothing, tools, and weapons, the Oneida continued to funnel their use toward established standards of adornment, artistic and religious expressions, and hunting and warfare techniques. Such innovation and adaptation has been a hallmark of Iroquois culture, and the Oneida offer no exception.

Further reading: Jack Campisi, “Oneida,” in William Sturtevant, ed., Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978), 481-490; Jack Campisi and Laurence Hauptman, eds., The Oneida Experience: Two Perspectives (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1988); Cara E. Richards, The Oneida People (Phoenix, Ariz.: Indian Tribal Series, 1974); Elizabeth Tooker, ed., An Iroquois Source Book, 3 vols. (New York: Garland, 1985).

—Eric P. Anderson