Native American Tribe Series
Onondaga
An important tribe of the Iroquois confederation, formerly living on the mountain, lake, and creek bearing their name, in the present-day Onondaga County, New York, and extending northward to Lake Ontario and southward to the Susquehanna River. Their name means "People of the Hills." On November 11, 1794, the Onondaga Nation, along with the other Haudenosaunee nations, signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States, in which their right to their homeland was acknowledged. Today, the nation is a member of the Haudenosaunee group of tribes, which have been united for several hundred years by complementary traditions, beliefs and cultural values. Sometimes referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations, the Haudenosaunee originally consisted of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. The Tuscarora migrated from the south and peacefully joined the Confederacy in the early 1700's, bringing to six the number of nations united by Haudenosaunee traditional law. The present-day territory of the Onondaga Nation is approximately 7,300 acres just south of Syracuse, New York with their tribal headquarters located at Nedrow, New York.