Relocation of Native American Lesson

Land Ownership

The most land was owned by the Haudenosaunee around 1680. At that time their empire stretched from the northern shore of the Chesapeake Bay (present day Delaware), west to Kentucky.  Then it went north to the southern end of Lake Michigan and across southern Ontario Canada and through northern New England.  It included all that land with only two exceptions: the Mingo occupation of the upper Ohio Valley and Caughnawaga occupation on the upper St. Lawrence.

The years from 1680 to the American Revolution (1776) were devastating to Iroquois land ownership.  Many wars with both the Algonquians (backed by France) and the British colonial settlements, pushed their boundaries back to within southern Canada and upstate New York.  The decision by the Iroquois to side with the British during the Revolutionary War was really bad for them.  

Following the Revolutionary War, much of the Iroquois land was "given" to land speculators in a series of treaties.  Despite these treaties, sizeable groups of Seneca, Tuscarora, and Onondaga stayed in the state.  Some Oneidas remained, but many moved to a reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1838.   The Cayuga sold their NY lands in 1807 and moved west to join the Mingo relatives and later moved on to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

Population

Considering all their contributions to our history, it is surprising that their numbers were so few in 1600.  At that time there are reported to be less than 20,00 total for all five tribes.  The European diseases that affected most other tribes did not affect the Iroquois in the early years  because of their inland location.  The diseases (smallpox, etc.)  eventually caught up and many died from them and also from warfare with the Algonquians.  In the late 1600s the Iroquois added to their declining numbers by "adopting" other Iroquois speaking tribes.  They also added a sixth member of the League, the Tuscarora, in  1722. But numbers kept dwindling and the lowest number of Iroquois was recorded in 1768 at only a total of 12,000.   

Present Day Population

With the recent renewal in native pride, the numbers are again increasing. The Mohawks are the largest number of Iroquois with more than 35,000 members, with a few living around New York City and working as ironworkers, but most are just over the Canadian border in Ontario and Quebec.

There is a large Onondaga population (1,600) just south of Syracuse on a 7,300 acre reservation. 

1,200 Tuscarora live on a reservation near Niagara Falls.  Some others live on the Grand River Reserve in Canada along with members of the other five nations.

The Senecas were once the largest tribe in the League (their number of warriors equaled the other 4 tribes together), but their current enrollment stands at 9,100.  About 1,000 live in a Canada, and the other 8,000 are spread out between four reservations. The Senecas are the only nation to own their own city, Salamanca.  

Approximately 3,000 of the Cayugas live in Canada.  Only 5,000 live in the Seneca Reservation in New York State.

The Oneidas live in at least two different geographical locations: Wisconsin, and in Oneida County in New York with a major resurgence in that area with the building of Turning Stone Casino and Hotel.

Websites to each tribe in the Iroquois Nation

Senecas  http://www.sni.org/

Cayugas   http://tuscaroras.com/cayuganation/

Onondagas  http://www.onondaganationschool.org/

Oneidas   http://www.oneida-nation.net/

Mohawks   http://www.peacetree.com/akwesasne/home.htm

Tuscaroras   http://tuscaroras.com/