The Seneca, whose own name for themselves is Onöndowa’ga:’ (“People of the Great Hill”), are one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Their homelands are in present-day western New York, and Seneca people and governments live there today.
The Seneca Nation is part of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, a political alliance of six nations that predates the United States. This page covers who the Seneca are, their traditional role in the confederacy, and the Seneca governments and historic sites that exist now. For an overview of other Native peoples we cover, see our Native American section.
What does “Onöndowa’ga:'” mean?
Onöndowa’ga:’ means “People of the Great Hill” in the Seneca language, and it is the name Seneca people use for themselves. The Seneca Nation of Indians’ own cultural center writes the name Onöndowa’ga:’ Gawë:nö’ for the Seneca language itself (Seneca Nation of Indians). “Seneca” is the name English speakers adopted. It is not a Seneca word.
This section covers only the name and language. It does not cover the full grammar or sound system of Onöndowa’ga:’, which the Seneca Nation teaches through its own language programs.
Where are the traditional Seneca homelands?
The traditional Seneca homelands lie in western New York, historically centered on the Finger Lakes and Genesee Valley regions. Seneca communities today hold land on the Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Oil Spring territories, which include parts of the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls (Seneca Nation of Indians).
This describes the nation’s own stated territory. It does not cover every historical Seneca settlement or the full record of land loss through treaties, which is a longer and separate history.
What does “Keepers of the Western Door” mean?
Keepers of the Western Door is the traditional role of the Seneca as the westernmost nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Seneca Nation of Indians describes itself as “the ‘Keeper of the Western Door,’ for the Seneca are the westernmost of the Six Nations,” a role matched by the Mohawk as Keepers of the Eastern Door at the confederacy’s opposite end (Seneca Nation of Indians). The Seneca were also the most populous of the six nations.
This section describes the traditional geographic and ceremonial role within the confederacy. It does not cover the internal governance of the confederacy’s Grand Council, which involves all six member nations, including the Mohawk.
What Seneca nations exist today?
Three separate, federally recognized Seneca governments exist today: the Seneca Nation of Indians, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, and the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. Each has its own government and its own history of how it separated from the others.
The Seneca Nation of Indians governs the Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Oil Spring territories in western New York under an elected council system, and reports more than 8,500 enrolled citizens (Seneca Nation of Indians). In 1848, most Seneca communities adopted an elected constitutional government (Britannica). The Tonawanda Seneca Nation, based near Akron, New York, instead kept a traditional Council of Chiefs, in which clan mothers hold the power to remove a chief and advise on tribal matters, and it later secured its own 1857 treaty with the United States (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York and Oklahoma State University treaty archive). The Seneca-Cayuga Nation is headquartered in Grove, Oklahoma, the result of Seneca and Cayuga families who relocated west in the 19th century (Seneca-Cayuga Nation).
This section names the three current Seneca governments. It does not rank them or describe their internal politics, which are each nation’s own business.
What is Ganondagan State Historic Site?
Ganondagan is a National Historic Landmark in Victor, New York, that preserves the site of a 17th-century Seneca town, and it is the only Seneca town site developed for public interpretation in the United States (New York State Parks, Ganondagan). The 569-acre site includes a reconstructed Seneca bark longhouse and the Seneca Art & Culture Center, which holds exhibits on Haudenosaunee history and culture built with Seneca involvement, including the kind of beadwork, basketry, and other Haudenosaunee arts made across the confederacy today.
Ganondagan tells one specific community’s history at one point in time, before the town was destroyed in 1687. It is not a general museum of all Haudenosaunee nations or of Seneca life today.
How did the Seneca traditionally get their food?
The Seneca traditionally relied on farming the Three Sisters, corn, beans, and squash, along with hunting and fishing. The Seneca Nation of Indians describes its ancestors as people who “relied heavily on agriculture for food, growing the Three Sisters” and who were also “subsistence hunters and fishers” (Seneca Nation of Indians).
This covers traditional subsistence only. It does not cover Seneca foodways today, which include both traditional foods and modern agriculture and food access.
Sources
- Seneca Nation of Indians. History
- New York State Parks. Ganondagan State Historic Site
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York. Tonawanda Band of Seneca government structure
- Oklahoma State University treaty archive. Treaty with the Seneca, Tonawanda Band, 1857
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. Seneca (people)
- Seneca-Cayuga Nation. General Information