HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS l6l 



pounds. Another is in Forest Hill cemetery, Utica N. Y. Aug 

 was often added to Oneida to signify locality, or ronoii for people. 

 Their council name is Ne-haw-re-tah-go-wah, or Big Tree, refer- 

 ring to Hiawatha's finding them by a large tree which they had 

 just cut down. 



The French usually termed their town Onneiout, and their 

 name was first mentioned and castle described from within by 

 Arent Van Curler in 1634. He thought them a part of the Sen- 

 ecas. The next year they appeared in the list of Iroquois nations 

 in the Jesuit Relation. The Delawares termed the Mohawks 

 Sankhicani, or Fire-striking People, a translation of their own 

 name. The Oneidas were W'Tassone, Stone Pipe-makers, from 

 their excellence in this art. 



Ononta, said an early French writer, means a hill or moun- 

 tain. The present terminal in Onondaga is locative, and the 

 word ronon was for a time added to signify people. Their Dela- 

 ware name also referred to their situation. For a century they 

 were on the hills near Limestone creek, in various places, leaving 

 that valley in 1681, and making their home on Butternut creek 

 for about 40 years more. Their removal to Onondaga creek is 

 not so exactly known, but was not far from 1720. In that valley 

 they have moved several times. The French found them on 

 Indian hill, Pompey, in 1654, and first mentioned them in 1635. 

 Van Curler came in contact with them early that year. The 

 league was formed by Onondaga lake, and the Grand Council 

 met in their town. Their council name is Seuh-no-keh-te, Bear-, 

 ing the Names, and sometimes the principal chief and town were 

 called by this. As with all Indian names it is variously spelled. 



The gradual increase in power or security is well illustrated by 

 the nation's progressive removals from secluded to exposed 

 situations. Champlain noticed this practice in speaking of the 

 Hurons and Senecas in 1616: '* Sometimes they change their 

 Village of ten, of twenty, or thirty years, and transport it from 

 one, two, or three leagues from the preceding place, unless they 

 are constrained by their enemies to dislodge and to go far away, 

 as the Antouhonorons had done from some 40 to 50 leagues." 



