The Cayugas form one nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. With the Oneidas, they are the Younger Brothers of the league, having reciprocal relations vis-à-vis the Elder Brothers: the Mohawks, Onondagas, and Senecas. They have ten sachemships (matrilineally inherited chieftainship positions) within the confederacy.
At the time of first contact with Euro-Americans, the Cayugas occupied three main agricultural villages in what are now Cayuga and Seneca counties in western New York State. Cayuga hunting territory ranged north to Lake Ontario and south to the Susquehanna River.
From 1641 to 1684 the Cayugas warred with other Iroquois against nations to the northwest, west, and south of Iroquois country and incorporated captives from these groups into their communities. Because the French were allied with their enemies, relations were strained with Europeans until neutrality with both France and England was established in separate treaties in 1701.
In the eighteenth century, the Cayugas continued their policy of incorporation, taking in Tutelos, Saponis, Nanticokes, and Conoys, all of whom joined the League of the Iroquois as nonvoting members under Cayuga auspices in 1753.
Although the Cayugas were officially neutral during the Seven Years' War (1756-63) between France and England, Cayuga warriors often joined the French. Most Cayugas, alarmed by the encroachment of English colonists into Indian country after the defeat of the French in 1763, allied themselves with the British during the American Revolution against land-hungry Americans. Cayuga villages were destroyed by American forces in 1779. After the war, New York State acquired the homeland of the Cayugas in negotiations that took place from 1789 through 1807.
Many Cayugas moved to the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, where they joined other Iroquois displaced by the war. Most practice the Longhouse religion instituted by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake between 1799 and 1815, and accept the authority of the hereditary Confederate Council. Some of the leading Iroquois ritualists of the 1990s are Cayugas living at Six Nations Reserve.
After the American Revolution, other Cayugas settled with Senecas at Buffalo Creek (near present-day Buffalo, New York), where they, too, were exposed to Handsome Lake's teachings. Although some Cayugas in modern-day communities are Christian, missionary efforts among them met with less success than they did among other Indian nations. Buffalo Creek was ceded at the Treaty of Buffalo Creek in 1842. Cayugas there then moved with Senecas to the Cattaraugus Reservation. In 1848, the people of Cattaraugus and the Allegany Seneca Reservation joined politically to form the Seneca Nation, with an elective system of government.
As a result of the Buffalo Creek treaty, a few Cayugas, along with some Senecas, moved to Kansas. Although most returned, a very small number stayed, eventually receiving allotments of land.
Another band of Cayugas settled on the Little Sandusky River in Ohio between 1807 and 1817; from there they moved to Oklahoma in 1831-32. From 1887 to 1903, most Iroquois land in Oklahoma was allotted to individuals, though some was kept as tribally owned property for ceremonial and burial grounds. In 1934, the Oklahoma group adopted the name "Seneca/Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma" and established an elective council.
Although the Cayugas are without their original homeland, they have not given up hope of reclaiming it. An official land claim was initiated in the late 1970s and was still being negotiated in the mid-1990s. The Cayugas have very persuasive arguments, the strongest being that, contrary to federal law, their land was acquired through treaties conducted by New York State rather than by federal officials.
Mary Druke Becker
Iroquois Indian Museum
Howes Cave, New York
