A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
A map of the current Haudenosaunee communities. To the east are the communities of the Mohawk Nation in the Land of the Flint. They are called the Keepers of the Eastern Door. In the center is the Onondaga Nation in the Land of the Hills. They are the keepers of the Central Fire. To the west is the Seneca Nation in the Genesee River Valley. They are the Keepers of the Western Door. Together, these three nations are the referred to as the Elder Brothers. Between these Elder Brothers rest the Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscarora Nations, who are referred to as the Younger Brothers.
The Haudenosaunee still occupy some of their original territory and these lands have never been taken from us, nor held in trust by the United States. These lands remain free and are the independent territory of the Haudenosaunee. The lands we still occupy are often called reservations, because they are present portions of the original territory that were "reserved" for the exclusive use of our Nations.
Today, there are seventeen Haudenosaunee communities. The Haudenosaunee reside on the territory of their ancestors as well as other lands that resulted from removal policies. The Mohawks live at Akwesasne that transcends the New York, Ontario and Quebec border, as well as at Kahnawake (Caughnawaga) and Kanesatake (Oka) in Quebec, and Tyendinaga (Deseronto) and Wahta (Gibson) in Ontario. The Onondaga Nation resides near Syracuse, New York. The Seneca live at Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, Oil Spring and Allegany. The Oneida live primarily at 32 acres and Marble Hill in New York, as well as lands in Oneida, Wisconsin and Oneida on the Thames, Ontario.
The Tuscarora Nation, originally from North Carolina, migrated north to Virginia, Pennsylvania and eventually to central New York. During the Revolutionary War, many Haudenosaunee Villages were destroyed by the American army and the Tuscarora and Seneca resettled in western New York where they reside today.
Seneca-Cayuga live in Oklahoma due to relocation, but the Cayuga Nation who remained in Haudenosaunee territories presently do not have a homeland, and people from all nations live at the Grand River Territory, also called the Six Nations Reserve, near Brantford, Ontario.
There are no firm boundary lines between the aboriginal territories of each nation The borders are more like buffer zones and different nations shared the use of those buffer lands. There is no hard and fast way to delineate our traditional territories by nation because our people are culturally affiliated by clan, belief and language, which transcends any geographical boundaries.
Reader Comments(0)