Onondowa'ga

The Onondowa'ga, or Seneca, were the westernmost of the five founding Haudenosaunee nations, known as Keepers of the Western Door. Their towns, including Ganondagan, lay south of Lake Ontario.

In the seventeenth century the Seneca traded furs and fought neighboring peoples; in 1687 French governor Denonville destroyed Ganondagan. Most Seneca supported Britain in the American Revolution, and Sullivan's 1779 campaign burned their villages. The treaties of Fort Stanwix in 1784, Canandaigua in 1794 and Big Tree in 1797 confirmed reservation lands where they rebuilt.