The Oneida Tribe is a Native American group with members in Wisconsin, Canada, and the northwestern US. They have a family and political structure similar to the Mohawks, with three clans and a role for women in leadership. They were one of the founding tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy and supported the Americans in the Revolutionary War. They provided assistance to settlers during the war, but were punished by other members of the Confederacy. They were promised a permanent homeland in New York, but their land was greatly reduced. Some members migrated to Wisconsin and settled there.
The Oneida Tribe is a federally recognized Native American group located in Wisconsin; the Oneida Indian Nation, also of the same tribe, is a separate legal entity located in New York State. Members of the Oneida tribe live in Canada and the northwestern United States. The name Oneida, or Onyotekaona, means “people of the standing stone”. For centuries, the Oneidas relocated their villages about every twenty years when soil and game were depleted. According to legend, a large stone that stood at the entrance to the village would mysteriously follow the migrating natives, standing outside each new village.
The family and political structure of the Oneida tribe is very similar to that of its allies, the Mohawks. Like the Mohawks, they have three clans; the bear, the tortoise and the wolf. The roles of women were also similar, and it was women who appointed leaders and chose representatives to the Iroquois Grand Council. They lived in longhouses made of wooden frames and bark, and were farmers, hunters, and traders. They loved games and gambling and were avid lacrosse players.
The Oneida were one of the founding tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Six Nations. The Oneidas were also friendly to the white settlers and many converted to Christianity. When tensions between the British and the colonists led to the Revolutionary War, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras supported the Americans, breaking with the Mohawks and other members of the Confederacy who chose to support the British or remain neutral. In 1777, at the Battle of Oriskany, Oneida and the colonial troops were ambushed by British and Mohawk warriors. This was one of the few times in the Confederacy’s 100-year history that members fought against each other.
During the Revolutionary War, the Oneida tribe provided invaluable assistance to settlers. When Washington and his troops were starving at Valley Forge, Chief Shenandoah and a group of Oneidas traveled over 200 miles (231.87 km) to bring several hundred bushels of grain to the men. Polly Cooper, a member of the Oneida tribe, stayed to teach the men how to cook dried corn into palatable food. In retaliation for their assistance to the settlers, the nations of the Confederacy burned the largest village of Oneida and kept them from their homeland for five years after the war ended.
In 1754, the lands were given to the Oneida tribe in the Treaty of Canandaigua, when all Six Nations were promised a permanent homeland in New York. The state legislature, however, was not in favor of extending the lands granted and reduced to the territory, greatly reducing the land area. Concerned about continued encroachment, small groups of Oneida members began migrating in 1822 to Wisconsin, which was then part of the Michigan Territory. An 1858 treaty granted the Oneida Tribe a reservation southwest of Green Bay, which is still Oneida territory. Other members of the Oneida tribe settled in Ontario, Canada.
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