Onondaga Nation

The Onondaga Nation (; Onondaga: Onoñdaʼgegáʼ, 'People of the Hills') is a federally recognized nation of Onondaga people in the State of New York. They control the Onondaga Reservation south of the city of Syracuse.

History

In the American Revolutionary War, the Onondaga were at first officially neutral, although individual Onondaga warriors were involved in at least one raid on American settlements. After Americans attacked their main village on April 20, 1779, the Onondaga later sided with the majority of the League and fought against the American colonists in alliance with the British. In 1779, George Washington ordered the termination of the Onondaga people, in an operation known as the Sullivan Expedition, breaking the neutrality agreement and devastating the Onondaga people. When the United States won independence, many Onondaga followed Joseph Brant to Upper Canada, where they were given land by the British Crown at Six Nations.

In the aftermath of the Sullivan Expedition, following the brutal winter of 1780, there was a massive swarm of periodical cicadas, which emerge from underground every seventeen years. The sudden arrival of such a large quantity of the insects provided a source of sustenance for the Onondaga people who were experiencing severe food insecurity following the Sullivan campaigns and the subsequent brutal winter. The seemingly miraculous arrival of the cicadas (specifically, Brood VII also known as the Onondaga brood) is commemorated by the Onondaga as an intervention by the Creator to ensure their survival after such a traumatizing, catastrophic event.

On November 11, 1794, the Onondaga Nation, along with the other Haudenosaunee nations, signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States, in which their right to their homeland was acknowledged by the United States in article II of the treaty.