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101-632: The river was historically used as a border between the lands of the Seneca to the east and the Erie and Wenro to the west. Later, the river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills, and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester. Flooding occurred periodically in the river valley before construction of the Mount Morris Dam in the 1950s. The Genesee

202-772: A Seneca war party ambushed a British supply train and soldiers in Battle of Devil's Hole , also known as the Devil's Hole massacre, during Pontiac's Rebellion . After the American Revolutionary War broke out between the British and the colonists, the Seneca at first attempted to remain neutral but both sides tried to bring them into the action. When the rebel colonists defeated the British at Fort Stanwix , they killed many Seneca onlookers. The Seneca Tribe before

303-485: A clan is called the "clan mother". Despite the prominent position of women in Iroquois society, their influence on the diplomacy of the nation was limited. If the "clan mothers" do not agree with any major decisions made by the chiefs, they can eventually depose them. Arrows from the area are made from split hickory, although shoots of dogwood and Viburnum were used as well. The eastern two feather style of fletching

404-647: A covenant belt. The Americans attempted a similar wine and dine method on the Tuscarora and Oneidas. In the end, the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca sided with the British, and the Tuscarora and Oneida sided with the Americans. From this point on, the Iroquois would have a serious role in the American Revolution. The war divided them and now they would be fighting against each other from 1777 till

505-528: A dissolution of their traditional society under pressure of disease and encroachment by European Americans. But fieldwork at the 1715–1754 Seneca Townley-Read site near Geneva, New York , has recovered evidence of "substantial Seneca autonomy, selectivity, innovation, and opportunism in an era usually considered to be one of cultural disintegration". In 1756, the Confederacy directed the Munsee to settle in

606-732: A group of Indigenous Iroquoian -speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario , one of the five Great Lakes in North America . Their nation was the farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League ( Haudenosaunee ) in New York before the American Revolution . For this reason, they are called “The Keepers of the Western Door.” In the 21st century, more than 10,000 Seneca live in

707-531: A hunting ground by the Iroquois peoples. In the 1720s, a number of Native American groups began to migrate into the Ohio Country from the east, driven by pressure from encroaching European colonists. By 1724, Delaware Indians had established the village of Kittanning on the Allegheny River in present-day western Pennsylvania. With them came those Shawnee who had historically expanded further to

808-536: A new satellite town in Seneca territory called Assinisink (where Corning developed) on the Chemung River. In this period, they developed satellite towns for war captives who were being assimilated near several of their major towns. The Seneca received some of the Munsee's war prisoners as part of their negotiations. At a peace conference in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1758, the Seneca chief Tagashata required

909-526: A part of this confederacy with the Cayuga , Onondagas , Oneidas , Mohawks , and, later on, the Tuscaroras . However, although the Seneca and Iroquois tribes had ceased fighting each other, they still continued to conduct raids on outsiders, or rather their European visitors. Despite the Iroquois continuing raids on their new European neighbors, the Iroquois tribes struck up profitable relationships with

1010-600: Is now about tumbled down, the stones seem somewhat scattered, and the ground is overgrown with brush. In the early 1920s, the material that made up the Bare Hill fort was used by the Town of Middlesex highway department for road fill. The Seneca historically lived in what is now New York state between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake . The dating of an oral tradition mentioning a solar eclipse yields 1142 AD as

1111-561: Is the remaining western branch of a preglacial system , with rock layers tilted an average of 40 feet (12 m) per mile, so the river flows across progressively older bedrock as it flows northward. It begins in exposing the Allegheny Plateau 's characteristic conglomerates : sandstones and shales in the rock columns of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods. Thereafter, farther downstream as it traverses

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1212-641: Is typical from this region. During the colonial period, the Seneca became involved in the fur trade , first with the Dutch and then with the British. This served to increase hostility with competing native groups, especially their traditional enemy, the Huron (Wyandot), an Iroquoian-speaking tribe located near Lac Toronto in New France . In 1609, the French allied with the Huron (Wyandot) and set out to destroy

1313-608: The American Revolution . From 1801 to 1846 the entire region was sold to individual owners from the Holland Land office in Batavia, New York . In the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree , the Seneca tribes were granted six reservations along the river, among them Canawaugus , Little Beard's Town , Geneseo, Caneadea, Deyuitgau and Gardeau. In August 1826, the Ogden Land Company purchased the six Genesee River reservations from

1414-811: The Chemung River to the Susquehanna River. At Tioga the Seneca had access to every corner of Munsee country. Seneca warriors traveled the Forbidden Path south to Tioga to the Great Warrior Path to Scranton and then east over the Minnisink Path through the Lorde's valley to Minisink . The Delaware River path went straight south through the ancient Indian towns of Cookhouse , Cochecton and Minnisink, where it became

1515-660: The French and Indian War over this area in the mid-18th century as the North American front of their Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Following the British victory, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to the British Empire in the 1763 Treaty of Paris . During the following decades, several minor frontier wars, including Pontiac's Rebellion and Lord Dunmore's War , were fought in

1616-525: The Lenape Indians, an Algonquian-speaking people whose territory extended deep along the coastal areas of the mid-Atlantic coast, up into present-day Connecticut. They occupied the western part of Long Island as well. The Lenape nation was Algonkian -speaking and made up of the Delaware , Minnisink and Esopus bands, differentiated according to their territories. These bands later became known as

1717-790: The Lenape people (Delaware, Minnisink and Esopus) threatened war from eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the Lower Hudson. The Seneca used the Genesee and Allegheny rivers, as well as the Great Indian War and Trading Path (the Seneca Trail ), to travel from southern Lake Ontario into Pennsylvania and Ohio (Merrill, Arch. Land of the Senecas ; Empire State Books, 1949, pp. 18–25). The eastern Seneca had territory just north of

1818-671: The Minsi Path . Using these ancient highways, the Seneca exerted influence in what is today Ulster and Sullivan counties from the Dutch colonial era onward. Historical evidence demonstrating Seneca presence in the Lower Catskills includes: In 1657 and 1658, the Seneca visited, as diplomats, Dutch colonial officials in New Amsterdam. In 1659 and 1660, the Seneca interceded in the First Esopus War , which

1919-680: The Munsee , based on their shared dialect. (Folts at pp 32) The Munsee inhabited large tracts of land from the middle Hudson into the Delaware Water Gap , and into northeast Pennsylvania and northwest New Jersey . The Esopus inhabited the Mid-Hudson valley (Sullivan and Ulster counties). The Minnisink inhabited northwest New Jersey. The Delaware inhabited the southern Susquehanna and Delaware water gaps. The Minnisink-Esopus trail, today's Route 209 , helped tie this world together. To

2020-612: The Niagara Escarpment , exposing limestones and shales of Silurian age in the rock column. With cuttings in the geologic record showing so many early ages, the river area has a great variety of fossils for paleobiological and stratigraphic analysis. During the past million years, four glacial ages covered the Rochester area. The southern edges of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and those advances impacted

2121-573: The Northwest Indian War . Considered highly desirable, the area was subject to the overlapping and conflicting territorial ambitions of several eastern states: After negotiation with the federal government, these states ceded their claims to the United States between 1780 and 1786. In July 1787, most of Ohio Country, the southern peninsula of what is today the state of Michigan, and eastern Illinois Country were incorporated as

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2222-832: The Omaha and Ponca . Around 1660, during a conflict known as the Beaver Wars , the Iroquois and allied tribes seized control of the Ohio Country, driving out the Shawnee and Siouan peoples. Those tribes mostly moved further northwest and west, with several eventually settling west of the Mississippi River. In the east, the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee ) conquered and absorbed the Erie (who also spoke an Iroquoian language ) during this time. The Ohio Country, however, remained largely uninhabited for decades, used primarily as

2323-670: The Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation . They are descendants of Seneca who resettled there after the American Revolution, as they had been allies of the British and forced to cede much of their lands . The Seneca's own name for themselves is O-non-dowa-gah or Onödowá’ga , meaning "Great Hill People" The exonym Seneca is "the Anglicized form of the Dutch pronunciation of the Mohegan rendering of

2424-603: The Sullivan Expedition destroyed over 40 Haudenosaunee villages in and around the watershed to force the Seneca and allied nations out of the newly formed United States. Subsequently, with most Iroquois having fled to Canada, the remnant tribal groups were in no position to further impede white settlers, so most of New York state west of the Genesee River became part of the Holland Purchase after

2525-578: The Tuscarora , an Iroquoian-speaking tribe from the Carolinas , completed a migration to the area and were allowed to settle near the lands of the Oneida . They were considered cousins to the Iroquois and became the sixth nation in the confederacy. In the late 1740s and the second half of the 18th century, the British and French angled for control of the territory. The English intended to gain control of

2626-550: The animal side, and the Deer, Hawk, Snipe, and Heron are the bird side. The Iroquois have a matrilineal kinship system ; inheritance and property descend through the maternal line. Women are in charge of the clans. Children are considered born into their mother's clan and take their social status from her family. Their mother's eldest brother was traditionally more of a major figure in their lives than their biological father, who does not belong to their clan. The presiding elder of

2727-692: The 1825 Erie Canal allowed the mills to ship products to New York City . A few hundred feet north of the center of the village of Rochester, the Erie Canal crossed the Genesee River via an 1823 stone aqueduct (802 feet (244 m) long, 17 feet (5.2 m) wide), which was replaced by the Second Genesee Aqueduct in 1842 . In 1836 the Genesee Valley Canal was begun to build a new canal from the Erie Canal near Rochester, up

2828-495: The American Revolution had a prosperous society. The Iroquois Confederacy had ended the fighting amongst the war-based Iroquois tribes and allowed them to live in peace with each other. Yet, despite this peace amongst themselves, the Iroquois tribes were all revered as fierce warriors and were reputed to control together a large empire that stretched hundreds of miles along the Appalachian Mountains. The Seneca were

2929-780: The American Revolution. Notable raids like the Cherry Valley massacre and Battle of Minisink , were carefully planned raids on a trail laid out "from the Susquehanna to the Delaware Valley and over the Pine Hill to the Esopus Country". In 1778 Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Mohawk warriors conducted raids on white settlements in the upper Susquehanna Valley. Although the Iroquois were active participants, Seneca like Governor Blacksnake were extremely fed up with

3030-606: The British as a conflict meant to include only them. The Albany Council occurred in August, and the Iroquois Confederacy debated about the Revolution from August 25 to August 31. The non-Iroquois present at the council consisted of important figures like Philip Schuyler , Oliver Wolcott , Turbutt Francis , Volkert Douw , Samuel Kirkland , and James Dean. The Iroquois at the council were representatives from all

3131-667: The British in a war council at Chalawgatha , a Shawnee village located along the Little Miami River , where they planned what was to become a successful rout of the Americans two weeks later at the Battle of Blue Licks . In 1783, following the Treaty of Paris in which America had gained its independence, Britain ceded its claims over the area to the new United States. The new federal government immediately opened this area to settlement by American pioneers , considering it unorganized territory. The Ohio Country quickly became one of

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3232-436: The British, were disliked by the Seneca because of their continual disregard for the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Specifically, the Iroquois were enraged by the Americans movement into the Ohio Territory. However, despite their continual encroachment on established Iroquois land, the Americans respected their skills at warfare and attempted to exclude them from their conflict with the British. The Americans viewed their conflict with

3333-457: The British: "[I]mmediately after arrival the officers came to see us to See what wanted for to Support the Indians with prvisions and with the flood of Rum. they are Some of the ... warriors made use of this intoxicating Drinks, there was several Barrel Delivered to us for us to Drinked for the white man told us to Drinked as much as we want of it all free gratus, and the goods if any of us wishes to get for our own use." Contingent to this generosity

3434-402: The Delaware to trade with the Dutch in New Amsterdam ( Manhattan ). In 1634, war broke out between the Delaware and the Susquehannock, and by 1638, the defeated Delaware became tributaries to the Susquehanna. The Iroquois Confederacy to the north was growing in strength and numbers, and the Seneca, as the most numerous and adventurous, began to travel extensively. Eastern Seneca traveled down

3535-427: The Europeans, especially the English. In 1677, the English were able to make an alliance with the Iroquois league called the "Covenant Chain". In 1768, the English renewed this alliance when Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. This treaty put the British in good favor with the Iroquois, as they felt that the British had their best interests in mind as well. The Americans, unlike

3636-439: The French who were more interested in hunting in the region and were not actively settling the area as was their British colonial rivals. Armed with supplies and guns from the French, the Indians launched raids against their enemies via the Kittanning Path east of the Alleghenies. After they destroyed Fort Granville in the summer of 1756, Pennsylvania's Proprietary Governor John Penn ordered Captain John Armstrong to destroy

3737-416: The Genesee Valley, across to the Allegheny River at Olean . Construction of new sections extended upriver (southward) until 1880. Although an important commercial route, the canal was plagued by frequent flood damage and the final leg down the Allegany River was never completed. The most difficult section to build was the bypass around the gorge and falls at present day Letchworth Park. The canal followed

3838-453: The Iroquoian ethnic appellative" originally referring to the Oneida. The Dutch applied the name Sennecaas promiscuously to the four westernmost nations, the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, but with increasing contact the name came to be applied only to the latter. The French called them Sonontouans . The Dutch name is also often spelled Sinnikins or Sinnekars , which was later corrupted to Senecas. Seneca oral history states that

3939-424: The Iroquois , whose range extended east and the related tribes of the Erie people and Wenro along the west side of the gorge. By the end of the Beaver Wars and the American Revolution, the lands in all of upstate New York into the Ohio Country were controlled by the Iroquois Confederation, but were also effectively depopulated, the tribes weakened in the Revolution. In 1779, on the orders of George Washington ,

4040-525: The Iroquois and other Native Americans as savages and lesser people. An example of this rhetoric came in the Declaration of Independence: "the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions." As a result of this terrible rhetoric, many Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca prepared to join the British. However, many Oneida and Tuscarora were able to be swayed by an American missionary, Samuel Kirkland . The Iroquois nation began to divide as

4141-455: The Iroquois chose to remain neutral for the time being. They felt it would be best to stand aside while the Colonists and the British battled. They did not wish to get caught up in this supposed "family quarrel between [them] and Old England". Despite this neutrality, the anti-Native American rhetoric of the Americans pushed the Iroquois over to the side of the British. The Americans put forth an extremely racist and divisive message. They viewed

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4242-486: The Iroquois. The Iroquois-Huron war raged until approximately 1650. Led by the Seneca, the Confederacy began a near 35-year period of conquest over surrounding tribes following the defeat of its most powerful enemy, the Huron (Wyandot). The Confederacy conducted Mourning Wars to take captives to replace people lost in a severe smallpox epidemic in 1635. Through raids, they stabilized their population after adopting young women and children as captives and incorporating them into

4343-401: The Mid-Hudson valley. By 1712, the Esopus Indians were reported to have reached the east Pepacton branch of the Delaware River , on the western slopes of the Catskill Mountains . From 1720 to the 1750s, the Seneca resettled and assimilated the Munsee into their people and the Confederacy. Historical accounts had noted the difficulties encountered by the Seneca during this period and noted

4444-425: The Munsee and Minnisink to conclude a peace with the colonists and "take the hatchet out of your heads, and bury it under ground, where it shall always rest and never be taken up again". A large delegation of Iroquois attended this meeting to demonstrate that the Munsee were under their protection. In 1759, as colonial records indicate, negotiators had to go through the Seneca in order to have diplomatic success with

4545-427: The Munsee. Despite the French military campaigns, Seneca power remained far-reaching at the beginning of the 18th century. Gradually, the Seneca began to ally with their trading partners, the Dutch and British , against France 's ambitions in the New World. By 1760 during the Seven Years' War , they helped the British capture Fort Niagara from the French . The Seneca had relative peace from 1760 to 1775. In 1763

4646-425: The Revolution continued and, as a result, they extinguished the council fire that united the six Iroquois nations, therefore ending the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois ended their political unity during the most turbulent time in their history. Two powers in the midst of battle pulled them apart to gain their skill as warriors. This divided the Iroquois and the tribes chose sides based on preference. In addition to

4747-464: The Seneca Nation's economy was based on hunting and gathering activities, fishing, and the cultivation of varieties of corn , beans , and squash . These vegetables were the staple of the Haudenosaunee diet and were called "the three sisters " (työhe'hköh). Seneca women generally grew and harvested varieties of the three sisters, as well as gathering and processing medicinal plants, roots, berries, nuts, and fruit. Seneca women held sole ownership of all

4848-426: The Seneca homelands. In 1650, the Seneca attacked and defeated the Neutrals to their west. In 1653, the Seneca attacked and defeated the Erie to their southwest. Survivors of both the Huron and Erie were subjugated to the Seneca and relocated to the Seneca homeland. The Seneca took over the vanquished tribe's traditional territories in western New York. In 1675, the Seneca defeated the Andaste (Susquehannock) to

4949-503: The Seneca warriors and Continental Army soldiers by noting that Blacksnake "was not unlike" known Revolutionary veterans " Joseph Plumb Martin and James Collins and other white American [veterans] who could never finally resolve whether killing was right or wrong". As the war went on, many more brutal attacks and atrocities would be committed by both sides, notably the Sullivan Expedition , which devastated Iroquois and Seneca lands. The Iroquois were involved in numerous other battles during

5050-442: The Seneca, allegedly under duress; the modern Seneca Nation of Indians does not recognize the 1826 sale as valid and moved to reclaim Canawaugus in December 2022. On Friday, November 13, 1829 (Friday the 13th), the daredevil Sam Patch jumped to his death before 8,000 spectators at the Upper Falls in Rochester . If "not for hydropower, the flour mills, clothing mills, and tool fabricators would not have located in Rochester", and

5151-507: The Shawnee villages west of the Alleghenies, hoping to put an end to their raiding activities. Meanwhile, other British and colonial forces drove the French from Fort Duquesne . They built Fort Pitt at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers that form the Ohio River. After being defeated by Britain, France ceded their claims to the entire Ohio Country in the 1763 Treaty of Paris . They had done so, however, without consulting their Native American allies who—in many cases—continued

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5252-472: The Susquehanna River and were assimilated into the Seneca and Cayuga people . In 1694, Captain Arent Schuyler , in an official report, described the Minnisink chiefs as being fearful of being attacked by the Seneca because of not paying wampum tribute to these Iroquois. Around 1700, the upper Delaware watershed of New York and Pennsylvania became home of the Minnisink Indians moving north and northwest from New Jersey, and of Esopus Indians moving west from

5353-429: The United States, which has three federally recognized Seneca tribes. Two of them are centered in New York: the Seneca Nation of Indians , with five territories in western New York near Buffalo ; and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation . The Seneca-Cayuga Nation is in Oklahoma , where their ancestors were relocated from Ohio during the Indian Removal . Approximately 1,000 Seneca live in Canada, near Brantford, Ontario , at

5454-409: The Virginia legislature organized a nominal civil government over the area. They called this first official territory Illinois County, Virginia . It encompassed all of the lands lying west and north of the Ohio River to which Virginia had previously laid claim. The high water mark of the Native American struggle to retain control of the region was in 1782, when the Ohio Valley Indian Nations met with

5555-400: The area by sheer number of settlers on the ground. In 1749, The Crown through the government of the Colony of Virginia granted the Ohio Company a beneficial deal on this territory on the condition that it be settled by colonists from the Thirteen Colonies . With the arrival of Europeans to America, both Great Britain and France had claimed the territory and sent fur traders into

5656-416: The area known as The Grand Canyon of the East , where it falls (three times) through over 600 feet (180 m). As it passes through the gorges in New York's Letchworth State Park , the river also often exposes older rocks such as shales (some rich in hydrocarbons), siltstones and some limestones of the Devonian period at Letchworth and, at other canyons with three more waterfalls at Rochester cuts through

5757-426: The area to do business with the Ohio Country Indians. The Iroquois League also claimed the region by right of conquest. The rivalry among the two European nations, the Iroquois nations, and the Ohio valley Indian tribes for control of the region played an important part in the French and Indian War that lasted from 1754 through 1760. Having initially remained neutral, eventually the Ohio Country Indians largely sided with

5858-402: The attack, the Seneca moved further west, east and south down the Susquehanna River. Although great damage was done to the Seneca homeland, the Seneca's military might was not appreciably weakened. The Confederacy and the Seneca moved into an alliance with the British in the east. In and around 1600, the area currently comprising Sullivan , Ulster and Orange counties of New York was home to

5959-403: The battle from the viewpoint of the victorious Indians: "as we approach to a firghting we had preparate to make one fire and Run amongst them we So, while we Doing it, feels no more to Kill the Beast, and killed most all, the americans army, only a few white man Escape from us ... there I have Seen the most Dead Bodies all it over that I neve Did see." Author Ray Raphael made a connection between

6060-469: The brutality of the war. He noted particularly on his behavior at Oriskany, and how he felt "it was great sinfull by the sight of God". Warriors like Blacksnake were feeling the mental toll of killing so many people during the American Revolution. As Raphael noted in his book, "warfare had been much more personal" for the Iroquois before the American Revolution. During the revolution, these once proud Iroquois were now reduced to conducting brutal acts such as

6161-595: The central aisle, and two families shared a hearth. Over time they began to build cabins, similar to those of their American neighbors. The main form of social organization is the clan , or ka'sä:te' , nominally each descended from one woman. The Seneca have eight clans: Bear ( nygawai' ), Wolf ( aga̓ta:yö:nih ), Turtle ( ha'no:wa:h ), Beaver( nöganya'göh ), Deer ( neogë ), Hawk ( gaji'da:s ), Snipe ( nödzahgwë' ), and Heron ( jo̙äshä' ). The clans are divided into two sides ( moieties ) – the Bear, Wolf, Turtle , and Beaver are

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6262-453: The colonists as competitors to their resources and a threat to their way of life. Because of this, the Shawnee and other Indian tribes of the Ohio Country, chose to side with the British against the American colonists during the American Revolutionary War. They hoped to expel the colonists permanently from their lands. In 1778, after several Patriot military victories in the region by an expeditionary force led by General George Rogers Clark ,

6363-408: The east. Other eastern bands of the scattered Shawnee tribe began to return to the Ohio Country in the decades that followed. A number of Seneca and other Iroquois peoples also migrated to the Ohio Country, moving away from the Anglo-French rivalries and warfare south of Lake Ontario . The Seneca were the westernmost of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois centered in western New York. In 1722,

6464-413: The end on opposite sides. The Seneca chose to side with the British in the American Revolution. One of the earliest battles the Iroquois were involved in occurred on August 6, 1777, in Oriskany During the Battle of Oriskany , Native Americans led a brutal attack against the rebel Americans where they "killed, wounded, or captured the majority of patriot soldiers". The Seneca Governor Blacksnake described

6565-411: The federal government by 1787, and it became part of the larger, organized Territory Northwest of the River Ohio . Most of the former areas north-west of the Ohio River were eventually organized as the state of Ohio , admitted to the Union in 1803. In the 17th century, the area north of the Ohio River was occupied by the Algonquian -speaking Shawnee and some Siouan language -speaking tribes, such as

6666-429: The fight against the colonial frontiersmen. Colonies such as Pennsylvania , Virginia , New York , and Connecticut claimed some of the westward lands as had been granted by their original charters. The area, however, was officially closed to European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , an attempt to preserve the western lands as territory exclusively set aside for use by Native American peoples. By enacting

6767-420: The following year, in 1775. Despite the Crown's actions limiting westward expansion, frontiersmen from the Virginia and Pennsylvania colonies had migrated across the Allegheny Mountains for over a decade since the Proclamation. This eventually led them into conflict with the Shawnee tribes that claimed the area as their hunting grounds. The Shawnee, who referred to the settlers as the ' long knives ', viewed

6868-403: The formation geology and geography of the area. The most recent glacier that left evidence here was about 10,000 years ago and it caused compression of the earth by as much as 2,500 feet (760 m). About 12,000 years ago, the area underwent massive changes, which included the rerouting of the Genesee and other water bodies. The pre- ice age eastern branch of the Genesee runs south of Mount Morris and

6969-431: The future Lackawanna and into the land of the Minnisink on the New York /New Jersey border. The Seneca tried to curtail the encroachment of white settlers. This increased tensions and conflict with the French to the north and west, and the English and Dutch to the south and east. As buffers, the Confederacy resettled conquered tribes between them and the European settlers, with the greatest concentration of resettlements on

7070-495: The intersection of the Chemung , Susquehanna , Tioga and Delaware rivers, which converged in Tioga. The rivers provided passage deep into all parts of eastern and western Pennsylvania, as well as east and northeast into the Delaware Water Gap and the western Catskills. The men of both branches of the Seneca wore the same headgear. Like the other Haudenosaunee, they wore hats with dried cornhusks on top. The Seneca wore theirs with one feather sticking up straight. Traditionally,

7171-399: The killing of women and children at the Cherry Valley massacre and the clubbing of surviving American soldiers at Oriskany. Although Seneca like Governor Blacksnake felt sorrow for their brutal actions, the Americans responded in a colder and more brutal fashion. This retaliation came in the Sullivan Expedition . Ohio Country The Ohio Country ( Ohio Territory , Ohio Valley )

7272-596: The land and the homes. The women also tended to any domesticated animals such as dogs and turkeys. Seneca men were generally in charge of locating and developing the town sites, including clearing the forest for the production of fields. Seneca men also spent a great deal of time hunting and fishing. This activity took them away from the towns or villages to well-known and productive hunting and fishing grounds for extended amounts of time. These hunting and fishing locations were altered and well maintained to encourage game; they were not simply "wild" lands. Seneca men maintained

7373-560: The lower Susquehanna. In 1685, King Louis XIV of France sent Marquis de Denonville to govern New France in Quebec. Denonville set out to destroy the Seneca Nation and in 1687 landed a French armada with "the largest army North America had ever seen" at Irondequoit Bay . Denonville struck straight into the seat of Seneca power and destroyed many of its villages, including the Seneca's eastern capital of Ganondagan . Fleeing before

7474-465: The lower river was also affected. Since the earth rebounded from the melting glaciers more rapidly in Canada than in New York, water from Lake Ontario was spilled over New York due to its lower elevation. During this time, the original outlet of the Genesee River, Irondequoit Bay , was flooded out, creating the current bay. As these waters later retreated, glacial debris caused the river to be rerouted to

7575-613: The most desirable locations for Trans-Appalachian settlements, in particular among veterans of the Revolutionary War, who were often granted land in lieu of pay for their military service during the war. In the treaties of Fort Stanwix (late 1784) and Fort McIntosh (early 1785), the United States fixed boundaries between territory open to settlement and the native tribal lands. The Shawnee and other tribes , however, continued to resist American encroachment into their historic hunting grounds. This resistance eventually led to

7676-438: The nineteenth century, many Seneca adopted customs of their immediate American neighbors by building log cabins , practicing Christianity, and participating in the local agricultural economy. The Seneca traditionally lived in longhouses , which are large buildings that were up to 100 feet long and approximately 20 feet wide. The longhouses were shared among related families and could hold up to 60 people. Hearths were located in

7777-661: The old Native American portage route, which necessitated many locks. These old locks can still be seen near Nunda. The project was abandoned, and the right of way was sold in 1880. The property became the roadbed for the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad , which eventually merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad . Much of the canal and railroad right-of-way is open to the public today as the Genesee Valley Greenway , which

7878-551: The only instance where the river's flow exceeded the storage capacity of the reservoir of the Mount Morris Dam , the largest flood control dam east of the Mississippi , and water had to be released from the dam to prevent overtopping of the spillway. The Genesee has been the subject of books and poetry: Seneca people The Seneca ( / ˈ s ɛ n ɪ k ə / SEN -ik-ə ; Seneca : O-non-dowa-gah/Onöndowa'ga:' , lit.   'Great Hill People') are

7979-441: The push of American bigoted rhetoric, the British also continued to attempt to sway the Iroquois towards their side. One British attempt to sway the Iroquois was described by two Seneca tribesmen, Mary Jemison and Governor Blacksnake . They both described the grandeur of the lavish gifts that the British bestowed upon the Iroquois. Governor Blacksnake's account held many details about the luxurious treatment that they received from

8080-535: The river, leading to him being nicknamed "The Genesee River Killer". A March 1865 thaw was the worst Genesee flood in Rochester history, and a similar 1913 flood motivated the excavation of the Genesee's rock bed in Downtown Rochester. The 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood broke all county historical records, with the most concentrated damage in the Wellsville area. The water from Hurricane Agnes caused

8181-448: The seventeenth century. Seneca villages were located as far east as current-day Schuyler County (e.g. Catherine's Town and Kanadaseaga ), south into current Tioga and Chemung counties, north and east into Tompkins and Cayuga counties, and west into the Genesee River valley. The villages were the homes and headquarters of the Seneca. While the Seneca maintained substantial permanent settlements and raised agricultural crops in

8282-606: The south and southeast. The Confederacy's hegemony extended along the frontier from Canada to Ohio, deep into Pennsylvania, along the Mohawk Valley and into the lower Hudson in the east. They sought peace with the Algonquian-speaking Mohegan (Mahican), who lived along the Hudson River. Within the Confederacy, Seneca power and presence extended from Canada to what would become Pittsburgh, east to

8383-435: The territory. In 1783, the Ohio Country became unorganized U.S. territory under the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the American Revolutionary War and became one of the first American frontier regions of the United States. Several of the original U.S. states had overlapping claims to portions of it , based on historical royal and colonial charters . The states' claims were largely extinguished after negotiations with

8484-491: The traditional title of war sachems within the Haudenosaunee. A Seneca war sachem was in charge of gathering the warriors and leading them into battle. Seneca people lived in villages and towns. Archaeological excavations indicate that some of these villages were surrounded by palisades because of warfare. These towns were relocated every ten to twenty years as soil, game and other resources were depleted. During

8585-770: The treaty, the British Crown no longer recognized prior claims that the colonies made on this territory. On June 22, 1774, Parliament in England passed the Quebec Act , which annexed the region to the Province of Quebec . Colonists in the Thirteen Colonies considered this one of the Intolerable Acts that contributed to the call for American Revolution the following year, which began in earnest

8686-506: The tribe originated in a village called Nundawao, near the south end of Canandaigua Lake , at South Hill. Close to South Hill stands the 865-foot-high (264 m) Bare Hill, known to the Seneca as Genundowa . Bare Hill is part of the Bare Hill Unique Area, which began to be acquired by the state in 1989. Bare Hill had been the site of a Seneca (or Seneca-ancestral people) fort. The first written reference to this fort

8787-400: The tribes, but the Mohawk, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras had the most representatives. The Iroquois agreed with the Americans and decided at their Albany Council that they should remain as spectators to the conflict. A Mohawk Chief named Little Abraham declared that "the determination of the Six Nations not to take any part; but as it is a family affair, to sit still and see you fight it out". Thus,

8888-415: The tribes. By the winter of 1648, the Confederacy, led by the Seneca, fought deep into Canada and surrounded the capital of Huronia . Weakened by population losses due to their own smallpox epidemics as well as warfare, the Huron (Wyandot) unconditionally surrendered. They pledged allegiance to the Seneca as their protector. The Seneca subjugated the Huron (Wyandot) survivors and sent them to assimilate in

8989-453: The vicinity of their villages, they also hunted widely through extensive areas. They also executed far-reaching military campaigns. The villages, where hunting and military campaigns were planned and executed, indicate the Seneca had hegemony in these areas. Major Seneca villages were protected with wooden palisades . Ganondagan , with 150 longhouses , was the largest Seneca village of the 17th century, while Chenussio , with 130 longhouses,

9090-545: The west along its current path. The Seneca nation traditionally lived between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake . The region was surveyed by Thomas Davies in 1766. The High Falls was then also known as the Great Seneca Falls, and the Genesee River was also spelled Zinochsaa by early writers. Historically, the river's gorge formed a clearly demarcated border between the lands of the Five Nations of

9191-711: The west of the Delaware nation were the Iroquoian -speaking Andaste/ Susquehannock . To the east of the Delaware Nation lay the encroaching peoples of Dutch New Netherland . From Manhattan, up through the Hudson, the settlers were interested in trading furs with the Susquehannock occupying territory in and around current Lancaster, Pennsylvania . As early as 1626, the Susquehannock were struggling to get past

9292-738: The western Catskill area. The west and north were under constant attack from their powerful Iroquoian brethren, the Huron (Wyandot) To the South, the Iroquoian -speaking tribes of the Susquehannock (Conestoga) also threatened constant warfare. The Algonquian tribes of the Mohican blocked access to the Hudson River in the east and northeast. In the southeast, the Algonkian tribes of

9393-513: The year for the Seneca joining the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee). Some recent archaeological evidence indicates their territory eventually extended to the Allegheny River in present-day northwestern Pennsylvania, particularly after the Iroquois destroyed both the Wenrohronon and Erie nations in the 17th century, who were native to the area. The Seneca were by far the most populous of the Haudenosaunee nations, numbering about four thousand by

9494-668: Was a major village of the 18th century. The Seneca nation has two branches: the western and the eastern. Each branch was individually incorporated and recognized by the Iroquois Confederacy Council. The western Seneca lived predominantly in and around the Genesee River , gradually moving west and southwest along Lake Erie and the Niagara River , then south along the Allegheny River into Pennsylvania. The eastern Seneca lived predominantly south of Seneca Lake . They moved south and east into Pennsylvania and

9595-491: Was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie . Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed in the 17th century by the Iroquois, Huron, Algonquin, other Native American tribes, and France . New France claimed this area as part of the administrative district of La Louisiane . France and Britain fought

9696-576: Was completely diverted by extensive terminal moraines in Livingston County with a key blocking dam just south of Dansville , so most of the upper section of the ancient river was diverted instead to fall the off Appalachian Plateau toward the Susquehanna River system (to an eventual destination well to the southeast). Only a small creek ( Irondequoit Creek ) flows in what is left of this large paleogeologic valley. The area of

9797-556: Was going on between the Dutch and Esopus at current-day Kingston. The Seneca chief urged Stuyvesant to end the bloodshed and "return the captured Esopus savages". In 1675, after a decade of warfare between the Iroquois (mainly the Mohawk and Oneida ) and the Andaste/Susquehannock, the Seneca finally succeeded in vanquishing their last remaining great enemy.(Parker at pp 49) Survivors were colonized in settlements along

9898-518: Was made in 1825 by the Tuscarora historian David Cusick in his history of the Seneca Indians. The traces of an ancient fort, covering about an acre, and surrounded by a ditch, and formerly by a formidable wall, are still to be seen on top of Bare Hill. They indicate defenses raised by Indian hands, or more probably belong to the labors of a race that preceded the Indian occupation. The wall

9999-460: Was started in 1991. In 1852 a wooden railroad bridge was built over the Upper Falls at Portageville . It was the largest of all wooden bridges built at the time. The wood from 300 acres (1.2 km²) of trees was required for its timber. In the "summer of 1943", Arch Merrill walked the length of the Genesee River. Serial killer Arthur Shawcross dumped most of his victims in or near

10100-439: Was the loyalty of the Iroquois to the British. The Iroquois debated whether to side with the British or not. An argument to remain neutral until further development came from Governor Blacksnake's uncle Cornplanter , but Joseph Brant twisted his recommendation to wait as a sign of cowardice. The British noticed that the Indian warriors were divided on the issue, so the British presented them with rum, bells, ostrich feathers, and

10201-430: Was used, although three radial feathers were also used. The Smithsonian Institution has an example of a Seneca bow, which was donated 1908. It is made of unbacked hickory , and is 56.25 inches (142.9 cm) tip to tip. Although the string is missing for the specimen, when strung it would make a good "D" shape with slightly recurved tips, and was obviously made for bigger game. The tips are irregular in shape, which

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