A Sketch of the History of Oneonta | Page 3

have given the Susquehanne River which we wonn with the sword to this Government and desire that it may be a branch of that great tree, Whose topp reaches to the Sunn, under whose branches we shall shelter our selves from the French, or any other people, and our fire burn in your houses and your fire burns with us, and we desire that it always may be so, and will not that any of your Penn's people shall settle upon the Susquehanna River; for all our folks or soldiers are like Wolfs in the Woods, as you Sachim of Virginia know, we having no other land to leave to our wives and Children."
In 1691, the governor and council of the province of New York sent an address to the king of England, from which the following extract is made:
"Albany lies upon the same river, etc. Its commerce extends itself as far as the lakes of Canada and the Sinnekes Country in which is the Susquehannah River."
It appears that the ownership of the Susquehanna was the subject of no little dispute among the tribes composing the Six Nations.[A] The Onondagas claimed the country.
[Footnote A: From a record of a meeting of the mayor and aldermen of Albany in 1689 the Onondagas are called Ti-onon-dages.
In an old map found among the papers of Sir Guy Johnson the Schenevus creek or valley is called Ti-ononda-don. The prefix Ti appears to have been quite common among Indian names, sometimes used and sometimes omitted. Doubtless Ononda is the root of the word _Ti-ononda-don_. As the Onondagas had claimed the Susquehanna country, the Indian etymologist might naturally inquire whether there was any kinship between Tionondaga, Tionondadon, Onondaga and the word Oneonta. His belief in a common etymon might be somewhat strengthened by a quotation from a "Journal of What Occurred between the French and Savages," kept during the years 1657-58. (See Doc. Hist., Vol. I, p. 44*: [*Transcriber's Note: last digit illegible in original.]
"The word Onnota, which signifies in the Iroquois tongue a mountain, has given the name to the village called Onnontae, or as others call it Onnontague, because it is on a mountain.")
Perhaps the word Oneonta may have the same derivation or a like derivation as Onondaga--perhaps not. The reader is left to follow up the query. Among the Hurons who had been conquered by the Iroquois, a tribe is mentioned under the name of Ti-onnonta-tes. The name may have no relation to nor any bearing upon the derivation of the word Oneonta, but that there was such a tribe, the fact is given for what it may be worth.]
"At fifty miles from Albany the Land Carriage from the Mohawk's river to a lake from whence the Northern Branch of Susquehanna takes its rise, does not exceed fourteen miles. Goods may be carried from this lake in Battoes or flatt bottomed Vessels through Pennsylvania to Maryland and Virginia, the current of the river running everywhere easy without any cataract in all that large space."
The last quotation is from the report of the Surveyor General to the Lieutenant Governor in 1637.
The foregoing extracts appear to contain about all the information which the authorities at the provincial capital could glean of the Indians concerning the Susquehanna country, as it was called.
The few scattered natives who remained here after the establishment of peace, were, in 1795, removed to the reservation at Oneida, and became a part of the Indian tribes already settled there.
In volume III of the Documentary History of New York, a quaintly interesting letter of the Rev. Gideon Hawley may be found. The letter is interesting, because it may be safely regarded as the earliest authentic writing respecting this portion of the valley. Mr. Hawley was sent out as a missionary teacher to the Indians.
About this time a good deal of interest was being taken in the education of Indian youth. For the furtherance of this design, the Rev. Eleazur Wheelock established a school at New Lebanon, Conn., for the education of young whites and young Indians. This school afterwards ripened into Dartmouth college, and was removed to Hanover, New Hampshire. From this new-fledged seminary, the Rev. Mr. Kirkland was sent among the Oneidas, and his labors in that quarter eventually resulted in the founding of Hamilton college, at Clinton. From a similar school established at Stockbridge, Mass., and which appears to have been favored by the influence and good will of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, Mr. Hawley was sent to Oquaga on the Susquehanna.
Oquaga was the Indian settlement near the site of the present village of Windsor in Broome county. Mr. Hawley's journey was from Albany up the Mohawk, across the mountains to Schoharie, thence along the valley to Schenevus creek and westward. As his letter, in the form of a journal, contains