Society and culture
Like the other Iroquois tribes, the Oneida obtained most of their food by farming. The women of the tribe planted and tended large fields of corn (maize), beans, and squash. In late summer, when the corn crop ripened, the Oneida gave thanks for the harvest during the Green Corn Ceremony. Men hunted deer and other wild game.
The Oneida lived in villages of 10 to 30 longhouses. These large dwellings were made of a wooden frame covered with bark. A longhouse might house as many as 30 people.
Each village was governed by a chief guided by a village council. The Oneida also sent nine representatives to the council that ruled the Iroquois as a whole. Three representatives were chosen from each of the three Oneida clans—the Turtle clan, the Bear clan, and the Wolf clan. An Oneida always belonged to the clan of his or her mother.
Besides the Oneida, the original tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy were the Cayuga, the Mohawk, the Onondaga, and the Seneca. The Oneida and the Cayuga were called the league's “younger brothers.”
History
The Oneida probably first encountered non-Indians in the early 1600s, when French explorers and traders came to their lands. Europeans introduced new diseases such as smallpox into the Oneida population. By the end of the 17th century the Oneida numbered only about 1,000.
In 1711 the Tuscarora, a tribe related to the Iroquois that lived what is now North Carolina, went to war with white settlers in their lands. The Tuscarora were defeated and fled to the north. The Oneida took in the Tuscarora, who became the sixth member of the Iroquois Confederacy in 1722.
In the French and Indian War (1754–63) the Oneida, like most other Iroquois Indians, sided with the British against the French. In the American Revolution (1775–83), however, they joined forces with the Americans against their former British allies. The Tuscarora also fought with the Americans. The other Iroquois tribes remained loyal to the British.
During the war Oneida men served as guides and scouts for the American forces. They also provided corn to troops under Gen. George Washington who were suffering from the harsh winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Because of the Oneida support of the Americans, British-allied warriors serving under the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant attacked Oneida settlements.
After the American victory the Oneida signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which guaranteed their right to their homeland in New York. Other treaties, however, undercut tribal rights. Left with little land, a large group of Oneida resettled in the Green Bay region of present-day Wisconsin in the 1820s. Others moved north to Ontario to join the Iroquois living on the Six Nations Reserve. The rest remained in New York. Some moved to the Onondaga Reservation, while others settled near the city of Oneida.
At the end of the 20th century about 11,500 Oneida lived in the United States. The majority lived in Wisconsin, with most of the rest residing in New York. Another 5,000 Oneida lived in Canada.