Cayuga
The Cayugas are one of the original five tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, historically occupying a region in what is now west-central New York State, nestled between the Seneca and Onondaga tribes. Their name is believed to mean "where the boats were taken out" or "mucky land," reflecting their deep connection to their homeland. The Cayuga language, closely related to other Iroquoian languages, is still spoken among the community today. Traditionally, Cayuga society was matrilineal and matrilocal, with women serving as primary breadwinners, cultivating essential crops like corn, beans, and squash, while men engaged in hunting and warfare.
Cayuga villages typically consisted of longhouses, housing large extended families, and their population faced significant decline due to disease and warfare throughout the 18th century. During the American Revolutionary War, the Cayugas sided with the British, resulting in the loss of much of their land. Many Cayugas relocated to Ontario, Canada, where they still reside today, while others moved to various states in the U.S. Despite historical challenges, the Cayugas maintain elements of their traditional culture, including language and ceremonies like the Green Corn Ceremony, while also navigating interactions with other Iroquois tribes and external influences from missionaries throughout history.
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Cayuga
- CATEGORY: Tribe
- CULTURE AREA: Northeast
- LANGUAGE GROUP: Iroquoian
- PRIMARY LOCATION: New York State, Ontario
- POPULATION SIZE: Between 4,000 and 5,000 in the United States; 4,045 Upper Cayuga First Nation, 3,920 Lower Cayuga First Nation (2024; The Canadian Encyclopedia)
One of the original five tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, also referred to as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy or the League of Five Nations (later Six Nations), the Cayuga occupied a homeland between the Seneca to their west and the Onondaga to their east in what is now west-central New York State. The Cayuga language is very closely related to those of the other Iroquois groups and to other Iroquoian languages. The name Cayuga is thought to mean “where the boats were taken out,” “where the locusts were taken out,” or “mucky land.” The Iroquois Confederacy Council name for the Cayuga refers to them as “those of the great pipe.” Like their fellow Iroquois, the Cayuga were divided into matrilineal clans, with a spokesperson for each clan in the political system appointed by the matron of each clan. The Cayuga were matrilocal—a married couple would live with the wife’s family. Consequently, married men were guests in their wives’ extended family households.
Men in Cayuga society traditionally spent much of their time away from the village hunting, fishing, trading, and engaging in warfare. Women were the primary breadwinners, raising the staple crops of corn, beans, and squash, as well as tobacco and other agricultural products. Cayuga villages were composed of twenty to fifty longhouses, extended-family dwellings made of poles and bark coverings. Each longhouse housed between fifteen and thirty people. The Cayuga population was estimated at 1,500 in 1660 after the first epidemics of European diseases had taken their toll. For most of the eighteenth century, the Cayuga occupied only one village, and their population fell partly because of disease but also from extensive warfare. The Iroquois Confederacy was engaged in a series of wars with both other Indigenous American groups and European powers, most notably the French. They initiated the “Beaver Wars” of the mid-1600s and were periodically involved in military expeditions until the American Revolution. In the war of American independence, the Cayuga and most other Iroquois sided with the British, and they lost most of their homelands in what is now New York State. Most Cayuga members moved to the Grand River in what is now Ontario, Canada, and settled on a large reserve set aside for the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Many still reside there. A few remained in New York, and some moved to Sandusky, Ohio, in the early nineteenth century, with some Seneca members, eventually moving to Oklahoma. A few remain in Oklahoma. Some traveled with a group of New York Oneidas to Wisconsin in the 1830s, their descendants remaining there. The Cayuga still living in New York and Ontario retain much of their traditional culture: Their language is still spoken, and traditional ceremonies such as the Green Corn Ceremony and the Midwinter Festival are still held. Cayuga all live with other Iroquois people and must strive to maintain their distinctiveness in the face of larger numbers of the Onondaga and Seneca.
Cayuga contact with the French, Dutch, and English in the colonial era was not as great as it was for the Onondaga and Mohawk. The Cayuga were often overshadowed by the larger groups of Onondaga and Seneca Indigenous Americans. Nevertheless, the Cayuga did deal with the French and succeeding English and American missionaries, who, at times, attempted to change their culture as well as their religious beliefs. Handsome Lake, a Seneca prophet who revitalized traditional Iroquois spiritual beliefs and blended them with Quaker Christian ideas in the early nineteenth century, had an impact on many Cayuga people; some continue to adhere to this Longhouse religion. Others are nominally Christian, a legacy of the various missionary attempts to proselytize the Iroquois.
Bibliography
Abler, Thomas S. "Cayuga." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 23 Jan. 2024, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cayuga. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
Beauchamp, William Martin. Iroquois Folk Lore, Gathered from the Six Nations of New York. Forgotten, 2019.
“Culture.” Cayuga Nation, cayuganation-nsn.gov/our-culture.html. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
"Tribal History." Cayuga Nation, cayuganation-nsn.gov/tribal-history.html. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
"Who We Are." Haudenosaunee Confederacy, www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/who-we-are/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.