Tribal Histories

Oneida History

[singing in Oneida]

[speaking in Oneida]

– My name is Tehahuko’tha in the Oneida language. That means that there’s two paths that I’m going through simultaneously. To me, it’s like being in our world, the traditional world, and then also understanding this world that we live in today. I walk both those paths. I’m from the Bear Clan, the Wakeskle’wa’ke, and Onnyote’a’ka’, that’s the People of the Standing Stone. Today we are called the Oneida Nation.

[singing in Oneida]

– Oneida History was funded in part by Irene Daniell Kress, the Evjue Foundation, a charitable arm of the Capital Times, Ron and Patty Anderson, the Wisconsin History Fund with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

[trickling water]

– When you talk about who we are as people, I could talk for days. But I’m trying to wrap it up in a little, bitty nutshell to kind of give you some insight I guess, or just an understanding as to who the Oneida people are. I would begin with our creation story and our purpose for being here. Primarily, it’s just as the caretakers of the land, respecting it. I think the key is that everything, every plant, every tree, every animal, every bug, everything that’s on the Mother Earth, what we call our mother, the Earth, the animals. Each and every one was created for a purpose, and was given a responsibility for being here by what we call Shukwaya’tisu in our language, the One Who Created Us. Our understanding is that the human being, they were the very last things created, different colors, different sizes, different languages and different customs. Just like everything in creation. They talk about that web of life. Everything’s connected. So, our creation story teaches about respecting everything. It teaches about responsibility that we have as the human beings, as protectors and caretakers of this natural world. It teaches us about reciprocating, of giving back, through ceremonies, thanksgiving and acknowledgements. The key, I think, the most important part of it is the relationship, that the creator had intended for us to have this relationship, intimate relationship with all of creation, and all of the human families.

Over time, different teachings have come to our people. The Lotinuhsyuniha’ka’, what we say in our language, the People of the Long House, what contemporary people call the Iroquois. But there’s a number of Iroquois nations, and each one has retained some information, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and later on, the Tuscaroras. What I’ve been doing for the last 25 years is trying to learn all of them and combining them so it gives a clearer picture of who we are. I made reference to the Earth as our mother, because our understanding was that that’s where everything is molded and shaped by this being. We look to her as our mother. We look to the different…

[laughs]

We look to the different greater forces around us, and there’s relationship there. The thunder is our grandfathers, and there’s a story behind that.

The stars are our relatives. There’s a story behind that. The sun is our elder brother. There’s a story behind that. The moon is our grandmother. There’s a story behind that. There’s a story connected with everything. It’s all rolled up into that creation story. As time progressed and people began to multiply, different people went off into different directions. In our oral tradition it tells us that we originally came from the southwest area.

It talks about this great river that we crossed that ran north and south, and went off into the northeast, it tells us, and that different nations arose from that. When the nations began to identify themselves as geographically from where they lived, in our homelands in New York, we became known as Onayote’a’ka’, the People of the Standing Stone, or Granite. Our relatives to the east became the Kanya’keha’ka’, called the People of the Flint, the Mohawks. Our relatives to the west of us are known as Onuta’keha’ka’, the People of the Hills. They went into the foothills of the Appalachians Mountains there. Then next to them was the Khayukha’ka’, the People of the Mucky Lands, the Cayugas. Then the Tsi’twana’a’ka’, the People of the Mountains, the Senecas. So every nation, its name is derived from the territory that they resided on, you know, for centuries, probably thousands of years. Within each, there were a number of clans too, that emerged. There’s a story behind that too, of how the clans came to be.

It tells us that there came a time in our history that there were so many people, and people were dying, that the people, everybody mourned, and that began to affect the ceremonies. It disrupted the whole social society. People were grieving all the time. There was a messenger that came here, that was sent here by the creator, to put things back into order. An idea came from this young man that we ought to pattern ourselves, just as the natural world is. Because we’re matrilineal, it’s our eldest women who are the ones that speak for that family. Different families, these old, old ladies and all of her offspring, her sisters, and her nieces, daughters, and their offspring, and spouses, that’s how they would live in their homes, their longhouses. Matriarchally. The man would go and live with them when they marry in. Those old, old ladies were always in the habit of getting up early in the morning.

What they were instructed to do was to pay special attention of that real quiet time. It was sacred time at daybreak. Over time, each one of those old ladies, there was an animal that came to them. Three from the sky world, three from the four-legged, and three from the water world. So for the Oneidas we have three clans, Bear, Turtle and Wolf. But there’s three different kinds from the canine family. There’s three different kinds, or sizes of bears, from the bear, and there’s three different types of turtles. There’s nine distinct families that eventually became the Oneida Nation. It’s like that with all those other nations, as well. For each one there’s a certain number of clans that it’s composed of.

Over time, there was different messages that we received. The clans came first, then the ceremonies came. The ceremonies was our way of giving back, of showing and honoring things in creation. It’s cyclical. We follow the natural cycle of the universe and the seasons. There’s ceremonies to give thanks for certain times, when we harvest things, when things become ripe in the natural world. With each one there’s a story behind it, as well. The songs, as well, how they came to us. Whether it’s medicinal, ceremonial, or what we call a social dance, when it’s just for fun and entertainment. Even in that creation story too, it talks about, over time as people became sick, different spirits came, different animals volunteered to assist to help the people, because they have the power.

They have the medicine. Today, a lot of these plants and trees and everything we look at, there’s medicinal purposes that they serve. The most important plant that the Creator gave to the people was the Oyu’kwa’u’we’, what we called the native tobacco. Again, in the creation story it tells us that that plant originally came from the sky world. There’s another world out there somewhere. From that world, a woman came and fell from that world who was pregnant. She set into motion what we have today. And that was one of the plants that she brought from that world. Our instruction is that whenever we take anything from the natural world, we can make an offering and talk to that plant, just like I’m talking to you. Because that plant, he understands, or it understands, because it was here when those languages were created so he knows those languages.

Again, to show that respect, we just don’t go out and take. We have a ceremony. That’s what it is. We take that little bit of time to sit and talk to that plant, and share our understanding of why that plant’s here. So we use that tobacco in a very sacred way, a very honorable way. We can just offer it, or we can smoke it. Our people, we’ve had pipes, but nothing like what they have in the plains, those kinds of pipes. They were more functional pipes made from clay. That’s what we did. We could do that too.

We can smoke that pipe and blow that smoke, and talk. Our understanding then is that that message will be carried to whoever it is that you’re talking to. Just like in everyday life when there’s hardships that we encounter, we walk that path that the creator intended for us to walk. There’s times that we need to ask for help or direction, and we can do that, too. We can burn that tobacco, and we can talk to the creator and ask for that help, for that guidance. In some way, if we believe, those answers will come. It can be in a dream, because there’s beings that are around us day and night they say, that are helpers, the creator’s helpers. They bring back those messages from the creator. They can come to us through our mind. They say that they never touch the earth.

The level they come to is where our shoulders are. It’s through our mind that’s how they come and communicate to us. So it can be in that way, or it can be in a thought. They’re providing that. It can be something that we need to see in the natural world. There was a time in my life where I was really struggling with my history, my past, since birth. Because in our community, and the indigenous community is all over Turtle Islands, what we call this continent here. Alcoholism has really devastated our people, you know. That’s the kind of home I grew up in. So I was really struggling with some of those issues of growing up with domestic abuse.

I was walking in the woods and I came around this corner, a bend in the woods on this path, and here there was this grouse, a mama. She stood in the path. She stood her ground and she put her feathers out. She was running at me, and she’s stop, and stop. I just stood there like that and I watched her. I looked around, and here on one side of the path there were her chicks, about a dozen of them, little ones. That’s what she was protecting. That helped me, because that was my mom. That’s what she did. She stood in front of danger, my dad, who was the alcoholic, to protect us.

She did her best. And so, that really helped. That’s what I needed to see, that I needed to move on. I needed to see that to help me to move on, and come to some acceptance of my past. Those things are there, if we would just take that time and stop and look and listen. Or what the creator will do is that he’ll bring people into your life. They’ll have something to say to teach you. Again, an example in my own life, is that I’ve had a number of elders, I call elders, who are raised the old way. They know their language. They practice their ceremonies, their traditional way of life.

Those are elders to me. A number of these elders have come into my life over the last 25 years and have really helped me grow. They’ve taught me about my history, the real history. Whatever clan you belong to, each one of those families, there’s what we call in the language, Yotiyane’shu. In English, we call them Clan Mothers. We’re are matriarchal. They are the ones that appoint our political leaders. They are the political leaders, but they appoint the men, what we call Lotiyane’shu, what we call the chiefs who do all the speaking on behalf of the families. Within each one of those families, there are also two other people, what we call Faithkeepers, Kaye’ Niyoli’wake Lonatlihu’tu’. What that means is that they are the ones that are responsible for ensuring the four sacred ceremonies that came to us as Iroquois people are carried on.

Then each one, the man and the woman, they also have an assistant. Kind of like an apprentice. Because if we, especially like I’m a grandpa now. The third one is going to be born tomorrow. You get a whole different perspective on life when you start having grandchildren. You’re doing more observing than taking care of. Our elder people, you know, they can see that in children. They can see what their gift is. Like I was saying in the creation story, everything here, the creator put here, placed here, planted, has a purpose for being here. The same is true with the human beings.

Each and every one of us too is here for a reason. That’s the old belief. Not everybody is a teacher. Not everybody is a singer. Not everybody, you know, is a leader, have those characteristics or qualities to be that. You’re born with that. And so, what those old people did, those elders, they would watch the children as they’re growing up. They would see which one has that ability, that natural gift, as a peacemaker, or as a singer, or as good with crafts, and things like that. Or who was really good with the memory and can tell those stories from just listening to it maybe one time. The old people, they can see that in the children.

So then, they are kind of groomed then. They’re steered in that direction. Maybe eventually that person is going to be that Clan Mother. She’ll be by her side then, you know. Even in the language. When we talk, like in English, we say a Clan Mother. That doesn’t really give justice to what that really is, that responsibility. But in the language, Yotiyane’shu. You can look at that word and you can take it apart. Inside of there, there’s a part of that word that talks about a way of life, a path that you’re taking, a responsibility.

When you look at that journey that they’re going through life, it goes on infinitely. That journey that you’re talking about is all those responsibilities that’s tied to that as that matriarchal leader for that family. This is where they talk about the seven generations. That’s a part of that, too. That’s how far ahead that your looking on that journey that you’re taking through life. You’re looking ahead that many generations. The decisions that you’re making at that very moment, how is that going to impact those children that have yet to be born? Is that going to benefit them? Or is that going to cause them to suffer? Now if you think about that, when my ancestors moved here, they turned their backs to all of that, anything traditional, ceremonial.

They became Episcopalians, you know, around 1700 there, somewhere in there. That fractionalized our nation. Consequently, when the Revolutionary War broke out, the ones that were predominantly Christian sided with the Colonists. Then there was a group of our people that sided with the British, and then some that tried to remain neutral. What that war did is it really finalized that separation, because you had families fighting against one another. Our people were the scouts for that war. What George Washington did was send in the troops to exterminate the Iroquois people. The Oneidas were the scouts for that. So when they came here, and I think that’s one of the big reasons why they came here, was because of that. We made a land deal with the Menominees and wanted to re-establish themselves as a power, which never materialized.

This community here, the Oneidas of Wisconsin, have been pretty much the leaders in terms of the assimilation process. Consequently, when I was growing up here, I didn’t know nothing about my history. I didn’t know nothing about my culture. I didn’t know my language. English was what was spoken in my home. Alcoholism was prevalent in my home and in this community. I went to the public school. In terms of any kind of ethnicity, you know, other than the skin being a different color, there was nothing evident here.

But in the ’70s, there was a lot of indigenous people that began to kind of look at their past, to re-instill that pride in indigenous people. They said, look, you all have a a story.

You all have a creation story. You all have songs. You all have traditions. Revitalize it, bring it back to life. It’s been gasping for centuries for a lot of nations. That’s when we started going to Canada. There’s another community there, the Oneidas of the Thames. They have a longhouse there, and they have ceremonies there. We still had the language here, but it was just the conversational language, nothing ceremonial in terms of traditional. But there, they still had that.

There’s many communities on the Canadian side that had longhouses, and just a few on the States’ side. We went there and we started attending ceremonies. We started learning. That’s where my pilgrimage began in terms of learning my history. From that, we built the longhouse here. In 1983, we had our very first ceremonies. From that time on, the last 25 years, we were able to do them ourselves now in the language. That’s what we’re doing today. We revitalized it. The elders out East, they look at that as a miracle.

That’s a miracle, that the people from this community here are carrying on our ceremonies by people from this community, which I believe never, ever occurred, you know, up until 1978, I think. It was illegal. It was illegal in this country for Native Americans to practice their traditional beliefs. Illegal.

So that’s, I guess, a little bit of the history.

[laughs]

– To learn more about the sovereign Indian nations in Wisconsin visit wisconsinact31.org. To purchase a DVD of this and other Tribal Histories programs visit wpt.org or call 800-422-9707.

Oneida History was funded in part by Irene Daniell Kress, the Evjue Foundation, a charitable arm of the Capital Times, Ron and Patty Anderson, the Wisconsin History Fund with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.