Seneca

For other uses of this term, see Seneca (disambiguation). Seneca boss Cornplanter. Poster in Seneca in the Cattaraugus Reserve.

The Seneca (Dutch Dutch Sinnekens, the Mahikan term referring to the Oneida) are self-defined as a nation of the Iroquois Confederation. They called themselves tshoti-nondawaga or oneniuteronron, mountain people. They lived on the banks of Lake Seneca and the Genesee River (New York), and had council fire in Nundawao (today Naples, in the state of New York). During the seventeenth century they came to occupy from the Niagara River to the Allegheny River (Pennsylvania). Today they occupy the reserves of Towananda, Catarauga, Alleghany and Oil Springs (New York), and a handful of them live with the cayuga in Oklahoma and others in Grand River (Ontario). There could have been about 5,000 in 1660 in 30 homes, down to 3,250 in 1778 and 3,255 in 1900. In 1960 there were 3,507 in New York, 877 in Oklahoma and 300 in Ontario. According to Asher there were about 8,000, of whom 600 spoke the indigenous language. According to data from the BIA in 1995, there were 6,679 and 2,961 with the Cayuga. According to the 2000 census, there were 13,676 registered seneca, not counting those with the cayuga. Famous People of the Seneca Nation

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