The Cayuga - The Keepers of the Great Pipe

Tribe: The Cayuga.

Meaning of Name: "Cayuga" is the shortened English version of their name for themselves, the "Gayogoho," which means "People of the Canoe Carry Place," or "People of the Swamp."

Location: Cayuga territory used to be between the Onondaga land in the east and Seneca land in the west, in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.  After their land was taken, many of the Cayuga moved to Canada, Wisconsin, and Ohio, and then to Oklahoma. The Cayuga currently live in Ontario, New York, and as part of the Seneca-Cayuga tribe in Oklahoma. They never got their land back.

Original Language: Cayuga, a branch of the Iroquoian family tree.

Tribal Affiliations: As one of the original members of the Haudenosaunee, aka "the Iroquois Nation" or "Iroquois League," the Cayuga were allies of the Mohawk, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Oneida and later, the Tuscarora. During the Revolutionary War, the Cayuga tried to remain neutral since they really didn't have a horse in the race between Britain and the Colonies, but after George Washington's army destroyed their villages, orchards and fields in what was basically a preemptive strike, the Cayuga decided to side with the British.

Traditional Enemies: The Wabanaki, the Mohican, the Ojibwe, the Algonquin, the Hurons, the Erie, the Neutrals, the Montagnais, the Susquehannock, the French, the American Colonists and the State of New York.

Traditional Style of Housing:  Like the other Iroquois tribes, the Cayuga lived in longhouses with stone hearths.  These longhouses, which were wholly owned by the women, were protected from wild animals and other tribes by thick palisade walls. Each village lasted about ten to thirty years before the Cayuga moved to let Mother Earth heal herself from where they had depleted her natural resources. Like the other Iroquois tribes, the Cayuga probably also had fields for crops, orchards, sweat-lodges, smokehouses, town halls, athletic fields, and menstrual lodges.

Traditional Attire: Cayuga women either went shirtless, especially during the hot sweaty months, or wore shin-length deerskin dresses over longer wraparound deerskin skirts, a pair of deerskin leggings, with deerskin moccasins. They cut their hair short only when they were in mourning, and probably never wore a "Mohawk."  Cayuga men also went shirtless during the sweaty months, or wore deerskin shirts, breechcloths, legging and moccasins. Their "gustoweh" or feather-covered cap, was topped with one droopy, despondent, downward-angled feather.

Traditional Foods: The Cayuga were a settled, agrarian people.  The women owned their own longhouses and worked in the community gardens and fields where they grew corn, beans and squash, which they called the "Three Sisters." (See "Interesting Tidbits.")  They also grew tobacco, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, onions, cabbages, leeks, pumpkin, Jerusalem artichokes, Indian potatoes, and sunflowers. They planted groves and orchards where they gathered walnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts, crabapples, cherries, plums, mulberries and elderberries.  They foraged for fiddleheads, wild herbs, wild rice, mushrooms, ramps, wintergreen, wild greens,  strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, wild grapes, rhubarb, chard and serviceberries, and gathered honey and maple sap for making syrup and candy. The men hunted for or trapped deer, elk, bear, rabbits, muskrat, beaver, grouse, pheasant, wild turkeys and Canadian geese, and fished for salmon, trout, bass, perch, pike, pickerel, muskie, walleye and whitefish, which the women either cooked in soups and stews, or salted, dried and stored for later use. And, like all of the Iroquois people, they took no more than was needed from the Earth and shared with others what they had.  Even today, the Cayuga people of New York continue this tradition of sharing. They have a farm, called "Gakwiyo Garden," in Seneca County, where they grow, dry, and distribute produce to tribal members across the country.

Position of Women: Extremely high, almost matriarchal. Like most of the nations in the Iroquois League, the Cayuga were matrilineal and matrilocal. The Cayuga men moved into the longhouses that belonged to their wives' grandmothers or mothers. Cayuga women could inherit and bequeath property and were the heads of household, and Cayuga husbands could do nothing without consulting their wives first. The ten Clan Mothers of the Cayuga tribe had the final say regarding choice of mates and for the selection of the ten male chiefs whom they felt could be trusted to look after the needs of the entire tribe as the People's Representatives before the Grand Council meetings of the Iroquois League. Cayuga women were also responsible for establishing the social status of their families, the fate of captives taken in war, child-rearing, being the judges in disputes, food production, clothing production, the healing arts, and the usual domestic chores. The men, on the other hand, managed to get out of the house and away from the women by building longhouses, putting up palisades, clearing fields, chopping wood, fishing, hunting, waging war (with the permission of the women), and running foot-races, and playing "Snow Snake" and Lacrosse. (See the entry on Sports and the Native American.)

Cayuga Courtship: If a young Cayuga man wanted to court a young Cayuga woman, he would play sweet flute music outside of her mother's longhouse. If she peeked outside, saw who was playing, and accepted his suit, she would invite him in, at which time, he was probably mercilessly grilled by her mother, her grandmother and her aunts. If they all agreed that it was a good match, preparations would be made for a big fancy wedding complete with a reception in which the couple would be given everything that they would need for their lives together. Their marriage was expected to last forever, so divorce was uncommon. However, if a Cayuga wife felt that her husband were worthless or lacking in some way, all that she would have to do would be to put his blanket and few belongings outside the longhouse, and he had to be gone, so divorces, while rare, were very simple.

Interesting Tidbits:

The "Three Sisters" are corn, beans and squash.  The corn represents the oldest sister, for she provides the stalk upon which the second sister, the bean vine, can grow. At their feet is the little sister, the squash, who provides shelter and nourishment for their roots. 

The Cayuga lost all of their territory, villages and orchards to George Washington and his army in 1779, and did not get them back. Those who survived were taken in by their Iroquois brothers and sisters, most notably, their neighbors, the Seneca and the Onondaga. There are still disputes with the United States government regarding reclaiming their ancestral land....

The Cayuga, along with the rest of the Iroquois League, signed the Treaty of Canandaigua between the United States and the Iroquois Nations.  This treaty recognized the rights of the sovereign nations, particularly with regard to trade and travel.  The United States government still sends muslin fabric to the Six Nations to this day as part of this agreement...

Many of the Cayuga who are in Ontario in Canada live on a "reserve," but the Cayuga Nation of New York does not have their own reservation but live on the reservation of the Seneca.  The Cayuga who live in Oklahoma also live on a reservation with the Seneca....

The Cayuga have five clans: the Wolf Clan, the Bear Clan, the Turtle Clan, the Sandpiper or Snipe Clan and the Heron Clan. Several of these clans have been divided into smaller clans. They are led by the ten Cayuga Clan Mothers, or by a chief, a sub-chief or a Seat-Warmer....

The Cayuga observe the Strawberry Ceremony, the Green Corn Ceremony, the Harvest Ceremony and the Midwinter Ceremony. These are good occasions to wear fancy dress and meet members of the opposite sex in traditional settings....

The Cayuga are the Keepers of the Great Pipe, and have probably been growing tobacco for a thousand years, if not longer. This tobacco, which is smoked using a pipe or "calumet," was used for ceremonial purposes and not for recreational use.  

Traditional Religion:  Longhouse religion, Handsome Lake, and Christianity.

Slavery and the Cayuga: The Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Nation officially abolished slavery between the Mohawk, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Oneida and the Tuscarora.  However, captives taken from other tribes during times of war were often enslaved.  In Canada, some of the Cayuga people were captured and taken to France to work as galley slaves on the French King's ships....

The Iroquois Nation was also part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. There were several "stations" across New York where escaping slaves could stop on their way to Canada (the "Promised Land").  Once they left the Carolinas by boat, these escaped African slaves  traveled up the Delaware River, to New Jersey, then to the Hudson River, and then traveled across Central New York by land, where there were many Underground Railroad stations on Iroquois land. These stations included Albany on Mohawk land, Buffalo and Rochester on Seneca land, Lewiston on Tuscarora land, Syracuse on Onondaga land, and Elmira, which was on land once owned by the Cayuga. Iroquois "conductors," who knew the territory, ran ahead to the next "station" to tell the next stationmaster that they were coming.

Current Population: There are still some 450 registered Cayuga in New York and almost 5,000 registered Cayuga living with the Seneca in Oklahoma.

Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: The Cayuga Nation of New York has several businesses: gas stations, convenience stores, smoke shops, gaming, a towing and vehicle repair shop, a water bottling company, Gakwiyo Gardens, a soybean farm, a farm-stand, and an ice cream parlor and miniature golf course. The Seneca-Cayuga in Oklahoma rely on tourism, gaming, casinos and cigarette manufacturing.

Famous Cayuga: None that I have heard of.