SENECA

tribe of North American Indians of the Iroquoian linguistic group who lived in what is now western New York state and eastern Ohio. They were the largest and one of the most important members of the original five nations of the Iroquois League (q.v.; Iroquois Confederacy), in which they were represented by eight chiefs. In the autumn small parties of Seneca men left the villages for the annual hunt, returning about midwinter; spring was the fishing season. Seneca women were responsible for the cultivation of corn (maize) and other vegetables. Families linked by maternal kinship lived together in longhouses; these families were grouped into eight exogamous clans, and the clans in turn grouped into two moieties, each moiety having its own chief. These moieties had mainly ceremonial functions in games and funerals. Each community had a council of adult males, which guided the village chief. Warfare with other Indian nations was frequent; their own losses were made up by adopting whole towns of other tribes. During the 17th century wars led to the expansion of the original Seneca territory between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River to include all of western New York state from Niagara south along the Allegheny River into Pennsylvania. Remote from white contact, secure in game and corn, they could field 1,000 warriors, equalling the combined strength of the rest of the Iroquois League. During the American Revolution the Seneca were British allies, resulting in the destruction of their villages by the American general John Sullivan in 1779. In 1797, having lost much of their land, they secured 12 tracts as reservations, 4 of which (Tonawanda, Cattaraugus, Oil Springs, and Allegany) existed in the late 20th century. Chiefs still governed more than 600 at Tonawanda, but the remainder of the Seneca Nation is a republic, formed in 1848 in reaction to the incompetence and corruption of the hereditary chiefs and in particular because of their surrender of Seneca lands to whites. In northeastern Oklahoma live 670 so-called Seneca-Cayuga, descended from the Seneca of Ohio. Though most Seneca are nominally Christian, some maintain the traditional ceremonies at three longhouses in western New York. county, central New York state, U.S., lying between Cayuga Lake to the east and Seneca Lake to the west, the latter the largest and deepest of the Finger Lakes. Lowlands in the north that are forested with oak and hickory rise to a plateau region in the south that contains maple, birch, and beech trees. The principal stream is the Seneca River, which comprises part of the New York State Canal System (and its constituent Erie Canal) and Seneca and Cayuga canals. Several state parks and vineyards are found along the shores of the lakes, while Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is located in marshland in the northeastern corner of the county. In 1779 an American military campaign razed the local villages of the Seneca Indians, members of the Iroquois Confederacy. Seneca Falls was the home of feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Jenks Bloomer and the site of the Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights (1848). Waterloo is the county seat. The Seneca Army Depot is located in the centre of the county. Seneca county was created in 1804 and named for the Indian tribe. The economy is based on manufacturing and agriculture. Area 325 square miles (842 square km). Pop. (1990) 33,683; (1996 est.) 32,530.