ONEI'DAS, a tribe of American Indians whose name signifies "tribe of the granite rock." Originally belonging to the :Mohawks, they were set off from them and formed part of the Iroquois confederation of Six Nations. Their possessions included the sec tion of country between Deep Spring near Syracuse, Onondaga co., N. Y., and a point directly e. in the vicinity of Oneida co., and embracing the lake which takes its name from them. Their totem, or symbol, was a stone in a forked stick. The tribe was divided into 3 clans, the wolf, bear, and turtle, and 9 sachemships. In the earliest years of the settlement of Canada they sustained hostile relations with the French. and the Hurons, and Montagnas, who were friendly to the Canadian settlers—only occasion ally relaxing their enmity sufficiently to permit the visits of missionaries; and although their fellow members of the confederation, the Onondagas, made peace with the French in 1665, they kept up the war until 1666; the French tanking two raids into their country. At the time of the treaty they were reduced to 150 warriors, who joined in the general treaty of peace with the French, Sept. 8, 1700, being governed thereafter in their move ments by the English, until the revolution, when they with the Tuscaroras were faithful to the colonists. This was owing to the influence of Samuel Kirkland, a Congregational minister, appointed missionary in 1766 by a missionary board in Connecticut who settled in the midst of the tribe and was with them when the war broke out. Ile left them at that time to fill a chaplaincy in the army, but was engaged iu negotiations with them throughout the war, and accompanied some of their warriors in 1791 to the meeting of congress in Philadelphia. By their fidelity to the colonists they incurred the enmity of other tribes, who, led by Joseph Brant or Thayendanega, a famous chief of the Mohawks and leader of the Iroquois, drove them from their homes and burned their church and houses; in this aided and abetted by the British and their adherents. At the close of the
war they with the Tuscaroras were the only members of their confederation who remained in the United States, the remainder settling on Grand river in Canada. By the treaty of fort Stanwix, Oct. 28, 1784, they were confirmed in their title to their lands, and in 1785 and 1788 the state of New York purchased their lands, with the exception of a reservation for each, which was never to be sold, and leased only in part. The I3rotherton and Stockbridge Indians retained their lands which they had received from them and now live on the same reservation. In 1840, 430 emigrated to Canada. Those who settled at Green bay, Wisconsin, purchased the lands, and have erected churches, and availed themselves of educational privileges, advancing as fast as possible in agricul ture and mechanical arts. There are 65,000 acres of land in this reservation, the inhab itants numbering 1279 in '73. They are mostly Episcopalians, the book of Common Prayer having been translated into their language. There were in 1873, 633 on the Thames, in the province of Ontario, and 266 in New York near Oneida castle, 20 m. s. of Utica, having 2 schools. The number in the year indicated belonging to the tribe is larger than at any time since the advent of white population into their domain, and double their number at the close of the war. Several works have been written on this tribe and the Iroquois confederacy, beginning with Colden's History of the Fire Nations, 1727, and leading up to works on the celebrated chieftains which were published as late as 1864 and 1866. In the war of 1812 the English and American parties in the Iroquois confederation were as sharply divided and took the same sides as in the revolution, but the Oneidas stood by the Americans always, and have since been at peace.