Tutelo Resettlement in the Cayuga Heartland: Haudenosaunee Approach to Refugees

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Tutelos were driven out of their homelands in North Carolina and Virginia by land-grabbing Europeans. The Tutelos fled to refugee settlements in Pennsylvania along with other displaced Native Americans from diverse Indian nations. In 1753, the Tutelos were offered sanctuary with the Cayugas, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. The Tutelos maintained their separate cultural identity, continued their own language and customs, and governed their internal affairs, while the Cayugas handled all "external" affairs such as diplomacy and trade with the colonists. The Tutelo village was Coreorgonel, near present-day Ithaca, New York. During the infamous Sullivan Campaign of 1779, Coreorgonel was burned to the ground, the Tutelos were forced from the region, fleeing westward toward Niagara Falls and ultimately resettling on the Six Nations Reserve in Canada. Archaeological work on an engaged, collaborative project with the Tutelos and Cayugas resulted in the design and opening of a commemorative park and a greater understanding of the long-term social impact of the humane treatment of refugees by the Cayugas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24268