“United with Them in Good Feeling and Friendship”? Material Insights into 17th century Onöndowa'ga:' Hodinöhsö:ni' Incorporations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Onöndowa'ga:' (Seneca) Hodinöhsö:ni' (Six Nations Iroquois) communities in what we now call New York State incorporated a number of other Indigenous peoples, both individuals and large groups, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Other settler scholars have interpreted the status of these incorporees as akin to enslavement—particularly for the Wendat (Huron) incorporated following their military defeat in 1649—yet little attention has been paid to the social, economic, and political dynamics of the communities following these incorporations, nor have many considered Hodinöhsö:ni' traditions and perspectives on this history. Employing legacy collections held in the Rochester Museum and Science Center, I utilize a relational activities-based lens to explore the experiences of incorporated peoples and their hosts. This paper forms one part of a three-generation study of Onöndowa'ga:' incorporations, focusing on the first generation of Wendat and other Iroquoian-speaking peoples incorporated in the mid-17th century. Comparing material from two principal sites occupied directly following the Wendat defeat, Marsh and Dann, along with a contemporary satellite site purported to host the bulk of the incorporated group, Wheeler Station, I demonstrate the need for a more nuanced understanding of Hodinöhsö:ni' incorporations outside of the simplistic—and defeatist—interpretations of enslavement and erasure.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39183.0