The People of the Standing Stone: The Oneida Nation from Revolution Through the Era of Removal

272 Pages·2011·3.884 MB·English

by  Karim M. Tiro

The People of the
Standing Stone
A volume in the series
Native Americans of the Northeast:
Culture, History, and the Contemporary
edited by Colin Calloway, Jean M. O ’Brien-K ehoe,
and Barry O’Connell
The People of the
Standing Stone
The Oneida Nation
from the Revolution through the
Era of Removal
Karim M. Tiro
University of Massachusetts Press
amherst and boston
Copyright © 2011 by University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
lc 2011014427
isbn 978-1 - 55849890- 7 (paper); 889-1 (library cloth)
Designed by Dennis Anderson
Set in Adobe Caslon Pro by Westchester Book
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Tiro, Karim M.
The people of the standing stone : the Oneida nation from the revolution through the era
of removal / Karim M. Tiro.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-55849-890-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)—
isbn 978-1-55849-889-1 (library cloth : alk. paper)
1. Oneida Indians—History. 2. Oneida Indians—Government relations.
3. Oneida Indians—Relocation. 4. Indians of North America—History—Revolution,
1775–1783. I. Title.
e99.o45t57 2011
974.7004'9755—dc22
2011014427
British Library Cata loguing in Publication data are available.
For my mother,
Dora A. Tiro

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Ac knowl edg ments xix
1 A Place and a People in a Time of Change:
The Oneida Homeland in the 1760s 1
2 Narrowing Paths: Oneida Foreign Relations, 1763–1 775 20
3 The Dilemmas of Alliance: The Oneidas’ American
Revolution, 1775–1 784 39
4 Misplaced Faith: A Dec ade of Dispossession, 1785– 1794 65
5 In a Drowned Land: State Treaties and Tribal Division,
1795– 1814 96
6 The Nation in Fragments: Oneida Removal, 1815– 1836 129
7 Diaspora and Survival, 1836– 1850 157
Conclusion 187
Appendix. Selected Oneida Population Counts, 1763–1 856 193
Abbreviations 195
Notes 197
Index 241
Supplementary material available at scholarworks.umass.edu/umpress

Illustrations
1. Oneida territory in the later eight eenth century xxiv
2. Portrait of Samuel Kirkland by Augustus Rockwell, ca. 1873 12
3. Map of the Country of the VI Nations by Guy Johnson, 1771 32
4. Good Peter, Chief of the Oneida Indians by John Trumbull, 1792 46
5. A Man Bewitched within the House by a Woman Without,
ca. 1845 75
6. Map of Oneida lands, 1785–1 846 97
7. Portrait of Polly de Ferrière (née Denny) by Frederick
R. Spencer, ca. 1850 114
8. Indian Family by the Baroness Hyde de Neuville, 1807 116
9. Mary . . . of the Oneida Tribe by the Baroness Hyde de
Neuville, 1807 117
10. Oneidas in Paris, 1819 132
11. Portrait of DeWitt Clinton by George Catlin, 1827 136
12. Portrait of Eleazer Williams by George Catlin, 1836 137
13. Bread, Chief of the Tribe by George Catlin, 1831 145
14. Daniel Skenandoah and his son Isaiah, ca. 1878 176
15. Beaded bag, ca. 1850 182
16. Indian War Dance, 1828 183
17. Three Iroquois Men, ca. 1835 185
ix