Seneca

Seneca, Native American tribe (O-non-dowanagh, “people of the great hill”) of western New York and eastern Ohio, once the largest nation of the Iroquois League (5 tribes that banded together in the 1400s). The Seneca built their villages on hills above a river and surrounded them with tall wooden stake fences for protection. They lived in large rectangular dwellings (longhouses), 30–50 per village, which gave shelter to several related families. Today most Seneca live on 3 reservations in western New York; they make up the Seneca Nation (a republic) and the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (ruled traditionally by chiefs).