User:Brandonmdaniels/Onondaga Lake

Before European settlement

Onondaga Lake was the birthplace of the Haudenosaunee, a confederacy of indigenous nations including the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. According to the story of the Great Peacemaker, these different nations were culturally separated and often at war with one another. The Peacemaker is said to have brought these nations together at the shores of Onondaga lake, and there the members of these nations formed a new system of governance.

The Haudenosaunee, or people of the longhouse, was founded as a conscious league based on principles of mutual respect and peaceful communication. The Onondaga nation website describes this event as the formation of “the first representative democracy in the West.”

The event was recorded with the creation of the Hiawatha belt, a wampum whose design would later be used as a prominent flag representing the Haudenosaunee. This belt also captures the guiding principles of the Haudenosaunee, the story of the Great Peacemaker, and the founding of the league at Onondaga Lake. As such, the lake became sacred, and was remembered as the place where the message of peace prevailed.