Nundawahonoga

In 1669 and 1677, accounts of Nundawahonoga identified it as Seneca land with four towns or villages—variously named Canagora, Tiotohatton, Canoenada, Keint-he, Gannagaro, Gannongarae, Gannondata, and Totiakton—two of them near Lake Frontenac and the other two a few miles to the south, with abundant corn and no stockades; the Seneca Nation was described as the most populous of the Iroquois, with two larger villages of about 100 cabins each and two smaller ones of about 30 each, perhaps 1,000 or 2,000 men capable of bearing arms. On July 19, 1687, René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, Governor and Lieutenant General for the King in Canada and New France, took possession of Totiakton and the other three villages and a fort near Gannagaro, and laid waste, burned, and destroyed provisions and cabins. In 1687 the Seneca maintained a major grain store for the Iroquois Confederacy at Fort Hill, and Denonville estimated that nearly half a million bushels of corn in the fields and in storage were burned. The expedition had a major effect on Seneca settlement, and after 1687 the Seneca built fewer large towns and lived instead in many smaller scattered communities.

Victor, New York · United States