Ganondagan in western New York preserves the site of the largest Seneca village of the 17th century, an important political and cultural center of the Haudenosaunee. Seneca tradition ties it to the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy under the Great Law of Peace and to Jikonsase, later called the Mother of Nations, whose nearby burial place is especially revered. European visitors in the 1600s described a large hilltop town with many longhouses, fields, and fortifications. In 1687, during a French campaign against the Seneca, the village was burned and its corn stores destroyed. The site now protects these village and granary areas while preserving Seneca history and traditions.

Victor, New York · USA