CAYUGA NATION
People of the Great Swamp
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Guyohkohnyoh CAYUGA NATION People of the Great Swamp |
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Lori Sky Laforme, Cayuga |
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The Cayuga Nation (Guyohkohnyoh),
meaning the People of the Great Swamp, was one of the five
original members of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy. Their
traditional homeland lay in the
Finger Lakes region along
Cayuga Lake, between the
Onondaga and
Seneca nations.
The
Haudenosaunee decided to remain neutral during the American
Revolutionary War.
However,
political relations between the Cayuga, the
British, and the colonists during the
American Revolution were complicated. Generally the
Cayuga favored the British.
The Cayuga were the only Haudenosaunee nation left without a
reservation in the US. Some members of the Cayuga Nation today live
with the Seneca Nation in western New York. There are three Cayuga
bands. The two largest, the
Lower Cayuga and the
Upper Cayuga, still live in
Ontario, at
Six Nations of the Grand River.
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 Cayuga Gustoweh (one feather tilts slightly downward). There can be variations in the height of the feathers depending on the maker. In this particular Gustoweh, the feather hanging from the brim is decorative. |
There are 3 Cayuga communities in the United States and Canada shown in blue on the map below:
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Cattaraugus: northwest of Gowanda, NY southwest of
Buffalo. Ø Oklahoma: near Turkey Ford, northeast Oklahoma (the Seneca-Cayuga Nation) Ø sIX NATIONS: west of Buffalo, NY near Brantford, Ontario |
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