O'Hara Township Community Park - People of the Longhouse

O'Hara Township Community Park - People of the Longhouse. . They call themselves Haudenosaunee (ho DEE no Sho nee), meaning “they form a cabin.” It was the longhouse (shown below) that was the symbol of this people. Known by the French term, Iroquois, they were an alliance called the Five Nations; the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk (the Tuscaroras joined to make it Six Nations in 1722). The map below shows the aboriginal lands (including Allegheny County) of the Seneca Nation and their present territory in dark purple , outline. The Longhouse is the signature structure of the Haudenosaunee in the Northeastern United States as well as Eastern Canada. A typical longhouse was traditionally home to multifamily units (up to 20 or more families) and it contained multiple hearths. Haudenosaunee society had a gendered worldview. It was a matriarchy tracing descent of blood from a common mother. The longhouse, cultivated lands, and social life were under the control of the women. This was called “the clearing.” Men as warriors, chiefs, hunters, and trappers conducted their affairs away from the clearing in “the forests.” Chiefs were warriors temporarily or permanently chosen by the women as leaders in political or ceremonial matters. The women who made these leaders could unmake them. When they chose to assert their prerogative, the women often did so in matters involving land and war., Traditional Haudenosaunee dress is shown in the above illustration. The male figure’s leggings could be made from deerskin or wool. The female figure’s dress displays the intricate beadwork of Seneca clothing. The male’s headdress showing a single feather is a Seneca cap called a gustoweh. Hanging from the male’s neck is a cresent-shaped metal gorget, which was worn by both Indians and English military. The English gifted gorgets as tokens of goodwill. Prior to European arrival, Indians wore stone gorgets as ornaments on the head or chest area., The purple and white wampum belt displaying the Six Nations symbol was an important form of communication and was used for ceremonial purposes, diplomatic relations, and the recording of treaties or other historical events., Familiar Names , The Delaware Nation (Lenni Lenape) came into Western Pennsylvania around 1720 after being driven from the east by colonial expansion. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy invited both the Lenape and Shawnee into their Pennsylvania territories. Around 1750 colonial map makers started surveying our area. Consequently, many local names have Lenape origins., . Aliquippa, (Lenape) alukwepi 'hat'; after the Seneca Queen Aliquippa, known for wearing a large hat., . Allegheny, (Lenape) welhik hane or oolik hanna, which means “best flowing river of the hills.” The Senecas refer to the Allegheny as the “Ohhee-yo” (good river) and consider it as part of the Ohio River., . Kiskiminetas, (Lenape) kishku manitu “make daylight,” a command to warriors to break camp and go on maneuvers while it is still night., . Kittanning, (Lenape) kithanink “on the main river”: kit “great, large, big” + hane “swift river from the mountains” + -ink locative suffix., . Monongahela, (Lenape) M naonkih la “the high riverbanks are washed down; the banks cave in or erode,” the plural of m naonkih le “the dirt caves off.”, . Youghiogheny, (Lenape)yuxwiakhane “stream running a contrary or crooked course.”