Any story of the history of humans along the Genesee River in the western part of New York State begins with the Onöndowa’ga:’, the People of the Great Hill.
When Europeans arrived, the Dutch used a vague pronunciation of an Algonquian word sounding like “Seneca” to refer to the central and western three nations of the Haudenosaunee. Usage eventually changed to refer specifically to the Onöndowa’ga:’. They are most widely known as the Seneca today.
The Genesee River’s sweeping valley, with naturally re-nourishing floodplains, hills, and well-draining glacial moraines ideal for farm towns, is the dominant land feature of this part of New York State.
Flowing from Lake Ontario in Rochester, the Genesee River’s branches meander south and west, through Monroe, Livingston, Wyoming and Genesee Counties. The Onöndowa’ga:’ are master agriculturalists who established the first permanent towns on this landscape, known regionally today as the “Genesee Country.”
When the Haudenosaunee Confederacy formed in about 1100, Onöndowa’ga:’ towns dotted the Genesee River Valley. Communities enjoyed an abundant farming life and traded with cultures across the world on interconnected networks of footpaths.
Archaeological remains of these town sites contain items made from coastal shells harvested across the continent. By the 1600s, Indigenous communities were using and trading cosmopolitan products like English blankets and Chinese porcelain.
Their traditional diet is mostly vegetarian, supplemented with meat and fats from game like beaver, deer, bear, and fish. The diet’s foundations are corn, beans, and squash — a colorful palette considering the many varieties of corn, including popcorn, and the huge diversity in squash, like pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber.
When grown together in knee-high mounds, these plants structurally and biologically complement each other. Corn forms a solid stalk, which beans climb. Squash leaves shade the ground and help retain moisture. Rotting bean roots replenish nitrogen, which corn needs. Traditional mounds can grow melons, potatoes, and other nutritious vegetables.
Many Europeans were adopted into Indigenous cultures in colonial days. One of the best-documented was Mary Jemison (1743-1833), an Irish girl adopted by Senecas in the 1750s, during what we now call the French and Indian War.
Likely at strawberry time, the Seneca new year, she received the name Degewanus, meaning something like “Two Voices Falling” in English. She moved to a prosperous Seneca town in the Genesee River Valley and ultimately married a Seneca man, but the American Revolution displaced her.
Rather than relocate with others, she chose to stay in the valley and build a small community for her family in what is now Letchworth State Park. She lived the rest of her life as a prominent landowner whose life became legend, a national story of resolve and self-determination in the face of war. Senecas consider her a strong Indigenous cultural figure, and she has many Seneca descendants.
After the horrors of the American Revolution and the infamous Clinton-Sullivan Expedition, the Senecas reserved ownership of several settlements at a pivotal treaty signing at the Seneca town of Big Tree on the Genesee River, near present-day Geneseo. Reservations included:
Canawagus, the birthplace of internationally-significant historical figures like Cornplanter and the Longhouse prophet Handsome Lake, in present-day Avon;
Little Beard’s Town, home of Degewanus until the Sullivan Campaign near present-day Cuylerville;
Squawkie Hill, a home of the Meskwaki people within the Seneca’s borders located in present-day Leicester;
Gardeau, a vast home and property of Degewanus’ for about 50 years in multiple towns, including present-day Castile; and
Caneadea, which was the site of a Seneca council house that survived the American Revolution and goes by this name today.
By 1830, the Seneca sold these reservations. The properties were divided into American settlements and farms. But the story doesn’t end there. It doesn’t end at all.
All of the aforementioned former reservations are in or near New York State Parks. Four are located near Genesee Valley Greenway State Park and two are partially within Letchworth State Park.
As State Parks interprets these sites, they depend on their Seneca colleagues to share insights and expertise on traditional life, Indigenous perspective on historical events, and present-day Seneca culture.
It was William Pryor Letchworth who made the first big strides toward preserving Seneca structures in what would become Letchworth State Park. In 1872, he had the Seneca council house of Caneadea moved and preserved on his summer estate.
That year, diplomats from multiple Haudenosaunee nations held significant negotiations there, after which they adopted Letchworth into the Seneca culture under the name “Hai-wa-ye-is-tah,” or “The Man Who Always Does the Right Thing.” Since then, the spot has been known and visited as the Council Grounds.
Two years later, with souvenir collectors chipping at Degewanus’ headstone near Buffalo, and the industrializing city threatening to swallow the cemetery, Letchworth paid for the family’s project to move her remains to the Council Grounds, marked with a marble pedestal.
The last public appearance Letchworth made before his death was the dedication of a larger-than-life bronze statue of Degewanus on the pedestal. This iconic monument is still visited by Degewanus’ descendants, who sometimes leave flowers.
Letchworth specified in his will that as part of his estate’s transition process from private retreat to state park, it should include a stone museum. That museum was finished in 1913, and is open to this day.
It’s home to Degewanus’ original headstone, her extensive family tree, and items she used in her daily life. Displays interpret the international significance of Cornplanter (1732-1836) and Handsome Lake (1735-1815). There are Indigenous artifacts from Letchworth’s collections, and a timeline of Indigenous cultures who lived in the region.
The park’s history department staffs the museum every day from May to the end of October, answering questions and presenting near-daily programs. Every year, educators lead hundreds of school kids through the museum and council grounds, sharing historical photos and pressing home the significance of these places, buildings, and objects in the story of New York and America.
Deep in the heartland of New York’s maple country, Letchworth State Park incorporates both modern and traditional European and Indigenous practices into their maple sugaring demonstrations.
At the towering sugarhouse, a stainless steel evaporator chugs along, clouding the rafters with sweet steam. At Maple Weekends pancake breakfasts, there is also a small outdoor fire heating a cast iron pot, a European settler sugaring method. The fire has stacks of fist-sized rocks.
Environmental educators use antler tools to drop the topmost hot rocks in a wooden trough filled with sap, and steam rises. This is a version of stone boiling techniques used to make maple syrup thousands of years ago and today, at one time widely practiced by the Seneca.
New York State Parks’ environmental education team is always expanding the lineup of programs focused on Indigenous land use, history, and perspectives. Some new program sites and experiences are coming in 2025 to the parks in the Genesee River Valley.
It’s worth noting that all of the cultural information that appears in this piece I’ve learned over the years from our Indigenous colleagues at Ganondagan State Historic Site in the Finger Lakes to the east in Victor, especially Historic Site Manager Michael Galban.
Visitors to the Arts and Cultural Center there will meet Indigenous environmental educators through programs about the living Seneca culture in the present day, including language, food, ceremonies, dance, and worldview.
Conrad Baker is an environmental educator at Letchworth State Park. A version of this essay by State Parks Sustainability Manager Jordan Elliott, first appeared on the New York State Parks & Historic Sites Blog.
Illustrations, from above: Middle Falls at Letchworth State Park; detail of the statue of Degewanus (Mary Jemison) at Letchworth State Park; and views inside the William Pryor Letchworth Museum at Letchworth State Park (State Parks).
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