"The Indians demand wherefore such particular information relative to the Susquehanna river is sought after from them, and whether people are about to come there? The Indians are asked if it would be agreeable to them if folks should settle there? The Indians answer that they would be very glad if people came to settle there, as it is nigher than this place and more convenient to transport themselves and packs by water, inasmuch as they must bring everything hither on their backs. N.B.—The ascending of the Susquehanna river is one week longer than the descending."
In 1684, the Onondaga and Cayuga sachems made an oration before Lord Howard of Effingham at Albany, from which the following extracts are taken. I have preserved the original spelling:
"Wee have putt all our land and ourselfs under the Protection of the great Duke of York, the brother of your great Sachim. We have given the Susquehanne River which we wonn with the sword to this Government and desire that it may be a branch of that great tree, Whose topp reaches to the Sunn, under whose branches we shall shelter our selves from the French, or any other people, and our fire burn in your houses and your fire burns with us, and we desire that it always may be so, and will not that any of your Penn's people shall settle upon the Susquehanna River; for all our folks or soldiers are like Wolfs in the Woods, as you Sachim of Virginia know, we having no other land to leave to our wives and Children."
In 1691, the governor and council of the province of New York sent an address to the king of England, from which the following extract is made:
"Albany lies upon the same river, etc. Its commerce extends itself as far as the lakes of Canada and the Sinnekes Country in which is the Susquehannah River."
It appears that the ownership of the Susquehanna was the subject of no little dispute among the tribes composing the Six Nations.[A] The Onondagas claimed the country.
[Footnote A: From a record of a meeting of the mayor and aldermen of
Albany in 1689 the Onondagas are called Ti-onon-dages.
In an old map found among the papers of Sir Guy Johnson the Schenevus creek or valley is called Ti-ononda-don. The prefix Ti appears to have been quite common among Indian names, sometimes used and sometimes omitted. Doubtless Ononda is the root of the word Ti-ononda-don. As the Onondagas had claimed the Susquehanna country, the Indian etymologist might naturally inquire whether there was any kinship between Tionondaga, Tionondadon, Onondaga and the word Oneonta. His belief in a common etymon might be somewhat strengthened by a quotation from a "Journal of What Occurred between the French and Savages," kept during the years 1657-58. (See Doc. Hist., Vol. I, p. 44*: [*Transcriber's Note: last digit illegible in original.]
"The word Onnota, which signifies in the Iroquois tongue a mountain, has given the name to the village called Onnontae, or as others call it Onnontague, because it is on a mountain.")
Perhaps the word Oneonta may have the same derivation or a like derivation as Onondaga—perhaps not. The reader is left to follow up the query. Among the Hurons who had been conquered by the Iroquois, a tribe is mentioned under the name of Ti-onnonta-tes. The name may have no relation to nor any bearing upon the derivation of the word Oneonta, but that there was such a tribe, the fact is given for what it may be worth.]