1777: The Oneidas and the Birth of the American Nation Introduction
Fighting for the cause of American liberty and independence, the Oneida Nation sent its warriors to battlegrounds ranging from Valley Forge, PA to the Canadian border of New York during the Revolution. The alliance forged with the nascent United States was of the Oneidas' choosing. It was one they honored throughout the war and they honored it still. The price paid by the Oneida Nation for this stand is almost beyond comprehension. They lost their homes and property, they endured starvation, disease, and the sometimes violent bigotry of their allies; and they lost the lives of at least a third of their people. At the most crucial moment of the conflict, in the decisive year of war, the Oneidas stood forth and played a strategically significant role in the American Revolution. For generations, Oneidas in their ancestral country of present-day New York have kept alive the tradition of the timely help they offered to the United States and the terrible suffering they endured in the American cause. William Rockwell, an Oneida leader early in this century, recorded a remark made by an elderly Oneida in 1909: "If all the skulls of the Oneida Indians killed by British forces in fighting to help the colonials get their freedom were piled together, the pile would be larger than the capital building in Albany." Unfortunately, Oneida contributions to the outcome of that struggle remain virtually unknown today.
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