Utica Oneida New York United States

The Mohawk, the easternmost of the Five Nations, inhabit the eastern part of present New York State.

The Mohawks, who have received their name, meaning "man eater," from their Algonquian-speaking neighbors, call themselves “Ganiengehaga,” meaning "people of the flint."

Their western neighbors consider the Mohawks "keepers of the eastern door" of the longhouse that symbolizes the Five Nations’ Iroquois League.

Deganawidah and Hiawatha, the traditional founders of the league, are adopted Mohawks.

Like the neighboring Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida, the Mohawks trace kinship through the female line.

A calendric cycle of religious ceremonies centers on warfare and a concomitant gaining of prestige and honor by males.

Sassacus and his followers had hoped to gain refuge among the Mohawk in present-day New York.

However, the Mohawk instead kill Sassacus and his warriors and send Sassacus' scalp to Hartford as a symbolic offering of Mohawk friendship with the Connecticut Colony.

English colonial officials continue for months after war's end to call for hunting down what remains of the Pequot.

The Continental Congress seeks to keep the Six Nations out of the war.

In July 1775, Samuel Kirkland, a missionary who is influential with the Oneidas, brings to them a statement from Congress that "we desire you to remain at home, and not join either side, but to keep the hatchet buried deep."

While the Oneidas and Tuscaroras remain formally neutral, many individual Oneidas express sympathy with the rebels.