Everyone lived in Longhouses. Each was a rectangular structure of poles and sheeted bark. It measured 50 to 150 feet in length, depending on the number of families living inside, and 18 to 25 feet in width. It’s high roof was arched and painted above the door. At each end was the crest of one of the eight Seneca Clans: Bear, Wolf, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, or the Hawk. In the shadowy, windowless interior a number of small fires burned, spaced out every 12 feet or so along a central corridor.
To the left and right of the corridor were platformspiled with bearskin rugs. These huge bunks accommodated entire families. Here, snug under heaps od fur, men, women and children would sleep together. This family booth, which could be curtained off for privacy, was a quiet center of Seneca life. Although it was personal territory, his postion in a communal dwelling symbolized the fact that each family was part of a much more important whole- the lineage that occupied the entire house.
Seneca kin relationships, as with all Iroquois tribes were determined by maternal decent. Supreme in every longhouse was the oldest woman “Mothe” of the household in the sence that exclusively belonged to her and her female relatives. When she died the next oldest woman took over. All males left home as soon as they married and went to live in the longhouse of their wives.
A young man had to marry outside his clan, perferably with a woman who had not even a distant blood relationship with his own mother and her female relatives. Except for the men’s weapons, clothing and personal possessions, all property belonged to the woman, from the longhouse itself down to the farming tools. A wife was expected always to be well dressed even if her husband was shabby. If he or any kinman was killed in war, she was entitled to demand an enemy captive in compensation. Her kinman would have to go out and take one, even if it meant starting another war. When the captive was brought, she was allowed to adopt him or consign him to torture or death as she pleased.
Perhaps the most important of a woman’s responsibilities was to bear children, thus assuring the future of the tribe. When the time came young Seneca women could be seen retreating into the forest. There, in the privacy of the trees and shadows babies were born, washed in spring water or snow, wrapped in furs, and carried back to the rejoicing village.
The mother was the primary source of wisdom, affection and comfort. She was loving in her treatment but careful not to spoil and “soften” the child. Both boys and girls were taught to eat sparingly and heathfully (gluttony was a sin: too many corn cakes dripping with maple syrup would bring on the bogeyman longnose).
The majority of the Senecas remained in New York where they lived on reservations in the western part of the state. The Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations are organized as the Seneca Nation, which seceded from the league in 1848. Senecas on the Tonawanda Reservation are not part of the Seneca Nation, rather they maintain their political affiliation with the New York League. In other ways all Senecas are culturally very similar. A majority of the Senecas are christians but a large minority are followers of the longhouse religion that was founded by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake between 1799 and 1815. On each of the Seneca reservations there is a longhouse, a ritual structure associated with this religion. The Tonawanda longhouse serves as headquarters. From 1905- 1910 on all three New York Reservations, many Senecas were still farmers, growing corn, beans, and squash, the traditional Three Sisters referred to as ‘Our life supporters’.
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