THE CAYUGA (“People of the Great Montezuma Swamp”) FIRST PEOPLES
The Cayuga Nation has a traditional system of government and participates in the Haudenosaunee Grand Council of Chiefs.
Without a reservation, the Cayugas want to reestablish a Cayuga reservation of about 64,000 acres around the northern end of Cayuga Lake in Cayuga and Seneca counties. This acreage was their United States Reservation in 1789. Current residents would be under no legal or social obligation to relocate. Their title to the land within the Gayohkohnyoh Nation Reservation would be preserved until the parcel was sold.
The Cayugas once inhabited nearly two million acres stretching from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border. During the Revolutionary War, Cayuga warriors reluctantly sided with the British. American troops laid waste all the main Cayuga settlements during General John Sullivan’s infamous raid of 1779.