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.]

“At fifty miles from Albany the Land Carriage from the Mohawk’s river to a lake from whence the Northern Branch of Susquehanna takes its rise, does not exceed fourteen miles.  Goods may be carried from this lake in Battoes or flatt bottomed Vessels through Pennsylvania to Maryland and Virginia, the current of the river running everywhere easy without any cataract in all that large space.”

The last quotation is from the report of the Surveyor General to the Lieutenant Governor in 1637.

The foregoing extracts appear to contain about all the information which the authorities at the provincial capital could glean of the Indians concerning the Susquehanna country, as it was called.

The few scattered natives who remained here after the establishment of peace, were, in 1795, removed to the reservation at Oneida, and became a part of the Indian tribes already settled there.

In volume III of the Documentary History of New York, a quaintly interesting letter of the Rev. Gideon Hawley may be found.  The letter is interesting, because it may be safely regarded as the earliest authentic writing respecting this portion of the valley.  Mr. Hawley was sent out as a missionary teacher to the Indians.