"The Seneca were the keepers of the western gate " Their proper name is Haudenosaunee ( People of the Long house ). Other members of the Haudenosaunee Nation were the Huron or Wyandot, the Tionontati or Tobacco Nation and the Neutrals. The Europeans use the offensive generic name Iroquois for these people. The name may have come from the Algonquin word "Iroqu" " Irinakhoiw ... meaning snakes. " and the French "ois" to make the slang name Iroquois. They lived in family groups in what we call the Long house. The tribe was broken down into a number of clans, with the eldest women or matriarch sitting on the women's council, which basically ran the place.

The Seneca, the Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Oneida made up the confederacy known as Five Nations and later Six Nations when the Tuscarora were added. This system was created; according to tradition; by the Peacemaker Deganawida ( Two Rivers Currents Flowing Together ) and Hiawatha ( River Maker ) in 1570 and became the model for the Federal, State and Provincial governments we see in Canada and United States today. The Seneca first appeared in what became Ontario; around 1640's; comming up from what was to become the United States; ( New York ) They were engaged in a bitter war with the Wendat over the fur trade. This war might have been triggered by an earlier incident with Samuel de Champlain ( 1567-1635) ; who had sided with the Algonquin Peoples #1; and defeated the Mohawk Tribe in a battle in 1609 After the Wendat were defeated, the Seneca then turned their wrath upon the Neutrals. The Seneca in turn, were driven out by the Ojibwa ( Mississauga's ) in the late 1680's. #2 Archaeologists believe permanent villages were established on the north shore of Lake Ontario about 1665 and existed in the area until 1687 a period of 20+ years; others disagree ... Ganatsekywagon and Teiaiagon are the most storied of these villages.