The
Onondaga (
Onöñda’gega’ or "Hill Place")
people are one of the original five constituent nations of the
Iroquois (
Haudenosaunee) Confederacy in northeast North America. Their traditional homeland is in and around present-day
Onondaga County, New York, south of Lake Ontario. They were known as
Gana’dagwëni:io’geh to the other Iroquois tribes. Being centrally located, they were considered the "Keepers of the Fire" (
Kayecisnakwe’nì·yu’ in
Tuscarora) in the figurative
longhouse that sheltered the Five Nations. The
Cayuga and
Seneca had territory to their west and the
Oneida and
Mohawk to their east. For this reason, the League of the Iroquois historically met at the Iroquois government's capital at
Onondaga, as the traditional chiefs do today.