Oquaga (Onoquaga), New York
Oquaga (Onoquaga), New York
OQUAGA (ONOQUAGA), NEW YORK. Iroquois village on the east branch of the Susquehanna River about twenty miles southwest of Unadilla (near Windsor). In 1765 it had about 750 inhabitants, most of them Oneidas. It was Joseph Brant's headquarters during St. Leger's Expedition and in much of the subsequent border warfare in New York. Its name is Mohawk for "place of wild grapes," and the Handbook of American Indians gives over fifty spelling variations ranging from Anaquago through Oghkwaga to Skawaghkee. The village was destroyed in October 1778 by troops under Colonel William Butler and Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt.
SEE ALSO Border Warfare in New York; St. Leger's Expedition; Unadilla, New York.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. Handbook of American Indians, North of Mexico. 2 vols. Washington, 1907–10. Reprinted, New York, 1960.
revised by Michael Bellesiles