[Ki-on-twog-ky, or Corn Plant(er), a Seneca Chief, lithograph from The History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, 1836–44]
The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They are the westernmost nation within the Six Nations or Iroquois League. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in Canada, near Brantford, Ontario, and in the United States, on and off reservations around Buffalo and in Oklahoma.
The Seneca nation's own name is Onödowága', meaning "People of the Mountains," and is identical to the endonym used by the Onondagas. With the formation of the Haudenosaunee ("People of the Longhouse") or the Iroquois Confederation in 1142, the Seneca became known as the "Keepers of the Western Door" because they settled and lived the farthest west of all the nations within the Haudenosaunee. Their name "Seneca" was designated by other nations, after the Seneca nation's principle village of Osininka. However, since "Osininka" sounds like the Anishinaabe word Asinikaa(n), meaning "[Those at the Place] Full of Stones," this gave rise to the confusion to non-Haudenosaunee nations in the Seneca nation's name with that of the Oneida nation's endonym Onyota'a:ka, meaning "People of the Standing Stone."
The Seneca traditionally lived in what is now New York between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake, with some recent archaeological evidence indicating that they lived all the way down to the Allegheny River into what is now northwestern Pennsylvania. The Senecas were by far the most populous of the Haudenosaunee Nations, with the ability to raise over ten thousand warriors by the 1600's.
Seneca - Alligator Dance
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The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is one of the two living species of Alligator, a genus within the family Alligatoridae. The American Alligator is native only to the southeastern United States, where it inhabits wetlands that frequently overlap with human-populated areas. It is larger than the other Alligator species, the Chinese Alligator.
The American Alligator has a large, slightly rounded body, with thick limbs, a broad head, and a very powerful tail. Adult male alligators are typically 13 to 14.7 feet long (3.96 to 4.48 meters), while adult females average 9.8 feet (2.99 meters).
The average weight of male alligators is 182 kg (400 lb) and 72 kg (160 lbs) for females.
Mature males can reach 14 feet (4.24 meters) long and weigh 1000 lbs (454.5 kg).
One American Alligator allegedly reached a length of 19 feet, 2 inches (5.8 meters), which would make it the largest recorded. The tail, which accounts for half of the alligator's total length, is primarily used for aquatic propulsion. The tail can also be used as a weapon of defense when an alligator feels threatened. Alligators travel very quickly in water, are generally slow-moving on land and can lunge short distances very quickly. They have five toes in front and four in back.
Alligators are presently found throughout the southeastern United States, from Merchants Millpond State Park in North Carolina to Texas and south to southeastern Oklahoma.
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[8157 Richard Coeur-de-Lion / 8142 Seneca]