Kanadesaga









Geneva is close to the site of one of the principal villages of the Seneca Indians, named Kanadesaga, which was entirely destroyed by General John Sullivan in his famed expedition against the Indians in 1779.  This site is a little more than a mile west of the lake and near the corner of Pre-emption Road and Castle Road.  This site is marked by the presence of the Indian burial mound which to this day is undisturbed.


From Geneva Advertiser 8 January 1901

The old Indian castle did not stand on the new Experiment Station grounds but on the lot to the west of them, west side of the Pre-Emption road, and quite a few rods south of the Castle road. The mound beneath which are buried scores of Indians, of whom nothing is left but their bones and trinkets, stands on the same lot. When a boy we walked many times through the trenches where that fort stood, and recall distinctly the visits of the Indians here in the fall of every year to that mound. The old copper skins used to look for the little boys when they come, and presented each boy with some pretty trinket in bead work. They would hang about the Indian mound for a few days, were fed by Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden, who owned the farm. Year by year their numbers grew less, until finally they ceased coming altogether -- there were none to come. There's no doubt at all that the great Indian orator Red Jacket has roamed all over this town.





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