3rd Annual Caneadea Field Day Saturday July 5

A celebration of the Seneca Nation culture, see the schedule

By Kathryn Ross

HOUGHTON – Gaoyadeo (Caneadea) where the heavens rest upon the earth was the traditional home of the Seneca, with this weekend’s third annual Caneadea Field Day the indigenous people will once again set foot upon their ancestral homeland.

It is a stretch along the Genesee River, where for centuries the members of the Seneca nation grew and thrived and where the northernly flowing river takes a sudden bend to the east before flowing into the Letchworth gorge. It is here where the Seneca’s idyllic existence came to a close and resulted in their absence from the area for nearly 200 years.

Three years ago, that ended as members of the Seneca Nation once more stood on the land where their forbears had lived and looked at the horizon their ancestors called Gaoyadeo.

In 2023 the first Caneadea Field Day was held in Houghton in the town of Caneadea. It was the result of a collaboration between the town and representatives of the Seneca Nation.

The Seneca are part of the Haudenosaunee along with the Cayuga, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida and Mohawk nations that live in New York state. They controlled the farthest western part of what is now New York state, and they were known as the Keepers of the Western Door.

Historically, Caneadea was the last area in the county occupied by the Seneca. In 1797 it became a reservation as part of the Big Tree Treaty. The reservation was eight miles long and two miles wide with the Genesee flowing through it. The Seneca lived there until 1826 when the occupants sold it to land speculators. In 2023 the Seneca returned and displayed their culture and sports to a new generation recapturing part of their history in Gaoyadeo where the heavens rest upon the earth.

Allegany County owes much of its economic development to the Seneca. It was on their farms, that colonial soldiers from the Major General John Sullivan Expedition in1779 saw the tremendous vegetables and bountiful fruits that grew in the fields and orchards cultivated by the Seneca. When the soldiers returned to the East, they remembered the crops and at the close of the War for Independence they set their eyes on the western horizon and the fruitful life to be had in the Genesee River valley.

Of course, under orders from General George Washington, they had destroyed 40 native villages and hundreds of acres of crops to the point of annihilating the Seneca.

The third annual Seneca Caneadea Field Day will be held Saturday, July 5^th, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Caneadea Town Park in Houghton. The event features indigenous arts and crafts, cultural exhibits, a native storyteller, native dancers, and a discussion of foods and agricultural displays. There will also be men’s and women’s lacrosse demonstrations and competition. There will also be a variety of food for sale.

There is no fee to enter the event, but there is a $5 parking fee at the fire department’s parking lot.

Seneca Caneadea Field Day Schedule
(8:00 am opening park for vendors and participants)

10:00 am: Caneadea Town Park Opens to the Public

10:30 am: Welcome and Flag Raising with greetings

All-Day Programming

Dance Exhibitions and Lacrosse Exhibitions: