OAK ORCHARD

Inscription

OAK ORCHARD
HAUDENOSAUNEE GATHERING,
FISHING AND FORDING PLACE.
SITE OF MASSACRE OF MEMBERS
OF THE SIX NATIONS
SACRED AREA FOR NATIVES
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION

Oak Orchard, near the bank of the Oneida River, was a gathering location for members of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nation. There is evidence of a massacre of Native Americans here, during either the Revolutionary War or the French and Indian War. Later, residents found evidence of an extensive burial ground, along with acts of desecration (removal of skulls, relics from the site). An early history of the town includes an account by a resident that in 1843 he had a conversation with an elderly Native American man who used to visit this burial place of his ancestors. The man related to him the account of the massacre of a large number of his people at this site. This early resident also claimed to have seen scores of skulls exhumed, many pierced with bullet holes and marked with sabre cuts.