Editing Finger Lakes (section)

== History ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}
[[Image:Bluffpoint.jpg|thumb|right|Bluff Point on Keuka Lake]]
[[File:Granger Homestead.jpg|thumb|right|Granger Homestead, [[Canandaigua (city), New York|Canandaigua]]]]

The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the [[Iroquois]] homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the [[Seneca nation|Seneca]] and [[Cayuga nation|Cayuga]] nations, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The [[Tuscarora (tribe)|Tuscarora]] tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well, from ca. 1720. The [[Onondaga (tribe)|Onondaga]] and [[Oneida tribe|Oneida]] tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, [[Oneida Lake]] and [[Onondaga Lake]]. The easternmost Iroquois tribe was the [[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]].

The Finger Lakes region contains sites of unknown cultural affiliation and age. The [[Bluff Point Stoneworks]] is one such site as its age and who may have constructed these enigmatic stone structures has not been determined.

During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. For example, in 1753, remnants of several Virginia [[Sioux|Siouan]] tribes, collectively called the [[Tutelo]]-[[Saponi]], moved to the town of [[Coreorgonel]] at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca and lived there until 1779, when their village was destroyed by the [[Sullivan Expedition]].

Iroquois towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of [[Geneseo (town), New York|Gen-nis-he-yo]] (present-day Geneseo), [[Kanadaseaga]] (Seneca Castle, near present-day Geneva), [[Goiogouen]] (Cayuga Castle, east of Cayuga Lake), [[Chonodote]] (Cayuga town, present-day Aurora), [[Catherine's Town (Seneca town)|Catherine's Town]] (near present-day [[Watkins Glen, New York|Watkins Glen]]) and [[Ganondagan State Historic Site]] in [[Victor, New York]].

As one of the most powerful Indian nations during colonial times, the Iroquois were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact, often playing the French off against the British interests in savvy demonstrations of political competence. The renowned ingenuity and adaptability of the Iroquois people were key tools of resistance against hostile European powers rapidly spreading throughout North America, eager to dominate and increasingly brutal toward Native Americans in the Finger Lakes and beyond.

By the late 18th century, with the French governmental influence gone from Canada, Iroquois power had weakened relative to the steady growth in European-Americans' populations, and internal strife eroded the political unity of the [[Iroquois Confederacy]] as it faced pressures from colonists itching to move west and a desire to keep them out of Amerindian lands. During the [[American Revolutionary War]], some Iroquois sided with the British and some with the Americans, resulting in civil war among the Iroquois. In the late 1770s, British-allied Iroquois attacked various American frontier settlements, prompting counter-attacks, culminating in the [[Sullivan Expedition]] of 1779, which destroyed most of the Iroquois towns and effectively broke Iroquois power. After the Revolutionary War, the Iroquois and other Indians of the region were assigned reservations. Most of their land, including the Finger Lakes region, was opened up to purchase and settlement.

Roughly the western half of the Finger Lakes region comprised the [[Phelps and Gorham Purchase]] of 1790. The region was rapidly settled at the turn of the 19th century, largely by a westward migration from [[New England]], and to a lesser degree by northward influx from Pennsylvania. The regional architecture reflects these area traditions of the Federal and [[Greek Revival]] periods.