Site of Champlain Battle Where Samuel dechamplain Aided By 10 Frenchmen And 300 Hurons Attacked The Stockaded Oneida Indian Village, October 10-16, 1615.

The Oneida Nation is of the 6 Iroquois Nations. O-NE-I-TA means “People of the Stone” or “Living Stone.” The Oneidas affirm that they sprang from stone.

The Indian village located here was surrounded by water consisting of the pond on the north and an artificial moat on the south side. Around the inner top of the stockade was a wooden gutter. Water was carried up into this gutter for use if the stockade walls were set on fire.

Champlain was wounded twice on the second day of the battle. His men built a moveable wooden platform from which they fired their arqueouses, which were early guns, known as “Iron Arrows” to the Indians, into the village. Failing to defeat the Oneidas during the three days of battle, Champlain withdrew into the woods and waited for expected reinforcements of 500 Susquehannocks, which never came. On October 16th Champlain retreated.

This attack turned the entire Iroquois Confederacy against the French during the ensuing 100 year battle between the French and the English for the supremacy of the New World. The Iroquois were always on the side of the English.

The battle that took place here over 350 years ago is termed by some as the most decisive battle in American history. For it was here that the question of whether America north of the Rio Grande was to become an English or French territory was thus decided.