if you look at the language, onieda language is an offshoot of the mohawks.nd they were an offshoot of those nations and they call them younger brothers, but they will have an equal voice. you have the onondaga sitting here and over here would be the mohawk and the seneca. and here are the younger brothers, the oneida and cayuga. now you have this structure -- we had a lot of influence in how the u.s. government was formed and if you look at it, the onondaga, the fire keepers, would suggest the agenda and over here would be the mohawks. they would debate back and forth and went through all the issues. they went back and forth and then would say now we will send it over to the fire keepers. it all started when we decided to file our land rights action. that is a whole other issue in itself. we made these trees and we are -- we made these treaties and we are told we are going to protect your lands. but the states did not seem to recognize that and we lost our land. ♪ chief sidney hill: we are still here, we still have a language, we have a culture and our ways

if you look at the language, onieda language is an offshoot of the mohawks.o, they were kind of an offshoot of those nations and they call them younger brothers, but they will have an equal voice. so, the structure was you have , the onondaga sitting here and over here would be the mohawk and the seneca. and here are the younger brothers, the oneida and cayuga. and later, when they joined the confederacy, they were along with the younger brothers. -- you have the structure of we had a lot of influence in how the u.s. government was formed and if you look at it, the onondaga, the fire keepers, would suggest the agenda and over here would be the mohawks. they would go back and forth, the younger and older brothers. they would debate, back and forth. they went through all the issues. they went back and forth. back and forth. say, now we send it over to the fire keepers. it all started when we decided in the courts. that is a whole other issue in itself. we made these treaties, and now the u.s. is going to protect your lands. but the states did not seem to recogn