Chonodote was an 18th-century village of the Cayuga nation of

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Indians in what is now

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long ...

, USA. It was located about four and a half miles south of

Goiogouen Goiogouen (also spelled Gayagaanhe and known as Cayuga Castle), was a major village of the Cayuga nation of Iroquois Indians in west-central New York State. It was located on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake on the north side of the Great Gully B ...

, on the east side of

Cayuga Lake Cayuga Lake (,,) is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area (marginally smaller than Seneca Lake) and second largest in volume. It is just under long. Its average width is , and it is a ...

. Earlier, during the 17th century, this village was known as Deawendote, or ''Village of the Constant Dawn''. Chonodote was known as Peachtown to the American army because of its orchard of over a thousand peach trees. It consisted of about fourteen

longhouses A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

and stood very near the site of the present-day village of Aurora, New York. On September 24, 1779, the village became the last one to be destroyed by the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, under the command of William Butler:

As remorseless as a cannon shot, the axe levelled every tree though burdened with its loads of luscious fruit, and the freshly ripened corn was gathered only to be destroyed. At 10 o'clock A. M., the torch was applied to the dwellings, and as the crackling flames lifted their fiery heads over this scene of havoc and destruction.

Following the war, many Cayuga relocated to the

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

reservation at Tonawanda. Archaeological digging has pinpointed the likely location of Chonodote on the northern end of Aurora. Potsherds have been found and evidence of the use of coal in the 1770s was discovered.
historical marker
denoting the location of Chonodote (Peachtown) can be found in front of the Aurora Inn, at N 42° 45.282 W 076° 42.164. In September 2000,

Wells College Wells College is a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York. The college has cross-enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. For much of its history it was a women's college. Wells College is located in the Finger Lakes re ...

in Aurora held a festival, ''Return to Chonodote'', honoring the area's

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

past and present. The event was co-sponsored by SHARE (Strengthening Haudenosaunee and American Relations through Education), members of the

Cayuga Nation The Cayuga Nation of New York is a federally recognized tribe of Cayuga people, based in New York, United States. Other organized tribes with Cayuga members are the federally recognized Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Canadian-recognized ...

and Onondaga Nation, and

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and ...

References

{{Coord, 42, 45.282 , N, 76, 42.164, W, display=title Archaeological sites in New York (state) Cayuga Iroquois populated places Geography of Cayuga County, New York