Goiogouen (also spelled Gayagaanhe and known as Cayuga Castle), was a major 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 west-central

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. It was located on the eastern shore 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 ...

on the north side of the Great Gully Brook, about south of the large 17th-century Cayuga town of Tiohero; and approximately along the southern line of the modern-day township of

Springport, New York Springport is a town in Cayuga County, New York, United States. The population was 2,367 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the local springs and lakeports. Springport is on the western border of the county and is southwest of Auburn. ...

. It was located about four miles (6 km) north from

Chonodote Chonodote was an 18th-century village of the Cayuga nation of Iroquois Indians in what is now upstate New York, USA. It was located about four and a half miles south of Goiogouen, on the east side of Cayuga Lake. Earlier, during the 17th century, th ...

, the present-day location of the village of Aurora, New York and about two miles (3 km) south of the village of

Union Springs, New York Union Springs is a village (New York), village in Cayuga County, New York, Cayuga County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,197 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the mineral springs near the village. Union S ...

. Goiogouen was established at least as early as 1656 when the French mission of St. Joseph was founded nearby. It remained occupied through the late 17th century and most of the 18th century. It was abandoned after being destroyed by US forces in 1779, but was reoccupied until 1784. In 1656, Jesuit missionaries Joseph Chaumanot and René Menard came to the area from

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

territory, said to be invited by the Cayuga chief Saonchiogwa. They were followed later by Étienne de Carheil and

Pierre Raffeix Pierre Raffeix (1633–1724) was a French Jesuit missionary in Canada. He was born at Clermont-Ferrand, entered the Society of Jesus in 1653, and came to Canada in 1663. In 1668 he established near Montreal a settlement for converted Iroquois (no ...

. The Jesuits built there apparently the first Christian church west of Onondaga territory. Their mission at Goiogouen was named St. Joseph. At the first visit of the Jesuits, Goioguen was described as "a village flong houses with ridge-pole roofs covered with elm bark... in the midst of fields of corn which extended to the edge of the forest." In 1671, Raffeix described the country surrounding Goiogouen as follows: ''Goiogouen is the fairest country I have seen in America. It is a tract between two lakes and not exceeding four leagues in width, consisting of almost uninterrupted plains, the woods bordering it are extremely beautiful. Around Goiogouen there are killed more than a thousand deer annually. Fish, salmon, as well as eels and other fish are plentiful. Four leagues from here I saw by the side of a river (Seneca) ten extremely fine salt springs.'' At the time of the American Revolution, Goiogouen consisted of "fifteen very large square log houses" (

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 ...

), deemed to be very well built by the scouting parties of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign; and "in the vicinity...were one hundred and of corn; besides apples, peaches, potatoes, turnips, onions, pumpkins, squashes and other vegetables in abundance." The village was destroyed by these American troops on September 23, 1779. A monument erected in 1929 by

stands near the location of Goiogouen.

References

{{coord, 42, 50, N, 76, 41, W, display=title Iroquois populated places Cayuga Geography of Cayuga County, New York Catholic missions of New France