The name of the Oneida nation in the Council was _Nihatirontakowa_--or, in the Onondaga dialect, _Nihatientakona_--usually rendered the "Great-Tree People,"--literally, "those of the great log." It is derived from _karonta_, a fallen tree or piece of timber, with the suffix _kowa_ or _kona_, great, added, and the verb-forming pronoun prefixed. In the singular number it becomes _Niharontakowa_, which would be understood to mean "He is an Oneida." The name, it is said, was given to the nation because when Dekanawidah and Hiawatha first went to meet its chief, they crossed the Oneida creek on a bridge composed of an immense tree which had fallen or been laid across it, and noted that the Council fire at which the treaty was concluded was kindled against another huge log. These, however, may be merely explanations invented in later times.
The Cayugas bore in Council the name of _Sotinonnawentona_, meaning "the Great-Pipe People." In the singular it is _Sononnawentona_. The root of the word is _kanonnawen_, which in composition becomes _kanonnawenta_, meaning pipe, or calumet. It is said that the chief who in the first Council represented the Cayugas smoked a pipe of unusual size, which attracted the notice of the "name-givers."
Finally the Seneca mountaineers, the _Sonnontowanas_, bore the title, in the Canienga speech, of _Ronaninhohonti_, "the Door-keepers," or literally, "they who are at the doorway." In the singular this becomes _Roninhohonti_. In the Onondaga dialect it is _Honinhohonta_. It is a verbal form, derived from _Kanhoha_, door, and _ont_, to be. This name is undoubtedly coeval with the formation of the League, and was bestowed as a title of honor. The Senecas, at the western end of the "extended mansion," guarded the entrance against the wild tribes in that quarter, whose hostility was most to be dreaded.
The enumeration of the chiefs who formed the confederacy is closed by the significant words, "and then, in later times, additions were made to the great edifice." This is sufficient evidence that the Canienga "Book of Rites" was composed in its present form after the Tuscaroras, and possibly after the Nanticokes and Tuteloes, were received into the League. The Tuscaroras were admitted in 1714; the two other nations were received about the year 1753. [Footnote: The former date is well known; for the latter, see _N. Y. Hist. Col._, Vol. 6, p. 311; Stone's _Life of Sir William Johnson_, p. 434.]