08/29/2026
Perpetual Peace and Friendship
"Seneca said the renaming violated the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which was signed by President George Washington and the Haudenosaunee confederacy promising perpetual peace and friendship. The Seneca are one of the six nations of the confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” which means “lake of shining waters.” The Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.
In the traditional Seneca language, the lake’s name is “sga:nyodai:yoh,” meaning “beautiful lake,” Seneca said."
The leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York is criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” saying it violates a more than 225-year-old treaty and shows a “blatant disrespect” for the Indigenous people who gave it its name in the first pla...
