Cornelius Hill
Cornelius Hill (November 13, 1834 – January 25, 1907) or Onangwatgo (“Big Medicine”) was the last hereditary chief of the Oneida Nation, and fought to preserve his people's lands and rights under various treaties with the United States government. A lifelong Episcopalian, he was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America at age 69, and ministered to his people until shortly before his death.
Cornelius Hill
November 13, 1834
January 25, 1907 (aged 72)
The Oneida, one of the five founding tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, had aligned with the Americans during the American Revolutionary War, but when faced with pressure from white settlers who often mistook them for members of hostile tribes, had begun negotiating with the Ho-Chunk and Menominee tribes and moving to Wisconsin around 1821. Many members had become Christians under missionaries sent by the Episcopal and Methodist Churches to both New York and Wisconsin. In 1825, tribal members built a log church near the Fox River and an important portage on their new lands about 10 miles southwest of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which they called the Hobart Chapel after its consecrating bishop, John Henry Hobart of New York.
Family[edit]
At the time of his ordination, aged 69, Hill's wife, who had borne 8 children, had not learned English. Several of their children went to the Hampton Indian School after their education at the reservation's school.
Death and legacy[edit]
Hill died on January 25, 1907, having fallen ill shortly before Christmas. After three requiems and funeral at the Church of the Holy Apostles attended by 800 persons, he was buried in the graveyard with other tribal members and the missionaries he assisted.[10] When fire from a lightning strike on July 17, 1920 destroyed the Gothic stone church, it was rebuilt in a similar design. The Oneida continued to revere Hill's wisdom and sanctity, relating tales of their leader to Works Progress Administration historians during the Great Depression, even though by 1920 only a few hundred acres of the reservation were owned by tribal members (the remaining approximately 65,000 acres being owned by whites before the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 caused the Bureau of Indian Affairs to begin reversing the policy).[11][12]