Squawkie Hill Traditional Cache
howieandjan: 9 years of having permission, then someone got all worked up because they couldn’t do other activities on the land, so permission rescinded.
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Size: 
(small)
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Parking coords. N 42 44.567, w 077 53.284. Please enter here, although there may seem to be shorter routes, this is where we have permission.
This is Town of Leicester property, Thanks to the Town Board and Gary Moore-town supervisor for giving us permission to cache.
IMPORTANT NOTE-we are asked to cache only between 4pm and dusk on weekdays, and dawn to dusk on weekends.
Please do not block gate or drive past it.
We have changed both the location and container, making this a whole new cache with a whole new view. Anyone who wants to do this again, or needs to re-visit in order to complete Meskwahki-haki may claim it as a found.
This area is the site of what was one of the larger Seneca villages of the Genesee Valley. The Seneca people were known as The keepers of the western door of the great Iroquois League, and their village, De-yu-it-ga'-oh (meaning-where the valley begins to widen) was located on the western side of the Mt. Morris highbanks, downstream from what is now the Mt. Morris dam. This site held everything an Iroquios village needed-fertile soil, water, hunting, fishing and a means of transportation.
It was during the American Revolution that things would change. As the Sullivan Campaign in 1779 destroyed many Iroquios villages to the east, the refugees flocked to the surviving villages in the west one of which was De-yu-it-ga'-oh. In 1780, Sir Guy Johnson, who had been the British Superintendant of Indian Affairs, attempted to stabilize the tribes of their indian allies by assigning groups of refugees to the remaining villages.
In this way the Fox People came to De-yu-it-ga'-oh. The Fox People were also called Meskwahki-haki or Squawki-how people. When white men came, they would call the area "Squawkie Hill"
The Treaty of Big Tree in 1797 set this area, and Gardeau to the south as one of several reservations. But as more and more white men settled into the areas around them, the indian people would see their way of life change and fade away.
One of the inhabitants of the reservation was the grandson of Mary Jemison. "Buffalo" Tom Jemison, who learned to read and write at a church-built school on the reservation, was one of it's last remaining residents. By 1816, the reservation had faded to only about 8 residents and the land was sold in 1826 at the Treaty of Buffalo Creek. They last few remaining people, including Buffalo Tom, headed west to the Tonawanda, Alleghany or Cattaraugus reservations.
If you do this cache during the spring or summer, it is worth a reapeat visit in fall or winter to be able to stand on the hill and see the view across the Genesee valley. Imagine yourself a Seneca Indian looking across lands where you once lived and seeing them forever changed.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
pnyy sbe uvagf 451-4988