During the early to mid-19th century, significant groups of Oneida migrated to Wisconsin and Ontario as a result of displacement driven by New York State following the American Revolutionary War.

[14] These stories have long been used to develop social norms and pass along cultural capital via myths, folktales, and legends.

The Iroquois used three separate common names for these similar narratives: "things which truly happened," "it is as if an animal walked," and "they went to the woods to hunt for meat".

[16] Many Oneida political and diplomatic processes are highly formalized in this way, and spoken words are reinforced by the use of wampum, strings of symbolic shell beads, both in gesturing and as a gift indicating truth or seriousness.

[18] Religious rituals as well made specific use of prescribed language, including the Onnonhouaroia (Midwinter) ceremony, a psychologically oriented celebration of dreams, and shamanistic medicine ceremonies[19] Traditions of both oral narrative as well as ritual are in general a lesser part of Oneida culture today than they were up until post-colonial times.

[21][non-primary source needed] During the Depression era, the Folklore Project was created to preserve and promote the Oneida language.

Demus Elm's retelling of the Creation Story, a linguistic act for which the form is not tightly prescribed, has limited space for language change.

[24] Gick notes one of several minor changes from Elm's morphology to Antone's over the 25-year span between their narratives: the omission of the final syllable from one particular verb.

Eleazer Williams, a Mohawk Indian, further convinced many Oneida to convert to Christianity and leave New York State to settle in an area near Green Bay, Wisconsin.

While numbers of native speakers are limited, the viability of the Oneida nations and their efforts of cultural and linguistic preservation are at their highest level in 150 years.

All three Oneida nations, New York, Wisconsin, and Thames (Ontario), have relatively well-developed websites (www.oneidaindiannation.com; www.oneidanation.org; www.oneida.on.ca/index.htm) publicizing the current events of the tribes and their governmental actions.

The Oneida Nation of the Thames utilize their website to provide the public with information about their people, culture, community, and plans for the future.

Beginning in 1936 and led by Morris Swadesh, the Folklore Project, started at the University of Wisconsin, was an important program for the preservation and expansion of the Oneida language.

Primary products of documentation can be found at the Smithsonian Institution,[32] the American Philosophical Society,[33] Syracuse University Library,[34] and The Oneida Language Audio Collection.

The dictionaries consist of complete entries of all Oneida lexicon, while grammar books describe sounds, words and sentence structure, and meanings.

[36][37][38] Among the texts, stories, hymns, prayers, videos, songs, language learning resources, and websites[39][40] are present.

Derived from Lounsbury's work and her own original scholarship, Michelson presents a genealogy of the Iroquois language family, of which Oneida is a part.

[45] From this time, the Oneida remained largely sedentary through the arrival of French missionaries in the mid-17th century at their main settlement at Primes Hill in northern New York.

[46] Due to the centrality of hunting to the Oneida culture, clan membership was matrilineal (as men were often away) and tasks were divided along gender lines,[16] both societal elements that are still at least nominally in place.

[48] In their attempt to bring European religion, however, French missionaries, spearheaded by Jacques Bruyas, gradually succeeded in dismantling a significant portion of Oneida culture.

[49] Under the leadership of Chief Good Peter, and against the rest of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Oneida backed the United States in the Revolutionary War.

This process of sequestration and demoralization culminated in 1850 with the appropriation by the City of Utica of the Oneida Stone, a long-standing symbol of the Nation.

[51] Within the last ten to twenty years, the Oneida Nation of New York has been greatly revitalized by the establishment of the Turning Stone Resort and Casino.

The funds generated from this enterprise have enabled the Nation to direct substantial effort to rebuilding both culture and territory (www.oneidaindiannation.com) and have led to the formation of a variety of other Nation-owned businesses (www.onenterprises.com).

[10] Oneida syllables are largely CV, and VV appears in disyllabic sequences ai, ae, ao, and au.

Karin Michelson's A Comparative Study of Lake-Iroquoian Accent scientifically evaluates in depth many of the linguistic specifics of the Oneida language and its relatives, continuing the seminal work of Floyd Lounsbury from 1946.

... As soon as we built up resources from gaming and other enterprises, we turned back to our cultural heritage strongly committed to preserve and revitalize it".

Through the work of Floyd Lounsbury and others, texts "of great linguistic value" like Elm and Antone's serve to accomplish this purpose.