From the NY Daily News:
“The Onondaga Nation celebrates cicadas, which saved them from starvation at the hands of then–General George Washington and the Continental Army, which waged a 1779 campaign to destroy Native crops and food.
“It was a terrible time for our people,” Onondaga Nation citizen Betty Lyons, executive director of the nonprofit American Indian Law Alliance, told Indian Country Today. “Our ancestors ran into the forest in order to survive. But then they heard this beautiful humming noise. It was the children who said, ‘Listen, they’re telling us they’re here to save us.’ And it was the children who told the people to eat the cicadas.”
To this day the Onondaga celebrate their own region’s cicadas, in their case Brood VII, which last appeared in 2018. It’s a way of honoring their ancestors, Lyons said.”
Read more: Wondrous, fascinating and tasty: Brood X cicadas.