1838 treaty between the United States and Native Americans
There are four
treaties of Buffalo Creek
, named for the
Buffalo River
in New York. The
Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek
, also known as the
Treaty with the New York Indians, 1838
, was signed on January 15, 1838 (proclaimed on April 4, 1840) between the
Seneca Nation
,
Mohawk nation
,
Cayuga nation
,
Oneida Indian Nation
,
Onondaga (tribe)
,
Tuscarora (tribe)
and the
United States
. It covered land sales of
tribal reservations
under the U.S.
Indian Removal
program, by which they planned to move most eastern tribes to
Kansas Territory
west of the
Mississippi River
.
Treaty of Buffalo Creek
-January 15, 1838-Article I-The New York Indians also agreed to "cede and relinquish to the United States all their right, title, and interest to the lands secured to them at Green Bay by the Menominee Treaty of 1831, excepting the following tract, on which a part of the New York Indians now reside." The tract was eight by twelve miles consisting of 65, 436 acres or equal to 100 acres for each of the 654
Oneida
that were presently living there. This established the original boundaries of the Oneida Reservation of Wisconsin.
History
[
edit
]
In August 1826, a land company led by former
Holland Land Company
attorney
David A. Ogden
had negotiated the purchase of six of the ten reservations allocated to the
Seneca tribe
in the 1797
Treaty of Big Tree
, all of them along the
Genesee River
:
Canawaugus
, Geneseo,
Do'onondaga'a
, Deyuitgaoh, Caneadea and Gardeau. To the present day, the
Seneca Nation of Indians
does not recognize the 1826 sale as valid, alleging the sale was made under duress
[1]
and does not have to be honored because it was not accompanied by a treaty ratified by the United States government.
[2]
After the sale, four reservations remained:
Buffalo Creek Reservation
,
Tonawanda Reservation
,
Cattaraugus Reservation
, and
Allegany Reservation
.
In the 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek, the Seneca, represented by certain chiefs including
Red Jacket
,
Cornplanter
,
Handsome Lake
, and
Governor Blacksnake
, agreed to sell the four remaining Seneca reservations, in exchange for the United States providing for the Seneca to relocate to a tract of land in present-day
Kansas
(then territory), west of
Missouri
. A section of the treaty acknowledged that the Ogden Land Company (still in operations after Ogden had died in 1829) would buy the five reservations then occupied by the Seneca Nation, after which the Ogden Land Company would sell the land to settlers for development.
The treaty was met with some controversy and resistance by Quakers residing in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. These groups filed charges of fraud against the Ogden Company. Seneca young chief
Maris Bryant Pierce
served as a lawyer representing four of the territories.
[3]
[4]
Some Seneca groups, particularly among those in the Tonawanda reservation, also claimed that most Iroquois did not support the treaty and that only a minority actually signed it. Some of these grievances helped lead to another meeting between these two parties and the creation of the further treaties.
Ultimately, the Ogden Land Company abandoned its attempts to purchase the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations, leading to the
Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek
in 1842. A
Tonawanda Band of Seneca
was later established and reclaimed the Tonawanda Reservation in the
Fourth Treaty of Buffalo Creek
in 1857, declaring independence from the Seneca Nation of Indians. In 1861, the
New York State Court of Appeals
ruled that the
Oil Springs Reservation
was also Seneca territory despite not being included in any of the treaties, as Seneca witness
Governor Blacksnake
argued that its omission was a mistake.
[5]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Red Jacket (Seneca chief) (2006).
The Collected Speeches of Sagoyewatha, Or Red Jacket
.
Syracuse University Press
.
ISBN
9780815630968
. Retrieved
May 8,
2017
.
- ^
Quigley, Kellen (December 31, 2022).
"Seneca Nation purchases ancestral Genesee Valley land"
.
The
Salamanca Press
. Retrieved
2022-12-31
.
- ^
Littlefield, Jr., Daniel F.; Parins, James W. (2011-01-19).
Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal [2 volumes]
. ABC-CLIO. p. 173.
ISBN
978-0-313-36042-8
.
- ^
Johansen, Bruce Elliott; Mann, Barbara Alice (2000).
Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy)
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 249.
ISBN
978-0-313-30880-2
.
- ^
Hauptman, Laurence (2008).
Seven Generations of Iroquois Leadership: The Six Nations Since 1800
. Syracuse University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8156-3165-1
.
- Laurence M. Hauptman,
Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State
(2001).
- Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal
. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood. 2011. pp. 241?243.
ISBN
978-0-313-36041-1
.
External links
[
edit
]