Buffalo Creek Reservation-Holland Land Company map-circ 1821

The Buffalo Creek Reservation was a tract of land surrounding Buffalo Creek in the central portion of

Erie County, New York Erie County is a county along the shore of Lake Erie in western New York State. As of the 2020 census, the population was 954,236. The county seat is Buffalo, which makes up about 28% of the county's population. Both the county and Lake Erie w ...

. It contained approximately of land and was set aside for the

Seneca Nation The Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized Seneca tribe based in western New York. They are one of three federally recognized Seneca entities in the United States, the others being the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (also in western New Y ...

following negotiations with the United States after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

History

The territory around Buffalo Creek was conquered by the Seneca in the 1600s from the

Wenrohronon The Wenrohronon or Wenro people were an Iroquoian indigenous nation of North America, originally residing in present-day western New York (and possibly fringe portions of northern & northwestern Pennsylvania), who were conquered by the Confeder ...

, also called Wenro. Sometime between 1660 and 1690 the Seneca began to occupy the area. This was during the period of the Beaver Wars, when the Iroquois nations worked to expand their territory and hunting grounds. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, the

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...

of 1779 destroyed many towns of the Seneca, as they were allies of the British. The homeless people fled to the protection of the British at

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great Lakes. The fort is on the river's e ...

. At one point the British were reported to be feeding and housing over 5000 refugees. Following a terrible winter of 1779–80 at Niagara, the Iroquois began to disperse.

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk people, Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York (state), New York, who was closely associated with Kingdom of Great Britain, Great B ...

took a group of mixed tribal members to the Grand River in Canada, where the Crown promised them a large grant of land. The

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

went to Lewiston. The remaining Seneca, Cayugas, and

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

peoples, led by

Sayenqueraghta Sayenqueraghta (1786) was the war chief of the eastern Seneca tribe in the mid-18th century. His name in the Seneca language, meaning "Disappearing Smoke", is phonetically rendered as Kaieñãkwaahtoñ, and was spelled in a variety of ways, inclu ...

(Old King) and his son-in-law

Roland Montour The Montour family was a family of Native-American and French descent which was prominent in colonial New York and Pennsylvania before and during the American Revolution. Because of the Iroquois practice of reckoning descent through the female lin ...

, chose to settle at Buffalo Creek. Because the Seneca had been allies of the defeated British, the US forced them to cede most of their territory. By the

Treaty of Big Tree The Treaty of Big Tree was a formal treaty signed in 1797 between the Seneca Nation and the United States, in which the Seneca relinquished their rights to nearly all of their traditional homeland in New York State—nearly 3.5 million acres. In ...

in 1797, the Seneca relinquished all of Western New York except for twelve reservations, including Buffalo Creek. This reservation encompassed much of the present site of the city of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, as well as its southern and western suburbs. By 1817 an estimate placed the population on the reservation at around 700 Seneca, plus small numbers of other displaced people. In 1838 the United States forced the Seneca to agree to the

Treaty of Buffalo Creek The Treaties of Buffalo Creek are a series of treaties, named for the Buffalo River in New York, between the United States and Native American peoples: These include the following: * First Treaty of Buffalo Creek (1788) * Second Treaty of Buff ...

, which was part of the

Indian Removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...

policy initiated by President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

's administration. It required the Seneca of western New York to cede all of their reservation lands and move west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, specifically to Wisconsin and

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

(present-day Oklahoma), within five years. After the land sale that required the treaty fell through, the US negotiated a new treaty, which the Senate ratified in 1842. The Seneca began selling portions of the reservation in the 1840s to European Americans, members of the Ebenezer Society. The Buffalo Creek reservation was the only reservation to be dissolved: the Seneca were allowed to keep their Cattaraugus, Oil Springs, Allegany and Tonawanda reservations after legal battles in the 1850s fought by Onondaga chief

Samuel George :''See also Sam George'' Samuel George (1795 – September 24, 1873) was an influential Onondaga Indian chief, holding the title Hononwirehdonh, or "Great Wolf" for twenty-three years. He served in the War of 1812 and was a renowned healer and o ...

and other leaders.

Current status

The modern Buffalo Creek Reservation consists of a nine-acre plot of land, which was part of the original reservation. In 2010, the Seneca bought the land from Carl Paladino, whose Ellicott Development Company continues to own much of the surrounding land. The Seneca developed the

Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino is a casino in Buffalo, New York, United States. It is owned by the Seneca Nation of New York, through the Seneca Gaming Corporation. The complex consists of of gaming space. It opened as a temporary structure on J ...

on this property, the revenues of which are used for economic development. A branch of its "Seneca One Stop"

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

chain is being erected on the plot in 2020, with plans to open it in 2021.

References

{{authority control American Indian reservations in New York (state) Geography of Buffalo, New York Former American Indian reservations Seneca tribe