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 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 ...

Mohawk nation The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...

Cayuga nation The Cayuga Nation of New York is a federally recognized tribe of Cayuga people, based in New York (state), New York, United States. Other organized tribes with Cayuga members are the federally recognized Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Can ...

Oneida Indian Nation The Oneida Indian Nation (OIN) or Oneida Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Oneida people in the United States. The tribe is headquartered in Verona, New York, where the tribe originated and held its historic territory long before Europea ...

Onondaga (tribe) The Onondaga people (Onondaga: , ''Hill Place people'') are one of the original five constituent nations of the Iroquois (''Haudenosaunee'') Confederacy in northeast North America. Their traditional homeland is in and around present-day Onondaga ...

Tuscarora (tribe) The Tuscarora (in Tuscarora ''Skarù:ręˀ'', "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian family, with members today in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. They ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It covered land sales of tribal reservations under the U.S.

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 ...

program, by which they planned to move most eastern tribes to

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

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 ...

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 ...

-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 Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida Na ...

that were presently living there. This established the original boundaries of the Oneida Reservation of Wisconsin.

History

In August 1826, a land company led by former

Holland Land Company The Holland Land Company was an unincorporated syndicate of thirteen Dutch investors from Amsterdam who in 1792 and 1793 purchased the western two-thirds of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, an area that afterward was known as the Holland Purchase ...

attorney

David A. Ogden David Aaron Ogden (January 10, 1770 – June 9, 1829) was a U.S. Representative from New York and a member of the prominent Ogden family. Early life Born in Morristown in the Province of New Jersey, he was the son of Sarah Frances (Ludlow) ...

had negotiated the purchase of six of the ten reservations allocated to the

Seneca tribe The Seneca () ( see, Onödowáʼga:, "Great Hill People") are a group of Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Their nation was the farthest to the west w ...

in the 1797

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 ...

, all of them along the

Genesee River The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides h ...

: Canawaugus, Geneseo, Do'onondaga'a, Deyuitgaoh, Caneadea and Gardeau. To the present day, the

Seneca Nation of Indians 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 Yo ...

does not recognize the 1826 sale as valid, alleging the sale was made under duress and does not have to be honored because it was not accompanied by a treaty ratified by the United States government. After the sale, four reservations remained:

Buffalo Creek Reservation The Buffalo Creek Reservation was a tract of land surrounding Buffalo Creek in the central portion of Erie County, New York. It contained approximately of land and was set aside for the Seneca Nation following negotiations with the United States ...

Tonawanda Reservation The Tonawanda Indian Reservation ( see, Ta:nöwöde') is an Indian reservation of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation located in western New York, United States. The band is a federally recognized tribe and, in the 2010 census, had 693 people living on t ...

Cattaraugus Reservation Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of Indians, formerly part of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. Its ...

, and

Allegany Reservation Allegany Reservation (Uhì·yaʼRudes, B. ''Tuscarora English Dictionary'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999 in Tuscarora) is a Seneca Nation of Indians reservation in Cattaraugus County, New York, USA. In the 2000 census, 58 percent of ...

. In the 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek, the Seneca, represented by certain chiefs including

Red Jacket Red Jacket (known as ''Otetiani'' in his youth and ''Sagoyewatha'' eeper Awake''Sa-go-ye-wa-tha'' as an adult because of his oratorical skills) (c. 1750–January 20, 1830) was a Seneca people, Seneca orator and Tribal chief, chief of the Wolf ...

Cornplanter John Abeel III (born between 1732 and 1746–February 18, 1836), known as Gaiänt'wakê (''Gyantwachia'' – "the planter") or Kaiiontwa'kon (''Kaintwakon'' – "By What One Plants") in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplante ...

Handsome Lake Handsome Lake (Cayuga language: Sganyadái:yo, Seneca language: Sganyodaiyo) (Θkanyatararí•yau• in Tuscarora) (1735 – 10 August 1815) was a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois people. He was a half-brother to Cornplanter, a Seneca w ...

, and

Governor Blacksnake Tah-won-ne-ahs or Thaonawyuthe (born between 1737 and 1760, died December 26, 1859), known in English as either Chainbreaker to his own people or Governor Blacksnake to the European settlers, was a Seneca war chief and sachem. Along with other Ir ...

, 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 Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

(then territory), west of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. 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 Maris Bryant Pierce (1811–1874; also known as Ha-dya-no-doh, Swift Runner), was a Seneca Nation chief, lawyer, and teacher. He was a tribal land-rights activist, and a major influence to the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek of 1838. Early life a ...

served as a lawyer representing four of the territories. 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 The Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek or Treaty with the Seneca of 1842 signed by the U.S. and the Seneca Nation modified the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek.

in 1842. A

Tonawanda Band of Seneca The Tonawanda Seneca Nation (previously known as the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians) ( see, Ta:nöwö:deʼ Onödowáʼga꞉ Yoindzadeʼ) is a federally recognized tribe in the State of New York. They have maintained the traditional form of gover ...

was later established and reclaimed the Tonawanda Reservation in the

Fourth Treaty of Buffalo Creek The Fourth Treaty of Buffalo Creek or Treaty with the Seneca, Tonawanda Band is a modification of the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek and Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek. The Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians objected to their inclusion in the tre ...

in 1857, declaring independence from the Seneca Nation of Indians. In 1861, the

New York State Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

ruled that the

Oil Springs Reservation Oil Springs Reservation or Oil Spring Reservation is an Indian reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation that is located in southwestern New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the Indian reservation had one resident; in 2005 ...

was also Seneca territory despite not being included in any of the treaties, as Seneca witness

argued that its omission was a mistake.

References

*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

TREATY WITH THE ONEIDA, 1838.Feb. 3, 1838. , 7 Stat., 566.
Seneca tribe Buffalo Creek History of Buffalo, New York 1838 treaties Aboriginal title in New York

History

See also

References

External links