The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

finalized on October 22, 1784, between 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 territo ...

and Native Americans from the six nations of the

Iroquois League The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

. It was signed at

Fort Stanwix Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was built ...

, in present-day

Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which li ...

, and was the first of several treaties between Native Americans and the United States after the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Following the Revolutionary War, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

ceded their claims in North America to the

American government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, against the desire of their Native American allies. As a result, the status of Indian lands was ignored in the Treaty of Paris, which was the peace and land settlement between the British and the American colonies. Iroquois League fled to Canada after the Revolution in order to continue receiving British support. Later, some of the Iroquois returned to their home in the Ohio region. Those that returned often got into violent conflict with colonists trying to settle the area. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was intended to serve as a peace treaty between the Americans and the Iroquois, as well as secure other Indian lands farther west, which the Iroquois had gained by conquest during the Beaver Wars in the last century.

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps t ...

was the leading Indian at the start of negotiations. He said, "But we must observe to you, that we are sent in order to make peace, and that we are not authorized, to stipulate any particular cession of lands." Brant had to leave early for a planned trip to England. The leading Indian representatives who signed the treaty were

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 ...

and Captain Aaron Hill. In this treaty, the Iroquois Confederacy ceded all claims to the Ohio territory, a strip of land along the Niagara river and all land west of mouth of Buffalo creek. In Pennsylvania, the land acquired in this treaty is known as the "Last Purchase". The Six Nations council at Buffalo Creek refused to ratify the treaty, denying that their delegates had the power to give away such large tracts of land and asked the Americans for return of the deeds and promised to indemnify them for any presents they had given. The general Indian confederacy also disavowed the treaty because most of the Six Nations did not live in the Ohio territory. The Ohio Country natives, including the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...

Indians, the Seneca-Cayuga, the Lenape (

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

) and several other tribes, rejected the treaty. A series of treaties and land sales with these tribes soon followed: *1785

Treaty of Fort McIntosh The Treaty of Fort McIntosh was a treaty between the United States government and representatives of the Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations of Native Americans. The treaty was signed at Fort McIntosh (present Beaver, Pennsylvani ...

with

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language * Wyandot religion Places * Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Wyandot County, Ohio * Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boy ...

te,

, Chippewa and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

leaders for lands in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

*1786

Treaty of Fort Finney Fort Finney was a fort built in Oct. 1785 at the mouth of the Great Miami River near the modern city of Cincinnati and named for Major Walter Finney who built the fort. The site was chosen to be midway between Falls of the Ohio and Limestone ( Ma ...

with

leaders for portions of Ohio *1788

Phelps and Gorham Purchase The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of of land in what is now western New York State from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 ( £300,000), to be paid in three annual installments, and the pre-emptive right to t ...

with the Iroquois for lands in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

east of 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 hy ...

*1789

Treaty of Fort Harmar The Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789) was an agreement between the United States government and numerous Native American tribes with claims to the Northwest Territory. History The Treaty of Fort Harmar was signed at Fort Harmar, near present-day M ...

reiterating claims in Ohio *1794

Treaty of Canandaigua The Treaty of Canandaigua (or Konondaigua, as spelled in the treaty itself) also known as the Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty, is a treaty signed after the American Revolutionary War between the Grand Council of the Six Nations and Presid ...

establishing peace with the Iroquois and affirming lands rights in New York State east of the Genesee River *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 ...

with the Iroquois for lands in New York State west of the Genesee River The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a significant blow to the Iroquois League. The Revolutionary War had significantly weakened the strength of the confederacy, and the negotiations at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix served to further divide them. After the war, the Iroquois never returned to their former influential status.

Footnotes

References

*Hauptman, Laurence M., ''Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State'',2001, *Kelsay, Isabel, ''Joseph Brant 1743-1807 Man of Two Worlds'', 1984, *Manley, Henry S., ''The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784'', 1932,

External links

*
Text of the 1784 treaty
{{Authority control History of Pennsylvania Iroquois Northwest Indian War

1784 in the United States

Aboriginal title in New York Native American history of Pennsylvania

See also

Footnotes

References

External links