Treaties of Buffalo Creek

There are four treaties of Buffalo Creek, named for the Buffalo River in New York.

1788

In the first Treaty of Buffalo Creek on July 8, 1788 Phelps and Gorham purchased title to lands east from the Genesee River in New York to the Preemption Line.

1838

A 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.

The Seneca nation, represented by certain chiefs, agreed to the following. Based on the terms of the accord, the US was to sell the five remaining Seneca reservations (Buffalo Creek Reservation, Tonawanda Reservation, Oil Springs Reservation, Cattaraugus Reservation, and Allegany Reservation) and provide 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 (the land company founded by former Holland Land Company attorney David A. Ogden, who by this time was deceased) would buy the five reservations then occupied by the Seneca Nation, including the Tonawanda Reservation. The understanding was that the Ogden Land Company would sell the land to settlers for development.

1842

The U.S. and the Seneca Nation modified the treaty by the Treaty with the Seneca of 1842. This reflected that the Ogden Company had purchased only two of the four Seneca reservations, but their purchase included the Tonawanda Reservation. But officials had failed to consult the chiefs of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians, who had signed neither treaty. The Seneca residing on the Tonawanda Reservation refused to leave their land and objected to the 1838 and 1842 treaty proceedings.

The 1842 treaty is the treaty that the Seneca nation claims exempts them from excise taxes, citing a statement in the ninth article of the treaty. Said article states:

The parties to this compact mutually agree to solicit the influence of the Government of the United States to protect such of the lands of the Seneca Indians, within the State of New York, as may from time to time remain in their possession from all taxes, and assessments for roads, highways, or any other purpose until such lands shall be sold and conveyed by the said Indians, and the possession thereof shall have been relinquished by them.

The result of this language is that the Seneca nation has refused to sell any land to non-Indians within its territory. One side effect of this is that the city of Salamanca, which is mostly on the Allegany Reservation but occupied by a large number of non-native residents, operates on a lease system in which any non-native property holder must sign a lease with the nation acknowledging the tribe's ownership of the land.

1857

To settle the issue with the Tonawanda sale, the U.S. signed a treaty with the Tonawanda Band in 1857 known as the Treaty with the Seneca, Tonawanda Band. The Seneca bought back most of their reservation with the money set aside for their removal to Kansas. At the same time, they seceded from the main Seneca nation and restored their traditional government of a Council of Chiefs, based on consensus.

See also

• Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)
• Treaty of Canandaigua
• Treaty of Big Tree
• Treaties of Buffalo Creek
• List of treaties
• Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857)
• New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble (1858)

References

• Laurence M. Hauptman, Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State (2001).

See also

• Treaty of Canandaigua
• Treaty of Big Tree

External links

• TREATY WITH THE ONEIDA, 1838.Feb. 3, 1838. | 7 Stat., 566.
• Treaty of Buffalo Creek, Jan. 15, 1838, 7 Stat. 550,
• United States v. New York Indians, 173 U.S. 464, 468, 43 L. Ed. 769, 19 S. Ct. 481 (1899).