Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek facts for kids
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
The Seneca nation, represented by certain chiefs including Red Jacket, Cornplanter, Handsome Lake, and Governor Blacksnake, 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. The understanding was that 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. Some Seneca groups 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, Cattaraugus and Oil Spring reservations, leading to the Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek in 1842.
