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NortheastTreaty

Treaty with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge, 1794

In 1794 the United States promised the Oneida, Tuscarora and Stockbridge $5,000, mills and a church to repay wartime loyalty.

Signed
December 2, 1794
Senate
Ratified

What happened

On December 2, 1794, Timothy Pickering signed a treaty at Oneida, New York, for the United States. The other parties were chiefs of the Oneida, Tuscarora and Stockbridge nations. The treaty's opening says these nations "adhered faithfully to the United States, and assisted them with their warriors" in the Revolutionary War. It says the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were driven from their homes, and that their houses were burnt and their property destroyed. The United States had promised to reward them, and it said it was now able to keep that promise.

The treaty set out what the reward would be. The United States agreed to pay $5,000. It would build a grist mill and a saw mill, provide millers for three years and train young men of the three nations in milling and sawing. It would also pay $1,000 toward a new church at Oneida to replace the one burned in the war.

In return the three nations "relinquish all other claims of compensation and rewards for their losses and services in the late war." This treaty is about compensation, not land. The Treaty of Canandaigua, signed with the Six Nations three weeks earlier, dealt with land. Later disputes over Oneida land are covered in the atlas's linked records, not in this treaty.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. adhered faithfully to the United States, and assisted them with their warriorsTribal Treaties Database: Treaty with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge, 1794 (Oklahoma State University Libraries)
  2. The United States will pay the sum of five thousand dollarsTribal Treaties Database: Treaty with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge, 1794 (Oklahoma State University Libraries)
  3. relinquish all other claims of compensation and rewards for their losses and services in the late warTribal Treaties Database: Treaty with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge, 1794 (Oklahoma State University Libraries)

Research notes. The treaty concerns compensation for wartime losses, not land. Whether the promised payments, mills and church were delivered is not shown in the sources opened.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-oneida-etc-1794-0037reference work
    relinquish all other claims of compensation and rewards for their losses and services in the late war
  2. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/81556982reference work

Corrections to this record

  • The land description was listed as “Acknowledgment of Oneida/Tuscarora/Stockbridge lands in New York; compensation for Revolutionary War losses.”; corrected from treaties.okstate.edurelinquish all other claims of compensation and rewards for their losses and services in the late war
Research notes

Land description from memory; Oneida 1794 land-claim litigation (Oneida I/II) relates to later NY purchases in violation of the Nonintercourse Act.

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.