Treaty of Buffalo Creek with the New York Indians, 1838

What happened

On January 15, 1838, Ransom H. Gillet, commissioner for the United States, signed the treaty at Buffalo Creek, New York, with chiefs, head men and warriors of the New York Indians. In Article 1 the tribes ceded to the United States their rights to the lands secured to them at Green Bay by the 1831 treaty with the Menominee, except one tract where some already lived. In Article 2 the United States set apart land directly west of Missouri, 1,824,000 acres, at 320 acres per person, as a permanent home for the Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Oneida, St. Regis, Stockbridge, Munsee and Brothertown. Under Article 3, tribes that did not agree to remove within five years, or another time the President set, would forfeit all interest in those lands.

The preamble records that Thomas L. Ogden and Joseph Fellows had bought the Seneca nation's lands in the presence of a U.S. commissioner. The sum was $202,000, of which $100,000 was to be invested and $102,000 paid to owners of improvements. The treaty was proclaimed on April 4, 1840.

The Historical Society of the New York Courts says the Tonawanda Seneca asserted the treaty was invalid for their lands because their Sachem had not been a party to the negotiations or a signatory. It says they won two suits, Blacksmith v. Fellows and New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble, in the New York courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. It says the Seneca then gave up their Kansas rights and used federal relocation funds to purchase their lands from the Ogden Land Company.

Good to know. The Tonawanda Seneca said the treaty did not bind them because their sachem was not a party to it, and took the dispute to court.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error