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Treaty

Seneca at Buffalo Creek, New York (1842)

An 1842 compromise let the Seneca keep the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations but gave up Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda to the Ogden Land Company.

Signed
May 20, 1842
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 68,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On May 20, 1842, Ambrose Spencer, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty at Buffalo Creek, New York, with the chiefs, headmen and warriors of the Seneca nation in council. It recites the January 15, 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek, which was amended and proclaimed on April 4, 1840. It also sets out an indenture signed the same day between the Seneca and Thomas L. Ogden and Joseph Fellows. They were assignees under the State of Massachusetts.

The indenture recites that in 1838 the Seneca had granted four tracts to Ogden and Fellows for $202,000: Buffalo Creek (estimated at 49,920 acres), Cattaraugus (21,680), Allegany (30,469) and Tonnewanda (12,800). It says questions and differences had since arisen and the parties agreed to settle them. In Article 1 Ogden and Fellows agreed the Seneca could keep the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, while reserving their right of pre-emption in those tracts. In Article 2 the Seneca granted the Buffalo Creek and Tonnewanda Reservations to Ogden and Fellows. A new payment was figured on the two tracts given up.

The Historical Society of the New York Courts says the Tonawanda Seneca asserted that the 1838 treaty was invalid for their lands because their Sachem had not been a party. It says they won two suits that reached the New York courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, In a separate 1857 treaty, the Tonawanda band gave up its claims to lands west of Missouri, and the United States agreed to pay $256,000, from which the band could buy back its reservation from Ogden and Fellows. The treaty was proclaimed on August 26, 1842.

Good to know. The treaty text does not say whether the Tonawanda chiefs consented to this arrangement.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 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

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. shall and may continue in the occupation and enjoyment of the whole of the said two several tracts of landTreaty with the Seneca, 1842 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the Buffalo Creek Reservation, containing by estimation forty-nine thousand nine hundred and twenty acres of landTreaty with the Seneca, 1842 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. The Tonawanda Seneca asserted that the treaty was invalid with regard to the Tonawanda lands because their Sachem had not been party to the treaty.Blacksmith v. Fellows, 1852 / Fellows v. Blacksmith, 1857 (Historical Society of the New York Courts)
  4. Ambrose SpencerTreaty with the Seneca, 7 Stat. 586 (govinfo)
  5. the sum of $256,000 for the said Tonawanda band of IndiansTreaty with the Seneca, Tonawanda Band, 1857 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. The treaty text does not name the Tonawanda Band as a separate party or say whether the Tonawanda chiefs consented. The later buy-back of Tonawanda land came under a separate 1857 treaty. The long indenture's compensation formula is not summarized here.

What the treaty did to the land

About 68,000 acres given up. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

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.

  1. 1797

    Land kept

    About 202,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Seneka

    By Agreement (Treaty of Big Tree) with the Seneca, 1797

    area 39 area 40 area 38

  2. 1802

    Land kept

    About 23,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Seneka

    The 1899 record: “the Holland Land Company grant to the Seneca nation the following described tract (reserving the right of preemption)”

    area 45

  3. 1838

    Land lost

    About 225,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Seneka

    By Treaty of Buffalo Creek with the New York Indians, 1838

    area 39 area 40 area 38 area 45

  4. 1842

    This treaty

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Seneka. About 68,000 acres of reservation taken back by the United States

    An 1842 compromise let the Seneca keep the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations but gave up Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda to the Ogden Land Company.

  5. 1857

    Land lost

    About 67,000 acres of reservation taken back by the United States

    By Treaty of Tonawanda Band of Seneca, 1857

    area 40

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.

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-seneca-1842-0537reference work
    Treaty with the Seneca, 1842 May 20, 1842. | 7 Stat., 586.

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