In August 1826, a land company led by former
Holland Land Company attorney
David A. Ogden had negotiated the purchase of six of the ten reservations allocated to the
Seneca tribe in the 1797
Treaty of Big Tree, all of them along the
Genesee River:
Canawaugus, Geneseo,
Do'onondaga'a, Deyuitgaoh, Caneadea and Gardeau. To the present day, the
Seneca Nation of Indians does not recognize the 1826 sale as valid, alleging the sale was made under duress and does not have to be honored because it was not accompanied by a treaty ratified by the United States government. After the sale, four reservations remained:
Buffalo Creek Reservation,
Tonawanda Reservation,
Cattaraugus Reservation, and
Allegany Reservation. In the 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek, the Seneca sold the four remaining Seneca reservations, in exchange for the United States providing 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 (still in operations after Ogden had died in 1829) would buy the five reservations then occupied by the Seneca Nation, after which 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, particularly among those in the Tonawanda reservation, 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 and Cattaraugus reservations, leading to the
Third Treaty of Buffalo Creek in 1842. A
Tonawanda Band of Seneca was later established and reclaimed the Tonawanda Reservation in the
Fourth Treaty of Buffalo Creek in 1857, declaring independence from the Seneca Nation of Indians. In 1861, the
New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the
Oil Springs Reservation was also Seneca territory despite not being included in any of the treaties, as Seneca witness
Governor Blacksnake argued that its omission was a mistake. ==See also==