Federal Treaties

Federal Treaties

a. 1784 Treaty with the Six Nations – October 22, 1784, which declared peace after the Revolutionary War between the Seneca, Mohawks and Cayuga.  Tuscarora and Oneidas land holding were safe.  Waring Nations have to return prisons and 6 hostages to the United States.  The treaty also outlines tribal borders and anything outside of these borders would be yielded to the United States. Some good were promised to all Nations. (No definition of these good listed in the treaty)

b. 1789 Treaty with the Six Nations – January 9, 1789, Article 1 confirms the boundaries of the 1784 treaty and that $3,000 worth of goods are to be given to the Nations.  Article 2 says that Iroquois land does not belong to the United States and re-confirms peace.  At this time the Mohawk Nation did not attend the signing.  If any crimes were to occur by Native people they would be tried in the area where the crime occurred.

c. 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua.  In 1974, with tensions growing between the 6 Iroquois Nations and the US Government, President George Washington sent Colonel Timothy Pickering to meet with the leaders and a treaty was established.  The treaty recognized the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee people.  It also upheld the NY State treaties for Oneida, Onondaga and the Cayuga Nations and gives clear land holding descriptions to the Seneca and Cayuga Nations.  (Once a year, Native people from around the US travel to Canandaigua, NY to commemorate the treaty.  Peter Jemison, Seneca explains, “It wasn’t the case of the US Government giving us sovereignty, we were always sovereign; but that the US recognized us to have a government to government relationship.”)

New York Treaties

a. 27 Additional illegal treaties – these series of treaties reduce the remaining 270,000 acres down to 32 acres.  Oneidas move to Wisconsin and Canada, while some remain in New York.