The Last Treaty Of Fort Stanwix, Signed October 23 1784

 

The 1784 Treaty Of Fort Stanwix

Sometimes my posts here are stories and research I find interesting.  Other times, they are just research to help me gain context for the stories.  This post is the latter.  There's a story here, I am just not yet equipped to tell it. Rather than leave this in my drafts folder, I will publish the post so that other researchers can find the information all in one place, and those more knowledgeable than I can comment.

Signed in the wake of America’s victory in the Revolutionary War, this treaty punished four of the six Iroquois Nations for supporting the British. Viewing the Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Mohawk as conquered enemies, U.S. treaty commissioners Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee dictated harsh terms, even holding six Iroquois delegates hostage after the proceedings concluded at Fort Stanwix, near present-day Rome, New York. In exchange for peace and trade goods, the Iroquois were ordered to return all prisoners of war and to give up their claims to lands in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and western New York.


Iroquois leaders quickly disavowed the 1784 treaty, claiming they had been forced to sign it. Under the Treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, the Six Nations regained some 1,600 square miles of the land they had relinquished 10 years earlier

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The last treaty with the Indians held at Fort Stanwix October 1784 was a very important one. 

Since the year 1768 the northwestern boundary of Indian purchases in the State ran from:

•  the Susquehanna on the New York line to Towanda Creek
•  thence to the head of Pine Creek thence to its mouth and up the Branch to its source
•  thence over to Kittanning and down the Ohio to the west line of the State

 The principal feature of this last treaty was in relation to the boundary line embraced by Tiadaghton Pine Creek.

 It had been contended by the that Lycoming Creek was the true line but the whites claimed that it was Tiadaghton 

This dispute had given rise to much contention out of which grew the Fair Play system.

Settlers in the territory lying between Lycoming and Pine creeks were recognized by the Proprietary Government and therefore were compelled to shift for themselves Burnett s Hills, so frequently alluded to were called by the Indians the Long Mountains and they knew them by no other name.

 At this treaty a purchase was made of the residue of the Indian lands within the limits of Pennsylvania and the deed was signed by the chiefs of the Six Nations October 23 1784 

The boundaries were carefully noted in the deed

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"We are the only persons adequate to treat of, and conclude a peace, not only on the part of the Six Nations, but also on that of the Ottawas, Chippiwas, Hurons, Potowatamas, Messasagas, Miamis, Delawares, Cherokees, Chicasas, Coctas, and Creeks, and establish peace in the name of them all. Whatever Conclusion is made at this treaty will be strong, and whatever passes will be communicated throughout the various tribes."
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This belt was presented by the Six Nations at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix on October 22, 1784. It shows six diagonal purple bars, and two vertical bars woven on a white background. It is strung with buckskin thongs. This belt recorded the peace “between the Hodinöhsön:ni´ and obtain a cession of certain Hodinöhsön:ni´ territory, as recognized in former treaties. The United States informed New York Governor, George Clinton, that it had appointed two commissioners to negotiate treaties with the Indians. It asked Clinton to provide the necessary armed forces to protect the commissioners during the negotiations. Clinton replied to the commissioners, in part: “I shall have no objections to your improving this incident to the advantage of the untied States, expecting, however, and positively stipulating that no agreement be entered into with the Indians residing with the jurisdiction of this State, (an with whom only I mean to treat) prejudicial to its rights.”

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Fort Stanwix is a National Park

https://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/1768-boundary-line-treaty.htm

Signed one year after the end of the War of Independence, the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix was one of the first treaties between the newly independent U.S. and a Native nation. It punished four of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Six Nations—the Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Mohawks—for supporting the British during the American Revolution and required them to give up tribal territories in western New York and the Ohio Valley. And although the treaty recognized the land rights of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, who had allied themselves with the Americans during the war, New York state soon pressured these two nations into ceding their treaty-guaranteed homelands.

On loan from the National Archives, the treaty will be on view in the exhibition “Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations” though early 2020. Media are invited to an open house with Kevin Gover, director of the National Museum of the American Indian, and representatives of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Six Nations Oct. 17 at
9 a.m.

New York state officials, led by Gov. George Clinton, attempted to negotiate a separate treaty with the Haudenosaunee before the U.S. treaty commissioners arrived at Fort Stanwix, which is located near present-day Rome, New York. The officials hoped to assert New York’s authority over Indian affairs within its borders and pre-empt the federal government, which claimed the sole right to negotiate treaties with Indian nations. Iroquois leaders, however, would not consider any proposals from the state until they had met with the Congressional treaty representatives.

The U.S. sent three treaty commissioners to the Fort Stanwix treaty council—Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee—along with 100 armed militiamen. Also attending the council were approximately 613 Iroquois, including tribal leaders such as Captain Aaron Hill (Mohawk) and Cornplanter (Seneca).

When the treaty council began Oct. 12, 1784, the American treaty commissioners presented the Iroquois with tough terms: To have peace, they would have to recognize that the U.S. had a legitimate claim to sovereignty over Indian lands, return all prisoners of war and agree to land cessions.

The Iroquois were insulted and refused to accept the demands, a posture that angered U.S. treaty officials who considered the Iroquois a “conquered people.” Rejecting all Iroquois counterproposals, the Americans outlined the conditions under which the nations would “be received into the peace and protection of the United States”: the U.S. would retain six Iroquois hostages, to be held until all American prisoners were returned; the Oneidas and Tuscaroras would be secured in the possession of their lands; the Iroquois would cede lands to the U.S.; and trade goods would be distributed to the Iroquois upon signing the treaty.

With limited bargaining power, Iroquois leaders had little alternative but to sign the Fort Stanwix Treaty Oct. 22, 1784, exactly as it was presented to them.

The Iroquois continued to protest the treaty’s legitimacy—opposition that continued until the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which returned to the Seneca territory ceded in the 1784 treaty. Yet Iroquois territory would never be safe. In 1783, Iroquois lands encompassed half of New York state; by the 1840s, New York state had stripped the Iroquois of most of their lands through illegal treaties.

Displaying original treaties in “Nation to Nation” is made possible by the National Archives, an exhibition partner. Several of the treaties received extensive conservation treatment by the National Archives’ conservator prior to loan. There are a total of over 370 ratified Indian treaties in the National Archives. For more information about these treaties, see https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/treaties.