Treaty of Big Tree

History

The delegates for both parties met from August 20, 1797 until September 16, 1797 at the rustic log cabin of James and William Wadsworth, early settlers and land agents in the area, in what is now Geneseo, New York.

In attendance were nearly 3000 Seneca and other prominent members of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. Representing them were their hoyaneh chiefs: Cornplanter, Red Jacket, Young King, Little Billy, Farmer's Brother, Handsome Lake, Tall Chief, Little Beard and others; the clan mothers of the nation; and Mary Jemison. Those in attendance representing the United States were: Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, Commissioner, who was assigned by President George Washington to represent the United States government; Captain Charles Williamson and Thomas Morris, representing his father; Robert Morris; General William Shepard, representing Massachusetts; William Bayard, representing New York; Captain Israel Chapin, representing the Department of Indian Affairs; and James Rees as acting secretary. The official interpreters were Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish. Also in attendance were representatives of the Holland Land Company including William Bayard, Joseph Ellicott (surveyor), John Lincklaen, Gerrit Boon, Jan Gabriel van Staphorst and Roelof Van Staphorst. Mary Jemison, known as The White Woman of the Genesee, who was captured in a raid and ended up marrying her Seneca captor, was an able negotiator for the tribe and helped win them more favorable terms.

According to accounts, all of the treaty delegates for the United States were housed in the Wadsworths' log cabin. A council house was erected nearby by the Seneca, and proceedings were held there. The treaty was signed on September 16, 1797, after nearly a month of often heated back-and-forth negotiations. Following negotiations, Robert Morris requested the $100,000 principal revert to his heirs if “the Seneca nation” should ever “become extinct.” The presiding secretaries of Treasury and State denied his request. This treaty is substantial as it opened up the rest of the territory west of the Genesee River for settlement and established twelve reservations, perpetual annuities and hunting and fishing rights for the Seneca in Western New York.

Namesake

The treaty was signed near the present-day village of Geneseo, New York. At the time, the area was known as Big Tree from the nearby Seneca village of Big Tree, just over the Genesee River in present-day Leicester. The village was likely named after Ga-on-dah-go-waah’or Karontowanen, a chief referred to by the title Big Tree, roughly translating to "tree-prone-big" or "great tree, lying down."

Local lore has conflated the name of the chief and village of Big Tree with the famous "Big Tree" or "Wadsworth Oak," which grew on the eastern bank of the Genesee River in Geneseo. The oak was noted for its immense circumference and was the subject of several paintings. While the treaty was signed not far from it, the idea of a tree lying prostrate, as suggested by the Seneca name, does not describe the oak as it stood during the events of 1797. Following the signing of the treaty, the Big Tree became a popular sightseeing destination for white settlers.

The Big Tree was washed from the banks of the river in late 1857 by a flood. Earlier that year, its trunk's circumference had been measured at 26 feet and 9 inches. The Livingston County Historical Society Museum in Geneseo houses a restored section of the tree, which is believed to be its last remaining remnant not turned into furniture by a 19th-century woodworker.

Seneca Nation reservations

The following reservations were guaranteed by the treaty:

• Along the Genesee River, the former Seneca heartland

• Western New York

The treaty left the exact location and sizes of the Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda Creek reservations undefined. In October, 1798, Augustus Porter, acting on behalf of Joseph Ellicott and the Holland Land Company, conducted a survey of the area. He fixed the boundaries and defined the extent of the Buffalo Creek Reservation at 83,557 acres. In the course of the survey he caused the northwest corner of the tract to be bent so that the mouth of Buffalo Creek would be outside the reservation.

Absent from the treaty was the Oil Spring Reservation near Cuba Lake. In 1861, the Senecas won a lawsuit granting the Seneca Nation of Indians sovereignty over the reservation under the premise that the omission of Oil Spring was a mistake.

References

Sources

• "Red Jacket; Iroquois Diplomat and Orator", by Christopher Densmore, Syracuse University Press, 1999
• "Robert Morris and the Treaty of Big Tree", by Norman B. Wilkinson, Organization of American Historians, 1953
• "The Wadsworths of the Genesee", by Alden Hatch, Goward-McCann, Inc., New York 1959
• Laurence M. Hauptman, Conspiracy of Interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State (2001).

References

1. "Treaty of Big Tree 1797-1997". Genesee Country Magazine.
2. Smith, James H.. (1881). "The History of Livingston County, New York, 1687-1881". D. Mason & Co..
3. "What was a Dollar from the Past Worth Today?".
4. "Founders Online: Editorial Note: Memorandum on the Seneca Annuity".
5. (1924). "The Holland Land Company". Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society.
6. Seaver, James E.. (2015-01-26). "A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison". University of Oklahoma Press.
7. Doty, Lockwood L.. (1876). "History of Livingston County, New York". Edward E. Doty.
8. Mau, Clayton. (11 September 1947). "Treaty Named from Clan, Not Tree, Historian Shows". Avon Herald-News.
9. (1862). "Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 24 December 1861 to May 1862". New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
10. "The Big Tree".
11. (1908). "Aboriginal Place Names of New York". Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York.
12. (1920). "The History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation". Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society.
13. (2008). "Seven Generations of Iroquois Leadership: The Six Nations Since 1800". Syracuse University Press.