The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794

Continued from last week

The actions of New York State, which continued to obtain Haudenosaunee lands through fraud and trickery, combined with the treaties forced on the confederate nations by the United States federal government, were increasing the chances of continued war. By 1794, it appeared that the Senecas, still the largest nation of the Confederacy, were about to join the war in the Ohio country.

The United States Commissioner for Indian Affairs was Timothy Pickering (Connisauti), a man with a reputation for integrity on all sides. When Pickering believed that Secretary of War Knox was misrepresenting the purpose of a meeting in Philadelphia to which he had invited the Six Nations, Pickering wrote President Washington:

Indians have been so often deceived by white people that white man is, among many of them, but another name for liar. Really Sir, I am unwilling to be subjected to this infamy. I confess I am not indifferent to a good name even among Indians.

[Cited in the Report of Dr. Jack Campisi in connection with the Oneida claim against New York, p. 63]

Pickering tried to repair the damage done at Fort Stanwix in much the same way that Sir William Johnson had prepared for treaties, meeting with individual nations first, and eventually feeling confident enough to call a general treaty for the fall of 1794 at Canandaigua.

‘I’hayendenega (Joseph Brant) had been meeting with Pickering, seeking a general peace for the Indian nations, while apparently at the same time urging the western nations to a spirited resistance. The Haudenosaunee, as part of the larger confederacy, had placed a “Moon of Wampum” in the Ohio country, making that territory “a house with four doors” that could be a home for all those who wished to visit there.

In 1791, that Confederacy inflicted a series of defeats on the United States, culminating in “St. Clair’s Defeat”, in which nearly seven hundred Americans were killed and half the United States Army was broken. The tide had turned over the next three years, as General “Mad Anthony” Wayne replaced St. Clair, and changed tactics. War in North America was not like war in Europe: there were few permanent armies, few open battlefields, few soldiers willing to stand in open ranks and shoot at others standing in similar positions. The rifle, not the musket, was the infantry weapon. St. Clair’s defeat was the decisive lesson to the United States in the folly of “classical” military tactics. Wayne’s approach, though, violated the “rules of war” between aboriginal nations. He burned people’s crops (as Washington had done a decade before, earning the President of the United States the permanent name of “Destroyer of Villages”). He took women and old men hostage. The crucial “battle” of the Ohio wars, though, was not really a defeat for the Indians. The United States forces met and pursued a force of Indians near the British Fort Miami. The Indians retreated past the fort, within range of the cannons---and the British did not open fire on the Americans. This confirmed what many of the leaders had been saying: that the British had been providing the Indians with weapons and ammunition but were not willing to join the war directly. It was the same complaint against the British that the Haudenosaunee had made over the previous century in fighting the French.

Thayendenega realized that the Haudenosaunee were more exposed than the western nations, and had both a greater interest in peace with the United States and a greater ability to secure it. Thayendenega had been meeting with Pickering in Philadelphia. On September 2, 1794, he wrote:

I cannot possibly attend the Treaty at Canandaigua being obliged to meet the Sake Indians according to promise, should the President of the United States agree to the line proposed and a meeting held at Buffalo Creek to complete this desirable object, my most cordial sanction shall not be wanting, and my most strenuous exertions shall be used to complete the good work of peace provided the proposed line formerly marked out be the basis of the treaty, and the boundary line between the United States and the Indian Nations.

[United States Library of Congress, Indian Affairs Papers]

On September 27, 1794, Pickering wrote:

…two runners arrived the day before from Buffalo Creek with a message urging me to hold the treaty there; that I had answered them that I had no authority to remove the Council Fire and that the Treaty must be held at Kanandaigua. That upon receiving this answer, the runners replied that they were directed by the chiefs to inform me that if I could not go Buffalo Creek they would meet me at Kanandaigua.

Two runners arrived this afternoon with a message from Buffalo Creek to inform me that the former runners reached that place on the 22nd. That on the 23rd and 24 the Indians held councils and sent runners to the Grand River to inform the Mohawks where the treaty was to be held and to invite them to attend; that in five days from now (which will be the 2nd of October) the Indians at Buffalo Creek would rise from their seats to come to Kanandaigua and that the Cornplanter has returned home to collect his people and bring them to the Treaty.

The time fixed for leaving Buffalo Creek as to have been calculated on the number of days necessary for the Mohawks to join them and for the Cornplanter to return and bring forward his people.

Considering that it will be about seven days for the main body to come from Buffalo Creek and that contingencies may occasion further delay I see very little chance of opening the treaty for business till the middle of October, Through what I have heard it will be a great assembly.

Pickering’s next report came two days later:

The runners I [sent back to Buffalo Creek] then took another bunch of strings, all white, and said the Chiefs directed them to tell me, was not in my power to confer with them at Buffalo Creek they would meet me at Kanadaigua, for they were very anxious of conferring with me. I replied that I was pleased with their determination and equally desirous of conferring with them, because I hoped thereby all causes of uneasiness between them and the United States would be removed. I added a few words urging their coming forth immediately.

It will take the runners two days and a half and the Indians as they travel with their women and children are never in a hurry may be a week on their march. The distance is about One hundred miles.

Though the United States sent invitations only to the leaders of the Senecas, the eventual Treaty was attended by representatives of the entire Confederacy. What the Canandaigua Treaty did was restore lands to the Senecas and reaffirm the federal government’s protection of the Indian nations from New York State’s greed, but also secure the Ohio country for the United States.

While most of the delegates to the Treaty were Seneca, the Treaty was with the Haudenosaunee as a whole. The wounds and divisions within the Confederacy had not yet healed and Pickering was fully aware of them, but the Haudenosaunee managed to present a united front and voice to the United States.

On November 2. 1794, the Treaty Council opened:

The Council was large, Red Jacket was the principal speaker---but the business was opened by Clear Sky an Onondaga in the following manner, He expressed his hope that there would be no hard thoughts entertained on account of their having been several days deliberating and answer. The subject was of importance and he wishes his brethren to preserved in unanimity. Red Jacket then spoke.

We request that all nations present will attend to what we are about to deliver, we are now convened on one of the days of the Great Spirit.

Then addressing Col. Pickering:

Brother

You now represent the President of the United States and when you spoke to us, we considered it as the voice of the Fifteen Fires, you desired we would take the matter under our deliberate consideration, and consult each other well, that where the Chain was rusty it might be brightened. We took General Washington by the hand and desired this Council Fire that all the lines in dispute might be settled.

Brother

We told you before of the two rusty places on the Chain, which were also pointed out by the Sachems; instead of complying with our request where we told you the Chain was rusty, you offered to relinquish the land on Lake Erie eastward of the triangular piece sold by Congress to Pennsylvania, and to retain the four mile path between Cayuga and Buffalo Creeks, by which you expect to brighten the Chain.

Brother,

We thought you had a sharp file to take off the rust; but we believe it must have been dull, or else you let it slip out of your hands; with respect to the four mile path we are in want of it on account of the Fisheries. Altho’ we are but Children we are sharp sighted, we see that you want the strip of land for a road, that when you have vessels on the lakes you may have harbors; but we wish that in this respect the Treaty of Fort Stanwix may be broken; you white people have increased very fast on this Island, which was given to us Indians by the Great Spirit, we are now become a small people and you are cutting off our lands piece after piece, you are very hard hearted people seeking your own advantages.

Brother, hearted and desirous of peace, you told us what you give us for our land to brighten your end of the Chain, if you will relinquish the piece of land we have mentioned our friendship will be strong, you say you are not proud, neither are we; Congress expects we are now settling the business with regularity; we wish that both parties have something to say in settling a peace---at the time we requested a conference we also requested our friends the Quakers should come forward, as they were promoters of peace, and we wanted them to be witnesses to what passed, we wish to do nothing in private, we have told you of the rusty part which the file past over and we wish you take up the again and rub it very hard, you told us if it would not do without you apply oil.

Brother,

We the Sachems, Warriors and others all depend on you, we regard as final and permanent we wish you to take it under consideration and give us an answer.

Colonel Pickering replied at large, the purpose of his speech was that he understood they were easy, except about the path 4 miles wide between the lakes.

Continued next week