Excerpt from an essay by G. Peter Jemison, a Heron clan Seneca from Cattaraugus, manager of the Ganondagan Historic site at Victor, NY within Seneca territory. He is the Chairman of the Haudenosaunee Standing Committee on the Burial Rules and Regulations. Peter is a renowned artist and cultural specialist who is consulted on various Haudenosaunee issues.
Nyaweh Skannoh gah awe goh ("I give thanks that all of you are well.")
I want to talk about our original treaties because we not only made treaties with the United States, but we also made treaties with other foreign countries, and perhaps the first one that we made was with the Dutch. We used a wampum belt. That is, a two row wampum belt with two parallel lines on a field of white. We used wampum belts to help us commemorate our treaties. Wampum, as you may know, is made of shell, a combination of quahog and the periwinkle shell, cut and made into tubular beads and then strung into a belt. The purpose of the belt, to use an anthropological term, is as a mnemonic device for remembering important ideas, so that when the reader of the belt holds it in his hands, the idea literally comes from the belt.
These two parallel lines signify this to us: On the one hand, we are traveling in our canoe, down the river of life, and traveling in a parallel line in their boat are those Europeans or Euro-Americans who are here on our land, Turtle Island. We are traveling along and we have an agreement with one another. I am not going to get out of my canoe and get into your boat and try to steer it, and I am going to ask you not to get out of your boat and get into my canoe and try to steer it. We are going to allow one another to exist. We are going to accept the notion, that we are sovereign, that we have our own form of government and that you have yours. We have our own way of life, and that you have yours, and that we are not trying to convince you to be us; we are trying to convince you that because of our long history here, we have a knowledge of this place where we live. And so, we use this two row wampum belt even now, as the basis for all of the other treaties that we made after this time.
The treaty I want to talk about today is a treaty that we just commemorated on November 11, 1994. On November 11th, we reached the 200th anniversary of a treaty that has been called the Pickering Treaty, and is also known as the Canandaigua Treaty. We have, I believe the oldest treaties in the United States.
We gathered on the 11th day of November 1994 to polish the silver covenant chain of peace and friendship between our people and the United States. While the chain has been strained, it has not been broken. We met to brighten the chain and renew the relationship between the Six Nations (the Haudenosaunee) and the people of the United States. Some 6000 people came to Canandaigua, New York to commemorate that treaty. Indian and non-Indian people came together. It was one of the largest gatherings of Iroquois people I have seen in my lifetime. They came there to commemorate that treaty. Leading up to the commemoration, the New York Times ran an article on it, the Economist magazine ran an article on it, and National Public Radio aired a program on it. Within a 300 mile radius, we had coverage in all of the major papers on the commemoration of this treaty. I mention this because it is one of our efforts to bring this treaty to a level of recognition by not only the federal, but by the international community as well. We recognize that we have to take this treaty to an international forum if we are going to have these treaties actually recognized as the legal and binding documents that they are.
We invited President Clinton to come. The man that George Washington sent was Timothy Pickering, his direct ambassador sent to negotiate that treaty. He was the head of Indian affairs, a special position that Washington created. But, the treaty was made with George Washington, so we invited Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton did not come, he chose not to come. The highest level of government representative attending was a United States House of Representative member, Louise Slaughter. The Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ada Deer, was also present. We had messages delivered by aides of Senator Alfonse D'Amato and Congressman Bill Paxon.....
November 11, 1994 marked 200 years of peace and friendship between the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States government. It was a fitting time to celebrate the Treaty of Canandaigua.
The historic Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 was negotiated by the Six Nations that make up the Iroquois Confederacy: the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora. These aboriginal occupants of lands surrounded by New York State collectively call themselves the Haudenosaunee. Some of the negotiators at the treaty council were Farmers Brother, Red Jacket, Little Billy and Cornplanter, all four of them Seneca. Fish Carrier, Cayuga, and Clear Sky represented the Onondaga.
To represent the United States, George Washington sent his commissioner, Colonel Timothy Pickering, accompanied by General Israel Chapin. For this reason, the treaty is also know as the Pickering Treaty. Quaker representatives, led by William Savery of Philadelphia, also attended the treaty council. Trusted as mediators, they had been invited by the Seneca to look out for the Haudenosaunee interest. In 1794, we had very few people who read English. The Quakers were peaceful people and they read English, so they were asked to come to ensure that what the United States representatives were saying in negotiations was in fact the same language that they wrote in the treaty.
WHY THE NEED FOR A TREATY?
During the Revolutionary War, from 1775-1783, the Haudenosaunee initially had taken a position of neutrality. However, loyalty to the British crown eventually induced some Mohawk and some Seneca to side against the thirteen colonies. Some Tuscarora and some Oneida sided with the American colonies. After the war, the British pulled back to Canada and the Haudenosaunee found its land opened to settlement by the American colonists. The result was frequent skirmishing with settlers along the Pennsylvania borders. In 1779, on orders of George Washington, Major General John Sullivan led an army into the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Though few lives were lost on either side, the campaign destroyed upwards of fifty Haudenosaunee towns, along with valuable croplands.
There was a similar tension between the American settlers and the confederacy of Indian nations in the Ohio region of the northwest territories. These Indian nations included the Hurons, the Ottawas, the Miamis, the Shawnees, the Ojibwa, the Cherokees, the Delawares, the Potowatami, and the Wabash. In 1791, the Northwest Confederacy won a stinging victory when it defeated the U.S. Army, commanded by Arthur Sinclair. Failure to include the interests of the Six Nations in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War between the British and the United States, had resulted in the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix. In this treaty, Warrior Chiefs Joseph Brant of the Mohawks and Cornplanter of the Seneca conceded land in western New York State and in the Ohio Valley, land which the Six Nations was now trying to win back. Also, tension was growing with white settlers immigrating into the Finger Lakes regions of New York state.
George Washington recognized the urgency of a treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the United States. He concluded that if the Six Nations warriors joined the Northwest Confederacy, their combined strength could prove insurmountable for the now fifteen states. He persuaded Congress to raise taxes to double the size of the regular army to almost 6000 men. It was a very unpopular decision. Taxation without representation was, of course, partly the reason for the Revolutionary War. Now the American army was at about 3000, there was an excise tax on whiskey, and many, many people wanted that excise tax removed. But, with the notion that they had to double the army, they also had to increase the whiskey tax. So there was a big debate taking place in the Congress in Philadelphia. Eventually, Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox, won over opponents, and the army of the United States was increased to 6000 men.
THE CHOSEN SPOT
General Israel Chapin called for a treaty council to be held in Canandaigua, New York, during the fall of 1794. From their respective territories, the Haudenosaunee set out on foot for the "Chosen Spot," the heart of the Seneca nation, in what is today known as Canandaigua, New York, on the north end of Canandaigua Lake. William Savery, the Quaker representative, records that the Oneida were already in camp when the Quakers arrived on September 25th. Next to arrive were the Cayuga, Onondaga, and the Tuscarora. The 800 strong Senecas arrived last on October 14th, and as he reports in their ceremonial entrance made a truly terrific and warlike appearance. All told, 1600 Haudenosaunee assembled for the treaty.
The pro-British Mohawks, who sent a single representative, stayed in Canada. Our people made temporary bark shelters in Canandaigua and we sent out our hunters. Our hunters were taking as many as 100 deer a day and bringing them back into camp to feed the people that were there. We were fishing and we were hunting water fowl available at that time of the year, the ducks, the geese and those other migratory birds that were on the lake, supplying our people with food that they needed. Preliminary treaty obligations centered around the restoration of the Iroquois land ceded in the Fort Stanwix Treaty. As Pickering was taking the matter under consideration something unexpected happened.
THE WESTERN INDIANS DEFEATED
On October 27th, a Tuscarora runner burst into camp with news that General Mad Anthony Wayne had defeated the western Indians under the leadership of Little Turtle with great loss of life on both sides.[18] News of the battle made it clear to the Six Nations that a peace agreement with the fifteen fires was in their best interest. They decided to continue negotiations with Colonel Pickering in good faith and to reach the best possible terms.
RUST IN THE CHAIN
Red Jacket addressed the council. "Brother, we the Sachems of the Six Nations will now tell our minds. The business of this treaty is to brighten the Chain of Friendship between us and the fifteen fires. We told you the other day it was but a small piece that was the occasion of the remaining rust in the Chain of Friendship." The so-called rust in the chain referred to two points of contention for the Haudenosaunee. One, the building of a four mile long portage road that would run along the Niagara river from Fort Schlosser to Buffalo Creek; the other was the desire to run a four mile wide road between Cayuga Creek and Buffalo Creek. Literally, the settlers would cut down all the trees for four miles to make a wagon road to transport their goods. When you reach the Niagara River you cannot travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie on the Niagara river because of Niagara Falls, so you get out and you portage. The United States wanted to increase the size of that road. Our people objected to that notion.
The two sides reached a negotiated settlement by which the Six Nations agreed to allow the wagon road between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Colonel Pickering agreed to relinquish the US. request for a similar road between Cayuga Creek and Buffalo Creek. Pickering concluded, "I confess brothers, I expected that you would have agreed to my proposal, the Cayuga Creek and the Buffalo Creek road, but as this is not the case, I will give it up, only reserving the road from Fort Schlosser to Buffalo. There has been a mutual condescension which is the best way of settling business." After carefully reviewing the articles of the Pickering Treaty, the Six Nations and the United States signed a document on November 11, 1794, creating the lasting peace and friendship between the two peoples.
THE TREATY'S SIGNIFICANCE TODAY
Land issues dominated the 1794 Canandaigua Treaty, and they remain equally critical 200 years later to the Six Nations and our 60,000 members of the Iroquois people who live both in the United States and in Canada. The treaty restored to the Six Nations lands in western New York State that had been ceded by the Fort Stanwix Treaty. The Haudenosaunee also won recognition of their aboriginal land rights and their sovereignty to govern and set laws as individual nations. In return, the Haudenosaunee recognized and continue to recognize the sovereignty of the United States government. That is the outcome of the treaty.
Although the treaty has been violated a number of times, it has never been broken. The Congress of the United States would have to abrogate that treaty in order for it to be broken, or we Six Nations would have to discontinue observance of that treaty in order to break it. One example of the violation of the treaty by the United States government occurred in 1964 with the construction of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny river. The dam flooded 9000 acres of Seneca land on the Allegany Indian Reservation in western New York. This required our people to be relocated. It required the removal of our people from that valley which was our traditional farming land, the area where we gather our medicines. It required the moving of our cemeteries from that location to another location. It required us to extinguish the fire of our traditional Longhouse, to move it to another Longhouse, to build another fire there, and to hold the ceremony that is involved in the moving of a fire.
Following that, we were relocated on the Allegany reservation in suburban-type communities at Steamburg and at Jimersontown, away from the rich valley where we had lived. We saw the land inundated with water. Our elders wept openly and as a result of that, we lost many of them in the succeeding years. In 1954, the United States created the St. Lawrence Seaway which destroyed great areas of the Mohawk nation and caused untold destruction of traditional fishing grounds.
That would not be the worst of it. Reynolds and General Motors would build plants in that area and pollute the entire St. Lawrence River which, as you may know, flows from south to north. The result was that PCB levels were some of the highest in the world, and still are at this moment. Through studies of snapping turtles, for example, they found these incredible elevated PCB levels, because snapping turtles remain embedded in the earth for long periods of time.
In 1967, the Niagara River project flooded the Tuscarora land, another violation of the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794. However, the Haudenosaunee continue to receive annually, treaty cloth. We may be the only Nations in the United States today which still receive treaty cloth from the United States. They give us a muslin that now amounts to a yard and a quarter. We also receive a per capita payment going back to that Treaty of 1794. The United States provides some $4500 for the distribution of cloth annually and we have received it continuously for 200 years. It began as a calico, and then it went to a cotton, and today it's a worthless muslin. But I do not care if it gets to be the size of a postage stamp. It is the principle of the fact that the United States is still having to distribute that treaty cloth, due to its obligations it made 200 years ago.
I want to go further to point out that this treaty is still in place. To do that, I need to refer to an article that is in the treaty. Article 7 says:
•Lest the firm peace and friendship now established should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States and the Six Nations agree that for injuries done by individuals on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place, but instead, thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured to the other, by the Six Nations or any of them to the President of the United States. Or the Superintendent by him appointed, and by the Superintendent or other persons appointed by the President, to the Principle Chiefs of the Six Nations or of the Nation to which the offender belongs, such prudent measures should then be pursued as shall be necessary to preserve our peace and friendship unbroken until the legislature or great council of the United States shall make other equitable provisions for the purposeę.
I want to make it very clear that the treaty spells out which branch of the United States that we address when there is a violation of our treaty. It is not the Congress, it is the President of The United States, the executive branch, that we address.
Onondaga Nation Chiefs mailed a letter to President George Bush in the spring of 1991, telling of a chemical dump discovered on the reservation. They said the toxic waste likely came from citizens of the United States, invoking Article 7 of the Treaty of Canandaigua, they asked him to see about cleaning up the mess. A year later the Federal Environmental Protection Agency removed 1,300 drums of solvents and billed a Delaware Company believed responsible....
Friends of mine, not too very long ago, went to Washington, DC. They went to the National Archives and asked, "Can we see that original Treaty?" It took a long time; they went through a bureaucratic maze. They had to sign their name about twelve times, at different points, as they penetrated the National Archives. My friend remarked, "it's like getting into Fort Knox." The guy said, "oh no, it's worse than that." Eventually they were brought to a drawer by the man; as he opened the combination lock and that drawer, they all had to sign their names one more time. He noted the exact time that the drawer opened and then out came one of the copies of the original treaty. Sure enough, there it was, that treaty that was written in 1794 at Canandaigua. They had sewn a piece of paper to the top and they had sewn a piece of paper to the bottom. On the top it said what this treaty was about and on the bottom was sewn a piece with George Washington's signature. Sure enough, there was the date, January 21, 1795, accompanying his signature and ratifying that treaty.
After a lot of effort, they got the National Archives to photograph that copy of the treaty for us. At Canandaigua, on November 11, 1994, we had a life-size copy, a photographic copy of that treaty, plus the other one that is in existence in the Ontario County Historical Society, in Canandaigua. We compared the two of them, and yes, the language is the same. As William Savery said, there were two documents made that day, November 11, 1794. We have the proof, we have both of them. So, they cannot say they cannot find it, and they cannot say they do not know what it says, because we have got a copy of it. We have got the copy that the United States preserves, we know where it is, and we know what it says".
For the complete essay on the significance of the Canandaigua Treaty, see: http://www.ratical.com/ many_worlds/6Nations/ TreatyRights.html#fn2. Footnotes removed.