History of the Tonawanda Reservation

The Seneca People 

The Seneca people are one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, known as the Haudenosaunee or People of the Longhouse, who have occupied Western New York for centuries. The majority of their settlements were located along the Genesee River Valley. Senecas have lived along the Tonawanda Creek since the early 1700s. The Reservation is located east of Akron, New York, where Erie, Genesee, and Niagara counties meet.

During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington ordered Generals Clinton and Sullivan to go through Iroquois country under a scorched earth policy. The Senecas fled to Fort Niagara, which was controlled by British. Gradually, Senecas moved out, many settling at Tonawanda village. At this time, British and German soldiers from Fort Niagara helped build log cabins for the Senecas. Several of these cabins are still occupied on the Reservation today.

By the time of the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, Tonawanda was one of the four largest of the eleven Seneca reservations. At that time, Tonawanda was 20,000 acres.

Handsome Lake

Around 1799 or 1800, a Seneca sachem (chief) by the name of Ganieodyo (Handsome Lake) experienced a series of visions, which he related to the people. These visions became the basis of Gaiiwhio (The Good Message), or the Code of Handsome Lake, which is the current Longhouse religion. Handsome Lake eventually settled at Tonawanda, which accepted his teachings readily, and lived there until his death in 1815.

After his death, more Reservation lands were slowly sold off, including many of the Genesee River lands in an unratified treaty in 1823.  The remaining Seneca lands were sold in the infamous Treaty of Buffalo Creek (1838). This treaty was notorious for the blatant fraud used to induce the Senecas to sign: bribery, forgery, and deception were employed.  Almost immediately, the Senecas refused to abide by the treaty, and efforts were undertaken to revise it.

A second treaty was negotiated, commonly referred to as the “Compromise Treaty” (1842).  This treaty kept the Allegany and Cattaraugus Reservations but confirmed the sale of Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda. The Senecas living at Tonawanda complained they had not assented to this treaty, either. They separated themselves politically from the rest of the Seneca Indians in New York and announced they would not move from their homeland.  They became the Tonawanda Band of Senecas and commenced fighting this second treaty.

Meanwhile, the Senecas at Cattaraugus and Allegany instituted an elective government with a written constitution in 1848. Thus, all eight of the Seneca sachemships of the Grand Council of the Confederacy were installed at Tonawanda, where they remain to this day.