848 



TUSCAIIORA 



[b. a. e. 



Oneida, th«ir political sponsors. These 

 lands were bounded on the e. by Unadilla 

 r., on the w. by the Chenango, and on the 

 s. by the Susquehanna. In the northern 

 part of this allotment were situated the 

 towns of Ganasaraga, on the site of Sulli- 

 van, Madison co., N. Y., and Kauneh- 

 suntahkeh. A number of the Tuscarora 

 lived with the Oneida in their chief vil- 

 lage. On these lands a large portion of 

 the Tuscarora remained until the events 

 of the Eevolution displaced them. By 

 the terms of the treaty of Ft Herkimer 

 in 1785 with the state of New York, to 

 which the Tuscarora were nominal par- 

 ties, the Oneida, the original proprietors 

 of the lands then occupied by the Tus- 

 carora, conveyed to New York the lands 

 of the Tuscarora and retained the pro- 

 ceeds of the sale; thus the Tuscarora were 

 again without a home. Thereafter they 

 became dispersed. Later they had a 

 village, called Junastriyo (Tcuniistri^ io') 

 in the Genessee valley, below Avon, 

 N. Y. ; another, called Jutaneaga (Tcu- 

 tiinefi'^ kiii'), at the fork of Chittenango 

 cr. ; and another called Kanhato (Ka'n- 

 'ha'^nu'). 



According to Johnson (Legends, etc.) 

 a part of the fugitive Tuscarora settled at 

 a point about 2 m. w. of Tamaqua, 

 Schuylkill co., Pa., where they planted 

 apple trees and lived for a number of 

 years. It is probable that it was these 

 Tuscarora who later removed to Oquaga, 

 in the vicinity of which they had three 

 other towns in 1778. Another band of 

 fugitives settled in Tuscarora valley (as 

 it was called later from them), on Juni- 

 ata r., Pa. They remained here at least 

 as late as 1762. In a minute of a confer- 

 ence held at Lancaster, Pa., Aug. 11, 

 1762, between Lieut. Gov. Hamilton of 

 Pennsylvania and delegates from the 

 Ohio Dela wares, the Tuscarora of Oquaga 

 and Lower Tuscarora, the Shawnee, the 

 Kickapoo, the Wea, and the Miami, it is 

 stated that six Tuscarora were present, 

 of whom three were chiefs, who brought 

 from their people a letter in which they 

 asked the Governor to furnish them with 

 a pass, saying, " We should be glad to be 

 informed of the state and behavior of our 

 brethren in Tuscarora valley, and to have 

 some directions about the way, as we 

 propose to make them a visit, and also 

 should be glad of a pass or reconunenda- 

 tion in -wiiting. that we may be friendly 

 received on our way to and at the valley. ' ' 

 Major portions of the Oneida and the 

 Tuscarora, in accordance with standing 

 agreements with the United Colonies, re- 

 mained faithful to the American cause 

 during the Revolution. When the In- 

 dian allies of the British, even some of 

 their brethren of the'Six Nations, learned 

 that a majority of the Tuscarora had cast 



their lot with the Colonies, they invaded 

 the Tuscarora country, burned their 

 lodges, and destroyed their crops and 

 other property. Thus again by the for- 

 tunes of war the Tuscarora were scattered 

 and homeless. A large party of these 

 settled at a place called Oyonwayea, or 

 Johnson's Landing, in Niagara co., N. Y., 

 about 4 m. e. of the outlet of Niagara 

 r., at the mouth of Four Mile cr., in order 

 not to be directly among the many In- 

 dians friendly to the British cause 

 camped around Ft Niagara. At the 

 close of the war, two families, probably 

 clans, of Tuscarora from Oyonwayea 

 made their way to the n. e. limits of their 

 present reservation, where they found 

 many walnuts and butternuts, and a tine 

 stream. Here they decided to winter. 

 Being missed from Oyonwayea, scoiats 

 were sent out, who found them in their 

 newly chosen settlement, a situation so 

 favorable that, after the gratuitous ces- 

 sion of their former home among the 

 Oneida, Oyonwayea w^as abandoned and 

 all the families removed to the new site. 

 Although the Tuscarora had only a tacit 

 permission from the Seneca to reside at 

 this place, the last settlement became the 

 foundation of the present Tuscarora res- 

 ervation in New York. At the treaty 

 held at Genessee, Sept. 15, 1797, between 

 Robert Morris and the Seneca tribe, the 

 Tuscarora chiefs complained, for the first 

 time since their admission to the councils 

 of the League, that the Five Nations had 

 from time to time allotted lands to their 

 people, but that each time these lands 

 had been included in a subsequent ces- 

 sion to the whites, and that the Tusca- 

 rora had received nothing in return for 

 their right of occupancy or for their im- 

 provements. The justice and merits of 

 their complaint having been acknowl- 

 edged by the Five Nations, Morris re- 

 served to the Tuscarora, by grant, two 

 square miles, covering their settlement 

 on the ridge mentioned above, and the 

 Seneca thereupon granted them an ad- 

 joining square mile. About 1800-02 a 

 deputation was sent to North Carolina to 

 learn whether they could obtain funds in 

 payment for the lands they formerly oc- 

 cupied there, with the result that, by aid 

 of the North Carolina legislature, they 

 were able to lease the Carolina lands, 

 which yielded a fund of !!>13,722. This 

 sum enabled the Secretary of War in 

 1804, under authority of Congress, to pur- 

 chase 4,o29 acres for the Tuscarora from 

 the Holland Land Co., adjoining the 

 three square miles already occupied by 

 them. Such is the origin of the land 

 holdings of the New York Tuscarora. _ 



It was while the Tuscarora deputation 

 was in North Carolina that the remnant 

 of the tribe still residing there was 



