3^6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Ogden Company released and handed back to the Senecas 

 the whole of the Allegany reservation and the Cattaraugus reser- 

 vation, and the Senecas gave up the whole of the Buffalo creek 

 and the Tonawanda reservations, the Ogden Company retaining 

 the preemptive right in the two reservations surrendered to the 

 Indians. 



The Tonawandas were not satisfied with this, and forcibly 

 held possession till 1857, when a new treaty was made, and most 

 of the reservation was bought and restored to the Indians in 

 1863. At one time their friends thought all would have to leave 

 the State. The matter rests thus. The Indians hold their lands 

 with no intention of selling them, but no one can buy the Seneca 

 lands except the Ogden Company. 



Out of various treaties and transfers grew the claim of the 

 Six Nations to Kansas lands, deeded to them but opened and 

 sold to settlers in i860. In 1880 active measures were taken to 

 recover the price of 1,824,000 acres, and in 1900 the Indians 

 gained their case and an award of $1,998,744. Payment of this 

 three years later, was delayed by questions on distribution, raised 

 by the Indians themselves, some who had left New York claim- 

 ing a share. 



In 1890 there were 106 Oneidas living in Oneida and Madison 

 counties, but they had no reservation. The Onondaga reserva- 

 tion, about 5 miles south of the center ol Syracuse, is a rectangle, 

 4 miles long by a little over 2.3 wide, containing about 6100 acres. 



Tonawanda reservation originally had 71 square miles, and has 

 now but 6549.73 acres. It is irregular in form and in the counties 

 of Niagara, Genesee and Erie. Like the four following, it is a 

 Seneca reserve. Allegany reservation, in Cattaraugus county, is 

 irregular in form, from being on both sides of Allegheny river. It 

 is nearly 35 miles long, following that stream, and contains 30,469 

 acres. Oil Spring reservation, in the same county, is a mile 

 square. Cornplanter reservation, in Pennsylvania, is half a mile 

 wide and 2 miles long. Cattaraugus reservation is in Cattaraugus, 

 Chautauqua and Erie counties, on both sides of Cattaraugus creekli 

 It is 9.5 miles long, east and west, and about 3 miles wide in th( 

 center. It is irregular in form and contains 21,680 acres. 



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