76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
to expend increasing amounts for the benefit of the Indians within 
her borders — and this under the impression that these Indians were 
wards of the State as well as of the Nation. 
The Federal Government expends in fulfilling treaties and other 
obligations, $8949 annually for the New York Indians. 
The State through the institutions and charities it supplies expends 
about $150,000 annually. 
In administering these institutions the State is now denied the 
authority to enforce statutory regulations, and the Federal Govern- 
ment has neither conferred authority nor afforded any relief. 
In matters of governmental oversight the State is now denied the 
right by the opinions of the Attorney General and some court deci- 
sions, to intervene on Indian reservations. 
The imperfect tribal governments make it necessary and even 
imperative that life, liberty and the secure possession of property 
be safeguarded by an authority stronger than that supplied by the 
several tribes. Even here, while the federal authorities might inter- 
pose, they have not done so. 
If the tribes are nations, they have no similarity to modern nations 
and do not function as such in their relations with the people of the 
State, save in denying the State the right to trespass upon their 
authority. 
The chief authority for this assumed status of the New York 
tribes is based upon the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794, ratified by 
the Senate in 1795. 
It is a question worthy of some consideration whether or not the 
New York Indians, the Treaty of Canandaigua and the conditions 
surrounding the status of each and all have not undergone so great 
a modification that a new consideration of Indian status is impera- 
wwe. 
Are the Indians of the State of New York the Same People as 
When the Canandaigua Treaty Was Made? 
It appears that our difficult position with relation to the Indians 
of the State has resulted from sweeping changes on the part of the 
Indians and of the citizen population. 
No longer are these Indians living in bark wigwams or living the 
primitive life of the backwoods. Their economic and social life 
has undergone a profound change and they are today living the white 
man’s life, the life of the average American. In this they are 
scarcely to be distinguished from the citizen population. 
