A Legacy of Dispossession and Hope
225th anniversary of the Treaty of Canandaigua Underscores Riddled History for Native Americans
by Catherine Rafferty
Peter Jemison, member of the Seneca Nation and site manager of Ganondagan Historic Site, remembers going to the Cattaraugus reservation court house with his grandmother when he was five years old to collect annuity cloth.
“I did not really know what the cloth was that she was picking up or why it was being given to her.” he recalled.
Years passed, and by the time Jemison reached college, the Army Corp. of Engineers had flooded 10,000 acres of Seneca Nation land on the Allegany River. He was granted money from the newly founded Seneca Nation Education Foundation as part of the settlement for the stolen land. It was then he learned that the Treaty of Canandaigua, signed in 1794, was what protected his people’s lands and allowed his grandmother to collect annuities.
“It became important to me to understand what this treaty was all about and then to actually fight for my people to maintain that nothing like that flooding of our land would take place again” he said.
Every year on Nov. 11, the city of Canandaigua, N.Y. commemorates this treaty, a document which was signed by Haudenosaunee tribal leaders and US leaders to protect the land rights of the Six Nations peoples and signify peace and friendship between the nations. Like many other treaties between the US and tribal nations, it’s 225-year history is complicated and muddled with broken promises but persists as an important document in preserving the sovereignty of Native peoples.
The Library of Congress defines a treaty as “an agreement or arrangement made by negotiation; a contract in writing between two or more political authorities such as sovereign states, formally signed by authorized representatives, and usually approved by the legislature of the state.”
The Treaty of Canandaigua is one of 370 treaties between Native Americans and the United States government that were written over a period between the signing of the Great Treaty of 1722 and the formal legislation that ended treaty writing in 1871. Part of the legislation stated that the US must honor all obligations made under treaties prior to 1871. Treaties are “the supreme law of the land” according to the US Constitution Article Six.
Michael Oberg, professor of history at State University of New York at Geneseo and author of Native America, explained that treaties are the basis for the US government’s relationship with Native nations. Treaties have a contradicting past, both helping and hurting Native people.
“They’re instruments of dispossession. They are ways the United States imposed its culture. They’re means to achieve colonial control of Native communities in many ways.” Oberg explained. “Despite that, treaties are an acknowledgement of limited sovereignty that Native peoples still retain on this continent.”
In Oberg’s view, Canandaigua is a unique treaty that solidifies the Haudenosaunee’s place as the rightful owners of their home land.
“Canandaigua was not a treaty negotiated to the end of a period of warfare. It's not a treaty of defeat. There is no treaty that so powerfully recognizes Native American nationhood and the right of native peoples to live as they want to live on their own land” Oberg said.
The treaty outlines the land claims of the Seneca and it states that the Haudenosaunee have the right to “the free use and enjoyment” of their land. Jemison emphasized that the US never abrogated the treaty, which means that all the provisions of the treaty are still active today.
“One very important provision is that when that treaty was made it was made on the basis of nation to nation. In other words, the United States is recognizing that we are sovereign” Jemison said.
There are conflicting definitions of sovereignty between tribal nations and the US. According to an 1831 Supreme Court ruling, tribal nations are technically considered “domestic dependent nations.” This means the governments operate independent of the United States, but the ruling describes the relationship between the nations and the US as a “state of pupilage.”
“There is no treaty that so powerfully recognizes Native American nationhood and the right of native peoples to live as they want to live on their own land.”
Many tribal nations live in poverty because they are isolated from the American economy and no longer have the rights to natural resources that are on the homelands. Any US federal funding tribal nations receive comes in the form of treaty obligations. However, these conditions are also arguably connected to the US’s disrespect of treaties.
“A lot of Iroquois land is now part of New York State and much of that occurred through transactions that, on their face, violated federal law” Oberg explained.
Nicole Scott, member of the Navajo nation and Director of Rochester Institute of Technology Native American Future Stewards Program, takes students to the anniversary of the Canandaigua Treaty events every year. Even though she supports treaties acknowledging sovereignty, she believes there is a downside to Native Americans being separated from the US.
“I think those ideas that we are not really part of the US, it makes it seem like we get special privileges, when it’s not necessarily the case just because of the way treaties are supposed to be set up” she said.
Students with indigenous heritage at RIT have differing perspectives about treaties and how they affect stereotypes about Native communities. One student, Serena Emery, a second-year biology major and tribal member of the Seneca Nation, Wolf Clan, did not grow up on the Seneca reservation but has a lot of family who live there. During her childhood, her mother never talked to her about treaties, but more recently she is realizing their impact on her life.
“We have to do everything we can to assert, we have a right to be here.”
Tribal members under 18 have trust funds set up by the Seneca government. At 18, they receive a third of the money, and Emery decided to use it to invest in college. All of the funding comes from revenue generated by Seneca businesses, especially the casinos on the reservations. Emery thinks there is still a misconception that Native people are simply taking handouts.
“People think that if we get money from the government then we don’t have to work, but then my aunt -- she has to work two jobs, and she gets annuities.” she said. “We are getting a very small amount of money that nobody could live off of. It’s just to help us and has helped us.”
Part of the provisions for the Treaty of Canandaigua is that the Haudenosaunee will receive $4500 worth of cloth from the United States to maintain relationship between the nations. Since 1794, the Haudenosaunee have received the same amount with no compound interest, now allotting just a quarter of a yard of material for each person in the tribe.
Scott believes treaty obligations are not doing enough for larger contemporary issues affecting Native Americans, such as lack of access to clean water, healthy foods, quality education, police brutality, and higher rates of suicide.
“A lot of times, people feel like the US does minimal effort,” she said. “You are honoring treaties, but are you? There’s not really a commitment there.”
Despite the challenging history between the US and his people, Jemison said the Six Nations will not give up in maintaining sovereignty and preserving their cultural identity.
“We need to be vigilant, we have to continue to educate our own people, we have to realize that people younger than will have to pick up the battle after my time is up” he said. “We have to do everything we can to assert, we have a right to be here. This is where we come from.”