USA > New York > Cattaraugus County > History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 24
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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.
could obtain relative to the means by which both the treaty of 1838 and the amended treaty of 1839 had been pro- cured, were fully satisfied, from reliable evidence, that the representation made by the Indians was proved to be true ;" but, discovering that there was little or no hope of obtaining effectual relief from Congress, they engaged three of the most eminent counsel in the United States, one of whom was no less a personage than Daniel Webster, to examine into the chances of success in preventing the consummation of the fraud and the utter ruin of the Senecas. These gentlemen concurred in the opinion that as the treaty had been duly approved, ratified, and proclaimed, it had thus become absolutely valid, and must be sustained and carried into effect; that it would be useless to appeal to the courts of the United States, as " they would not go behind the treaty to inquire into the means by which it had been pro- cured or negotiated." But Mr. Webster suggested, as a last resort, and the only hope of the Indians, that an at- tempt be made to compromise with the Ogden Company. The Quakers at once acted on the suggestion, and laid the subject before the Hon. John C. Spencer, then Secretary of War (the Indian Bureau being then an appendage to his Department). Mr. Spencer moved in the matter with an earnestness and zeal which reflected high honor on him as a humane man, and a lover of justice. He immediately wrote to Thomas L. Ogden, suggesting to him whether, " considering the efforts that would be made, and the powerful influences that would be enlisted, to befriend the Indians, whatever might be the issue of a suit, as the con- test would lead to a protracted litigation, and involve very heavy expenses, would it not, therefore, be most to the interest of the Land Company to endeavor to enter into some com- promise, by which they might come into an undisturbed possession of a portion of their purchase;" and he added, "if this course should be approved he would endeavor to assist in carrying it into effect."
Without entering into further details, it is sufficient to add that Mr. Spencer's adroit argument of protracted liti- gation, involving much delay and heavy expenses, had its effect with the Ogden Company, and induced them to con- sent to a compromise by which some fifty-three thousand acres of the Indian lands were restored to their owners. The company might well be satisfied with this result, for it retained its grip on nearly two-thirds of the entire area, including the more valuable of the lands. This much had been secured easily, with but little delay, and no very con- siderable expense beyond that which had been incurred in procuring the "treaty" of 1838; and it was certainly the most judicious course which the company could pursue to accept this situation, avoiding litigation with its attendant costs and delays, and to wait in apparent quiet for a future opportunity to purchase the remainder of the Indian lands.
This " compromise treaty," which restored the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations to the Senecas, was executed in 1842; and agreements were entered into between the parties, in the presence of the Secretary of War, to the effect-1st. That should these Indians at any time here- after desire to dispose of their lands and emigrate to the West, their friends would not interfere to prevent them. 2d. Until they should desire to do so, neither the Ogden
Company, nor their agents, would in any manner annoy or disturb them.
Leaving out of consideration the question of how far the company have lived up to their part of this agreement, it seems not inappropriate to notice some facts in connec- tion with that part which required the Quakers to refrain from interfering to prevent Indian "emigration" to the West. It is certainly a rather singular coincidence that soon after this clause had been so thoughtfully incorporated in the agreement a project was disclosed, and actively promoted, having for its object the organization of an "emigration party" among the Indians, and by this means to effect the removal of as many of them as could be prevailed on to abandon their homes and emigrate to the West.
This scheme (which it seems reasonable to believe was foreseen by those who so carefully, and in advance, prohib- ited the Quakers from interfering with it) had for its visible head and agent one Doctor Hogeboom, who represented him- self as having been appointed by the executive of the United States Government as a " removing agent to accompany such of the Indian people as were anxious to remove to the coun- try west of the Mississippi River ;" and he stated that he had " authority, power, and instructions to remove from two or three individuals to five hundred souls; also that he had funds of the government in his hands for the purpose, and was merely waiting for the opening of the navigation of the lakes." Upon inquiry at the Indian Bureau these state- ments were of course found to be false ; but notwithstanding this, and the strong opposition of many of the chiefs, Doc- tor Hogeboom, as appeared from his own account, succeeded in decoying off two hundred and nineteen of them, includ- ing men, women, and children, and having conducted them to some remote place beyond the Mississippi River, he there left them without shelter or food. This occurred in the spring of 1846.
It was not long after these two hundred and nineteen In- dians had been thus abandoned, before intelligence reached their friends in New York that the deluded victims were in a perishing condition. At this crisis the Indian friends of the entrapped and dying emigrants turned to the Quakers as a matter of course, and asked and received their efficient succor. The Friends' committee having ascertained that no relief could be expected from the government, and that the relations and friends of those Indians were unable to afford their suffering kindred any effective aid, concluded to for- ward five hundred dollars for their immediate relief, and for the assistance of such of them as might desire to return and be in a condition to be removed; and the superintend- ent of the Friends' school at Cattaraugus accompanied the agent employed to visit and aid them.
" Upon arriving at this Golgotha, it was ascertained that about one-half of the two hundred and nineteen that had been inveigled away were already dead, that those yet living were in a most emaciated condition, and that among the survivors there was not one individual in good health !
" Measures were immediately taken to collect and bring off all that were yet alive,-some of whom died before they reached their former homes; and among those that did return there were several suffering under a malignant fever, which being contagious was communicated to their friends,
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and spreading over the Reservation, carried a considerable number to their graves. Thus ended this (to the Indians) memorable enterprise of Dr. Hogeboom. If the doctor did not accomplish all that its projectors anticipated, he did succeed so far as to relieve the pre-emptionists of near two hundred of the incumbrances upon their 'promised land,' and by an effective emigration conducted them to a world whence they will never return."
This was one of the very few instances (perhaps the only one) in which the Quakers have been known to violate the obligations of a solemn compact. In this case, although they had entered into an agreement not to interfere with Indian emigration, they did so interfere to the extent of bringing emigrants back from beyond the Mississippi and landing them again on the Reservation, to the manifest de- triment of the pre-emptive interests of the Ogden Company.
The changes in the trusteeship of that company since the ratification of the compromise treaty of 1842, have been as follows :
Thomas L. Ogden died in December, 1844, leaving Joseph Fellows sole surviving trustee.
In September, 1868, Mr. Fellows retired from the trust, and was succeeded by George R. Babcock, of Buffalo, and Charles E. Appleby, of New York, as trustees.
George R. Babcock died in September, 1876, leaving Charles E. Appleby the sole surviving trustee.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT.
The execution of the fraudulent treaty of 1838, by which the Senecas found themselves robbed of the last foot of soil that had descended to them from their forefathers, and the corrupt means by which this had been accomplished, finally extinguished the hereditary confidence the Indians had re- posed in their chiefs; and although the Allegany and Cat- taraugus Reservations had been restored to them by the compromise treaty of 1842, the wounds inflicted by the two previous treaties had never been healed. There were many other complaints against the chiefs, not only in re- gard to the payment of their annuities, but also in regard to the embezzlement of public money and other matters. Their offensive exercise of absolute authority also occasioned much dissatisfaction, and added to the general apprehension that they might, by the same appliances that had induced them to sign the corrupt treaty of 1838, be again prevailed on to sell the public lands. The Indian people had been taught by experience the danger of placing power in the hands of irresponsible, venal men, who had been and again might be seduced, and, without their knowledge or consent, co-operate with and assist speculators in taking from them their homes and driving them into some distant wilderness to perish. They therefore resolved to reform their political institutions.
This conclusion was strengthened by the clear evidence before them that there were still retained in their midst emissaries and spies, who had already once betrayed them, and who were still in close communication with their enemies ; and they came to the fixed determination to abolish their existing form of government, and to divest their chiefs of the arbitrary and irresponsible power they had assumed.
The question of a change in their government to abridge
the authority of the chiefs began to be agitated in 1844, and on the 30th of January, 1845, a general convention of the nation was held on the Cattaraugus Reservation, at which it was resolved, ordained, and declared that " our polit- ical usages, customs, organizations, and constitution be, and the same are hereby altered and amended, so that no sale or disposition of the whole or any part of our lands here- after to be made shall be valid or of any effect, unless the same be made in full and open council of the chiefs and warriors of the nation, and by the express assent of two- thirds of all the chiefs, and two-thirds of the whole residue of the male population of the nation, of the age of twenty- one years and upwards, whether attending such councils or not ; such assent to be given in writing, under the hands and seals of the parties, in full and open council of the chiefs and warriors of the nation, assembled together in one council ; but nothing herein contained shall in any manner alter, change or affect, lessen or diminish the rights, powers, duties, privileges, or authority of the chiefs in any other matter or respect whatever."
But the recusant chiefs, in defiance of the public wishes, never relaxed their exertions to regain their absolute power over the disposal of the public lands; and in this they were abetted by the pre-emptionists, whose interests, for obvious reasons, were identical in this particular with those of the chiefs. Their intrigues to this end, both at Albany and Washington, finally disquieted and alarmed the Indian people to such an extent that they came to the resolution to so change their government as to abolish the office of chief altogether. That change was effected at a convention of the whole people, held at the council-house on the Catta- raugus Reservation, on the 4th of December, 1848, at which resolutions and a declaration changing their government to a constitutional form were adopted with great unanimity.
The government by chiefs was declared abolished, abro- gated, and annulled, " because it has failed to answer the purposes for which all governments should be created," and for several other reasons, as set forth ; among which were, that "its powers are absolute and unlimited in assigning away the people's rights, but indefinite and not exercised in making municipal regulations for their benefit or protec- tion," and that " it is an irresponsible, self-constituted aris- tocracy."
It was declared that the new government superseding that of the chiefs "shall have a legislature, executive, and ju- diciary departments."
The legislative power to be vested in a council of eighteen members, to be termed Councillors of the Seneca Nation, and to be apportioned to each Reservation (Cattaraugus and Allegany) according to population ; the power of making treaties to be vested in the council, but no treaty to be binding on the nation until submitted to the people and approved by three-fourths of all the legal voters, and also by three-fourths of all the mothers in the nation.
The executive power to be vested in a president, whose duty is to see that the laws are executed, to preside at meetings of the council (but to have only a casting vote therein), and to communicate to the council at every session the condition of business, and to recommend such measures as deemed by him expedient, etc.
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The judiciary power to be vested in three peace-makers on each Reservation ; the jurisdiction, forms of proceeding, etc., in the peace-makers' courts to be nearly the same as in courts of justices of the peace of the State of New York. The peace-makers are in effect the judges, surrogates, and magistrates of the nation.
The other officers of the new government to be a clerk, treasurer, superintendent of schools, overseers of the poor, assessors, overseers of highways, and also a marshal and two deputies on each Reservation. The saw-mills on the different Reservations were declared national property, and the income accruing from them to be appropriated by the council to national purposes.
On the 5th of December, Philip E. Thomas, of Balti- more, was appointed by Solomon McLean, president of the new government, as special agent or representative of the Seneca nation, to conduct their business and relations with the United States. An authenticated copy of the pro- ceedings of the convention was forwarded to this repre- sentative, with a request that he would lay them before the Indian Bureau at Washington, and endeavor to obtain the recognition of the representative republican government adopted by the Senecas. The chiefs who had been removed from power by this revolutionary proceeding also appealed to the United States government for aid in suppressing this innovation upon their ancient usages and institutions. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, being sincerely desirous to promote their best interests, without regard to party names or party measures, wrote (Dec. 22, 1848) to Hon. Robert H. Shankland, sub-agent, at Ellicottville, for such informa- tion as might qualify the department to come to a sound judgment in the case. Mr. Shankland replied in due time, saying that from a full and careful examination of the matter he was satisfied that the Cattaraugus Convention was properly called and constituted ; that "opposition to the new government comes mostly from the chiefs and their friends and retainers, and they are not entirely without in- fluence. Many of them are men of education and talent, and are indefatigable in their exertions to sustain them- selves in their places and power. Their reasons for oppo- sing a change in the present form of government of course are not known; conjecture can only assign a motive. They are, however, decided and unyielding in their position." In conclusion he said, " I have taken some pains to ascer- tain the wishes of the nation generally, and I can come to no other conclusion than that a majority of the people desire a change, and are willing to try the experiment of living under the constitution and laws adopted in conven- tion at Cattaraugus." Upon this report, the new govern- ment was recognized by the United States, and the special agent, Mr. Thomas, of Baltimore, was notified to that effect by Indian Commissioner William Medill, Feb. 2, 1849.
It might reasonably have been expected that this delib- erate and final decision of the United States authorities to recognize and sustain the new government would have been acquiesced in by the ex-chiefs; but, on the contrary, they determined to persevere in their endeavors to overthrow it, and sent a deputation to Albany to induce the government of New York to refuse recognition to the Seneca nation
under its new aspect. But after a thorough investigation of the subject by a committee of the Assembly, the follow- ing resolutions were adopted by both branches of the Legis- lature, to wit :
" Resolved, That the recognition by the Government of the United States of the new Constitutional Government lately formed by the Indians residing on the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, es- tablishes the New Government as that which the State of New York must receive and acknowledge in its dealings with the said Indians, and that the Officers of this State ought, and are hereby instructed, to respect such new Government accordingly.
" Resolved, That in future the Annuity which, under the Treaty with the Senecas, is made payable to the Chiefs of that Nation, here- after be paid by the Treasurer, or on the warrant of the Comptroller, to the order of such officer or agent as shall, under said New Consti- tution, be appointed to receive the same and give proper discharge therefor."
Even this decisive action did not quell the opposition of the discarded chiefs, who, for many years (and particularly about the expiration of five years from the adoption of the constitution), continued to use most vigorous efforts to have the new government nullified and set aside. These efforts, however, have been uniformly unavailing.
The Hon. Marcus H. Johnson, then sub-agent for the New York Indians, in his report to the United States Commissioner, dated Sept. 30, 1853, said : "The Senecas at Cattaraugus and Allegany have made great improvement in their social and political condition, and have made a rapid advancement in agricultural pursuits. They have estab- lished a republican form of government, and their officers are elected annually by the people, and are held strictly responsible for their official acts. This fact incites those who hold stations of honor and trust to exert their best energies to promote the interests of their nation. The first time I visited the Senecas they were in council, and the strict order and parliamentary rules which were enforced and adhered to would be creditable in any legislative body. And since this change in the form of government the masses appear to take more interest in their affairs, and understand more fully the condition of their national matters."
It cannot be denied, however, that dissension has been steadily on the increase among them, and that at the present time they are as much divided by factions, and torn by party spirit, as are the white communities which surround them.
THE NEW LEASE SYSTEM-LOCATION OF VILLAGES- RESERVATION STATISTICS.
The right to contract with Indians for the occupancy of their lands, or any part of them within the State of New York, was first granted by Chapter 461 of the Laws of 1836 to railroad companies desiring to construct their roads over such lands. This law was enacted with especial ref- erence to the necessities of the New York and Erie Rail- road Company, whose most feasible route lay across a por- tion of the Allegany Reservation in this county. Under authority of this act, the Seneca nation, by its chiefs, ex- ecuted leases to that company for lands to be occupied by the roadway, and for the erection of the necessary buildings.
Subsequently, numerous leases were made by individual
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Indians of lots for building and other purposes along the line of the railroad, particularly in the neighborhood of the stations established upon this Reservation.
After the opening of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad the number of white settlers largely increased, especially at and near Salamanca, the junction of the two roads. In the year 1875 the number of leases which had been made, most of them by individual Indians, amounted to several hundred, all of which, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, were illegal, and consequently invalid.
Here, then, was seen the spectacle of the village of Sala- manca, occupying a noble business location, and of several other villages scarcely less advantageously situated, all being retarded in growth and prosperity by the blighting circum- stance that no valid lease or title could be obtained to land within their boundaries.
The spirit of enterprise displayed by the people of these villages was fully commensurate with their advantages of location ; and particularly was this the case at Salamanca, where some three millions of dollars had been invested prior to 1875, and where nearly ten thousand dollars per annum was paid to Indians for such leases as they could give.
Under these circumstances, it was clearly the right of the people of these villages to expect, and demand, such legislation as would give them security, by legalizing future contracts with the Indian proprietors, and rendering valid the existing leases. They asked such relief of the Legisla- ture of New York, and obtained from that body, in the year 1866, the passage of a law ratifying all leases in the towns of Salamanca and Great Valley ; but the Supreme Court, as above mentioned, held the act to be void, as the authority to regulate these matters belonged solely to the United States government and not to that of the State of New York. Taking this view of the case, the Legislature of the State, recognizing the obvious necessity and justice of the proposed measure, passed concurrent resolutions in 1870, asking Congress to take action for such relief of the white settlers upon the Reservation. No result was attained until 1875, when Congress passed an act (approved Feb. 19, in that year) " to authorize the Seneca nation of New York Indians to lease lands within the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, and to confirm existing leases."
By the terms of the act, all existing leases of land within the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, made by or with the authority of the Seneca nation, to railroad corporations, were ratified and confirmed ; and the Seneca nation authorized, in accordance with their laws and form of government, to lease lands within said Reservations for railroad purposes. It was made the duty of the President of the United States to appoint three commissioners, " to survey, locate, and establish proper boundaries and limits of the villages of Vandalia, Carrolton, Great Valley, Sala- manca, West Salamanca, and Red House, in the Allegany Reservation, including therein, as far as practicable, all lands now occupied by white settlers, and such other lands as, in their opinion, may be reasonably required for the purposes of such villages;" to cause all their existing leases in the villages named to be surveyed and defined and designated
on the maps, and to file a return of their doings, with maps of the surveys, in the office of the county clerk ; the boundaries so laid out and surveyed to be the legal limits of the villages, for purposes of the act.
It was also provided by the act that all leases of land (except those given for railway purposes) falling within the limits of the villages when established, in which In- dians, or the Seneca nation, or parties claiming under them are lessors, "shall be valid and binding upon the parties thereto, and upon said Seneca nation, for a period of five years from and after the passage of this act, except such as by their terms may expire at an earlier date; and at the end of said period, or at the expiration of such leases as terminate within that time, said nation through its councillors shall be entitled to the possession of the said lands, and shall have the power to lease the same;" such leases or renewals, however, to be given for a period not exceeding twelve years, and the person or persons own- ing improvements upon such leases to be entitled to the renewed leases on such terms as agreed upon between him or them and the councillors; and in case of disagreement as to terms and amount of annual rent, these to be decided by referees. Leases expiring after renewal to be renewed in the same manner, at the option of the lessee.
The act also authorizes the Seneca nation, by resolution of its councillors, or in such other manner as the nation in council may determine, to lease lands within the said villages to which no individual Indian or Indians, or other person claiming under him or them, is entitled to the rightful possession by the laws or customs of the nation ; and all moneys arising from rents, under the provisions of the act, are made payable to, and recoverable by, the treasurer of the nation, to be expended in the same manner and for the same purposes as are other moneys or revenues belonging to the Seneca nation. Other sections of the act relate to the jurisdiction of the State and United States courts in actions growing out of the lease system, and to the recording, assignment, devise, and descent of leases, and to several minor matters.
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