Early Republic · 1794

Treaty with the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Stockbridges, 1794

ID T-0015

Date 1794-12-02

Articles 5

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge Nations

Context

Executed at Philadelphia on December 2, 1794. The Oneida and Tuscarora had allied with the United States during the Revolution — the only members of the Six Nations Confederacy to do so. Their pro-American alignment cost them: Loyalist Iroquois raids destroyed their villages and fields. This is a compensation treaty, twenty years after those losses.

Significance

Article I: $5,000 to be distributed among the Oneida and Tuscarora for 'individual losses and services during the late war.' The instrument identifies specific individuals and amounts. A Kahnawake man and 'some few very meritorious persons of the Stockbridge Indians' are included. The United States also obligated itself to build a sawmill and a gristmill on Oneida land and to provide a minister. This is one of the few instruments in the corpus where the U.S. acknowledged a debt running from the United States to an Indian nation.

Legal Observation

The Revolutionary alliance that the Oneida and Tuscarora honored cost them their confederacy standing and their villages. Twenty years later, $5,000 and a gristmill. The Oneida had been promised by New York State, separately, that their alliance would be rewarded with land protections. Those state promises were broken by subsequent New York land purchases that the federal government allowed to proceed.

ARTICLE I

The United States will pay the sum of five thousand dollars, to be — $5000 to be distributed among individuals of the Oneida and Tuscorora nations, as distributed for a compensation for their individual losses and services during the late past losses and war between Great-Britain and the United States. The only man of services. the Kaughnawaugas now remaining in the Oneida country, as well as some few very meritorious persons of the Stockbridge Indians, will be considered in the distribution. Mills to be erected by the United States. Millers to be provided. build a church. Indians relin- quish further claims. TREATY WITH THE ONEIDAS, ETC. 1794.

ARTICLE II

For the general accommodation of these Indian nations, residing in the country of the Oneidas, the United States will cause to be erected a complete grist-mill and saw-mill, in a situation to serve the present principal settlements of these nations. Or if such one convenient situation cannot be found, then the United States will cause to be erected two such grist-mills and saw-mills, in places where it is now known the proposed accommodation may be effected. Of this the i ates will judge. arcs dia

ARTICLE III

The United States will provide, during three years after the mills shall be completed, for the expense of employing one or two suitable persons to manage the mills, to keep them in repair, to instruct some young men of the three nations in the arts of the miller and sawer, and to provide teams and utensils for carrying on the work of the mills.

ARTICLE IV

The United States will pay one thousand dollars, to be applied in building a convenient church at Oneida, in the place of the one which was there burnt by the enemy, in the late war.

ARTICLE V

In consideration of the above stipulations to be performed on the part of the United States, the Oneida, Tuscorora and Stockbridge Indians afore-mentioned, now acknowledge themselves satisfied, and relinquish all other claims of compensation and rewards for their losses and ser- vices in the late war. Excepting only the unsatisfied claims of such men of the said nations as bore commissions under the United States, for any arrears which may be due to them as officers.

In witness whereof

, the chiefs of those nations residing in the coun- try of the Oneidas, and Timothy Pickering, agent for the United States, have hereto set their hands and seals, at Oneida, the second day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four. TIMOTHY PICKERING. Wolf tribe. Bear tribe, Head Sachema § O-dot-saihte, Lodowik Koh-sau-we-tau, Of the Oneidas. i Konno-quen-yau. wardáa < Cornelius Kauhiktoton, mut mr 4 John Skenendo. Thos. Osauhataugaun-lot. Turtle tribe. warehiet. < S,ho-noh-le-yo. Tuscarora. setem. 4 Peter Konnauterlook. Seren. 4 T,Haulondauwaugon. Daniel Te-ounes-lees, i Kanatjogh, or Nicholas Mert 1 son of Skenendo. iat siete ; Cusick. Witnesses to the signing and sealing of the agent of the United States, and of the chiefs of the Oneida and Tuscorora nations. S. KIRKLAND, JAMES DEAN, Interpreter. ‘Witnesses to the signing and sealing of the four chiefs of the Stockbridge Indians, whose names are below. SAML. KIRKLAND, JOHN SERGEANT, Stockbridge Indian chiefs. Hendrick Aupaumu, John Konkapot, Joseph Quonney, Jacob Konkapot. Te the Indian names are subjoined a mark and seal. Between the United States of America and the Tribes of Indians, called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chipe- was, Putawatimes, Miamis, Eel-river, Weea's, Kickapoos, Pian- kashaws, and Kaskaskias. To put an end to a destructive war, to settle all controversies, and to restore harmony and a friendly intercourse between the said United States, and Indian tribes; Anthony Wayne, major-general, command- ing the army of the United States, and sole commissioner for the good purposes above-mentioned, and the said tribes of Indians, by their Sa- chems, chiefs, and warriors, met together at Greeneville, the head quar- ters of the said army, have agreed on the following articles, which, when ratified by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, shall be binding on them and the said Indian tribes.

Source: U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. VII. Edited by Richard Peters, Esq. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846. Reprinted by Dennis & Co., Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., 1962. Source lines 5097–5246.