Early Republic · 1796

Treaty with the Seven Nations of Canada, 1796

ID T-0018

Date 1796-05-31

Articles 3

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Seven Nations of Canada

Context

Executed May 31, 1796. The Seven Nations of Canada — primarily Haudenosaunee communities who had settled near Montreal under French Catholic influence during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — held land claims in northern New York that had been contested since the Revolution. This instrument settled those claims.

Significance

The United States paid the Seven Nations of Canada $1,160 to extinguish all claims to lands in New York 'ceded by former treaties.' The consideration is striking in its smallness — land in northern New York that the U.S. and New York State were rapidly developing, settled for just over a thousand dollars. The nations retained specified fishing and hunting rights. The instrument is brief and administrative.

Legal Observation

The Seven Nations of Canada were a transborder community — their political base was in Canada, their land claims were in New York. The U.S. used the treaty power to extinguish claims that New York State and private purchasers had been contesting through other means. After this instrument, the legal basis for those transborder claims within U.S. jurisdiction was gone.

Oct. 2, 1758. Between the United States of America, and the Cherokee Indians. Wuerzas, the treaty made and concluded on Holston River, on the second day of July, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety- Ante,p.39. one, between the United States of America, and the Cherokee nation of Indians, had not been carried into execution, for some time there- after, by reason of some misunderstandings which had arisen :—And whereas, in order to remove such misunderstandings, and to provide for carrying the said treaty into effect, and for re-establishing more fully the peace and friendship between the parties, another treaty was held, made and concluded by and between them, at Philadelphia, the twenty- Ante, p. 43. sixth day of June, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety- four: In which, among other things, it was stipulated, that the bounda- ries mentioned in the fourth article of the said treaty of Holston, should be actually ascertained and marked, in the manner prescribed by the said article, whenever the Cherokee nation should have ninety days’ notice of the time and place at which the commissioners of the United States intended to commence their operation: And whereas further delays in carrying the said fourth

article i

nto complete effect did take place, so that the boundaries mentioned and described therein, were not regularly ascertained and marked, until the latter part of the year, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven: before which time, and for want of knowing the direct course of the said boundary, divers settle- ments were made, by divers citizens of the United States, upon the In- dian lands over and beyond the boundaries so mentioned and described in the said article, and contrary to the intention of the said treaties: but which settlers were removed from the said Indian lands, by au- thority of the United States, as'soon after the boundaries had been so lawfully ascertained and marked as the nature of the case had admit- ted: And whereas, for the purpose of doing justice to the Cherokee nation of Indians, and remedying inconveniencies arising to citizens of the United States from the adjustment of the boundary line between the lands of the Cherokees and those of the United States, or the citi- zens thereof, or from any other cause in relation to the Cherokees; and in order to promote the interests and safety of the said states, and the citizens thereof, the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, hath appointed George Wal- ton, of Georgia, and the President of the United States hath also ap- pointed Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Butler, commanding the troops of the United States, in the state of Tennessee, to be commissioners for the purpose aforesaid: And who, on the part of the United States, and the Cherokee nation, by the undersigned chiefs and warriors, repre- senting the said nation, have agreed to the following articles, namely: Preamble.

ARTICLE I

Peace and The peace and friendship subsisting between the United States and friendship per- the Cherokee people, are hereby renewed, continued, and declared per- petual. petual. 7

ARTICLE II

Subsisting The treaties subsisting between the present contracting parties, are treaties to ope- acknowledged to be of full and operating force; together with the con- rate. struction and usage under their respective articles, and so to continue.

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 6499–6567.