New book looks at historic treaty with Native Americans

The importance of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua is evident in the celebration that now occurs every Nov. 11 — the day this treaty was signed.

Leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy lead a march in celebration of this treaty, which asserts Native American rights, now and then.

A new book, Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794, by State University College at Geneseo history professor Michael Leroy Oberg delves into the history of a treaty signed more than two centuries ago.

This treaty didn't stop exploitation of Native Americans, but unlike other treaties, it sets forth principles of sovereignty in an important phrase.

"The key part is 'the free use and enjoyment' of their land," said Oberg, who has written five other books and edited a sixth on Native American history.

Article 1 of the treaty sets the conciliatory tone of the treaty by saying: "Peace and friendship are hereby firmly established, and shall be perpetual, between the United States and the Six Nations."

Oberg, 50, who lives in Brighton, wrote the book, which runs about 200 pages and will be published in about a month as part of Oxford University Press' Critical Historical Encounters series.

Leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy — made up of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora nations — signed the treaty at Canandaigua with Col. Timothy Pickering, who was President George Washington's special agent.

Oberg's research included studying extensive correspondence and minutes related to the treaty.

Washington wanted to reach a peace agreement with the Six Nations because he was worried that they would join Native Americans in nearby territories rebelling against encroachments on their land.

"Pickering recognized the importance of the Six Nations — particularly the Senecas — to the security of the states. He had to give the Six Nations what they wanted because he needed the allegiance of the Iroquois," said Oberg.

The Six Nations, Oberg noted, also faced serious challenges — particularly white settlers coming onto their lands.

"The treaty for them offered a unique opportunity to get their grievances heard," Oberg said.

Under the treaty, a strip of land along the Niagara River was returned to the Senecas, but the treaty has not over the years helped Native Americans regain lost land. Nor has it stopped Native Americans from losing additional territory.

A half century ago, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building the Kinzua Dam in Warren, Pennsylvania, and the creation of the Allegheny Reservoir, members of the Seneca Nation were forced to relocate.

"We lost 10,000 acres. We evoked the 1794 treaty, but it didn't work," said G. Peter Jemison, manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor.

Jemison, who co-edited a collection of essays about the 1794 treaty, said that such losses do not diminish the importance of the treaty.

Oberg, who was recently given the title of "distinguished professor," by State University of New York officials, tells how attempts to limit Native American sovereignty have continued.

The U.S. Supreme Court, he writes in the conclusion of his new book, has frustrated the ability of the Oneida Nation to recover lands that the state acquired in transactions that failed to get the required federal approval.

"But the treaty remains a powerful symbol, and part of the 'supreme law of the land,' that recognizes and affirms the rights of the people of the Longhouse to their lands and their way of life," Oberg writes.

JGOODMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com