DURING a post-glacial period of at least five thousand years, Western New York passed through a series of occupations by the Algonkians. There is also evidence of an Eskimo type of people living here contemporaneously with the Algonkian expeditions.

The Algonkians were primarily nomadic tribes, of an early Indian type, who made their forays into Western New York from Ohio. The third and fourth period Algonkians established large villages in this region and were the inhabitants of Western New York State for hundreds of years. An interesting Algonkian mound can be seen on the farm of Walter Cain in the Rosenburg district.

The Iroquois appeared in the last half of the 14th Century. They came up from the Ohio , River, having originated at the mouth of that stream. Proud and war-like, their fighting nature soon gave them control of the western and central parts of the state. The leading tribes of the Iroquois stock in New York were the Erie or Cat Nation, the Senecas, Neutrals, Hurons, Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas and Oneidas. Five of these tribes-the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas and Oneidas -under the leadership of the Onondaga Indian Hiawatha, formed the Confederacy of the Iroquois.

The first actual date in this chronology is the

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year 1626 when the Franciscan Friar, Father La Roche Dallion, started an Indian mission near Niagara Falls. Similar Jesuit missions were set up in 1640-1641, but were short lived, due to the intracine warfare of the Indians. This locality was the home of the Eries from the beginning of the Iroquois occupations until their annihilation by the Senecas and the Onondagas in 1654-1656.

Baron La Hontan was the first white man to explore the south shore of Lake Erie. He landed near the mouth of the Cattaraugus in 1688 and named the river "Conde''. He was accompanied by many Ottawa Indians and troubl~ soon developed with the Iroquois. The fighting prevented any serious penetration of the interior. The Iroquois were antagonistic to the French and many battles occurred along the lower Cattaraugus-attested by the many old French rifle balls found in the vicinity.

Archaeological research shows a continuous occupation of the Cattaraugus valley since 1654. General Sullivan in 1779 drove the Senecas out of the Genesee valley. They moved on to the Cattaraugus and the Alleghany, where they built bark and log houses, cleared

land for planting and endeavored to adjust themselves to their new environment

There is evidence that British soldiers were stationed near Gowanda during the Revolutionary War. An engagement was expected with Colonel Broadhead's army:.. from Fort Pitt, but the Broadhead forces retired after reaching Buck-tooth Run near Little Valley. There was a good Indian trail at the time leading southward Qver what is now known as Broadway. This Trail is well marked on the old Ellicott maps of Cattaraugus County.

Land Treaties

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the new government came to an understanding with the Iroquois. The treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed in October 22, 1784, to establish peace between the Indians and the Colonists. The Indians accepted land grants which included the Genesee valley and all of Western New York except a strip of land a mile wide along the eastern bank of the Niagara River.

In 1784-1786 conflicting land claims arose between Massachusetts and New York State. This dispute was settled and New York granted Massachusetts six million acres in.

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western New York subject to the Indian title.

Massachusetts sold this land to Phelps and Gorham for one million dollars. This purchase was known as Genesee County, but later was divided into the following counties: Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Alleghany, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Yates, Steuben, and Wayne.

Mr. Phelps, with Rev. Samuel Kirkland (state commissioner and missionary to the Indians) met the Seneca chiefs at Buffalo Creek in 1788, and purchased the Indian title to a large tract of this land in the Genesee valley. Part of the purchase was surveyed into tracts, ranges and townships and sold to speculators and settlers. The residue was sold to Robert Morris of Philadelphia for 8 pence the acre. Phelps and Gorham, being unable to fulfill their contract with Massachusetts, surrendered the land west of the Genesee valley to which the Indians still held title.

The Holland Land Company

In 1796, Robert Morris purchased this portion of land from Massachusetts and obtained the Indian title to the eastern portion near the

Genesee River, and mortgaged the western residue to Wilhelm Willink and associates of AI:Dsterdam, Holland, called the ('Holland Land Company''. Later this land company · came into full possession of the tract..

At a convention of Senecas and United States Commissioners held at Big Tree (now Geneseo) in 1 797, Morris, as representative of the Holland Land Co., purchased the Indian title to the great western tract with the exception of 10 separate reservations embracing 3 3 7 square miles in all. The tracts reserved for the Indians· in western New York were as follows:

• The Cattaraugus reservation of 42 square miles
• The Alleghany reservation of 42 square miles
• The Buffalo Creek reservation of 130 square miles·
• The Tonawanda reservation of 72 square miles
• The other reservations to the east of these tracts.

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