Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolutionary War, was too ill to attend the treaty negotiations with the Seneca Nation at Big Tree, but he sent along a letter to them with his son Tom.
Successful conclusion of treaty negotiations would hopefully provide enough profit to satisfy Robert Morris' creditors and keep him out of debtor's prison. Morris wrote: "My brothers of the Seneca Nation, it was my wish and my intentions to have come into your country and to have met with you at this treaty, but the Great Spirit ordained otherwise. ... Brothers, it is now six years since I have been invested with the exclusive right to acquire your lands, during the whole of which time, you have quietly possessed them without being importuned to sell them, but I now think that it is time for them to be productive to you."
Tom Morris worked hard to save his father's crumbling financial empire. One of his ploys was to try to convince the Senecas of the benefits of bank interest. Such a concept was foreign to the Native Americans.
Morris said if he "planted" the $100,000 he would pay them for the 4 million acres, they would reap $6,000 a year in interest. But the Seneca chiefs had no interest in "growing" money. They wanted to keep their ground.
Morris then tried to impress them with what a large amount $100,000 was. He said if it were in silver, it would take 30 horses to pull it in a wagon from Philadelphia to the Genesee area. The Senecas, led by the picturesque oratory of Red Jacket, remained adamant. At that point, Red Jacket extinguished the council fire and proclaimed negotiations to be over.
Tom Morris was resolute. During an adjournment, he turned to the Seneca women, who wielded much power in the Iroquois system. The clan mothers chose the chiefs. He showered them with gifts and said the money would improve their lives.
After a few days of feasting and frolicking, some sachems said Morris should reopen the negotiations. They said since he first lighted the council fire, Red Jacket had no authority to extinguish it. Only the person who started the fire could put it out.
With the women on his side and Red Jacket sleeping off a drunk under a tree, Morris wheedled agreement from the sachems. But there remained a question of reservation land for the Indians.
At that point, the legendary Mary Jemison addressed the council. Captured by the Indians as a youngster, she had decided to remain a Seneca. She asked that the treaty provide land for her along the Genesee. Morris finally acceded to her pleas and she received nearly 18,000 acres at Gardeau Flats, now the site of Letchworth State Park.
The deed of conveyance contained both tribal names and English names of the chiefs to affix their Xs to. Red Jacket even acquiesced and became a signatory along with Handsome Lake, Hot Bread, Cornplanter, Tall Chief, Farmer's Brother and Little Billy, just to name a few of the 52 sachems who signed the deed.
When the whiskey was gone, the Senecas left Big Tree and Robert Morris had his profit, but still not enough to restore his fiscal solvency. The rapidly encroaching white settlers eventually pushed the Senecas onto the reservations.
The treaty promised them reservation land "forever, so long as trees grow and rivers run." But that promise was hollow, as the land grab continued even into modern times.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 8 2003 |