In 1829, President Andrew Jackson asked Congress for legislative assistance to modify the funds allocated to pay annuities to the Seneca tribes. Unfortunately, the returns on the investment were falling short of the $4,500 needed each year. This is just one small paragraph of Jackson's address, and a small piece of history but it helps to paint a picture of how our nation treated the native tribes and attempted to maintain peace with them. It may be just a simple annuity payment issue, but it touches on our relations with the largest group indigenous peoples of Canada known as Six Nations of the Grand River. As of 2017, Six Nations has a total of 27,276 members with 12,848 still living on the reservation.
In 1794, the U.S. government made a treaty with the Six Nations of the Grand River. The Six Nations were native tribes of the Iroquois people who had allied with the British during the American revolutionary war including warriors from the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga and Seneca nations. After America's victory in the Revolutionary war, the British government ceded all its territory including that belonging to the Six nations without including them in any treaty negotiations. Instead, the British worked to resettle the Six Nations near important Canadian military targets along the border with America. In 1784, the United States signed the very first treaty with the Six Nations to establish each other as sovereign nations and both would maintain the right to claim possession of the same lands. The land would be divided up and the two nations would thereafter live in peace. Three years later under the Fort Harmar treaty, the boundary lines were defined between the lands of the Six Nations and the territory of the United States. Despite these treaties, the state of New York secured 26 leases to take most of the Haudenosaunee territory. Many of these leases were for 999 years and this raised concerns that the Six Nations might join the Northwest Indian war to defend the Ohio Valley, requiring the United States to send a delegation led by Timothy Pickering to Canandaigua in the Seneca Territory to negotiate a treaty of peace and friendship with the Six Nations.
The Treaty of Canandaigua was signed in 1820. Article II declared that the respective treaties within the state of New York (called their reservations) would be their property and the United States would never try to claim them. It would remain the property of the Six Nations and would be for their free use and enjoyment until they choose to sell the property to the people of the United States. Article V ceded some of the land of the Seneca Nation to the United States for the right of making a wagon road from Fort Schlosser to Lake Erie. The Six Nations were required to forever allow the people of the United States free passage and free use of their harbors and rivers. In consideration of these arrangements, article VI provided a quantity of goods in the value of $10,000 plus an annual payment of $4,500 in perpetuity to be used to purchase clothing, domestic animals, and tools for both the home and farm. These types of treaty were quite common with the Indian tribes and were part of the overall program that our nation had to not only make peace with the Indians, but to convert them from a hunter-gathering society into an agricultural one, while acquiring their land for expansion. By 1820, the Six Nations, had already made significant strides towards an agrarian society and established several town centers of their own, most notably Brant's town after one of their most influential Mohawk leaders, Joseph Brant. In 1798, this town was described as a large and sprawling settlement with Brant's home itself being a handsome two-story house built in a European-American style (It was not a village of Tee Pees).
In order to make these annuity payments, the United States Treasury department invested $100,000 in to the United States Stocks, but in 1829 it was only receiving an interest of 3%. The annuity fund was being depleted since $4,500 was going out every year and only $3,000 was coming in. Jackson's Secretary of War brought this to the attention of President Jackson and in his first State of the Union Address he reached out to Congress for some legislative help to avoid any future "embarrassments" due to the diminution of the dividends on the fund. In 1829, the word "embarrassment" did not mean humiliation, but rather just a disruption.
"Your particular attention is requested to that part of the report of the Secretary of War which relates to the money held in trust for the Seneca tribe of Indians. It will be perceived that without legislative aid the Executive can not obviate the embarrassments occasioned by the diminution of the dividends on that fund, which originally amounted to $100,000, and has recently been invested in United States 3% stock."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). First Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-3 [Accessed 29 Oct. 2018].En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Six Nations of the Grand River. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Nations_of_the_Grand_River [Accessed 5 Nov. 2018].
Onondaga Nation. (2018). The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794. [online] Available at: http://www.onondaganation.org/government/the-canandaigua-treaty-of-1794/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2018].
Seneca Nation of Indians. (2018). Treaties - Seneca Nation of Indians. [online] Available at: https://sni.org/culture/treaties/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2018].
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