Treaty of Fort Stanwix
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, signed on October 22, 1784, was a significant agreement between American negotiators and the Iroquois Confederacy, specifically involving the Six Nations. The treaty was aimed at resolving issues stemming from the American Revolutionary War, including the return of prisoners and the establishment of new territorial boundaries. American representatives sought to assert control over lands traditionally held by the Iroquois, which had been further complicated by the divisions within the Confederacy during the war, as factions had formed that supported either the British or American forces.
While the Americans presented a cohesive front, the Iroquois were fragmented, with internal conflicts and generational divides influencing their negotiations. The treaty resulted in substantial land cessions from the Iroquois to Pennsylvania officials, who received territories that would later become part of present-day northwestern Pennsylvania. Despite this, the Six Nations council ultimately rejected the treaty, viewing it as coerced and unrepresentative of their collective will. The agreement exemplified the challenges faced by Indigenous nations in the face of American expansionism and highlighted the complexities of sovereignty and land rights during this transformative period in North American history.
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Date: October 12-23, 1784
Place: Stanwix, New York
Tribes affected: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora
Significance: The treaty ended formal hostilities between members of the Six Nations confederacy and the United States; in exchange for peace, the Iroquois ceded specific lands to the new nation
The American negotiators came to Fort Stanwix with specific demands for a treaty settlement. They wanted the Six Nations to return all “white and black” prisoners captured during the American Revolutionary War. The Americans were also to reconfirm the Oneida and Tuscarora nations’ right to the land the tribes then claimed. Both nations had allied themselves with the Americans during the war. American negotiators also demanded a new boundary settlement with the Six Nations. This new settlement would supersede an earlier agreement between the Iroquois and the British in 1768, an agreement also reached at Fort Stanwix. In exchange for the return of prisoners and the land cession, the Americans agreed to order specific goods for the Iroquois. These demands allowed American negotiators to present a unified front.
For their part, the Iroquois were anything but united when they met the American negotiators. They came to Stanwix under the assumption they had maintained sovereignty over their lands. Unfortunately for the Iroquois representatives, the Treaty of Paris (1783) had ignored Iroquois claims to their land. The American Revolution had also divided the people of the longhouse. The war produced separate factions supporting the British and Americans. Though the war had ended, these factions harbored grievances against each other for actions that occurred during the war. In addition to the factional fighting there was a generational struggle between warriors and sachems. As the Mohawk war chief Aaron Hill noted, the warriors had come to dominate Iroquois politics. Only one sachem, in fact, signed the Fort Stanwix Treaty. Nevertheless, sachems were still politically important in Iroquois politics, and they later voiced their displeasure with the conference. The Six Nations did not present a unified front to the Americans.
Delegates to the treaty signed the official treaty on October 22, 1784. The next day Pennsylvania delegates secured their own territorial cession from Iroquois representatives. Pennsylvania officials forced Iroquois representatives to cede much of the northwestern area of present-day Pennsylvania to the state. The Iroquois received $5,000 in continental scrip for the purchase. The Six Nations council refused to ratify the cessions made by their representatives. Council members offered a smaller land grant to pay for the presents their representatives had taken but refused the treaty in principle. American officials refused the sachem’s counteroffer and acted as if the Stanwix agreement was a fait accompli. The treaty is a clear illustration of how Americans used European constructs to secure their territorial objectives. They coerced the Six Nations into the agreement even though some Americans raised constitutional questions regarding New York’s actions.
Even before the Fort Stanwix agreement, a British representative had purchased a tract of land for the Mohawks in southern Ontario. The Stanwix treaty provided an impetus for other Iroquois to leave their traditional homeland and resettle in Canada. As for the Tuscaroras and Oneidas, New York officials never defended their lands from speculators. In 1785 New York officials began a process that eventually extinguished Oneida title to their lands in New York.