New York Indian Tribes
None of these Indians ever lived in Kansas. The only reason for their
appearance here is the fact that they owned a portion of the soil of the State.
Their mention will require but a brief space.
The tribes coming under this head are as follows: Senecas, Cayugas,
Tuscaroras, Oneidas, St. Regis (of Iroquoian stock),
Stockbridges, Munsees, and Brothertons. The last three tribes
are of the Algonquian stock. Through the frauds practiced on these Indians by
certain State Governments they were cheated out of their lands in the State of
New York. By the treaty of 1838 they were given a tract in Kansas. This tract
was laid off immediately north of the Osage
reservation, about twenty miles broad (nineteen, in fact) by about one hundred
and ten miles long. It contained one million eight hundred and twenty-four
thousand acres. The treaty provided that each individual of these tribes should
be allotted three hundred and twenty acres upon application. Only thirty-two
persons ever made such application, Provision was made for the sale of these
allotments for the benefit of the allottees. The remainder of the reservation
was declared forfeited to the United States because of non-occupancy, the
Indians refusing to move west. The legal status of the land and the compensation
for the Indians required years for settlement, and the matter was finally
decided by the courts. The reservation was restored to the public domains in
1860, by President Buchanan.
