Six Nations land cessions

The Treaty of Lancaster was a treaty concluded between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as "Six Nations" or Iroquois) and the colonial governments of Virginia Colony and Maryland Colony. Negotiations began at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 25, and ended on July 4, 1744.

The negotiations were conducted in the old courthouse, which stood in the center of Lancaster at the time. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, built in 1874 to commemorate the U.S. Civil War, now stands on the site of the Treaty in Penn Square.

In 1722, Virginia Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood had arranged the Treaty of Albany with the (then) Five Nations. That treaty renewed the Covenant Chain and agreed to recognize the Blue Ridge Mountains as the demarcation between the Virginia Colony and the Five Nations (who that same year became known as the "Six Nations" with the addition of the Tuscarora).

Colonial governments were unable to prevent white settlers from moving beyond the Blue Ridge and into the Shenandoah Valley in the 1730s. When the Haudenosaunee Confederacy objected, they were told that the agreed demarcation was to prevent their trespassing east of the Blue Ridge, but not to prevent the English from expanding west of them. In 1743 the Iroquois skirmished with some Valley settlers. The Iroquois were on the verge of declaring total war on the Virginia Colony when Governor Gooch paid them the sum of 100 pounds sterling for any settled land in the Valley which they claimed. The following year, at the Treaty of Lancaster, the Iroquois sold all their remaining claim to the Shenandoah Valley for 200 pounds in gold. At the same time, it was an attempt to make peace between the Iroquois and the southern Catawba.

Even so, a difference in interpretation remained. The Virginians believed that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had relinquished to the Crown any claim they had on all the lands within the 1609 Chartered boundaries of Virginia. They considered these boundaries to extend to the Pacific, or at least up to the Ohio River. The Iroquois understood that they had ceded only their lands up to the Ohio watershed; in other words, only the Shenandoah Valley east of the Allegheny Mountains.

This difference was partly resolved at the 1752 Treaty of Logstown, where the Haudenosaunee Confederacy recognised English rights southeast of the Ohio River. Nevertheless, the Cherokee, the Shawnee, and other nations continued to claim by possession large portions of the area beyond the Allegheny Ridge. At the 1758 Treaty of Easton with the Shawnee ending "Braddock's War" (a portion of the French and Indian Wars), the colonies agreed to settle no further west of the Alleghenies (the Eastern Divide). The Royal Proclamation of 1763 confirmed this territory as Indian land.

By the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy ("Six Nations") finally sold all their remaining claims between the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. The Shawnee relinquished their claim on that area only following their defeat in Dunmore's War in 1774. The Cherokee ceded their claims in this region (encompassing most of present-day Kentucky and part of West Virginia) in the Treaty of Hard Labour (1768), the Treaty of Lochaber (1770), and the Henderson Purchase (1775).

Participants

• For Governor of Pennsylvania Colony (called "Brother Onas" by the Iroquois):

Lt. Governor George Thomas

• For Governor of Virginia Colony (called "Brother Assaragoa" by the Iroquois):

Thomas Lee,

William Beverly, Commissioners

• For Governor of Maryland Colony (who received the name "Brother Tocarry-hogan" at this treaty):

Edmund Jennings,

Philip Thomas,

Robert King,

Thomas Colville, Commissioners

• Six Nations deputies speaking at this Treaty:

Canassatego, Tachanoontia, Gachradodow

• English-Iroquois interpreter: Conrad Weiser (called Tacharawagon by the Iroquois)

Bibliography

• Colden, Cadwallader. The Treaty Held with the Indians of the Six Nations, at Lancaster in Pennsylvania, in June 1744. 1744.
• Gist, Christopher, and William M. Darlington. Christopher Gist's Journals: With Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries by William M. Darlington. Pittsburg: J.R. Weldin & Co, 1893.
• Heisey, M. Luther. The Indian Treaty of 1744. Lancaster, Pa: Lancaster County Historical Society, 1944. Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, v. 48, no. 3, pages 67-70.
• Jennings, Francis. The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from Its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744. New York: Norton, 1984.
• Johansen, B. E. 2001. ""By Your Observing the Methods Our Wise Forefathers Have Taken, You Will Acquire Fresh Strength and Power:" Closing Speech of Canassatego, July 4, 1744, Lancaster Treaty". CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF MASS MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS. 60: 83-106.
• Marshe, Witham, and William Henry Egle. Lancaster in 1744. Journal of the Treaty at Lancaster in 1744, with the Six Nations. Lancaster, Pa: The New Era Steam and Job Print, 1884. By Witham Marshe, secretary of the Maryland commissioners.
• Merrell, James Hart. The Lancaster Treaty of 1744: With Related Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. Contents: Introduction: Indians and colonists in early America. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1744 : an American history lesson ; Indians and other early Americans ; The history and diplomacy of the Iroquois League ; Treaties between Indians and colonists ; The road to Lancaster ; The Lancaster Treaty of 1744 ; Treaty minutes as historical texts ; The aftermath of the Lancaster Treaty -- The document. A note about the text ; A treaty held at the town of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania ... in June, 1744 -- Related Documents. 1. The Indians giving a talk to Colonel Bouquet ... in Oct. 1764, 1766 / Benjamin West ; 2. Observations on a visit to Onondaga, July-August 1743 / John Bartram ; Report on the Council proceedings at Onondaga, July-August 1743 / Conrad Weiser ; 4. Journal of the Treaty held with the Six Nations, June-July 1744 / Witham Marshe.
• Pennsylvania, and Six Nations. The Treaty Held with the Indians of the Six Nations, at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, in June, 1744. To Which Is Prefix'd, an Account of the First Confederacy of the Six Nations, Their Present Tributaries, Dependents, and Allies, and of Their Religion, and Form of Government. Williamsburg [Va.]: Printed and sold by William Parks, 1744.
• Jim Piecuch. Conference at and Treaty of Lancaster: North American Colonial Wars. 2011. Abstract: From June 22 to July 4, 1744, representatives of the Six Nations of the Iroquois met with commissioners from the colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to resolve disputes over land claims and other issues.
• Rhoades, Matthew L. Long Knives and the Longhouse: Anglo-Iroquois Politics and the Expansion of Colonial Virginia. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011.
• Text of the Treaty of Lancaster. Early Journal Content on JSTOR. This article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in the world by JSTOR. Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. The works date from the mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial purposes.
• 1905. "The Treaty of Lancaster, 1744". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 13, no. 2: 141-142.

External links

• Text of the treaty (Last day proceedings)
• Complete proceedings, University of Nebraska-Lincoln