INTRODUCTION
ONONDAGA KANSAS CLAIMS
On November 23, 1898, the United States Court of Claims rendered judgement in favor of the New York Iroquois for lands set apart for them in Kansas territory under the terms of Article 2 of the Buffalo Creek Treaty of January 15, 1838. Few Iroquois emigrated in the 1840s. Subsequently, the federal government opened this land for sale and settlement non-Iroquois. The Iroquois sued the federal government for reimbursement for the loss of the Kansas land, by Act of Congress, February 9, 1900, a fund was established for payment, and responsibility for carrying out the terms of the Act to the Office of Indian Affairs.
The Office of Indian Affairs developed an application for payment which was to be filled out by all Iroquois in the United States who claimed to have ancestors who could have emigrated to Kansas territory in the 1840s. The forms provided detailed family information for three generations of the applicant’s family, and therefore are a valuable family history resource.
Special Collections, Reed Library has copies of the claims for the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora, and Seneca. However, the Seneca files are rejected applications from Seneca/Cayugas in Oklahoma and a few non-enrolled Senecas in New York State. The applications from enrolled members of the Seneca Nation cannot be located at the National Archives. Tonawanda Senecas were not a party to the original suit in the Court of Claims. Through various treaties and agreement they traded Kansas lands for part of their original reservation, which had been sold by earlier treaties.
The 56-page index lists all names found on the applications and provides the application claim numbers. If the number is enclosed in parentheses it is the person’s own application. Xerographic copies of the claims, arranged by application claim number are located in the Seneca Collection, as part of the Seneca Nation Archives, and have been digitized for this online version.
Kansas Claims for the Onondagas were gathered by John Gibson of Onondaga Territory from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Also included in this online version is a list of applicants arranged by application number.