P
is flayed and scalped. Some of the Cherokee, led
by Bowles’s son John, try to flee to Mexico, but
they are intercepted by soldiers. Most of the other
survivors head north into Arkansas and eventually
join their kin in Indian Territory.
The U.S. government dissolves the
Seneca’s reservations.
By the terms of the Treaty of Buffalo Creek, the
land of the four Seneca reservations in western
New York State—Allegany, Buffalo Creek, Cat-
taraugus, and Tonawanda—is sold to the Ogden
Land Company, and arrangements are made to
force the Seneca to relocate to Kansas. Most Sen-
eca oppose the treaty and accuse the leaders who
signed it of taking bribes. The protests of tribe
members and sympathetic whites will lead to the
restoration of the Allegany and Cattaraugus Res-
ervations in 1842. (See also entries for 1848 and
for 1857.)
“The fact that the whites want
our land imposes no obligation
on us to sell it, nor does it hold
forth an inducement to do so,
unless it leads them to offer a
price equal in value to us. We
neither know nor feel any debt
of gratitude which we owe to
them, in consequence of their
‘loving kindness or tender mer-
cies’ toward us, that should
cause us to make a sacrifice of
our property or our interest,
to their wonted avarice and
which, like the mother of the
horse leech, cries give, give, and
is never sated.”
—Seneca Maris Bryant Pierce in a
speech protesting tribal land salesAprilThe Cherokee ask the United States to
invalidate their Removal treaty.
Principal Cherokee chief John Ross (see entry for
1828) submits a petition to Congress requesting
it to void the Treaty of New Echota (see entry for
DECEMBER 29, 1835). In the treaty, a small pro-Re-
moval faction of Cherokee agreed to cede the tribe’s
eastern homeland for a tract in Indian Territory.
Signed by more than 15,000 Cherokee, the petition
maintains that the treaty is invalid. The government
ignores the document and continues to make plans
for the tribe’s removal.MayThe forced Removal of the Cherokee
begins.
The Treaty of New Echota (see entry for DECEM-
BER 29, 1835) required the Cherokee to relocate to
Indian Territory within two years. As the deadline
passes, most of the Cherokee remain in the South-
east. Authorized to force them to move, U.S. troops
storm their villages and destroy their crops, prop-
erty, and homes. They also round up the Cherokee,
placing them in concentration camps while the
government makes arrangements for their reloca-
tion. In the camps, large numbers fall ill because of
unsanitary conditions. That summer, under armed
guard, the Cherokee are ordered to begin the long
march to their new homeland. (See also entry for
MARCH 1839.)1839British Parliament passes the Crown Lands
Protection Act.
With the Crown Lands Protection Act, the British
parliament declares that all Indian lands are under
the guardianship of the British Crown. An attempt
to regulate white encroachment on Indian territory,
the measure also denies individual Indians all politi-
cal rights based on land ownership.