ARBITRATION OF OUTSTANDING PECUNIARY
CLAIMS BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

MEMORIAL OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOV-
ERNMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE CLAIM

OF THE CAYUGA INDIANS.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Cayuga Nation of Indians is a member of that powerful confederacy of the Six Nations or Iroquois which at the era of Dutch discovery, 1609, dominated the whole eastern portion of North America from the Mississippi to the ocean and from the Tennessee and the Carolinas northward. The settlements and villages of the league were then found planted within the territory which became the state of New York, where the confederate nations continued to reside in undisturbed possession until the time of the Revolutionary War, shortly after which they migrated to lands lying upon the Grand River in Canada where they have ever since been domiciled .d established, maintaining their cohesion, ancient e nstitution and method of government.

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|LA.SP. FRE 711

The Six Nations were recognized as independent nations and llies by the Dutch and afterwards by the English to whom the Dutch surrendered their possessions in 1664. "A covenant chain' was established between them, which the Iroquois, with singular fidelity, preserved unbroken, until the independence of the American states terminated the jurisdiction of the English over the country." The Cayugas occupied exclusively the territory lying upon both sides of Cayuga Lake comprising 1,700 square miles, and which is depicted on the map herewith. The state authorities of New York after the close of the War of Independence found it Expedient to negotiate with the Cayuga Nation

for the purchase

Zeh. 25,

1789.

$1625

тра

There are three treaties between the state and the Cayugas which will be prominent in the discussion and which may be described by years as those of 1789, 1790 and 1795.

The first treaty was concluded on 25th February, 1789, and according to the narrative was held in the City of Albany, in the state of New York, between His Excellency George Clinton, Esq., governor of the state, and others, commissioners authorized for that purpose by and on behalf of the people of the state, and several of the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the tribe or nation of Indians called the Cayugas for and on behalf of the said nation. This treaty was not in fact, however, executed by any sachem, or competent Indian authority.

The Cayugas, according to the terms of the treaty, ceded and granted all their lands to the people of the state of New York forever, but it was stipulated that "the Cayugas shall of the ceded lands hold to themselves and to their posterity forever for their own use and cultivation, but not but not to be sold, leased or in any other manner alienated or disposed of to others," an area, in the treaty particularly described, of the lands so ceded, comprising one hundred square miles, and in addition, a fishing station, and the free right of hunting and fishing within all the ceded lands.

The treaty further provides that, "In consideration of the said Cession and Grant the People of the State of New York shall pay to the Cayugas on the first day of June next at Fort Schuyler, formerly called Fort Stanwix, the further sum of one thousand and six hundred and twenty-five dollars, and also the people of the State of New York shall annually pay to the Cayugas and their posterity forever on the first day of June in every year thereafter at Fort Schuyler aforesaid, five hundred dollars in silver."

It was also stipulated that "The Cayuga called the 'Fish Carrier,' shall have a mile square of the said reserved lands for the separate use of himself and for the separate use of his family forever." This Cayuga called the "Fish Carrier," otherwise known as "Qiaceohti." was an aged and distinguished war chief of the Cayugas, to whom reference will be made not infrequently in these proceedings.

For reasons which will hereinafter be stated, arising from the absence of national authority on behalf of the alleged chiefs and warriors, parties to the treaty of 1789, it was found necessary or expedient on behalf of the state to negotiate with the sachems and chiefs, the constituted rulers of the Cayuga Nation, in order to