The territory around Buffalo Creek was conquered by the Seneca in the 1600s from the Wenrohronon, also called Wenro. Sometime between 1660 and 1690 the Seneca began to occupy the area. This was during the period of the Beaver Wars, when the Iroquois nations worked to expand their territory and hunting grounds. During the American Revolution, the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 destroyed many towns of the Seneca, as they were allies of the British. The homeless people fled to the protection of the British at Fort Niagara. At one point the British were reported to be feeding and housing over 5000 refugees. Following a terrible winter of 1779–80 at Niagara, the Iroquois began to disperse. Joseph Brant took a group of mixed tribal members to the Grand River in Canada, where the Crown promised them a large grant of land. The Tuscarora went to Lewiston. The remaining Seneca, Cayugas, and Onondaga peoples, led by Sayenqueraghta and his son-in-law Roland Montour, chose to settle at Buffalo Creek. Because the Seneca had been allies of the defeated British, the US forced them to cede most of their territory. By the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, the Seneca relinquished all of Western New Yorkexcept for twelve reservations, including Buffalo Creek. This reservation encompassed much of the present site of the city of Buffalo, New York, as well as its southern and western suburbs. By 1817 an estimate placed the population on the reservation at around 700 Seneca, plus small numbers of other displaced people. In 1838 the United States forced the Seneca to agree to the Treaty of Buffalo Creek, which was part of the Indian Removal policy initiated by the President Andrew Jackson administration. It required the Seneca of western New York to cede all their reservation lands and move west of the Mississippi River, specifically to Wisconsin and Indian Territory, within five years. After the land sale that required the treaty fell through, the US negotiated a new treaty, which the Senate ratified in 1842. The Seneca began selling portions of the reservation in the 1840s to European Americans, members of the Ebenezer Society. The Buffalo Creek reservation was the only reservation to be dissolved: the Seneca were allowed to keep Cattaraugus, Oil Springs, Allegany and Tonawanda reservations after legal battles in the 1850s fought by Onondaga chief Samuel George and other leaders.
