How things change in a little under 100 years. In the WWI draft, literally hundreds of men were registered on New York’s Indian reservations, with more registered off of the reservation, but within the county. Likely a result of a choice between two different offices and simply which one they visited.
Today, although the reservations certainly still exist, their Native population has shrunk considerably. I’ve included information about each of New York’s Reservations below. I must say that I’ve not found the smaller ones mentioned in the draft registrations, so they probably didn’t have a separate registration office.
In the descriptions of the Reservations below, you’ll notice the theme of gambling, tax free tobacco products and gasoline. While many tribes have opened casinos and other forms of gaming, the jury is certainly out on whether the long term effects, economically, culturally and socially will be more positive or negative. The opinions of the Native people themselves, as evidence by the commentary about the chiefs being divided, are split on the topic as well.
All things considered, I must say that it’s somewhat karmic that the Indians, through casinos, are profiting from the vices of others, given that much of what they lost can be attributed at least in part to their attraction to the white man’s “fire water.”
1. The Allegany Reservation (Uhì·yaʼ in Tuscarora) is an American Indian reservation in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. The population was 1,020 at the 2010 census. The reservation is primarily occupied by members of the Seneca of the Iroquois, but a smaller number of Cayuga, another Iroquois tribe, also reside there. Historically, the reservation’s land was home to the Wenrohronon, whom the Senecas eliminated during the Beaver Wars in the 1650s.
2. The Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seneca Indian Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. Its total area is about 34.4 mi. It is divided among three counties for census purposes: Cattaraugus County, Chautauqua County and Erie County
The reservation stretches from Lake Erie inward along Cattaraugus Creek, along either side of NY 438. Interstate 90 crosses through the reservation with the closest exit being in Irving, New York. The tribe has a Bingo Hall with a Poker Room and various video slot machines.
The reservation is mostly rural, with one-family homes along Route 438 interspersed with businesses such as tobacco shops and is divided into several communities such as Newtown, Bucktown, Pinewoods, Eleven Acres, Ozarks and Indian Hill.
3. The Oil Springs Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seneca tribe located in New York, USA. As of the 2010 census, the Indian reservation had one resident. Although the reservation is controlled by the Seneca tribe, as of 2005 no tribal members actually live on the Oil Springs Reservation. It is divided between two counties: Allegany County and Cattaraugus County. The reservation is northwest of the village of Cuba and includes a couple of Native owned gas stations.
The petroleum-tainted water of the spring was used for the natives medicinally and was known to Jesuit missionaries as early as the 17th century.
4. The Oneida (Onyota’a:ka or Onayotekaono, meaning the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone, Thwahrù·nęʼ in Tuscarora) are a Native American/First Nations (Canada) people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area of upstate New York. They own lands in Madison and Oneida Counties, although there is debate as to whether, because they once sold the land, it can be considered as “ancient tribal land” today. The status of the land affects the tribes ability to open casinos and participate in gaming, otherwise illegal in New York.
The Iroquois call themselves Haudenosaunee (“The people of the longhouses”) in reference to their communal lifestyle and the construction of their dwellings. Originally the Oneida inhabited the area that later became central New York, particularly around Oneida Lake and Oneida County.
5. The Onondaga Reservation is an Indian reservation in Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the territory of the Onondaga Nation. The population was 468 at the 2010 census.
The Onondaga Reservation is a politically independent entity, as the nation is federally recognized by the United States government.
6. The Poospatuck Reservation is an Indian reservation in the community of Mastic, Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 271 at the 2000 census.
The reservation is the smallest in New York State. It is located in Mastic on the north side of Poospatuck Creek, on the east side of Poospatuck Lane, and south of Eleanor Avenue. Poospatuck is situated in the southeast corner of Suffolk County’s Town of Brookhaven; and is the township’s sole Indian reservation. It’s about 70 miles or 1½ hours from New York City.
The reservation is recognized by the state of New York but not the Bureau of Indian Affairs – an important difference in the debate over Indian gaming.
7. The St. Regis Mohawk Reservation is a Mohawk Indian reservation in Franklin County, New York, United States. It is also known by its Mohawk name, Akwesasne. The population was 3,288 at the 2010 census. The reservation is adjacent to the Akwesasne reserve in Ontario and Quebec. The Mohawk consider the entire community to be one unit. The reservation contains the villages of Hogansburg and St. Regis.
Under the terms of the Jay Treaty (1794), the Mohawk people may pass freely across the International Boundary. The two parts of the reservation are separated by the St. Lawrence River and the 45th parallel.
The Mohawk are one of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois, historically based in present-day New York, and the “Keepers of the Eastern Door”.
The reservation adopted gambling in the 1980s. It has caused deep controversy. Broadly speaking, the elected chiefs and the Warrior Society have supported gambling, while the traditional chiefs have opposed it. Today, the reservation is home to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino and the Mohawk Bingo Palace.
The elected tribal governments on the New York and Canadian sides and the traditional chiefs of Akwesasne often work together as a “Tri-Council” concerning areas of shared interest, for example to negotiate land claims settlements.
The Mohawk Tribe views the reservation as a “sovereign nation,” but shares jurisdiction with the State of New York, the United States, and the Town of Bombay, in which it is located.
8. The Shinnecock Reservation is an Indian reservation for members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It lies on the east side of Shinnecock Bay on southeastern Long Island, near Tuckahoe, Shinnecock Hills, and the village of Southampton. The population was 504 as of the 2000 census.
On December 15, 2009, The New York Times reported an announcement by the Obama administration that the Shinnecock Indians on Long Island meet the criteria for federal recognition, signaling the end of a 30-year court battle. This will enable the tribe to move forward with its plans for a casino in New York City or its suburbs. The announcement all but assures that the 1,066-member Shinnecock Indian Nation will receive formal federal recognition, following a public-comment period of up to six months which must be held before the final order is issued. The reservation has been recognized by New York State but not the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs—a discrepancy which has defined the lines in proposals for the reservation to introduce Indian gaming.
9. The Tonawanda Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians located in western New York, USA. The band is a federally recognized tribe and, in the 2010 census, had 483 people living on the reservation. Although most of the reservation lies in Genesee County, portions are within the boundaries of Erie and Niagara counties.
The Tonawanda Reservation is also known as the Tonawanda Creek Reservation. Currently, it has more than a half dozen businesses located on Bloomingdale Road within the reservation. Several sell untaxed, low-price cigarettes and gasoline. Other businesses sell Seneca craft goods, groceries, and prepared food.
After various cultures of indigenous peoples succeeded each other in the Great Lakes area, in historic times, the five nations of the Iroquois coalesced. Before the mid-17th century, they had formed the Iroquois Confederacy. The Seneca were one of the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee.
During the American Revolutionary War, most of the Iroquois sided with the British, as they hoped to end colonial encroachment. After the war, most of the Seneca and other Iroquois were forced to cede their land to the US. They migrated with Joseph Brant and other Iroquois tribes to Ontario, Canada.
Those who stayed in New York were assigned reservations. The Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians split from the rest of the tribe in the 19th century to preserve their traditional practices, including selection of life chiefs by heritage. The Seneca of this reservation worked with self-taught anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan in mid century to teach him about the Iroquois kinship and social structures.
He published the results of his work in 1851 as The League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois. His insights about the significance and details of kinship structure in Native American societies influenced much following anthropological and ethnological research. Much of the information was provided by his colleague and friend Ely S. Parker, a Seneca born on the reservation in 1828. Morgan dedicated his book to Parker and credited him with their joint research.
10. The Tuscarora Reservation (Nyučirhéʼę in Tuscarora) is an Indian reservation in Niagara County, New York. The population was 1,152 at the 2010 census. The Tuscarora are a federally recognized tribe and the Sixth Nation of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy active before the American Revolutionary War.
The Tuscarora tribe had migrated in ancient times from the New York area to the South, where they were based in the Carolinas. After extended conflict with European settlers and other Native Americans at the beginning of the 18th century and defeat in the Tuscarora War, most of the tribe migrated North, beginning in 1722.
They first located in the territory of the Oneida tribe in central New York. By the early 1800s, they declared their tribe fully relocated and said that remnant Tuscarora who stayed in the South would no longer be considered part of the tribe. The Tuscarora and Oneida became allies of the American Continental cause during the American Revolution, and of the United States during the War of 1812. During both wars, they suffered attacks by British armed forces and their First Nations allies in central New York. The Tuscarora were given land from the Seneca tribe (territory which they had taken from the Neutral Nation) in 1797. In 1803, the US government granted the Tuscarora a reservation in Niagara County.
In 1960, through the efforts of the powerful appointed official, Robert Moses of New York City, New York State seized 550 acres of the Tuscarora reservation to form a reservoir for the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant operated by the New York Power Authority. New York needed 1,350 acres but only received 550 acres and had to pay $1,500 per acre per a United States Supreme Court Decision. This led to a displacement of tribal members and a serious disruption to their economy. After a lengthy court case and appeals, in 2003, the Power Authority agreed to compensate the tribe financially and return some unused land.
The reservation is a composite holding derived from (1) land given to the tribe the Seneca tribe, Land donated by the Holland Land Company, and (3) Trust territory held by the federal government.
In the draft registrations, we continually see the Lewiston Reservation mentioned. What about Lewiston???
The Village of Lewiston, NY (also known as Yehęwakwáʼthaʼ in Tuscarora) is within the Town of Lewiston in Niagara County. The Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park lies at its southern border.
Lewiston is situated on the Niagara River, just across the river from Canada. It is half way between the world-famous Niagara Falls and historic Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York. Niagara Falls is about a ten-minute drive to the south. Visitors from Canada can take the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge across the Niagara River.
Various cultures of Native American tribes inhabited the Lewiston area for thousands of years, with the earliest known artifacts dating to 5000 B.C. By the 14th century, this area was inhabited by Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Before the mid-17th century, they had coalesced into the Five Nations, the historic Iroquois tribes of the Haudenosaunee based in present-day New York. In the early 18th century, they were joined by the Iroquoian Tuscarora from the South, who centuries before had migrated from the Great Lakes area to North Carolina. In 1722, the Iroquois accepted the Tuscarora as the Sixth Nation of the confederacy. The Tuscarora had a village here before the American Revolutionary War called Yehęwakwáʼthaʼ.
During the war, Tuscarora and Oneida Iroquois bands allied individually with the colonists or the British. Those who allied with the British went north with Joseph Brant before the end of the war and are part of the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Ontario. Those allied with the American colonists stayed in New York. The Tuscarora Nation of New York is federally recognized and has occupied a reservation at Lewiston since the early 19th Century, although in the 1950s state and federal authorities took 22% of their reservation by eminent domain to construct what is now the Robert Moses Power Plant reservoir.
In addition to its ancient indigenous settlement, Lewiston became historically significant during European development of North America, and strategic in United States and Canadian history. It was the site from which the US invaded Canada in the Battle of Queenston Heights which took place October 13, 1812. It was the first major battle of the War of 1812. A commemorative sign marks the location where the American force embarked to cross the Niagara River. After the Americans lost the battle, a British retaliatory raid in December 1813 burned Lewiston to the ground and killed several civilians. While most American militia deserted, the local Tuscarora natives stood and fought a delaying action which bought enough time for the surviving citizens to escape, although their own village was burned as a result. The Historical Association has announced plans to construct a large scale bronze monument of thanksgiving to the Tuscaroras entitled “Tuscarora Heroes” to be unveiled on the 200th anniversary of the attack on December 19, 2013.
Native Heritage Project 