Fonds consists of a treaty entitled "Treaty between the State of New York and the Cayuga Indians" by which the Cayuga surrender certain lands reserved to them under agreements made in 1788 and 1790 in exchange for an annuity and reservation of certain lands, transcripts, endorsed with partly legible receipts from the Cayuga dated up to 1809, parchment, 2 sheets.
Cayuga Nation of New York : The Cayuga Nation (Guyohkohnyo or Gayogohó:no) are members of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) whose ancestral territory surrounds Cayuga Lake in central New York. Today, most of the group's approximately 2,000 members live in Canada on the Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, Ontario. Others live in New York and Oklahoma. The Cayuga, along with the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca, formed a federation of tribes known as the Iroquois League or the Five Nations. The Iroquois established the league sometime between about 1400 and about 1600. About 1722, the Tuscarora joined the league, which then became known as the Six Nations. Like other Iroquois, the Cayuga once lived in large rectangular dwellings called long houses. In most cases, from 6 to 10 related families lived in each house. Villages included from 30 to 150 such dwellings. Cayuga men hunted deer, bear, and small animals. They also fished in the region's many lakes and rivers. The women grew corn, beans, and squash and collected roots, berries, and nuts. In the spring, the Cayuga tapped trees for syrup. They used the syrup to make sugar. The Iroquois League broke up during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) because of a dispute over which side to support. The Cayuga -- together with the Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca -- ultimately sided with the British and the Loyalists. After the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the ensuing policies of the newly formed United States government would leave the Cayuga little choice but to sell their ancestral territory to the State of New York and relocate elsewhere. In the late 1970's -- following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Native American land claims could be heard in federal court--the Cayuga Nation began a legal battle to recover this ancestral territory from the state. As the sale of land under the Cayuga Ferry Treaty took place without approval of the federal government, the Cayuga Nation maintains that it was illegal under a 1790 law.
![[Cayuga First Nation fonds]. Original title: Cayuga Indians fonds](/images/folder-10.png){kind=small}