Archive mysteries, opened.

A creek boundary reversal meant a new trial, not final possession

The Nation’s 1861 calendar-priority appeal against Knight concerned about an acre at Cattaraugus Creek, including a sawmill and dam. The Court of Appeals read the deed boundary to the creek center, reversed, and ordered a new trial; remand and final delivery remain unknown.

Legislature advanced two appeals, but decided neither

New York’s original 1861 ch. 141 gave calendar preference to the Nation’s pending Pattison and Knight appeals, one as respondent and one as appellant. Either party could move a case out of order; the statute neither decided the appeals nor connected them to the 1853 tax sales.

An enacted Seneca relief chapter follows the 1857 bill—but execution is unproved

An 1897 session-law index identifies New York 1857 ch. 45, “to relieve” the Seneca Nation, and traces §4 into Indian Law §6. The original chapter and redemption records remain unseen; the index instead assigns the road-reservation chapter to 1840 ch. 254 and 1849 ch. 254 to militia.

Seven tax-sale entries covered 31,800 acres; a bill proposed relief

The Comptroller’s ledger lists two State bids and five private conveyances across Allegany and Cattaraugus reservation lands. This source shows only a reported 1857 bill; the separate 1897 session-law index identifies an enacted Seneca relief chapter, examined in finding #1252. The Nation’s 13,300-acre notice is not the full ledger.

The next Indian appropriation still did not name the six-item refund

The February 27, 1851 law repeated distinct Six Nations and Seneca annuity and stock-interest items, but did not identify the Senate committee’s $28,505.50-plus-interest reimbursement. Silence of these two annual laws does not prove the claim was never settled or paid.

The proposed six-item refund is absent from the September 30 Indian law

Chapter 91 funded recurring Seneca annuities and interest on a separate $75,000 fund, and named retained-money advances for two other tribes’ former agents. It contains no identifiable $28,505.50 Seneca claim; later or alternate relief remains unexamined.

The committee calculated six claims at $28,505.50—but recommended, not paid

Senate Report 192 itemized a former agent’s alleged losses, including Polly Jimeson’s separate personal claim, and recommended principal plus interest in an appropriation bill. Its printed annuity years and fifteen-year total conflict; enactment and disbursement remain unverified.

The missing inquiry has a printed citation: Senate Executive Document 31

The contemporary Senate executive-document index identifies the War Secretary’s Seneca sub-agent inquiry and investigator’s report as 30th Congress, first session, volume IV, No. 31, page 1. The document’s actual contents and conclusions remain uninspected.

The War report reached the Senate January 19 and was ordered printed March 29

The Senate proceedings directly record a War Secretary report with Indian Affairs communication about any Seneca losses through a former U.S. sub-agent, presented January 19. Referral and printing were ordered March 29; the report’s contents and a refund remain unverified.

Hall withdrew the refund amendment; the report was said to be in the Senate

On March 22, 1848, Hall proposed a Seneca refund tied expressly to the 1846 sub-agent investigation, then withdrew it expecting Senate action, where the commissioner’s report was said to be. The proposed 40,000 was no established loss, law, or payment; the original report remains unseen.

Stryker was named in a refund proposal, not an enacted remedy

On March 13, 1848, Mr. Hall of New York gave notice of a motion for leave to introduce a bill about money allegedly withheld by sub-agent James Stryker. The Journal does not show introduction, inquiry findings, repayment, or a conclusive link to the separate 1846 Seneca investigation.

The sub-agent inquiry report was received—but was it sent to Congress?

Commissioner W. Medill reported on November 30, 1847 that the report required by the 1846 Seneca annuity-withholding inquiry had just arrived and would soon go to the War Secretary for congressional transmission. Its actual forwarding, contents, accused person, and remedy remain unverified.

Two fund provisions and an untraced sub-agent inquiry are distinct

Congress addressed a $75,000 treaty-related fund, conditionally authorized a separate Ontario Bank transfer, and ordered inquiry into allegedly withheld annuities. A $500 expense ceiling was not a quantified loss or award; the inquiry’s report and result remain unverified.

The deed’s $48,216 recital exceeds the identified bank deposit by $5,166

The 1891 court expressly could not trace how, when, or whether the remainder was paid beyond the deed recital, though it presumed payment. The 1896 Supreme Court dismissed the writ on independent state limitations grounds, not treaty merits. Missing vouchers remain the archival test.

A $30 council permit did not replace agreement with an individual occupier

Wallace Jemison’s long occupancy supported an individual Tonawanda allotment interest beneath the highway. Bell’s council permit could not substitute for his agreement or condemnation; the affirmed possession judgment carried six cents nominal damages, not the $500 pleaded. Payment and physical removal are unverified.

A fee-title verdict was reversed without deciding Appleby’s pre-emption chain

The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment declaring Appleby the fee owner subject to Seneca occupancy and dismissed the Nation’s statutory claim-determination suit. It expressly declined to examine whether Appleby succeeded to Massachusetts’s pre-emption right, leaving hypothetical post-dissolution rights undecided.

A deed-and-lease estate won crops; a rival title suit was stopped

Hatch v. Luckman affirmed a $30.80 crop-conversion judgment for Skye’s appointed administrators and a separate writ prohibiting Tonawanda Peacemakers from trying rival land title. The feast allocation failed in this case; collection and physical delivery remain unverified.

The elusive Lehly case was mis-cited by ten Hun volumes

The 1929 hearing cites 65 Hun 83; the original Seneca Nation v. Lehly is 55 Hun 83. It protected a daughter’s derivative allotment occupancy and her husband’s agency against Nation ejectment, without proving an original written allotment or granting him independent title.

An assault indictment survived habeas; guilt remained untried

People ex rel. Cusick v. Daly returned a Tuscarora defendant to Niagara County custody pending trial after rejecting his federal-jurisdiction argument on this record. The opinion does not show conviction or settle present-day criminal jurisdiction.

A widow’s household regained its possession order, not fee title

Peters v. Tallchief affirmed a justice-court possession order after a daughter intruded on her deceased brother’s widow and child. The majority found a state forum for this record’s dispute but declined to classify the precise allotment title; a lengthy contrary treaty argument was a dissent.

A probate forum was recognized; no administrator was appointed

Matter of Printup reversed a Niagara surrogate’s refusal to hear a Tuscarora estate petition and remitted for rehearing. The court flagged an unproven tribal probate forum, a filed debt decision with no shown entered judgment, and a nominee without priority over the public administrator.

A farm-for-goods bargain failed, but restoration survived

Terrance v. Crowley denied enforcement of an inseparable goods bargain because the allotted reservation farm could not be conveyed in fee. The court ordered return of the purported deed, net-proceeds accounting, and restoration of possession—or $3,300 if restoration failed, not proof of cash paid.

A lost judgment could be proved, but delivery remained unverified

Silverheels v. Maybee enforced an 1895 Allegany Reservation Peacemakers land judgment affirmed by the Nation council in 1907. The 1913 state court accepted surviving evidence despite the missing original and ordered possession delivered; its opinion does not establish that delivery occurred.

A contested president kept provisional protection; the council could choose counsel

Seneca Nation v. Jimeson left Frank L. Patterson acting after a disputed 1908 election, pending a direct title proceeding. The court also rejected a claimed monopoly of the state-appointed Nation attorney: council-authorized counsel could bring the injunction suit.

A disputed election did not let a predecessor reclaim office

Seneca Nation v. John preserved Thomas Kennedy’s de facto presidency against Andrew John Jr.’s holdover claim while requiring a direct proceeding to try title. A claimed felony-disqualification provision and irregular votes were contested on the motion, not finally settled for all purposes.

A widow could seek state enforcement of a Peacemakers’ partition

Jimeson v. Pierce permitted a Seneca widow’s action to enforce a Cattaraugus Peacemakers’ dower judgment beyond a demurrer, not a final eviction or proven title. The reported pleading dates a marshal attempt before the judgment’s entry, a discrepancy the original docket must resolve.

Dynamite conviction affirmed; unauthorized fine remitted

In People v. Pierce, a Cattaraugus County judge rejected a complete reservation immunity claim for conceded dynamite fishing on the Allegany Reservation, yet removed the $40 fine that the charged statute did not authorize. The thirty-day sentence stood; original prosecution and payment records remain unseen.

A customary horse distribution defeated state surrogate letters

Dole v. Irish recognized a Seneca family’s allocation and onward sale of Jesse Jameson’s horse after his death, holding an Erie County surrogate’s later administration letters void for this property. This 1848 state-surrogate case must not be conflated with a later Nation surrogate institution.

A challenged deed belonged before Peacemakers and council

Jones v. Gordon vacated a state injunction in an individual-versus-individual reservation-title dispute assigned by statute to Peacemakers and Nation council appeal. The judge did not decide whether the deed was forged or the reported council reversal valid.

The seller’s replevin suit was not an unpaid-contract suit

Singer v. Hill allowed a company to reclaim a machine from a Seneca woman after demand and refusal, distinguishing tort-like possession recovery from a barred suit for contract installments. The headnote mistakenly says the vendee brought replevin; the company did.

An individual’s adverse costs were not charged to the Nation’s annuity

In Crouse, a Seneca man’s horse-loss action failed and the railroad won $103.10 in costs. Although the Nation’s appointed attorney acted on council direction, the majority allowed execution against levy-eligible individual property, not automatic payment from collective annuities; actual seizure was not proved.

An approved resurvey did not move the litigated treaty line

In Hugaboom, the 1878 straight-line resurvey could not enlarge the reservation if an earlier marked 1798 line controlled. Evidence of old field marks and a fence supported the defendant’s jury verdict on one south-boundary strip; acquiescence alone was not the court’s basis.

A late Nation renewal survived a competing hotel-title claim

Shongo v. Miller affirmed a foreclosure purchaser’s position over an individual claim through the original lessor: the Nation could waive timing of its lease renewal. The published opinion itself gives April 22 and April 28, 1892 for that renewal; the instrument remains unseen.

A challenged estate appointment belonged first before the Nation council

Jimeson v. Lehley upheld the Seneca surrogate institution against state-constitution objections and directed an estate claimant to appeal to the Nation council instead of seeking revocation in a separate equity suit. The claimant’s marriage and award distribution were not decided.

A Nation attorney was not mandatory counsel for every member’s suit

In Jemmison v. Kennedy, an individual Seneca assault plaintiff could use chosen attorneys for an above-Peacemakers-threshold claim. The defense had also waived its capacity objection; this was not a village-lease or collective-land-title decision.

A lease renewal was presumed, not proved by its instrument

In Sheehan v. Mayer, foreclosure of a mortgage on a Great Valley lease and improvements survived the assignee’s five-year-expiration objection. The court said renewal had not been proved or disproved, but could be presumed from continued possession if necessary to sustain judgment.

A brush fence supported renewal, but the lessor kept her home

Wait v. Jameson held that a partial log-and-brush fence was a sufficient improvement for this 1875-act lease renewal, even though the lease was speculative. Its possession judgment expressly preserved Jameson’s house and her 1873 enclosed area.

A purchased house did not outrank an earlier lease

In the original Baker v. Johns opinion, the court held that buying a house and making later improvements on an overlapping Salamanca parcel did not let a junior lessee renew ahead of the prior lessee. Earlier damages judgments and certified Nation council minutes had narrower effects than a blanket title ruling.

An unexecuted judgment did not award possession to the railway

The original 1894 Lavery opinion recounts a Seneca Nation ejectment judgment against William Dinter on October 23, 1873. It was never executed, and the railway could not borrow it to defeat an intervening 1875 federal act and renewed individual lease. The original 1873 record remains unlocated.

A court described the commissioners’ lease book and filed Salamanca map

In Ryan v. Knorr, the 1880 court said a disputed thirteen-acre parcel appeared on the commissioners’ Salamanca map, both rival leases were entered in their filed lease book, and the earlier lease was recorded December 6, 1875. Map-filing date and complete original sheets remain unverified.

Lavery protected an individual Salamanca lease against railway ejectment

The full 75 Hun 396 opinion, affirmed at 149 N.Y. 576, held that the 1836 New York railroad statute did not override federal control of reservation leases. The 1875 congressional act and a renewed individual lease defeated ejectment on the litigated parcel, not across every acre of the railway tract.

Five individual Salamanca rents overlapped a 30-acre railway lease

1915 Indian Service correspondence led the 1932 auditor to count earlier individual rents neither as overcollections nor intervening unpaid periods as arrears. The assistant commissioner’s advice was conditional on the agent’s account; the original leases, blueprint, and an internal C-19 rate conflict remain unresolved.

The $10,367.76 arrears snapshot was reduced by recorded collections

The 1932 audit removed $2,165.65 collected through September 1931, leaving $8,202.11 of the April 1930 arrears on Schedule No. 1. Its $888.09 apparent overcollections and $7,314.02 “net differences” are accounting classifications, not proof of refunds, fraud, or a collectible net debt.

The audit’s 1926 statute was enacted in 1896

Original 29 Stat. 340 is a June 10, 1896 instruction to report Allegany leases, not a 1926 act. The 1932 audit itself quotes a December 1896 Indian Office explanation for why the report could not then be furnished; its 90,000-card-entry reconstruction does not prove that the earlier report was delivered.

The certified village maps were not a plot-level rent register

By rental year 1931, 1,440 active original leases corresponded to 2,917 separately billed property holders. The federal auditor still lacked an official plat of subdivided tracts, notwithstanding the cataloged 1876 village surveys, and could not establish whether every occupied area produced rent.

A missing rental entry could not establish early lease arrears

The Comptroller General found 1875–1892 rental statements could not support an actual arrears audit: missing treasurer cashbooks, untracked transfers and council-earmarked receipts defeated the inference. A $49.85 lease-card difference remained unreconciled, not identified as missing money.

Three railway map records sit apart from the six certified village surveys

The federal inventory describes a 1875 Atlantic & Great Western right-of-way map, an undated apparent Erie Railway map, and a June 14, 1875 Salamanca diagram of land required by the Rochester and State Line Railway. Titles and diagrams do not prove land ownership, completed acquisition, construction, or valid leases.

A resurvey map was catalogued—and the law specified three plat destinations

The 1878 act called for boundary monuments, triplicate plats and field notes, with copies destined for the Erie County clerk, Seneca Nation, and General Land Office. A National Archives inventory describes Charles E. Fink’s resurvey map as approved December 4, 1878; it does not prove county filing, payment, or monument placement. This is distinct from the six Allegany village maps.

Six commissioner-certified map sets survive in a federal cartographic inventory

A National Archives finding aid identifies maps of Salamanca, West Salamanca, Carrolton, Great Valley, Red House, and Vandalia certified December 30, 1876 under the 1875 act. The archival description proves more than a survey mandate, but not county-clerk filing or the validity of mapped lease claims.

“Fellows v. Denniston (5 Wallace, 761)” joins two tax cases

Andrew John’s printed memorial pairs a New York case name with the U.S. reporter page for The New York Indians. The federal court reversed the state tax judgment; neither inspected decision itself resolves a specific Salamanca lease.

3,111 recorded instruments were not 3,111 unique parcels

The Cattaraugus County clerk reported 2,031 pre-1892 leases and 1,080 recorded 1892 renewals, then warned that most lease descriptions needed a survey to determine acreage. Recited rents are not receipts; this does not settle whether the separate 1875 village-boundary maps were filed.

The annex contradicted the committee’s claim of no Seneca objection

An 1874 House report minimized Indigenous opposition to lease validation while annexing a December 1873 Seneca council remonstrance and a January 1874 anti-bill petition attributed to 217 men and 125 mothers; another Seneca petition favored allotment. These are competing petitions, not a referendum or a court holding.

The Seneca attorney allocation was not the Seneca annuity

Chapter 476 authorized $150 for Seneca counsel and $200 for Indian-land intruder-removal expenses under the general fund; a distinct debt-sinking-fund heading carried $500 for Senecas among four Indigenous annuities totaling $7,361.67. Fiscal-year authority beginning October 1, 1866 does not establish disbursement or a specific removal.

Congress did not indiscriminately validate Salamanca leases

The original 18 Stat. 330–31 confirms specified prior railroad leases, but imposes a surveyed-village framework, five-year initial validity and up-to-twelve-year renewals for other leases. Individual rightful possession and Nation-owned rents remain distinct; §3 also contains a printed cross-reference anomaly.

A lease confirmation identifies its 1865 county record

Chapter 263 ratified a Nation-to-James J. Humason lease, dated June 10, 1865 and recorded June 20 in Cattaraugus County miscellaneous records, liber 4, p. 691. The photographed heading reads Humason, while the volume index says Hamason; the uninspected instrument holds its uses and terms.

Jack Lewis’s 1864 lease was expressly validated from its own date

Chapter 36 named Seneca lessor Jack Lewis, lessees George E. Senear and John Nelson, and an Allegany reservation parcel near the Erie Railroad and Tuna mills plank road. Its retroactive validity language does not prove possession, rent, or later court treatment.

A named church parcel was confirmed only for church purposes

New York chapter 119 described a quarter-acre-proportioned parcel reserved from an Ayres lease and granted or leased by the Seneca Nation to the Protestant Episcopal Church. Its state confirmation lasted only while occupied for church purposes; construction, continuous use, and later title are not established.

Original ratification act imposed a fifty-acre ceiling and two provisos

New York chapter 472 ratified only earlier Seneca-council-confirmed leases in Salamanca or Great Valley of at most fifty acres each, provided they conflicted with neither state law nor individual rights. Sherman later reported adverse court rulings; neither the judgments nor any particular lease has been inspected.

Void-lease claim spanned Nation, individual lessors, railroads, and sublessees

Sherman described two kinds of Indigenous-origin leases and later white subleases. He said New York courts had voided them, while endorsing a proposed federal commission to compensate individual Indigenous lessors for prior improvements before rents went to the Nation. The judgments and enacted remedy are not inspected.

Two band allocations, a blocked state match, and an eighty-acre site still to be chosen

Sherman reported $4,500 in trust interest for the school and $1,600 for occupants’ improvements, plus a $4,500 state appropriation stalled by the comptroller. His October 21 willingness to convey and pay was not a deed or warrant; trustees still planned to select the site.

One page gives both 1,807 and 1,870 school-age children

Sherman’s report prints 1,807 children aged five through twenty-one, then 1,870 “of school-age” several lines later. The 63-person difference is image-verified; different scope or a transcription/printing error remains possible.

The six house-material entries total 900, not the printed 899

Sherman’s signed report lists 273 frame, 313 plank, 290 block/log, 21 board, two stone, and one brick dwelling—one more than its stated total. The original image confirms the figures, but not which entry or classification caused the mismatch.

Two age-five-to-twenty-one totals differ by exactly Oneida’s 52

Sherman’s eight reservation entries add to his first total of 1,737. A later sentence in the same signed report says 1,685, exactly 52 lower—the listed Oneida figure. The match identifies an audit question, not proof that children were deliberately omitted or that either population was corrected.

The claimed 98-pupil attendance gain does not fit the previous return

Sherman printed a 1875 daily average of 555.1 and a 1876 average of 628, a rise of 72.9 rather than his reported 98. The part-year registrations do reconcile exactly (1,174 to 1,230, up 56); missing local returns prevent assigning the daily-average discrepancy to a particular cause.

A completed industrial school with distinct federal and private funding

Sherman reported a 30-by-36-foot Newtown building already in use, unlike the adjacent partly built Tonawanda school. A $584.70 estimate concerned lumber and materials, not total construction; he claimed purchases $102.01 below estimate and voluntary support for ongoing operation.

Buildings under contract and partly built—not an opened school

Agent D. Sherman reported state-fund delays and construction partly complete on October 14, 1876. His $7,500 cost was an estimate, 70 boarders a projected capacity, and the asserted trustees’ title is not an inspected deed; the completion forecast is not a completion record.

A $200 erection line after a house was reported built

A federal agent reported a new Tonawanda council house built by September 1868; New York chapter 193 appropriated $200 for “erection” on May 1, 1876. The records do not establish whether these were the same structure, a replacement or an addition—and an appropriation is not proof of a warrant or construction.

A $300 ceiling for supervising construction did not fund school operation

Chapter 393 restated an older trustee-supervision rule at $3 per actual service day, with payments capped at $300 and that sum appropriated. The 1869 original lacked an express cap, but the intervening 1870 amendment is unseen; the appropriation proves neither payment nor an opened school.

Why a federal count of 26 schools cannot be checked by adding Ames’s 25 entries

The 1869 overview excluded the Thomas Orphan Asylum, while Ames explicitly included it within ten Cattaraugus districts; his incomplete list totals 25. A later report lists two Onondaga schools, including a parish school, but does not establish its 1869 opening date or reconcile the categories.

A 187-person apparent decline is not a matched census—and OCR invents another discrepancy

The 1869 overview and table print 4,991; Sherman’s 1870 count is 4,804, but he distinguishes the previous annuity enumeration from his new census. The original prints 4,991 where OCR says 4,091. Neither subtraction proves population loss or missing people.

The founding law specified trustees as grantees; a later report named the state

The 1869 act required a deed to the incorporated trustees. Whipple later said the 80 acres were deeded to New York; the 1887 repeal addressed both corporate land and any state interest. Without the deed and 1870 amendment, the title chain and completed reversion remain unproved.

Two reports differ by $4,500 on tribal school trust interest

Jackson wrote $6,100 from Tonawanda trust interest; Whipple wrote $1,600. Both wrote $5,500 from New York. Their accounting scope, underlying vouchers and the 1870 amendment remain unseen; the difference is not proof of lost funds.

The founding law’s $3,000 state match was conditional, not a receipt

Chapter 651 required a $3,000 Tonawanda contribution and 80-acre deed before a $3,000 state building match. It separately directed unquantified public school moneys to teachers and apparatus; neither route proves payment, adequate operations, or opening.

Whipple’s 1877 repeal citation conflicts with the 1887 act

Whipple’s p. 52 names 1877 chapter 205, but its p. 82 and the original law identify 1887 chapter 255. The act dissolved the corporation; sale and land reversion depended on council consent, district-attorney approval, and sale.

An equipped manual-labor school reportedly stood idle fifteen years

Jackson said $6,100 in Tonawanda trust interest and $5,500 from New York funded land, buildings, and equipment, but instructors and operating funds were not secured. The trustees worked the farm; a later sale was authorized, not proved executed.

An agent reported a $50-to-$85 annual asylum allowance increase

Ames said state legislators raised the annual per-inmate allowance in response to asylum debt. The original act, payments, eligible inmate count, and debt retirement remain unverified.

A petition’s fifty acres became eighty in an agent’s account of a later act

Rich reported a $3,000 and 50-acre school petition in 1866; Ames described a later $3,000 tribal contribution, $3,000 state match, and 80 acres in 1869. His claim of compliance does not prove a deed, cash transfer, construction, or operation.

An 1868 population total leaves 54 people unallocated among three listed reservations

The printed total is 3,070, but Cattaraugus 1,494, Alleghany 917, and Tonawanda 605 sum to 3,016. The report does not explain the 54-person difference; it may reflect an unlisted category, a scope difference, or an erroneous figure, not necessarily missing people.

After a delayed plan, an agent reported a new Tonawanda council house built

Cunningham described consultation and political delay in 1867, with estimates still to come; in 1868 he said a new house had been built since his prior report. The report establishes reported completion, not the exact date, funding, contractor, or identity with an earlier proposal.

Trustees acknowledged a $10 asylum-receipts mistake the next year

The 1867 table’s five state entries sum to $5,881.62, $10 below the printed subtotal. In 1868 the trustees themselves acknowledged a $10 error in the prior receipts, though the exact erroneous entry remains unidentified; a further two-cent difference survives in the restated debt.

An asylum appropriation labeled 1866 was received; another was still expected

Rich recalled $1,000 received in 1865 and relayed an 1866 assurance of another $1,000. The trustees later listed a $1,000 receipt labeled 1866 in their 1867 accounts, while describing current-year civilization-fund aid as still to be received. The 1868 trustees then listed $1,000 of aid labeled 1867; appropriation-year labels still do not establish exact receipt dates.

A Tonawanda interest payment exceeded annual yield by $1,028

Agent Cunningham reported $6,245 of trust interest paid, while the same volume’s stock table lists $86,950 at six percent, or $5,217 annual yield. The $1,028 difference is unresolved because a reported distribution and current securities’ annualized return do not have to cover the same accrual period.

A $2,000 Tonawanda council resolution disappeared from the school synopsis

Rich reported a July council resolution for a permanent $2,000 fund serving educational, religious, and other public purposes, separately from a petition offering $3,000 and fifty acres toward a state-approved boarding school. The commissioner repeated only the school offer; neither proposal proves expenditure or construction.

Forty-four deaths included illnesses besides smallpox

The commissioner’s synopsis makes 44 sound like a smallpox-only total. Agent Rich’s report says smallpox “with a few cases of other sickness” amounted to 44 Tonawanda deaths. Its statement that births exceeded deaths applies to the entire agency, not the band; a disease-specific subtotal is not supplied.

Audited 1812 expense claims still awaited appropriation

Agent C. B. Rich described New York-audited vouchers dated 1859 for veterans’ wartime clothing and contingent expenses, with asserted six-percent interest from 1858 and claims of $20–$120. He explicitly said Congress had yet to appropriate payment. Audited paperwork is not a federal disbursement or pension award.

Three of eighteen asylum dismissions lack stated reasons

Wright’s 1865 report balances 36 opening children + 35 admissions − 18 dismissions − one death = 52 at year’s end. But the named reasons for dismission total only fifteen: one transfer, four self-supporting, and ten taken by relatives or friends. The other three reasons are unstated, not proof of missing children.

The $273 expense gap was unitemized, not a proved loss

Seven priced expense lines total $6,605.35 against $6,878.35 reported disbursed. Wright also named fuel, blacksmith bills, and repairs before the debt-payment balance but did not price them. The $273 remainder is therefore a collective unitemized amount if the printed totals hold—not proof of missing cash or hospital construction.

1865 reported payment matches yield; 1864 gap remains unresolved

Rich reported paying $5,217 of Tonawanda trust interest in 1865, exactly the six-percent annual yield on $86,950 in stock. Manly’s 1864 reported payment was $4,143.98; neither the later match nor subtraction proves arrears, withholding, or repayment without dates and vouchers.

$625 hospital gift did not build an 1864 asylum hospital

The asylum trustee reported twelve child deaths since April and a $2,805.37 operating shortfall. Most of a separate $625 gift was intended for a hospital, but construction was postponed; the surviving summary does not resolve restricted-fund accounting or prove diversion.

Manly’s claimed forfeiture did not become the Supreme Court’s rule

Manly attributed a Kansas-title forfeiture view to a former Interior Secretary while seeking a new treaty in 1864. The 1898 Supreme Court held that executive repossession could not effect forfeiture, and remanded for net land-sale receipts with deductions—not automatic individual payment.

1845 council house precedes conditional 1864 building plan

A dated 1845 sketch describes a council house on the Tonawanda reservation. Manly’s 1864 statement offers to set aside funds only after plans and estimates are submitted; it neither negates the earlier house nor proves approval or construction of another.

$5,217 annual yield is not $4,143.98 paid

The stock table calculates six percent of $86,950; agent Manly separately reports paying $4,143.98 of trust interest. The $1,073.02 difference compares unlike accounting measures and is not a demonstrated withheld balance.

Two stock transfers explain the $2,150 increase

The commissioner identifies $950 from the Ottawa account and $1,200 from Chickasaw-orphans accumulated-interest stock. Their sum exactly reconciles Tonawanda principal from $84,800 to $86,950; 6% explains the $129 rise in listed annual interest, not an individual payout.

Reported ~$21.86/acre could use an approval exception; approval unverified

An 1889 approximate price and acreage appear above the treaty’s $20 average, but its same-day supplement permits higher contracts with prior federal approval. The exact contract and approval remain unchecked.

Four-tract $202,000 is not the two-reservation award

The 1842 agreement deems four tracts worth $202,000; the later committee reports an 1844 Buffalo–Tonawanda award totaling $133,708.96. A Treasury-held Tonawanda improvement portion is not proof of individual receipt.

1857 treaty promised $256,000; 1889 synopsis says $250,000

The original treaty and same-day supplement each specify $256,000. An 1889 legislative synopsis understates it by $6,000 and dates the supplement 1847; neither discrepancy proves a payment shortfall.

Appraisal condition was the lower court’s rationale

In Fellows v. Blacksmith, the Supreme Court barred unilateral private eviction and expressly found it unnecessary to examine the state court’s appraisal-and-payment condition. An 1889 retrospective incorrectly presents that narrower condition as the Supreme Court’s holding.

About $80,000 valued; no Tonawanda assent or receipt proved

Schoolcraft says Tonawanda did not join the 1842 compromise, yet later estimates combined private Buffalo and Tonawanda valuations at about $80,000 under it, with individual awards conditioned on removal. This is neither a Tonawanda-only sum nor proof of consent, removal or payment; his separate public-property total is a different category.

Five years in the report, but not expressly in the Allegany clause

The superintendent described all four reservation teacher sums as annual for five years. Chapter 114 §4 explicitly gives Cattaraugus $350 per year for five years, then separately gives Allegany “the further sum of three hundred dollars” without repeating the duration. Later general annual-payment language and the report may imply recurrence; neither settles the particular wording or proves a payout.

Seven school entries before two schoolhouse grants stalled

Schoolcraft’s 1845 table counts four Cattaraugus schools, one in its separate Cayugas-on-Cattaraugus row, and two Allegany schools. The superintendent’s January 1847 unfiled-bond report concerns new 1846 building grants, not absence of earlier schools. Combined property appraisals are not individual school values.

St. Regis attendance blank; no numeric school count

The 1845 census records 81 St. Regis children aged 5–16 but leaves its private/select-school attendance cell blank—not zero. Its separate school-count cell carries a church-location footnote, not a numeral; four belongs to Cattaraugus. The 462 attendance total sums eight populated rows.

A reported Onondaga schoolhouse, not just a contract

In the January 5, 1847 superintendent report, agent Partridge reported $287.50 paid for construction, about $50 of Indigenous stone and timber supplied in kind, a roughly 70-seat building, and a school opened. The underlying invoices, inspection, and record of chiefs’ assent remain unseen.

Schoolhouse grants stalled at commissioners’ bonds

The January 5, 1847 superintendent report says the two commissioners had not filed required bonds and no steps had yet carried the 1846 building grants into effect. Its compensation explanation is explicitly qualified; later outcomes remain unknown.

Fifty pupils, not the OCR’s sixty

Randall’s photographed 1851 compilation reports 50 St. Regis children attending over nine months, average daily attendance 35. Searchable OCR mistakenly reads 60; the underlying register and exact nine-month dates remain unverified.

A school begun; the house completion unproved

The January 1847 superintendent report says the St. Regis building grant was drawn, and agent Phineas Atwater reported a trustees’ site lease, a $197 construction contract, and a school begun. The November 1846 completion target is not a certified finish, and the teacher remains unnamed.

Four schools were Cattaraugus, not St. Regis

Withdrawn: the original reading misaligned Schoolcraft’s rows. Cattaraugus has four; St. Regis’s school cell has a church-location footnote, not a numeral. The 1846 New York-side authorization does not establish a prior school count.

Eight returns, nine census lines

Schoolcraft transmitted eight numbered returns, but the printed composite abstract has nine lines, including Cayugas on Cattaraugus and St. Regis. He explicitly did not personally enumerate St. Regis; neither its enumerator nor a one-to-one return-to-row map is established.

British birthplace is not Canadian residence

The 260-person St. Regis reservation row contains 125 born in New York and 135 born in British possessions. All 135 are already included in the 260 residents; they cannot explain Schoolcraft’s separate 360-person New York narrative by being counted as current Canadian residents.

“54° parallel” in the census report, 45th in the treaties

Schoolcraft’s photographed report prints a 54° parallel for the St. Regis border. The 1783 peace treaty and 1814 Treaty of Ghent specify the forty-fifth degree. This corrects a geographic numeral, not the report’s separate 360-versus-260 population disagreement or the cause of the misprint.

Birthplace entries do not partition 3,753 residents

The photographed birthplace columns total 3,742, eleven fewer than the population abstract. But three reservation rows are short by 21 in all, and three other rows exceed their enumerated population by ten; a simple “eleven unknown birthplaces” explanation cannot reconcile both directions.

Where the 197 Cayugas are counted

The report’s 114 in separate Cattaraugus families and 83 in other reservation rows reconcile to 197. Its cross-tribe table identifies the 83 as 1 Onondaga, 2 Tuscarora, 21 Buffalo, 54 Cattaraugus and 5 Allegany residents—already included in host rows, not extra people. Earlier 123 and 144 figures remain unexplained.

144 in the narrative, 114 in the family return

Schoolcraft describes 144 Cayugas at Cattaraugus as separately returned, but his later twenty-family description and reservation abstract count 114. The difference also matters to his approximate Canadian-population calculation; the original return or correction is still needed.

The seven-person deduction is still unidentified

The first reservation abstract counts 157 Oneida residents; the final column counts 164 before “Deduct seven Oneidas.” A different table lists seven people from other tribes on the reservation, but the match does not identify the deducted people or reconcile the two descriptions.

Missing statute page recovered from contemporary reprint

A photographed 1851 school-law compilation supplies chapter 361’s missing first page: $200 annually for two years from U.S. deposit-fund income, conditionally payable to William Parker after an approved bond and annual accounting. The surviving original session-law page corroborates the ending; appropriation is not proof of payment or schooling.

Two prose passages say 360; two tables say 260

Schoolcraft’s photographed narrative twice gives 360, once explicitly for New York residents. The nine-row abstract gives 260 (126 male plus 134 female), and a later table repeats 260. The hundred-person conflict is unresolved—not an OCR artifact or proven Canadian adjustment.

The Tuscarora figure is 312—not an OCR-produced 332

The photographed nine-row abstract totals 3,753, including Tonawanda 505 and St. Regis 260. Tuscarora 148 males plus 164 females equals the photographed 312; the apparent twenty-person inconsistency is transcription error.

John Blacksmith questioned land, cattle, tax, and state data use

Schoolcraft’s report attributes pointed land-and-tax questions to Deonehogawa amid Tonawanda nonparticipation in the Ogden compromise. Its dialogue is mediated testimony, not proof of tax, cession, or consent.

A two-dollar-per-day law and a later $250 Schoolcraft line

The appended 1845 census statute capped enumerators’ daily compensation; a distinct May 1846 appropriation authorized $250 for Schoolcraft’s services. Neither source is his receipt, a day count, or the total all-agent census budget.

John Moot’s relief depended on surrendering the Crouses’ certificate

Chapter 123 extended an April 1845 purchaser-relief act to Moot if the certificate issued to 1840 lot-three buyers John and Daniel Crouse, for his benefit, was surrendered to the comptroller. The earlier act remains uninspected, and this one does not prove surrender, title, or payment; it is distinct from the 1829 second-purchase relief.

A ten-year privilege, but no automatic reservation-land lease

Chapter 286 allowed Horace D. Swan a ferry franchise near Cold-Spring Creek. Any county-court lease of necessary reservation land required consent of principal chiefs residing there; pine timber was protected, and residents retained use of their own boats. Authorization does not establish that a ferry, lease, consent, or toll enforcement occurred.

Reappraise the land, then correct the interest formula

Chapter 148 offered conditional resale and new bonds to financially distressed 1833 buyers of land in the second 1829 Oneida purchase. Four days later chapter 267 replaced its section 3: deduct prior principal payments before calculating unpaid interest on the balance. Neither act proves any reappraisal, certificate exchange, resale or school-fund transfer.

Giving liquor could be a misdemeanor, not only selling it

Chapter 278 criminalized selling or giving an intoxicating drink to an Indigenous resident of either named reservation. On conviction it prescribed a $25–$50 fine, up to thirty days in county jail, or both. The statute is not a record of arrests, convictions or tribal consent.

$190.75 plus interest, authorized—not proven paid

Chapter 238 named Elizabeth alias Betsey Ludovick of the Orchard party, then at Duck creek near Green Bay, and authorized indemnity for lands and improvements sold under an 1829 law. Its interest ran from May 1, 1834. This is distinct from a later first Christian party “Duck river” appropriation; no warrant, receipt, or release is shown.

Three months to enumerate; four months to qualify a school

Chapter 45 barred district reports from counting resident Indigenous children aged five to sixteen without three months of district attendance. A separate teacher apportionment required a four-month school, three-month average instruction, peace-makers’ written consent and satisfactory evidence. It named no fixed sum and is not a payment record.

Four schools, deposit-fund income, and conditions before payment

Chapter 114 authorized schoolhouses and teacher support at Onondaga, Cattaraugus, Allegany and St. Regis. It also required bonds and October accounts, a preceding six-month school test after the first annual payment, and a 20% reservation contribution before the last two. The 1848 budget repeats four maintenance amounts; neither law proves operation or disbursement.

Two budgets, $200 then $300, not a payment record

An 1848 appropriation assigned $200 from U.S. deposit-fund income to a St. Regis reservation school; the fiscal 1851–52 budget listed $300 under the U.S. deposit fund. The $100 nominal difference across nonadjacent periods does not establish disbursement, continuous schooling or identical fund accounting.

A $360 sinking-fund line, not removal reimbursement

The fiscal 1851–52 budget appropriated $360 for interest on stock issued for Stockbridge benefit. It is distinct from Slingerland’s $118.50 removal expenses. Although $360 equals six percent of the 1848 law’s $6,000 retained fund, the stock instrument and any actual payment remain unverified.

A later reimbursement names Slingerland and two years

New York’s 1848 law authorized consensual removal expenses; an 1851 law separately directed $118.50 for Jeremiah Slingerland’s services and expenses in removals described as occurring in 1848 and 1850. This legislative recital is not an emigrant list, consent record, voucher, or proof of cash disbursement.

A named 1865 graduate, an unlinked 1850s cohort

The school’s 1884 history lists Twoguns in its July 1865 graduating class and calls her its only Indian graduate. An earlier paragraph says one female graduated from a three-year Indigenous-pupil experiment, but does not name or date her. The apparent chronological tension needs a register, not an assumed identity.

Nine initial Indian pupils; 26 attendees and one graduate reported later

The school’s 1884 history reports nine entrants in its eleventh term, then five female and 21 male attendees over three years, with one female graduate. Randall’s 1851 summary supports some early attendance but not those counts; the later “failure” judgment is the school’s, not an independently established outcome.

The five sections behind the $1,000 budget

A photographed 1851 compilation reprints 1850 chapter 89: ten places, tribal selection guidance, minimum age sixteen, a three-year limit, $100 annual individual expense cap and $10 travel cap. The original 1850 session-law page and evidence of actual selection or payment remain unseen.

A sale permission with three places withheld

Chapter 311 allowed a conditional sale of lot 252, but reserved the state stone quarry, a schoolhouse half-acre and a burial-place acre. Its state-prisons-act cross-reference is printed, though the 1845 parent and any executed sale remain unverified.

Two annual levies, but subscriptions before the draw

Chapter 310 directed separate $100-a-year land and county levies for five years, while requiring a certificate of matching voluntary subscriptions for treasury draws. The act does not establish collection, a bridge, or reservation-land title.

Identical $7,361.67 lines, successive fiscal periods

Chapter 7 prints the four-tribe subtotal for nine months ending September 1848; chapter 381 repeats it for October 1848–September 1849. Neither entry proves payment, and the two hits are not one fiscal appropriation duplicated by OCR.

Three $500 county loans from school-fund capital

Chapter 315 directed Erie, Genesee, and Orleans counties to repay separate bridge loans in two annual principal installments with interest. Commissioners needed bonds before receiving money; construction, advances and tribal consent remain unproved.

#1119 — The 1848 tribal-annuity budget versus Cayuga allocation

Chapter 381 listed $2,430 for Onondagas, $2,300 Cayugas, $500 Senecas, and $2,131.67 St. Regis—a nominal $7,361.67. Chapter 122 separately specified a Cayuga census and geographic apportionment procedure. Neither law proves warrants, recipients, or completed payments.

#1118 — Four reservation-school sums in the 1848 budget

Chapter 381 set $250 for Onondaga, $350 Cattaraugus, $300 Allegany, and $200 St. Regis reservation schools from U.S. deposit-fund income for fiscal 1848–49, citing an unseen 1846 law. The $1,100 sum is budget authority, not proof of school operation or expenditure; separate Normal School support is not an Indigenous scholarship.

#1117 — How 1848 apportioned Cayuga annuities

Chapter 122 directed the comptroller to use a federal census to apportion state annuities by Cayuga numbers in New York versus west of the Mississippi, then pay federal agents for family-size-sensitive distribution. Canada is not named, but the act does not resolve Canadian entitlement or prove any census, warrant, or cash payment.

#1116 — A new Seneca election calendar (1848)

Chapter 300 set the annual officer elections governed by an earlier amendment for Seneca people on the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations to the first Tuesday in May, beginning May 2, 1848, and repealed that amendment’s §24. It does not prove an election, result, or the contents of the unseen earlier law.

#1115 — The Stockbridge $10,000 split (1848)

Chapter 208 reserved $6,000 as a school-and-gospel fund with six-percent interest, assigned $1,000 to expenses of moving remaining New York Stockbridge people only with their consent, and directed the remaining $3,000 toward division among families by their numbers. These are parts of one $10,000 appropriation, not proof of investment, migration, warrants, or distribution.

#1114 — Toll-free passage on the Onondaga reservation road (1848)

Chapter 36 let the Syracuse and Tully Plank Road Company use the reservation highway and charge tolls, but exempted Indians resident there or belonging to the Onondaga tribe, including their teams and vehicles through gates. Authorization does not itself show a built road, toll collection, consent, or title conveyance.

#1113 — The 1848 Shinecock school revival

Original chapter 39 appropriates $240 total for teacher wages through Southampton’s town superintendent: $80 immediately and $80 on each of February 1, 1849 and 1850. It revives the 1831 law except where inconsistent; it neither grants $240 annually nor proves payment or teaching.

#1112 — Indigenous youths at the State Normal School (1851)

New York appropriated $1,000 from general-fund revenue for support and education of ten Indigenous youths at the State Normal School, under 1850 chapter 89. This is one fiscal-year allocation, not $1,000 per student or proof that ten enrolled or that funds were spent.

#1111 — Mark Jack and the 1851 asylum-support appropriation

New York directed $150 for the named Indigenous person’s support in the State Lunatic Asylum, under its managers’ direction. The act is an appropriation, not proof of admission, diagnosis, spending, or an issued warrant; its historical descriptor is attributed rather than adopted.

#1110 — Onondaga annuity-distribution agent expenses (1851)

The 1851 New York appropriation distinguishes $100 compensation for comptroller-appointed agents distributing the June Onondaga annuity from $149.12 to agents enumerating and paying Onondaga annuities across five named reservations. Neither amount is identified as annuity principal, and both are distinct from the salaried Onondaga agent’s $100 per year.

A named $50 retrospective direction for David D. Hillis

A photographed 1851 expense act names Hillis for services as Onondaga agent in 1843. That line is distinct from the 1851 $100 annual salary and appropriation; no appointment record, issued warrant, or receipt is shown.

The $2,144.50 “Duck river” Oneida appropriation

A photographed 1851 New York act directs payment to the first Christian party of Oneida Indians in Wisconsin from otherwise-unappropriated treasury money, but expressly requires the governor's written approval. It establishes neither approval nor a receipt; the referenced 1839 act remains uninspected.

From 1841 school redirection to a $100 annual agent salary

New York's 1841 law redirected the older $50 agent salary to an Onondaga school; 1843 provided for a new $50 agent office. A photographed 1851 act raised the agent's salary to $100 yearly, and a separate appropriation provided $100 from general fund revenue for FY1851–52. Neither measure proves appointment or payment, nor expressly cancels the school allocation.

Common title, alienation ban, and Land Office consent

Chapter 198 authorized Cayuga chiefs to buy New York land in the nation’s name and hold it in common, barred alienation, and provided for state-annuity payments on chiefs’ orders. Contracts with the nation required Land Office commissioners’ advice and consent; the act does not establish any actual deed, expenditure, or approved contract.

$200 yearly for two years, contingent on a bonded recipient

Chapter 243 earmarked U.S. deposit-fund income for teachers on the Tuscarora Reservation, payable to William Mount Pleasant only upon an approved surety bond and subject to October accounts. This is not the Shinecock act’s separate $200 total from common-school-fund income; neither statute proves payment or teaching.

Two $100 installments from school-fund income—not a perpetual annuity

The photographed 1851 act directed $200, in equal installments due April 1851 and April 1852, to Southampton’s school superintendent for a teacher of Shinecock children ages five to sixteen. A statute alone cannot prove warrants, payments, hiring, or attendance.

1841 brought back an 1831 act—but only for three years

The photographed law expressly revived the 1831 Shinecock relief act from April 28, 1841 for three years “and no longer.” A federal report describes the parent as an $80 school measure; its original text and payments remain unverified here.

A $100 annuity-funded salary beside a $350 Burchard direction

Acts passed one day apart provided a $100 yearly attorney salary charged to the Oneida annuity and a separate $350 warrant direction naming Nathan Burchard. The acts do not establish the $350 service period, fund, reconciliation, or actual payment.

Wisconsin emigrants’ share carried an overpayment offset

Chapter 234 directed the Land Office toward only the Brown County emigrants’ proportion of Brothertown annuity principal, less any previously excessive annuity payments. Treasurer/warrant and governor-approval conditions mattered; the statute alone proves no disbursement.

A 26-acre patent hinged on a separate creek water route

Chapter 49 directed a patent to Samuel Hollister for a lot described as lately bought from the Oneidas, but only on appraisal-price terms and proof of original purchasers’ rights needed to carry Cowasselon Creek water to a mill on another lot. It does not prove a patent, corridor conveyance or payment.

“Indian lands” procedure versus actual tribal-timber jurisdiction

Chapter 187 borrowed an Indian-intrusion procedure for delinquent state-land purchasers, but separately ordered reporting and prosecution of timber trespass on tribal lands. Its $25-per-tree civil forfeiture was worded for state lands; chapter 321 corrected another section’s erroneous cross-reference.

1826: two Niagara ferry acts, two free-passage clauses

Black Rock’s existing ferry and the separate Squaw Island–Canada privilege each barred ferriage from Six Nations passengers. The photographed acts differ in route, operators, operating conditions, and remedies; neither proves actual boat service or an enforced crossing.

1826: named Black occupants and conditional patent eligibility

Successive photographed laws singled out Thomas Wainer and William Gardner as “coloured men,” then opened a priced, conditional patent pathway for other occupants appraisers classified as “colored persons.” Eligibility is not proof of issued patents, payments, or title.

1826: ratification distinct from survey, sale and patent

Chapter 304 ratified the February 1 treaty with the second Christian Oneida party, directed tract surveying and sale, and instructed a 200-acre Nathan Davis patent. The printed law does not document the treaty counterpart, survey, issued patent, payments, or federal approval.

1813–43: agent salary repealed, redirected to teachers, then newly authorized

The 1841 legislature expressly repealed the old Onondaga agent section and routed its $50 to chiefs or headmen appointed school trustees for teachers’ wages. An 1843 act authorized a governor-and-Senate-appointed agent at $50, without documenting appointment, payment, or repeal of school support.

1843: adjoining reservation territory annexed to Perrysburgh

Chapter 70 changed a town boundary for the Cattaraugus County portion adjoining Perrysburgh, nineteen days before the bridge earmark. It does not document a land deed, extinguished reservation title, mapped acreage, or federal jurisdiction ruling.

1843: former attorney’s $183 charged to named parties’ money

Chapter 217 directed a fee for Nathan Burchard from treasury money identified as belonging to emigrating first and second Christian Oneida parties, unlike its general-expense formula. Authorization does not prove a warrant, debit, receipt, or consent.

1841–43: reservation-land taxes earmarked for a creek bridge

An 1841 statute authorized land-specific reservation taxes and sale subject to Indigenous occupancy; a 1843 amendment required $1,000 from each county’s Cattaraugus stream for a bridge at the falls. Neither law proves assessment, collection, consent, or construction.

1843: delayed possession after the 1840 state sale

Chapter 80 recited that purchasers could not take possession when their contracts entitled them, credited a year of bond interest, and reimbursed the common school fund. It does not determine the cause, title, or actual posting of credits.

1843: severalty schedules and two supervised sale routes

Chapter 185 connected 1842 treaty schedules to individual holdings, then distinguished mortgaged individual sales from cash-only common-land sales, with consent, accounting and a $5,000 superintendent bond. It does not prove a deed or federal approval.

1843: a conditional state lease of thirteen reservation acres

New York directed a $1.50 annual lease to Catharine McLaughlin, reserving military, public-purpose and legislative re-entry. The law is not proof the lease was executed or title settled.

Commutation warrant traced; Canadian St. Regis request differed

A 1935 attorney-general opinion identifies a May 1844 Land Office minute and comptroller warrant 2573 for Caughnawaga principal, while describing a Canadian St. Regis request as apparently denied. The original minute, warrant and receipt remain uninspected.

Liquor-sale offense extended to Franklin County visitors

Photographed chapter 150 extended an 1813 penalty provision to sales involving St. Regis and Seneca people, including Indigenous visitors in Franklin and Cattaraugus Counties. Statutory scope is not evidence of prosecution or collection.

$4,000 authorization carried strict payment controls

New York's chapter 296 described an existing east–west reservation road, named two commissioners, and conditioned road-work warrants on contracts, affidavits and receipts. The statute does not prove work or expenditure.

Patent directed for a named St. Regis farm-lot subdivision

Chapter 87 ordered a patent for Mary Gray alias Lupin and her heirs for the north-middle subdivision of farm lot six. The issued patent, acreage, title chain and any relationship to interpreter William Gray remain unproven.

House passage was not an enacted federal settlement

H.R. 2916 passed the House in December 2025, but the official status record shows Senate referral and a 2026 hearing, not enactment. The committee describes roughly 3,500 acres and up to 14,000 more from willing sellers; the full agreement and deeds remain to inspect.

A 21-year lease needed elected trustees and written official consent

New York allowed St. Regis trustees to lease unoccupied tribal land for at most 21 years with annuity-agent or Franklin County district-attorney assent endorsed in writing. This did not retroactively validate Hogan’s earlier lease or prove any execution.

Annuity capital could be paid—but the law was not the payment

Chapter 234 let New York land commissioners direct discretionary principal payments to Caughnawaga and St. Regis recipients; governor approval and a comptroller warrant were required. The statute names no actual amount, warrant or receipt.

The 1824–25 transfers lacked federal ratification in later litigation

A district court found no federal treaty or statute approving the Triangle transfers and granted specified Nonintercourse Act elements. It reserved remedies and noted a 144-acre exclusion from two plaintiffs' claims; New York's 1825 annuity law was not congressional consent.

The Hogan-tract case reached the merits where Deere did not

A photographed federal opinion upheld the December 1824 quitclaim in a tax case over ten patented parcels within the 144-acre Hogan tract. This district ruling is not the 1929 Grass River jurisdiction dismissal, nor an all-tract title verdict.

James Deere’s mill-square case ended on jurisdiction, not title

Photographed district and appellate opinions show the suit challenged the March 1824 cession, but dismissal and affirmance rested on original federal jurisdiction—not a ruling that the cession was valid or the St. Regis claim meritless.

The $305 legislative condition led to an April 1825 act

A 1943 federal opinion identifies New York Laws 1825, chapter 253, passed April 20 within the deed’s six-month window. It describes a conditional treasury-deposit and patent scheme; the original statute and payment vouchers remain uninspected.

The original-survey image is digitized as map 307A

New York State Archives displays John W. Tate’s June 1845 Grass River meadow map, with a 307B companion lead. The final measured acreage cannot yet be read or inferred from the sale price.

Two parcels, a $1,300 annuity, and an annotated first-payment date

A photographed state-record copy conveys the Salmon River mill square and 5,000 eastern acres. Its attestation notes pre-signature changes making the full annuity due in August 1816; actual payment receipts remain to be found.

The thousand-acre treaty has three different dates in printed sources

The reproduced instrument and its acknowledgment say June 12, 1824. The same report’s overview says June 16; Durant’s county history says June 29. Matching land, parties and consideration identify one conveyance, not three proved treaties.

Council texts delegated land business and sought on-reservation annuity payments

The 1878 county history reproduces an 1821 power of attorney, 1824 trusteeship petition and May 31 resolution reportedly copied from a St. Regis duplicate. Legislative appointment, autograph signatures and actual payment venue remain unverified.

The thousand-acre treaty states $1,750 plus a $60 annual annuity

The reproduced June 12, 1824 instrument places this St. Regis River purchase beside Hogan’s lease, not in the Grass River mill square. Its report overview says June 16; the copied treaty and acknowledgment say June 12. The stated payment and promised annuity are not independent proof of disbursement.

The copied 840-acre deed says $2,100; its report summary says $1,100

Photographed pages of the same 1889 Assembly report conflict by $1,000 on the September 23, 1825 St. Regis cession. Its reproduced deed specifies $2,100 in full; the overview says $1,100 cash. Neither is an independently inspected payment voucher, and a separate 1,877-acre map entry must not be conflated with this estimated 840-acre tract.

The meadow treaty preceded its July sale summary

A reproduced February 21, 1845 treaty conveys Grass River meadows and islands at $3 an acre, citing Amos Lay’s 1801 map at 210.4 acres and requiring a new survey. Its $400 clause and the report’s July 21/$621 summary are not independent payment proof; the final acreage and accounting remain open.

The 1888 committee reported a sealed 1796 parchment with receipts

The New York Assembly committee wrote that the tribe preserved and exhibited an engrossed treaty parchment with a wax seal and receipts on its reverse. This predates the 1930 Senate description; the original sheet and endorsements remain uninspected.

The Grass River mill square was conveyed for $1,920

A photographed 1889 transcript records a March 16, 1824 St. Regis treaty conveying the mill mile-square in Massena; four deputies acknowledged $1,920 consideration, and the deed was recorded that October. This was not the separate Grass River meadows or an annuity bargain.

A 1796 treaty copy with endorsed payment receipts was shown to senators

At a 1930 Hogansburg hearing, senators examined an apparent original treaty counterpart and a witness affirmed that payment receipts were endorsed on it. Their texts, amounts, dates, and present custody are not reproduced.

The missing Gray–Dockstedder act orders the meadow survey

New York’s April 4, 1801 chapter 152 is the elusive predecessor of the 1802 amendment. Its meadow-survey order strongly explains Lay’s catalogue date “June, 1801”; the same catalogue’s “1811” is likely erroneous. The original map and report remain unseen.

St. Regis litigation assigned to the fifth-district attorney

New York’s 1813 law directed the fifth-district attorney to advise and represent St. Regis residents and allowed suits in the collective name “the St. Regis Indians.” The statute does not prove that counsel acted or title was settled.

Tate’s Indian Meadows map has two office inventory references

The same June 1845 Massena survey is listed as Surveyor-General no. 307 and Secretary-of-State portfolio no. 348. The maps and any deeds must still be inspected.

Two later St. Regis purchase maps, not one tract

The 1851 map list describes Anderson’s 1,000-acre Purchase of 1824 and 1,877-acre Purchase of 1825 on distinct survey dates; these catalogue labels do not prove valid cessions or identify Grass River meadows.

An Amos Lay meadow survey entry contains a date paradox

The photographed inventory lists a Grass River meadow plan under an act “passed in 1811” yet dates the survey “June, 1801.” The original act or map must resolve which year is wrong.

The new St. Lawrence County did not absorb the St. Regis village reservation

New York’s March 3 county-creation act placed the village reservation in Chateaugay, Clinton County, while assigning other Macomb’s Purchase land to Massena. This statutory town allocation did not extinguish Indigenous title or settle the Grass River conflict.

A further expense clause points to the missing Gray–Dockstader act

The 1802 supply act authorized De Witt’s $1,250 office salary and unspecified, separately warranted disbursements incurred under a named St. Regis treaty-relief act and Oneida surveys. It does not state a St. Regis amount or prove an additional payment.

A boundary-survey request preceded the state’s survey law

Jay reported that St. Regis chiefs and warriors, through deputies, wanted treaty-reserved lines surveyed and marked. His description is not the original message; legislation followed, and De Witt later left disputed meadows unmarked.

A committee estimated at least 4,480 acres of Grass River overlap

J. Lansing’s committee reported a Surveyor-General-based minimum for reservation land conflicting with earlier patents and proposed compensation or reconveyance. Leave to bring in a bill did not settle title or pay damages.

The $400 survey payment direction becomes a paid-or-warrant account

The 1799 law directs $400 to the Surveyor-General; the 1800 Comptroller lists exactly $400 for St. Regis surveying, but his heading combines payments and warrants. Cash delivery and the disputed meadow survey remain unproved.

A $533.33 St. Regis cash entry matches the annual sum at eight shillings per dollar

The Treasurer’s photographed cash-paid abstract names “St. Regis Indians” for $533.33; the treaty promises £213 6s. 8d. annually. The numeric match needs a currency-conversion assumption and is not a deputies’ receipt.

Lake George costs: paid, pending, and undecided

Jay separated audited incidental costs from the federal commissioner’s prospective allowance and state agents’ still-undetermined compensation.

The 1795 Lake George treaty meeting before the signed 1796 agreement

Jay documented a September 26, 1795 Lake George meeting; an April 1796 committee anticipated further U.S. negotiations before the signed May 31 New York City treaty.

Treaty initial sums match the Treasurer’s £1,446 13s. 4d.

The 1796 treaty’s £1,233 6s. 8d. and £213 6s. 8d. first-August promises add exactly to the later “St. Regis Indians” Treasurer payment category; vouchers and deputies’ receipts are missing.

A 1796 reservation later called a 1797 cession

The 1802 amendment dates the Grass River mill square and meadows to 1797, though the published treaty grants them on May 31, 1796. A separate instrument has not been ruled out.

The 1799 survey act dates the treaty eight days too early

New York’s survey act calls the treaty May 23, 1796, but the signed federal transcription says May 31. The origin of the eight-day discrepancy remains unknown.

New York’s earlier £3,000 treaty ceiling

An April 9, 1795 law authorized up to £3,000 for St. Regis and other northern-claim treaty expenses and evidence preparation, before a distinct 1796 £2,000 provision. Neither ceiling proves expenditure or an executed treaty.

A 1797 New York Treasurer abstract records £1,446 13s. 4d. paid under “St. Regis Indians”

The Treasurer listed £1,446 13s. 4d. under “St. Regis Indians” in payments spanning 1795–97; the ledger does not identify recipients or vouchers.

In April 1796 New York conditionally authorized up to £2,000 for a St. Regis treaty

The legislature conditionally allowed up to £2,000 in further treaty sums; it did not itself prove spending, a federal commissioner, or title extinguishment.

Peters’s 1802 reprieve contradicts an 1801 execution claim

A contemporaneous New York act treats George Peters as alive in February 1802, although an 1851 Oneida history says he was hanged in August 1801. The later outcome still needs a sheriff’s return.

De Witt mapped three reserved tracts, not the contested meadows

His January 1800 letter reports completed village and mill-tract surveys, but the chiefs blocked marking disputed Grass River meadows; sixty acres was only an unsurveyed estimate.

Both houses authorized a settlement of conflicting land claims

The Senate and Assembly directed negotiation over treaty-confirmed St. Regis land previously patented to individuals, offering compensation to Indigenous claimants or satisfaction of owners. A resolution is not an executed release or payment.

William Gray sought land confirmation after treaty compensation

After the state’s $1,000 cash-paid entry, a St. Regis William Gray petitioned for land confirmation. An Assembly bill reached engrossment; passage, patent and identity of the precise tract remain unproved.

William Grey’s $1,000 appears in a cash-paid account

A 1797 statute directed compensation for the treaty interpreter; the 1798–99 Treasurer’s cash-paid abstract records “William Gray” for $1,000. It does not prove a signed land release or settle the later petition.

Proposed Mohawk-side canal and two contested Assembly votes

The directors proposed a Schenectady–Schoharie Creek canal; Bird’s rejection motion failed 54–36, then the amended financing bill passed the Assembly 49–34. Proposal and conditional financing are not proof of construction or investment.

The £15,000 Western loan entered the state’s actual payment abstract

Bancker’s photographed 1797 abstract records £15,000 “In loan to Western Inland Lock Navigation,” and a separate £2,000 on requisition. Transaction dates, the sealed mortgage, receipts, and repayment remain to be traced.

A £10,000 navigation-treasurer payment appears in the audited 1795 cash account

Bancker’s cash abstract records £10,000 paid to the Treasurer of the Inland Lock Navigation; its specific company, share-act allocation, and underlying voucher remain unverified.

A proposed rescue bill, not a proved law

A March 1800 joint committee reported that Western Inland Lock Navigation directors had put relief propositions into a bill laid before the Senate. It declined to judge the plan best and warned of disadvantages in state connections to private companies; passage and payment remain unverified.

State shares followed a subscription shortfall

Directors reported 743 Western and 676 Northern subscriptions, about 240 forfeitures in each, and 169 remaining holders across both companies. New York directed 200 state shares in each at £20 initially per share, with voting and inspection rights; the act alone is not a receipt.

Five more years for Schenectady–Wood Creek

New York’s April 1798 law extended the Western lock company’s route deadline five years from January 1, 1798 and authorized limited bank-tree and obstructing-timber removal, subject to an owner’s request against destruction. Authorization does not prove construction or clearing.

A filed map alone did not vest fee title

The 1798 statute replaced an older damages writ with court-certified surveys and disinterested appraisal for the lock companies. It conditioned fee-simple vesting on paying assessed owners and appraisal costs; parcel-specific filings and receipts remain uninspected.

A £15,000 loan security attested—and two earlier cash entries

New York’s January 1798 examiners certified a security for £15,000 loaned to Western navigation. The Treasurer separately reported £2,000 and $5,000 paid in distinct 1797 periods; a $10,000 Comptroller line also includes warrants not necessarily cashed.

A $15,000 state cash payment, not just an authorized loan

The 1799 Treasurer’s photographed cash-paid abstract names Western Inland Lock Navigation Company at $15,000; the Comptroller repeats the amount under former appropriations. The legal instrument and company use remain unidentified.

A $1,350 dividend actually reached the state treasury

New York’s photographed 1800 cash abstract records a 3% Western Inland Lock Navigation stock dividend of $1,350 during January 8, 1799–January 8, 1800. The receipt does not verify the company’s profits or its separate mortgage and investor financing.

Little Falls first, and a warning about toll returns

A company committee priced Schenectady-to-Wood-Creek improvements at £39,500 and urged starting with Little Falls. It cautioned that a 15% dividend allowance did not guarantee enough tolls even to cover its interest benchmark; the plans were not audited spending.

£15,000 advance authorized; security later attested

The 1796 act required a company bond and Little Falls mortgage, due by January 1803 with 6% interest. A 1798 official certificate says a security for £15,000 loaned existed; the underlying mortgage, recording endorsement and transfer voucher remain uninspected.

$250,000 conditional financing, not a proven receipt

New York offered a longer alien-held land term if named Dutch investors paid or secured $250,000 for Western navigation by January 1799. A seal-bearing company certificate could be recorded; neither that certificate nor payment is yet evidenced.

Three route budgets, three starting points

Engineer William Weston estimated £72,982 3s 9d from Schenectady to Cayuga Lake, but £189,497 8s 3d from Hudson tidewater near Troy or £192,769 17s 4d via Waterford. All were projections, not audited expenditure.

Opening-day tolls omitted—but were the boats counted?

The directors reported 110 Little Falls boat passages in the late 1795 window and £80 18s in tolls, expressly excluding tolls on nine opening-day boats. The wording does not establish whether those nine are outside the 110.

Shares could discharge a state debt—whose balance is absent

An 1802 law let New York accept company shares valued at $120 each for principal and interest then owed by the navigation company, alongside a share split and dividend-cap change. The debt balance, number of shares transferred, and execution remain unproved.

The Troup dam’s later passage proviso

A 1804 act preserved Troup’s earlier conditional dam privilege against the 1803 salmon rule, but required fish passage and either boat passage or an equally convenient free overland alternative until navigation-company locks were erected. Construction and enforcement remain unproved.

Burt’s ten-year use, not fee title

Daniel Burt Jr. could occupy at most 100 acres near a state fort for ten years at ten cents per acre yearly, subject to a sworn survey and continuing state building rights. Occupancy and payments remain unverified.

Brannon’s conditional $2,500 payment

After Mary Brannon’s recited payments toward her late husband’s city house and mortgage, the act directed a payment to her executors for legatees only after proof of the mortgage registry’s cancellation. No reconveyance or payout is established.

Waters’s 1783 interest date

A $375 warrant for James and Nancy Waters carried five-percent interest from May 17, 1783. The act leaves the claim’s basis, their relationship, and actual payment unknown.

An early bond, a later payment date

James Abeel’s roughly 800-acre Washington County grant carried a 1809 payment date and a 1802 bond option for monetary conditions. The land-status proviso remained distinct; bond and patent are unverified.

Navigation consent and backwater limits

Robert Troup’s proposed Cayuga County dam needed navigation-company consent and could not raise water opposite land his group did not own. The act does not establish consent, construction or actual water levels.

Two audits, one conditional refund

Ulster treasurer Hasbrouck and Chenango treasurer Thompson received distinct audit relief for late collector affidavits; only Hasbrouck’s possible certified overpayment had a payment direction.

Bingham’s nine-month patent conditions

Joseph Bingham’s Tully and Homer parcels required $131.25 plus six-percent interest from 1795 and filing original De Witt certificates within nine months; payment and patents remain unverified.

Shepard’s three lots and six carve-outs

The act directed patents for Dryden 65, Cicero 11 and Cato 8, each excepting a southeast 100 acres plus 50 acres previously sold for survey costs. Issuance and surveyed bounds remain unverified.

Rank-based patents and Gall’s life estate

Bates and Ten Eyck were promised lieutenant- and captain-rank quantities after survey fees; Gall was granted 500 acres for life with remainder to his children. Issuance and the first two acreages remain unverified.

Four parcels, three value benchmarks

A private act directed four 100-acre grants to Hannah Fisher and George Fisher’s representatives, with value compared to three military-lot corners. The comparator was value, not acreage; patents and appraisal remain unverified.

Four 1786 land locations and a second patent deadline

Four claimants’ dormant Revolutionary War class rights received a renewed chance to locate 2,000 acres, only if vacant land was surveyed and patents sought by March 1, 1803. The patents remain unverified.

Hannibal lot 66 and Sharp’s eight co-heirs

A reported informal purchase from patentee Henry Sprigler left title in trust; after escheat, New York vested only its interest in George Sharp’s eight children as tenants in common. Original patent and transfers remain missing.

McKinstry’s conditional patent and the later “deed” claim

An 1802 law authorized letters patent; a 1903 history calls it a deed yet says the patent was recorded December 31, 1807. Its Williams purchase dates also conflict. The original instruments remain unseen.

Two soldiers’ 450-acre grants were land-sale trusts

Welch and Crawford had separate prospective 450-acre trust patents, minimum $2.50-per-acre sales, family support and remainder clauses; actual patents and sales remain unproved.

A quarantine-road diversion generated two compensation claims

A diverted marine-hospital road prompted directed payments of $250 to St. Andrew’s Church and $125 to occupant Jonathan Drake; treasury payment remains unverified.

A chancellor’s certificate protected Carpenter’s infant heirs

Abigail Carpenter could finish her late husband’s contracted land sales, but each deed required a chancellor’s certificate to bind the children; executed deeds are untraced.

An unpaid 1775 cannon claim resurfaced in 1802

New York directed $325 to Solomon Simpson’s heirs for privately owned cannon removed in May 1775; the act’s body prints “Simson,” and payment is unverified.

George Peters’s 1801 hanging date conflicts with a later law

An 1851 county history says Peters was already executed August 28, 1801, but a February 1802 statute orders a March 26 hanging; a later reference reportedly supports 1802. His wife is named Eunice in the history, not the statute.

A forfeiture deed included land not liable to sale and excluded intended land

New York ordered a survey and conditional exchange for Jonathan Winne: at most 76 acres, payment for any increase beyond 43, and release of wrongly included land. Execution remains unproved.

A 1778 bargain and improvements were overtaken by a 1786 forfeiture sale

Alexander Comrie was offered $250 in full settlement of the state claim, rather than restoration of the lot; the act alone does not establish actual payment.

New York reimbursed a sequestration sale after finding the boy was not enslaved

An 1802 act recites that a Black boy sold in 1783 as property was not enslaved, then directs $56.25 reimbursement to the commissioner’s estate—not to the unnamed boy. His later fate is unknown.

Eliza Livingston received the state’s interest in an undeeded Loyalist farm claim

A private act vested only New York’s interest in a reported £2,700 pre-forfeiture purchase and allowed suit; it did not supply the missing deed or prove title was recovered.

A reprieve, then a legislative execution date

New York named George Peters as a Brothertown Indian and ordered a March 26 execution after a governor’s suspension. The statute itself does not prove the sentence was carried out.

A promised $750 was still in the treasury six years later

An 1802 statute recites the comptroller’s report that Ontario County’s 1796 school installment had never been paid. The renewed direction does not prove later disbursement.

Fifty reserved acres for $68—only if released

A supply act conditioned Jacob Dockstader’s payment on surrender of his Oneida-treaty allotment. Neither the release nor a payment is shown.

Funding to clear earlier patents was not a deed

The legislature authorized treasury payments for agreed extinguishment of patentees’ interests in the St. Regis mile-square and Grass River meadows. Agreement, payment and title resolution remain unproved.

Reservation occupiers’ purchase priority was subject to later law

The 1802 improver-purchase option for unsold Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga lots required legislative approval and later terms; OCR misdates this photographed act as 1803.

Denney family grant depended on an unfinished Oneida treaty

The first 320-acre Denney family grant required a completed Oneida treaty and $320 payment; a separate adjacent 320 acres depended on negotiated stipulations.

A $25 improvement threshold for reservation-lot purchaser patents

Existing occupants of Oneida, Onondaga, or Cayuga reservation lots needed $25 in proved improvements and compliance with purchase terms for patents.

Oneida treaty land for Sarah Doxteder displaced an occupant

The legislature said Oneida treaty land secured to Sarah Doxteder had been improved by George Harp, and offered him substitute lot no. 1 on ordinary conditions.

A perpetual $300 Oneida payment in the 1803 treaty implementation

The state enacted $300 annually forever for the Oneida nation under its recent treaty, subject to comptroller warrant; no disbursement ledger is supplied.

Sarah Doxteder’s 100 acres were directed for life, then to her heirs

The legislature ordered a patent for Sarah Doxteder’s 100 acres, for her life and then to her heirs; the actual patent and exact treaty boundaries remain unverified.

Three Oneida petitioners offered 320 acres at a discount, but not alienable

Three Oneida petitioners were offered 160, 80, and 80 acres at half the survey value, subject to down payment, mortgage installments, and a bar on alienation.

Six Nations complaints prompted a salmon-passage penalty

Six Nations complaints prompted a $100-per-offense Seneca River salmon-obstruction penalty and a twelve-month removal requirement for earlier barriers.

Six Nations travel was exempted from certain prospective tolls

Senecas and other Six Nations Indians were exempted from specified turnpike, bridge, and Black Rock-area ferry charges on lawful business, with timing limits.

The Seneca treaty led to a statutory patent directive for Parish and Jones

New York ordered land patents to Parish and Jones for tracts stipulated in the Seneca treaty; patent issue dates and actual acreage are not established.

New York ratified two dated Indigenous treaties in one clause

An April 1803 law ratified the state’s June 4, 1802 Oneida treaty and August 20, 1802 Seneca treaty. It does not reproduce either full text.

The Oneida corn measure was an annuity advance, not a gift

After a reported crop failure, corn could be supplied up to $1,000, but the amount was to be deducted from the June Oneida annuity, not gifted.

Separate interpreter allotments contemplated in the Seneca negotiation

Treaty negotiators could stipulate separate Niagara grants of no more than a square mile each to Jasper Parish and Horatio Jones; the 1802 act itself granted none.

Cayuga and Onondaga purchases inserted into a Seneca treaty bill

An 1802 Seneca treaty bill also authorized optional Cayuga and Onondaga reservation purchases, within a $5,000 expense-and-purchase ceiling. No purchase proved.

Black Rock post proposal reserved New York’s portage and legal process

Seneca claim extinguishment was a prerequisite for a Black Rock post conveyance; New York preserved portage, ferry, shore road, and state process.

The St. Regis mile square was already granted to others

The state acknowledged it had granted land to individuals before ceding the same St. Regis mile square and Grass River meadows in 1797. Settlement remains unproved.

The Seneca pardon conditioned on banishment

A legislative pardon for Stiff-Armed George required Seneca chiefs’ assurances that he leave New York and never return; release and departure are unproved.

A thousand-acre school lease valued in wheat

Three named lessees owed rent valued at the Albany market price of 300 bushels of winter wheat annually. Schoolmaster payment required a warrant and local certificate; the act proves no executed lease or disbursement.

Sixty-day arrears and a continuing school trust

If rent remained unpaid 60 days, the comptroller was to distress and re-enter. Re-entered land remained held for Stockbridge Indian schools, not unrestricted state property; no re-entry is shown.

Reserved land was excepted from will-making power

Brothertown assignees could will personalty and acquired interests in other land, expressly excepting land set apart for the tribe. The act records neither a will nor a conveyance.

An oath could accelerate a decree

Immediate distress and sale of goods required an oath that delay risked losing the decreed amount. This was not blanket immediate execution of every Brothertown debt.

Notice, six days, and a show-cause hearing

An unentitled resident could be removed only after written notice, six days, a judge’s summons, and failure to show satisfactory cause. No actual eviction is established.

The community bore some uncollected costs

The law set marshal mileage and judicial fees; if removal costs recovered from a respondent fell short, superintendents paid the deficit and charged Brothertown’s account. No actual deficit is shown.

A $20.93 certified balance after the 1803 relief act

The comptroller certified $20.93 due to the Hewitts on settlement of their Brothertown mortgage, and payment was directed on warrant. Certification is not proof of receipt or a full ledger.

Two more years after the building deadline expired

The 1804 law extends the 1802 two-building deadline two years and replaces commissioner Dirck Ten Broeck with John Tayler. The status of either building remains unknown.

A $1,500 two-village church-school appropriation

New York appropriated $1,500 total for two combined worship-and-school houses, one in each village, assigning five commissioners and a two-year construction deadline. Appropriation does not establish completion or operation.

A bell from annuity funds, two flags as a gratuity

The tribe’s trustees could buy a church bell from its annuity; separately, the executive could send U.S. and New York silk colours at state expense. Neither acquisition is proven.

A May town meeting and optional land trustees

Male tribal residents over 21 could choose a clerk and regulate improvement of other reservation lands at annual meetings, with trustees if needed. The actual minute book is not in this statute.

Ferry and Grass River rents could support schooling

Three named tribal trustees could lease ferry-linked and Grass River acreage for at most ten years; revenue could support a school and other tribal purposes. No executed lease or school expense is evidenced.

One hundred acres for a serving missionary

Peace-makers were to mark and record 100 common-land acres for Rev. John Sargeant and successors while serving; in a ministerial vacancy, town-meeting direction governed the proceeds. Boundaries and leases remain unseen.

A 100-acre shortfall revised the annual annuity

An 1803 law recited that a survey error deprived the Hewitts of half a Brothertown lot; it directed $160 plus interest and $120 costs/damages credited on their mortgage, with a matching reduction from the nominal $2,160.79 annual payment. Execution and the new exact sum remain unproved.

One keeper could summon a witness

The 1802 law empowered one peace keeper to subpoena witnesses and provided a $5 forfeiture to the summoning party. Its printed “or render a sufficient excuse” is anomalous; no court outcome or corrected original has been established.

Moderate annual compensation from the annuity

Superintendent and attorney could allow the keepers reasonable compensation for duties under the 1801 and 1802 acts, payable from the Brothertown annuity. The statute fixes no amount and proves no payment.

Personal property distribution and appeal

Peace keepers were to distribute a deceased resident’s personal estate according to state-law proportions, subject to an appeal; this did not replace the separate 1801 land-inheritance terms. No particular estate appears here.

Keepers replaced poor overseers

The amendment expressly substituted peace keepers for poor overseers as guardians of infants without competent resident caretakers, revising the 1801 office and condition. It does not identify an actual ward.

Improved-land damages charged to the annuity

Keepers laying roads through improved Brothertown land had to appraise proprietor damage, payable from the community annuity, with a superintendent-and-attorney appeal. No road or disbursement is proven.

Land use and rent for descendants’ support

New York continued a Oneida County trust for Peter Otsequette’s issue, limited outsider leases, and directed rent through the treasury to a district attorney for descendants’ support and education, with annual accounting. No payment is documented here.

Three trustees, justices’ consent, three-year leases

Adult male tribal electors chose trustees at Southampton. Leasing, land allotment, and timber rules required nearby justices’ participation; unauthorized occupation or cutting carried distinct penalties for tribal use. No lease or forfeiture is shown.

Conclusive internal decisions, recorded by a clerk

Superintendents or an empowered attorney could resolve resident land and inheritance disputes, with decisions entered in a town book. The original 1801 guardianship rule named poor overseers, superseded in 1802 by keepers; no actual decision is established.

Bylaws, elected officers, and a $5 ceiling

Male inhabitants aged 21+ met at the schoolhouse, elected town officers, and could enact internal bylaws. Penalties were capped at $5 per offense and split between the suing inhabitant and poor relief; special meetings required posted notice.

A 25-acre ceiling was not a completed deed

A qualified resident holder could sell adjoining school land to Brothertown peacemakers, at an approved per-acre price paid from the annuity. The peacemakers held it for successive schoolmasters; no actual purchase is established.

Where $2,160.79 in annual interest could go

New York directed an annual six-percent land-sale-interest appropriation: discretionary school maintenance, a $125 attorney salary, then resident benefit. The statute does not show actual warrants, school spending, or personal distributions.

A $12.50 court and a conditional jail warrant

Three of five appointed resident peace keepers could hear small debt and trespass disputes between Brothertown residents, plus bylaw penalties. Distress required an unpaid order; a thirty-day county jail warrant required a specified conviction, insufficient goods, certificate and attorney action. No actual detention is established.

Who recovered: a landholder or the community?

New York’s §§XXV–XXVII allowed male or female assigned landholders to sue for damages to their own use, while communal-land recoveries went toward resident Indians’ benefit. An attorney fallback for timber taken from assigned land depended on a 30-day request rule; this statute alone shows no lawsuit.

Descendants, reversion, and a widow’s protection

Section XXI directs assigned Brothertown land to descendants, per stirpes where needed; only absent issue does it revert to the Brothertown Indians for reassignment. A widow retains occupancy during widowhood and a discretionary land assignment. This scan omits intervening printed pages 468–469.

“Forever” did not mean free to alienate

New York’s §IX named a six-mile-square tract for Stockbridge Indians and their posterity forever, while expressly withholding power to alienate, lease or dispose of any part. The statute recounts a 1788 Oneida confirmation; it does not independently prove a later transaction or adjudication.

The offense extended beyond a completed purchase

New York’s 1801 §I reached unauthorized contracts, conveyances and offers, as well as entry or possession under color of an unauthorized purchase or contract since October 14, 1775. Conviction carried a $250 forfeiture plus discretionary fine and imprisonment; this statute alone proves no prosecution or title outcome.

A statewide right to recover the pledged item

New York’s 1801 law let any Indian within the state sue, with costs, to recover a pawn taken for spirituous liquor. This §V remedy differs from §III’s county-and-tribe-specific sale penalties and §IV’s reserved-tract sale forfeiture; no actual recovery is shown.

The separate treble-cost barrier

New York’s 1801 law barred specified contract actions against Stockbridge Indians and Indians residing in Brothertown or Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga reserved lands; a plaintiff pursuing one owed treble costs. Its pre-July 1790 exception and “hereafter” wording must both be kept in view.

A separate annual benefit for his posterity

New York’s April 4, 1801 law directs $2,300 annually for the Cayuga tribe and a distinct $50 annually for the posterity of chief Fish Carrier. It does not establish that the proposed 1796 commutation was completed, or identify individual recipients.

The missing repeal: chapter 423

New York’s 1890 session law expressly repealed the 1888 Bissell commission act on May 24, with immediate effect. An earlier committee recommendation was not itself enactment; the repeal did not adjudicate annuity shares.

Commutation needed legislative approval

The supplement provided a $50 payment route with duplicate receipts, but its separate power to commute Fish Carrier’s annual rent was subject to legislative approval. A £2,500 agent advance is not his personal payout.

A proposed cession, not a resale license

The 1793 law invited separate Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga agreements but barred new locations and Land Office sales of any acquired reservation without further legislation. It does not itself prove a cession, payment or completed trust.

The findings report Bissell never filed

Bissell told Governor Black’s counsel that the 1888 law was repealed while he prepared his report, so no formal report was filed. His printed hearing testimony and later private view of Canadian Cayuga descent are different records.

From descendant inquiry to two census lists

The revised $100,000 proposal replaced a three-commissioner descendant inquiry with a comptroller count from 1894 New York annuity and Canadian census records, and broadened proposed releases. Its final legislative disposition is not established here.

Two proposed claims, neither enacted

One Senate bill sought Canadian annuity arrears since 1809; another addressed land-sale proceeds for Cayugas in New York, Canada and Missouri. A later memorandum says both passed the Senate but neither became law.

The $100,000 buyout that did not become law

Vedder’s proposed bill would have treated the Cayuga Nation as legally dissolved and distributed a $100,000 substitute for annuities and arrears to descendants, including Canadian residents. A 1911 memorandum says both versions passed the Senate but failed in the Assembly; no payout follows from the printed bill.

Two reservations in the agreement, one in the statute

A 1911 memorandum quotes the 1807 agreement and Senate messages calling the purchase “two reservations”; the photographed 1807 act calls the same 3,200-acre, $4,800 object one “reservation.” The original agreement and parcel survey remain uninspected.

A purchase authorization is not a deed

A $4,800 contract for 3,200 acres required a duly executed deed ready for delivery. Resale money was assigned to the state treasury pending future legislative disposition, not automatically distributed to individuals.

A veto that did not stop the land bill

The Council of Revision said a four-shilling annuity base and sixteen-shilling sale floor conflicted with a “sole benefit” assurance. Both houses overrode it; the objection was not a judicial judgment or audited profit calculation.

Was a 1911 denial the final outcome?

A three-officer committee recommended denying the New York-resident Cayugas’ land-profit claim. The printed report does not show full-Board adoption, and a later record describes a 1913 allowance—not proof of individual principal payments.

Did an alleged neutrality council partition the annuity?

Henry Phillip recalled a prewar council and neutrality, but did not testify to the exclusive annuity bargain later attributed to Peter Wilson. Counsel’s stronger formulation is not the witness’s answer.

When did the Cayuga treaty paper become Exhibit A?

Bissell first sustained an objection to the offered 1795 treaty paper, then later admitted it as Exhibit A. His willingness to hear tradition was not authentication or a ruling on annuity beneficiaries.

A council Jamison had never heard of

Jamison had heard that Canadian Cayugas sided with Britain but not of a prewar council waiving opposite annuity claims. His lack of knowledge is not proof that no council occurred.

Which census was evidence?

The original Canadian census book was admitted after an initial copy was refused; a later certified US list was excluded. Neither ruling decides the individual annuity share.

A narrow remit and an unseen exhibit

Bissell confined the inquiry to Canadian Cayuga descent, numbers and shares. An 1850 Assembly document was admitted, but the reprinted transcript does not supply its text.

Four demands, no award

A Canadian Cayuga petition conditionally pleaded arrears from 1810, 1849 or 1877, then future installments; its $448,000 estimate was not an audited award.

167 visitors, not a war census

The photographed Tecumseh enclosure reads 134 men, 25 women and 8 children. A reported belt, request and forecast are not a general confederacy or British war order.

Mediated speeches, not a treaty

The Hurons’ substance of council speeches reports Red Jacket’s proposed break with the English Father and its rejection by his own nation; it is no unanimous alliance.

Elliott wrote, Cameron copied

A reprint heads an October letter as Cameron’s although Elliott signs it and Cameron certifies a true copy. The caption cannot override the document.

A request, not an appointment

After Butler’s death, a Grand River council including Cayuga chiefs asked for an Indian Department successor and suggested two possibilities; neither is shown appointed.

A warning before the treaty

Butler reportedly advised about 150 Buffalo Creek and Grand River chiefs and people against a planned Cayuga land sale. The June warning is not a treaty attendance roll.

A proposed authentication test

Interpreter George Martin listed nine principal-chief and five war-chief entries to check a prospective Jones paper; the record neither produces the paper nor proves a forgery.

Reconciliation, not a waiver

Cayugas are named among nations meeting across the border after the war. Ceremonial peace and travel arrangements are not an annuity release or a list of individual Cayuga attendees.

Questions versus instructions

Elliott asked about sustaining resistance without overt action; Craig later advised officers to dissuade projected hostilities. Neither page proves a covert order to Elliott.

Five patents, one security

The 1803 council found only one security behind five absolute land grants; a sixth numbered block was never granted. An 1809 surrender total differs from the five-patent acreage without revealing why.

A payment claim, not a release

Echo appealed to British officials over lost American payments. Claus’s 1805 cutoff conflicts with later printed Cayuga agent receipts; his Buffalo-withholding explanation was conjecture, not a ledger.

When “no return” repeats a number

Two 1811 figures repeat earlier counts while the printed source says no return was given. A reconstructed total is not an independently measured population change.

What the Cayuga award actually awarded

The tribunal awarded $100,000, not a declared permanent share or evidence of individual disbursement. Its illustrations of annual shares are not the operative judgment.

An opinion the reporter omitted

The Cayuga certiorari appeal was reversed, but the extended reasoning was not a majority opinion. The 1886 Senate packet preserves its text.

The four-part Senate packet

Original Senate Document 86 separates the Attorney-General’s advice, two different appeals, and the commissioners’ committee report. None is an annuity payment voucher.

Two official histories at odds

A contemporaneous favorable 1849 recommendation clashes with retrospective narratives of an adverse decision. The supposed 1850 hearing needs its own original record.

A $70,000 tribal compromise

Docket 343 settled claims in a tribal judgment; it does not itself establish individual checks or a Canadian Cayuga annuity distribution.

Judgment versus distribution

A federal judgment for New York Indians must not be conflated with a later certified roll or proof that each claimant received money.

What became of the school property?

The 1887 New York law arranged conditional disposal of an Indian boarding-school building and equipment. The law alone does not prove execution of each sale or transfer.