The commissioner then inquired into the merits of the complaint of the Tuscaroras, which the Iroquois affirmed; the commissioner then said to them, that it is not right to make a contract, or to grant anything without faith; it is only honorable when you adhere to your stipulation.
When Robert Morris knew that the Tuscaroras were destitute of land, he reserved and donated to them two square miles being 1280 acres; the Senecas also granted to them one square mile being 640 acres, which grant was made at the convention dated above. On the 13th day of March, 1808, the sachems, chiefs and head men of the Seneca Nation of Indians executed a written indenture of the grant or deed to the Tuscarora Nation, of the one square mile of land above mentioned, and was duly signed by the sachems, chiefs and head men of the aforesaid Indians. On the 22d day of September, 1810, it was entered and put on file in the Niagara County Clerk's office, on page 56; and was again put on file in the Niagara County Clerk's Office, Lockport, in book of deeds 151, page 168, March 13, 1879.
About the year 1800, Solomon Longbard and his brother held private council between themselves, consulting how they might obtain more land to make a permanent home for the Tuscaroras and their generation after them, they concluded to repair to North Carolina and see if they could procure any means from that source, whereby they might obtain more land. In pursuance, the Tuscarora Chiefs in council appointed as delegates Solomon Longboard and Sacarrissa, being sachems of the nation in the year 1801, and in 1802 they effected a lease by the aid of the Legislature of North Carolina, from which accrued $13,722; and in the year 1804, General Dearborn, then Secretary of War, was authorized by Congress to buy land for the Tuscaroras with the said money, by which he bought 4,329 acres of the Holland Land Company, which is now on the south and east side of the three square miles mentioned above, which now constitutes the Tuscarora Reservation.
The Tuscarora Nation was once more at peace and in possession of lands which they could call their own.
Tuscaroras at North Carolina.
In tracing the history of the Tuscaroras that migrated to the north and joined themselves with the Iroquois, we would not forget those few who remained with King James Blunt, a Tuscarora Chief, in North Carolina, who had a tract of land allotted to them on Pamplico river. The smallness of their number disabling them from resisting the attacks of the southern Indians, Governor Charles Eden, of North Carolina, and the council, on the 5th day of June, 1718, entered into a treaty, by which the land on Pamplico river was abandoned by the Tuscaroras and another tract granted to them, on Roanoke river, in the present county of Birtie, in consideration of which they relinquished all claims of any other land in the province, butted and bounded as follows, viz.: Beginning at the mouth of Quitsnoy swamp, running up the said swamp four hundred and 35 poles, to a scrubby oak near the head of the swamp, by a great spring; then north ten degrees east, eight hundred and fifty poles, to a persimmon tree on Raquis swamp; then along the swamp and Pacosin main course north fifty-seven degrees west, two thousand six hundred and forty poles, to a hickory tree on the east side of the Falling Run, or Deep creek, and down the various courses of the said run to Morattock; then down the river to the first station.
In the administration of the Governor, Gabriel Johnson, Esq., at a General Assembly held at New Bern on the 15th day of October, 1748, by virtue of an act, this same limit of land above was confirmed and assured to James Blunt, Chief of the Tuscarora Nation, and the people under his charge, their heirs and successors forever, any law, usage, custom or grant to the contrary notwithstanding.
At the time the Tuscaroras migrated to the north, King James Blunt was the Sachem of those that remained, and his successor in office, as we see in an act of the General Assembly of North Carolina, in the year 1778, was Whitmell Tuffdick. The last Sachem, or Chief, of that part of the Tuscaroras—Samuel Smith—expired in the year 1802, at which time Sacarrissa and Solomon Longboard, both being Sachems of the northern Tuscaroras, migrated the residue of the Tuscaroras from North Carolina to their Reservation in Niagara county, State of New York, where they were again blended together in one nation.
Concerning the land allotted to the Tuscaroras in Birtie—they have leased it several times; and I have selected a few of the laws of North Carolina that are now in force, concerning the Tuscaroras in that state, namely:
"A. D. 1748. Vol. I. Chapter 43, page 174; by Potter, Taylor and Yancy,
Esqs. Anno Regni Georgii II, Vicessinio second.