Buffalo River (New York) - History

History

Buffalo Creek is believed to have been held by the Neutral Nation prior to the 1650s, when the Seneca nation and its allies conquered the territory during the Beaver Wars. An Indian village was established on Buffalo Creek by the British in the spring of 1780. These were Senecas and others who had fled to Fort Niagara after the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. On July 8, 1788, Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham met with Indians of the Five Indian Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (including Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas, Cayugas, and Senecas) at Buffalo Creek to execute a deed or treaty for rights to their lands in New York State east of the Genesee River (see Phelps and Gorham Purchase). In 1838, the Treaty of Buffalo Creek dealt with the disposition of the remaining land held by the Iroquois Confederation.

The Buffalo River was the western terminus of the famed Erie Canal. Entry to the River from the Canal was gained via the mouth of a small tributary, Little Buffalo Creek, which was excavated and stabilized to form the Commercial Slip leading from the Erie Canal. The Buffalo River formed the southwest boundary of the rough pentagon that enclosed the "Five Points" or "Canal Street" district, bounded on the northeast by the Erie Canal. When the Canal was completed in 1825, New York Governor Dewitt Clinton's vessel was towed from the Canal through the Commercial Slip and Buffalo River to Lake Erie, where he poured Atlantic Ocean water into the Lake, and collected Lake water to place in the ocean after his return trip to New York City.