Every year the federal government issues a length of cloth to the Oneida Nation. This annuity cloth embodies the importance and the continuing obligations of the Treaty of Canandaigua. The treaty, signed between the Iroquois Nations and the United States government in 1794, guaranteed Oneida lands and recognized their sovereignty.
The Treaty of Canandaigua made no provisions for inflation, so each year the amount of cloth gets smaller. In 1998, each enrolled Oneida received a strip 4 inches wide by 48 inches long. In the past the annual allocations of annuity cloth were larger. Many families used the cloth, generally calico, to make their children new clothes for school. Sometimes lengths of unbleached muslin were available which families used for sheets and pillowcases.
Despite its shrinking size, the annuity cloth remains a potent symbol. The oral tradition has educated each new generation about its significance. The annuity cloth has acted as a powerful reminder of Oneida identity, even through periods when Oneidas had lost most of their land.
In a late nineteenth-century land claim case in federal court, Oneidas cited the annual receipt of annuity cloth as a public proof that they were Oneida.
Click on a topic to share in the history of the Oneida People!
Back
to the main oral history page.
|
