When the Revolutionary War ended, New York State expressed gratitude to the Oneidas for their help and sacrifice in the patriot cause. The state promised that the Oneida Nation would always be secure in the ownership of it own land. Almost immediately, however, New York pressured the Oneidas to surrender territory in a series of illegal land cessions.
Robbed of their land base and often treated with contempt by non-Native neighbors, Oneidas lived on the brink of starvation by the early 1800s. Some moved elsewhere: to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s, to Canada in the 1840s. Those who held on in their ancestral hearth endured more than 150 years of poverty, discrimination, and continuing loss of what little land remained. By about 1900, the Oneida Nation could claim ownership of barely thirty acres.
The Oneidas have been the most persistent of the Iroquois in their pursuit of land claims. From the very beginning of New York's forced land cessions, Oneidas protested to New York and to the federal government. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s they continued to seek a fair hearing in non-Oneida courts.
The Oneidas kept alive their knowledge of boundaries, claims, and broken promises over many years. The oral tradition of the land claims lies at the heart of Oneida identity. Memories passed on have inspired leaders and activists in every generation to keep alive the hope for justice promised in the treaties and the laws of the United States.
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