TLS Basil Williams of Seneca Nation of Indians to John F. Kennedy, 22 February 1961

THE SENECA NATION OF INDIANS BUSINESS OFFICE 25 MAIN STREET salamanca. NEW YORK P. O. BOX 231 TELEPHONE Salamanca 2333 BASIL williams, PRESIDENT Box 81, VERSAILLES, N. Y. mitchell luke, Clerk Versailles, N. Y. george D. HERON. TREASURER RED House, N. Y. February 22, 1961 The Honorable John F. Kennedy The President of the United States of America The White House Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. President: During the 1960 election campaign, you personally assured all American Indians that under a Democratic Administration, "There would be no change in treaty or contractual relationships without the consent of the Tribes concerned. " The Seneca Nation of Indians asks you now to redeem that pledge by stopping the Federal Government from violating our 1794 Treaty. We Senecas possess three small reservations in New York under the Treaty of November 11, 1794, Article III of which provides: "Now, the United States acknowledge all the land within the aforementioned boundaries, to be the property of the Seneka nation; and the United States will never claim the same, nor disturb the Seneka nation. in the free use and enjoyment thereof; but it shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States, who have the right to purchase." Every year the Seneca Nation receives an annuity under the 1794 Treaty and, as far as we are aware, it is the oldest treaty to which the United States was a party that remains in full force and effect. To the Seneca Nation, the 1794 Treaty is more than a contract, more than a symbol; to us who have lived by its terms for more than 165 years, the 1794 Treaty is a way of life. Times have not always been easy for the Seneca people. We have known and we still know poverty and discrimination. But through it all we have been sustained by a promise of protection, unbroken by the Federal Government. Break that promise, invade our reservations without our consent, and the United States will destroy the Seneca Nation as an Indian community. But that, Mr. President, is exactly what the Federal Govern-