![]() The Purchase of 1784 included the counties of Crawford, Warren, Venango, Forest, McKean, Elk, Potter, Tioga, Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, Clarion, Jefferson, and Cameron – as well as portions of Bradford, Clinton, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Lycoming, Beaver, Allegheny, and of course Erie. Map showing various purchases from indigenous people per the 1884 History of Erie County by Samuel P. The reserve remained in Native hands until the construction of the Kinzua Dam from 1960 to 1965. This area of the reserve measured eight hundred acres and followed the Allegheny River starting just below the New York state line the land was set aside for the use of Chief Cornplanter and his descendants. This reserve was named after Chief Cornplanter in honor of his efforts to reach a peace agreement. For this, the Iroquois agreed to completely relocate out of Pennsylvania, with the exception of the Cornplanter Reserve. With the terms of this federal treaty, known as the Purchase of 1784, the state of Pennsylvania paid one thousand dollars to the Six Nations. In the following year, 1784, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix was the first agreement ever made between any indigenous nation and the newly formed United States of America. ![]() On September 25, 1783, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Council passed a resolution authorizing a commission to purchase indigenous territory within the acknowledged boundaries of the state. For now, our story starts in the late 1700s. We hope through our commitment to the conservation of the Howard Falls, we honor all who have called the area ‘home’. ![]() ![]() In the coming years, we hope to explore and research the indigenous people of Erie County to accurately add their history to the story of Howard Falls in more detail. While most history of the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania starts with settlers coming across a remote, untraveled forest, in reality, this land may have once been the ancestral home to indigenous people and the original stewards of what we now call Howard Falls. ![]()
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