Fort Stanwix - Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Fort Stanwix was built to guard a portage was on the main waterway that connected the Atlantic seacoast to the interior and the Mohawk River, to the east, with Wood Creek, to the west. Wood Creek led to Oneida Lake and ultimately to Oswego on Lake Ontario.

In 1768, Fort Stanwix was the site of an important treaty conference between the British and the Iroquois, arranged by William Johnson. By the time of this treaty, the fort had become dilapidated and inactive. The purpose of the conference was to renegotiate the boundary line between Indian lands and white settlements set forth in the Proclamation of 1763. The British government hoped a new boundary line might bring an end to the rampant frontier violence, which had become costly and troublesome. Indians hoped a new, permanent line might hold back white colonial expansion.

The final treaty was signed on November 5 and extended the earlier proclamation which happened much further west. The Iroquois had effectively ceded Kentucky to the whites. However, the Indians who actually used the Kentucky lands, primarily Shawnee, Delaware, and Cherokee, had no role in the negotiations. Rather than secure peace, the Fort Stanwix treaty helped set the stage for the next round of hostilities.

Fort Stanwix was abandoned in 1768 and allowed to go to ruin.