Editing Buffalo, New York (section)

===Pre-Columbian era to European exploration===
[[File:Wenro Territory ca1630 map-en.svg|thumb|left|alt=Color map of New York with Wenro territory highlighted from the mouth of Buffalo Creek east to the Genesee River|Approximate extent of [[Wenrohronon|Wenro]] territory {{Circa|1630}}]]
Before the [[European colonization of the Americas|arrival of Europeans]], nomadic [[Paleo-Indians]] inhabited the [[western New York]] region from the [[Lithic stage|8th millennium BCE]]. The [[Woodland period]] began around 1000 BC, marked by the rise of the [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy]] and the spread of its tribes throughout the state.<ref name = "Thompson1977 113-120">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/geographyofnewyo00thom |url-access=registration |title=Geography of New York State |last=Thompson |first=John H. |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |year=1977 |isbn=9780815621829 |pages=113–120 |chapter=The Indian |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |lccn=77004337 |oclc=2874807}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ritchie |first1=William A. |title=The Archaeology of New York State |date=19 February 2014 |publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-307-82049-5 |chapter=The Woodland Stage—Development of Ceramics, Agriculture and Village Life}}</ref> Seventeenth-century [[Jesuit missionaries]] were the first Europeans to visit the area.<ref name="Rundell1962 57-96" />

During [[French colonization of the Americas|French exploration of the region]] in 1620, the region was sparsely populated and occupied by the [[Agrarian society|agrarian]] [[Erie people]] in the south and the [[Neutral Nation]] in the north, with a relatively small tribe, the [[Wenrohronon]], between and the [[Seneca people|Senecas]], an Iroquois tribe, occupying the land just east of the region.<ref name = "Thompson1977 113-120"/> The Neutral grew tobacco and [[hemp]] to trade with the Iroquois, who [[North American fur trade|traded furs]] with the French for European goods.<ref name = "Thompson1977 113-120" /> The tribes used animal- and war paths to travel and move goods across what today is New York State. (Centuries later, these same paths were gradually improved, then paved, then developed into major modern roads.)<ref name = "Thompson1977 113-120"/> Traditional Seneca oral legends, as recounted by professional storytellers known as Hagéotâ, were highly participatory. These tales were told only during winter, as they were believed to have the power to put even animals and plants to sleep, which could affect the harvest. At the conclusion, audience members typically offered gifts, such as tobacco, to the storyteller as a sign of appreciation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seneca Folk Tales {{!}} Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) |url=https://eada.lib.umd.edu/text-entries/seneca-folk-tales/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=eada.lib.umd.edu}}</ref> During the [[Beaver Wars]] in the mid-17th century the Senecas conquered the Erie and Neutrals in the region.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086480 |title=The Indians of the Past and of the Present |journal=[[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] |volume=46 |issue=3 |last=Donehoo |first=George P. |year=1922 |pages=177–198 |jstor=20086480 |access-date=June 11, 2021 |archive-date=June 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611202413/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086480 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Seneca">{{Cite journal |doi=10.1525/aa.1927.29.2.02a00050 |title=The Migrations of the Seneca Nation |last=Houghton |first=Frederick |date=1927 |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |pages=241–250 |volume=29 |issue=2 |doi-access = free|issn=0002-7294}}</ref><ref name="AmHeritageBk">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1961 |title=The American Heritage Book of Indians |editor=Alvin M. Josephy, Jr |publisher=[[American Heritage Publishing|American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.]] |lccn=61-14871 |page=189}}</ref> Native Americans did not settle along Buffalo Creek permanently until 1780, when displaced Senecas were relocated from [[Fort Niagara]].<ref name="Rundell1962 57-96">{{cite book |last1=Rundell |first1=Edwin F. |last2=Stein |first2=Charles W. |title=Buffalo: your city |chapter=Buffalo's Early History—The Village |pages=57–96 |date=1962 |publisher=Henry Stewart, Incorporated |edition=4th |oclc=3023258 |location=[[Buffalo and Erie County Public Library]]}}</ref> The Seneca town of {{lang|sen|Došowëh}}, meaning "Between the [[Tilia americana|basswoods]]," was historically located on Buffalo Creek, and {{lang|sen|Došowëh}} continues to be used as the [[seneca language|Seneca]] name for the modern city of Buffalo.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chafe |first1=Wallace |title=Seneca |url=https://senecalanguage.com/wp-content/uploads/Seneca-Words-Chafe.pdf |publisher=Seneca Language Department}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Buffalo Name Origin: Theories Summarized and Ranked |url=https://issuu.com/tbhm/docs/buffalo_name_origin |publisher=Buffalo History Museum}}</ref>

[[Louis Hennepin]] and [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle|Sieur de La Salle]] explored the upper Niagara and Ontario regions in the late 1670s.<ref name = "Becker1906 9-24">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesofearlyb00beck |title=Sketches of early Buffalo and the Niagara region |chapter=La Salle and The Griffon |pages=9–24 |last=Becker |first=Sophie C. |publisher=McLaughlin Press |year=1906 |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |oclc=12629461}}</ref> In 1679, La Salle's ship, [[Le Griffon]], became the first to sail above Niagara Falls near [[Cayuga Creek]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brady |first1=Erik |title=Le Griffon never made it to port but lives on in a Buffalo park and the Canisius mascot |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/le-griffon-never-made-it-to-port-but-lives-on-in-a-buffalo-park-and/article_3f8ad5cb-4331-5bae-98b7-ed4da422c0e5.html |url-access=limited |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=5 June 2021 |language=en |date=July 8, 2019 |archive-date=6 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606062653/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/le-griffon-never-made-it-to-port-but-lives-on-in-a-buffalo-park-and/article_3f8ad5cb-4331-5bae-98b7-ed4da422c0e5.html |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce de Lahontan, Baron de Lahontan|Baron de Lahontan]] visited the site of Buffalo in 1687.<ref name="French&Place1860 279-294" /> A small French settlement along Buffalo Creek lasted for only a year (1758). After the [[French and Indian War]], the region was ruled by Britain.<ref name="Rundell1962 57-96" /> After the [[American Revolution]], the [[Province of New York]]—now a U.S. state—began westward expansion, looking for arable land by following the Iroquois.<ref name = "Thompson1977 407-423">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/geographyofnewyo00thom |url-access=registration |title=Geography of New York State |last=Thompson |first=John H. |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |year=1977 |isbn=9780815621829 |pages=407–423 |chapter=Buffalo |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |lccn=77004337 |oclc=2874807}}</ref>

New York and [[Massachusetts]] were vying for the territory which included Buffalo, and Massachusetts had the right to purchase all but a one-mile-(1600-meter)-wide portion of land. The rights to the Massachusetts territories were sold to [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] in 1791.<ref name="Sprague1882">{{Cite book |last=Buffalo Historical Society |title=Semi-centennial Celebration of the City of Buffalo: Address of the Hon. E. C. Sprague Before the Buffalo Historical Society, July 3, 1882 |publisher=[[Buffalo Historical Society]] |year=1882 |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=17–21 |language=en}}</ref> Despite objections from Seneca chief [[Red Jacket]], Morris brokered a deal between fellow chief [[Cornplanter]] and the Dutch [[dummy corporation]] [[Holland Land Company]].{{efn|Foreign entities were not allowed to own land in New York State until 1798 (Goldman 1983a, p. 27).}}<ref name="Goldman1983 21-56" /><ref name="Reitano2016 66-96">{{Cite book |last=Reitano |first=Joanne R. |url= |title=New York State: peoples, places, and priorities: a concise history with sources |chapter=The Empire State: 1790–1830 |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-69997-9 |location=New York |pages=66–96 |oclc=918135120 |ref=Reitano2016 |access-date=}}</ref> The [[Holland Land Purchase]] gave the Senecas three reservations, and the Holland Land Company received {{cvt|4000000|acre|km2}} for about thirty-three cents per acre.<ref name="Goldman1983 21-56" />
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Permanent white settlers along the creek were prisoners captured during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]].<ref name = "Becker1906 106-117">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesofearlyb00beck |title=Sketches of early Buffalo and the Niagara region |chapter=Buffalo Village |pages=106–117 |last=Becker |first=Sophie C. |publisher=McLaughlin Press |year=1906 |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |oclc=12629461}}</ref><ref name="Rundell1962 57-96" /> Early landowners were Iroquois interpreter Captain William Johnston, former enslaved man Joseph "Black Joe" Hodges and Cornelius Winney, a Dutch trader who arrived in 1789.<ref name="Rundell1962 57-96" /><ref name="Bingham1931 132-142">{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=Robert W. |title=The cradle of the Queen city: a history of Buffalo to the incorporation of the city |chapter=Captain William Johnston |series=Publications, Buffalo Historical Society,v. 31 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000743988 |date=1931 |publisher=[[Buffalo Historical Society]] |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=132–142 |hdl=2027/uva.x000743988 |oclc=364308016 |access-date=June 9, 2021 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622041720/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000743988 |url-status=live}}</ref> As a result of the war, in which the Iroquois sided with the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]], Iroquois territory was gradually reduced in the late 1700s by European settlers through successive statewide treaties which included the [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)]] and the [[First Treaty of Buffalo Creek]] (1788).<ref name = "Thompson1977 140-171">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/geographyofnewyo00thom |url-access=registration |title=Geography of New York State |last=Thompson |first=John H. |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |year=1977 |isbn=9780815621829 |pages=140–171 |chapter=Geography of Expansion |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |lccn=77004337 |oclc=2874807}}</ref> The Iroquois were moved onto reservations, including [[Buffalo Creek Reservation|Buffalo Creek]]. By the end of the 18th century, only {{cvt|338|mi2|acre km2 ha}} of reservations remained.<ref name="Brush1901">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/iroquoispastpres00brus |page=87 |title=Iroquois Past and Present |last=Brush |first=Edward H. |publisher=Baker, Jones & Co. |year=1901 |location=Buffalo, N.Y.}}</ref>

After the [[Treaty of Big Tree]] removed Iroquois title to lands west of the [[Genesee River]] in 1797, [[Joseph Ellicott]] surveyed land at the mouth of Buffalo Creek.<ref name = "Becker1906 106-117"/><ref name="Bingham1931 143-165">{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=Robert W. |title=The cradle of the Queen city: a history of Buffalo to the incorporation of the city |chapter=The Holland Land Company |series=Publications, Buffalo Historical Society,v. 31 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000743988 |date=1931 |publisher=[[Buffalo Historical Society]] |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=132–143 |hdl=2027/uva.x000743988 |oclc=364308016 |access-date=June 9, 2021 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622041720/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x000743988 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the middle of the village was an intersection of eight streets at present-day [[Niagara Square]]. Originally named New Amsterdam, its name was soon changed to Buffalo.<ref name="Fernald1910">{{Cite book |last=Fernald |first=Frederik Atherton |url=https://archive.org/details/indexguidetobuff00fern |title=The index guide to Buffalo and Niagara Falls |date=1910 |publisher=F. A. Fernald |others=[[The Library of Congress]] |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=21 |access-date=November 30, 2017}}</ref>