Editing Gowanda, New York (section)

===Early habitation by American Indians===
The area was first inhabited during the Stone Age by nomadic [[Algonquian peoples]].<ref name="Redbook">Kirby, C.D. (1976). ''The Early History of Gowanda and The Beautiful Land of the Cattaraugus''. Gowanda, NY: Niagara Frontier Publishing Company, Inc./Gowanda Area Bi-Centennial Committee, Inc.</ref> An Algonquian earthwork mound from the first or second [[Stone Age]] is located on a farm in the area of Rosenberg along Zoar Valley near Gowanda.<ref name="Redbook" /> The mound is believed to be about 3,500 years old. Artifacts including spearheads, copper heads, and stone implements of a crude nature have been excavated from the site.<ref name="Redbook" /> In the latter half of the 14th century, [[Iroquoian]]-speaking peoples traveled to the area and lived along Cattaraugus Creek.<ref name="Redbook" /> They were proud, considering themselves to be "chosen people".<ref name="Redbook" /> Other tribes lived in the area around this time. The powerful nations of the Iroquois Confederacy defeated the [[Erie people]] (also an Iroquoian-speaking tribe), driving them out of the area or assimilating captives by adoption in certain clans. About this time, the [[Iroquois|Five Nations]] of the Confederacy coalesced as distinct peoples. They made a pact of cooperation rather than warfare. They controlled much of present-day New York state west of Albany and the Hudson River.<ref name="Redbook" />

After the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], the American government secured land treaties with the Iroquois nations in [[western New York]] in 1784 and 1788. Because the majority of the nations had been allies of the British, they were forced to cede most of their lands in New York after the British defeat and United States independence.<ref name="Redbook" />

In 1796 and 1797, [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]] purchased extensive lands in the upstate areas, mostly American Indian lands, and mortgaged them to the [[Holland Land Company]] of [[Willem Willink]] and 11 associates of [[Amsterdam]] in the Netherlands.<ref name="Redbook" /> Excluded from his purchases in 1797 were territories for ten American Indian reservations within the state, with the [[Cattaraugus Reservation]] of {{convert|42|sqmi}} among these.<ref name="Redbook" /> Thereafter, two land offices of the Holland Land Company were opened in [[Batavia, New York]], and [[Danby, Vermont]].<ref name="Redbook" /> Many early settlers to Gowanda were from the Danby area, and many were [[Quakers]].<ref name="Redbook" />