nPostednon July 19, 2013
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nBefore I get to the “Treaty of Nanfan,” I want to mention something exciting that is happening today, July 29, 2013:
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nIt’s Wave at Saturn Day!
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nIt’s Wave at Saturn Day!
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nAs it has twice before, the robot space explorer named Cassini will be photographing Earth from a billion miles away. This time, scientist Carolyn Porco is urging everybody to go outside, smile really big (you can say “cheese” if you want), and wave at the camera at the time that this photo is being taken.
Porco has called today “The Day the Earth Smiled.”
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nWhere I live, with Pacific Daylight Time, the photo is being taken at 2:27 in the afternoon. Here is a website that tells people in other time zones when they can wave at the (invisible to our eyes) camera. And here is an article with more info.
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nNow…back to Nanfan!
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nThisnis what was supposed to have happened on this date in 1701:
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| The green portion is the land that was supposedly granted to England in 1701. |
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nRepresentativesnof the Five Nations (the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of NativenAmerican nations) sat down with John Nanfan, the acting governor ofnthe British colony of New York. They hammered out a treaty thatngranted to the British king an enormous swath of land that includesnthe present-day states of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, andnsouthern Ontario, Canada. This chunk of land was sometimes called thenBeaver Hunting Grounds.
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nThese lands were, at that point, pretty much controlled by Native Americans who were aligned with French colonists rather than by the Iroquois, and France did not recognize this treaty. So it was pretty unimportant.
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Butnthere are historians who say that this treaty was even less than unimportant–they say that it never existed at all!
Butnthere are historians who say that this treaty was even less than unimportant–they say that it never existed at all!n
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nThomas Kennedy is one of these historians. He says that what many call the Nanfan Treaty is really the Albany Deednof 1701; the Five Nations deeded a large chunk of land to the BritishnNew York Colony in return for the king’s protection against thenFrench. Rather than being connected to acting governor Nanfan,nKennedy states that this deed (not a treaty) is the result of New YorknGovernor Bellomont, who died in office on March 5, 1701.
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nItnseems clear to me that Governor Bellomont could have worked towardngaining rights to this land, but it finally came to pass duringnNanfan’s brief acting-governorship, and that the name passed down innvarious histories got fudged around and changed for reasons that arennot very nefarious—such as confusion or forgetfulness. But I can also clearly see that this is one of several possibilities—and I really do not know the truth of the matter.
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| By the way, the “Five Nations” of the Iroquois Confederacy eventually became Six Nations. |
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nFromnwhat I can tell, the Iroquois deeded the same land several times,nsometimes to the same people and other cases to different people. Inhave heard that the concept of land ownership and land rights meantnvery different things to the various peoples—and I imagine that, as the British and American governments reneged on (backed out of) signed treaties, over and over, Native American tribes became more and more skeptical of any new treaties. Apparently the same thing happenednwith the deeds given out by Native Americans to European settlers—thenlatter became increasingly skeptical of any “deed” or “title”ngiven by Five Nations peoples as something that cannot be counted on.
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nIt seems to me that all the groups active in that corner of North America at the time took turns conquering and being conquered, and that there was little that an agreement or law could do when force was used to take land and resources. But it’s definitely hard to know what really happened in New York in 1701. Even if we could examinenhistorical documents, we would be hard pressed to authenticate themnand certainly have no hope of discovering what people were thinkingnas they wrote or signed those documents!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAnniversary of the Metro (subway) in Paris
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Artsnand Artists Day
Artsnand Artists Dayn
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nAnniversarynof the first parking meters
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on Julynholidays, historicalnanniversaries in July,nand Julynbirthdays.
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest pages on Augustnholidays, historicalnanniversaries in August,nand Augustnbirthdays.
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