Thahnawate

Thahnawate, a Seneca name associated with rapids, refers to the Tonawanda country along the creek of that name. The waterway runs westward towards the Niagara River through a landscape of woodland and low ground. Tonawanda became a home for Seneca families displaced from other parts of their homeland in the upheavals surrounding the American Revolution.

At the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, the Seneca retained Tonawanda as one of several reservations while relinquishing most of their remaining lands in western New York. Pressure from land speculators on the reserved lands continued. An agreement made at Buffalo Creek in 1826 provided for the sale of much of the Tonawanda tract while setting aside a smaller area on both sides of the creek.