The Seneca Indians, known as “Keepers of the Western Door,” occupied this area since the formation of the Iroquois confederacy about 1550. The most numerous and most warlike of the Six Nations, they for a time dominated tribes northward into Canada and southward into Pennsylvania. Although the Confederacy was allied with the English, the Senecas turned against them in Pontiac’s uprising of 1763. During the Revolution they sided with the British and joined in Tory raids on the New York frontier. For this they were punished and driven back by the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of 1779. After the Revolution the Senecas were dispersed; some settled in Canada, while others remained later to occupy Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations. Land speculators had carved up western New York, and by the treaties of Fort Stanwix 1784 and Big Tree (Geneseo) 1797, Indian claims were extinguished. Chiefs Cornplanter (1732-1836), Red Jacket (1758-1830) and Farmer’s Brother (1730-1814) obtained reservations for their people, where Indian society and culture continued. Handsome Lake (1735-1815), the half-brother of Cornplanter, became the prophet of a regenerated Indian “religion,” which still has many followers.