the 1650s, when the Seneca nation and its Iroquois allies conquered the territory during the Beaver Wars. In the spring of 1780, the British established an Indian village on Buffalo Creek for the mostly Seneca people who had been forced off their lands by the destructive Sullivan Expedition of 1779. They had fled to Fort Niagara for refuge with the British. After the war, the Buffalo Creek area was developed further as a Seneca settlement. On July 8, 1788, Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham met with Indians of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (including Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca) at Buffalo Creek to execute a deed or treaty for rights to their lands in New York State east of the Genesee River (see Phelps and Gorham Purchase). In 1838, the Treaty of Buffalo Creek dealt with the disposition of the remaining land in New York held by the nations of the Iroquois Confederation. The federal government released a total of about 5 million acres for sale. In 1825, the Buffalo River was the western terminus for the Erie Canal, constructed through the Mohawk River valley in New York state. Entry to the river from the Canal was gained via the mouth of a small tributary, Little Buffalo Creek, which was excavated and stabilized to form the Commercial Slip leading from the Erie Canal. The Buffalo River formed the southwest boundary of the rough pentagon that enclosed the "Five Points" or "Canal Street" district, bounded on the northeast by the Erie Canal. When the Canal was completed in 1825, New York Governor Dewitt Clinton's vessel was towed from the Canal through the Commercial Slip and Buffalo River to Lake Erie. There in a celebration ceremony, he poured Atlantic Ocean water into the Lake, and collected lake water to place in the ocean after his return trip to New York City. Origin of the name It is believed that the city of Buffalo was named after Buffalo Creek. There are several unsourced theories for the origin of the creek's name. Early French and Moravian explorers reported the abundance of buffalo (meaning American bison) on the south shore of Lake Erie, but their presence on the banks of Buffalo Creek is still a matter of debate. The origin of the name of the creek is still uncertain. Neither the Native American name (Te-osah-wa, "Place of the Basswoods") or the French