Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Records: Quaker Fund for Indigenous Communities and its predecessors (Indian Committee, Friendly Association) (1795- )

The Indian Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) began in 1795 and continues at the present time. Previous to this, Philadelphia area Friends formed the Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures. The "Friendly Association" grew out of the violence of the French-Indian War of the mid-1700s and was active as a formal organization from around 1755 to 1764.

Work of the Indian Committee included teaching Native American people and their children, monitoring legislation affecting First Nations, and helping them combat frauds and abuses. The Committee worked primarily with the Seneca Nation on the Allegany and Cattaraugus Reservations in New York. Earliest work was with Cornplanter on both sides of the border in Pennsylvania and New York. Work was centered at Quaker Bridge ("Tunesassa"), New York, where Friends established a boarding school in 1852 adjacent to the Allegany Reservation. Friends Indian School operated as a boarding school for Native American children until 1938. The completion of the Kinzua Dam (Allegheny Reservoir) led to the flooding of much of the Allegany Reservation and the evacuation of Seneca families. Philadelphia Friends were active in helping the Seneca Nation fight the construction of the Kinzua Dam.

In 2022, the Committee's name was changed to the Quaker Fund for Indigenous Communities Granting Group.

The records of the Indian Committee include minutes, financial materials, correspondence, reports, journals, scrapbooks, papers, maps, lists, transcripts, miscellaneous projects, published items, film, video and other material. Major topics discussed in the records include Friends' 18th and 19th century visits to various First Nations peoples (Oneida people, Genesanguhta people, Stockbridge people, for example), the settlement at Tunesassa and later boarding school (Friends Indian School), the Ogden Land Company, Buffalo Treaty fraud of 1838 and resulting land problems, legislation impacting First Nations peoples, the "Salamanca mission" (Joseph Scattergood), the construction of Kinzua Dam and efforts to stop it, and the 1972 shooting by police of Leroy Shenandoah in Philadelphia.

Items are available on Microfilm, Collection #824, where designated.

Deposit

HC.MC-1003: Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs.

HC.MC-975-07-130: "Account of Isaac Coates, Joshua Sharpless [and] John Pierce's Visits to the Indian Reservation in Western New York".

HC.MC-950-135: Native American speeches.

Use

Copyright has not been assessed for these materials. Works over 120 years old are generally considered to be in the public domain. For permission for other materials, please contact the repository where the materials are on deposit.

Preferred Citation

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Indian Committee (HC.PhY.838), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Publisher

Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Finding aids author

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Society of Friends: 1676- : Delaware County, Pa.).

Creator

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Friendly Association to Regain and Preserve Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures.

Subject

Society of Friends -- Pennsylvania

Society of Friends -- New Jersey

Society of Friends -- Delaware

Society of Friends -- Maryland

Society of Friends -- New York (State)

Indigenous peoples of North America -- New York (State)

Indigenous peoples of North America -- Pennsylvania

Organization

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Friendly Association to Regain and Preserve Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Indian Committee

Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends (Orthodox : 1827-1955)

Language

English