The Final Chapter of the Tonawanda Story

One thread that runs through Parker’s entire life is the fate of the Tonawanda Seneca — the specific community from which he came and whose struggles shaped his political formation in ways that informed everything he did afterward.

The Tonawanda Seneca’s fight against removal under the Treaty of Buffalo Creek of 1838 was one of the central events of Parker’s early life.

His work as an interpreter and negotiator for Seneca leaders in the 1840s was directly connected to this struggle.