I wrote a post about congress withholding some cash a while back but;
The Treaty of Big Tree is an interesting treaty, and this guy has a great writeup on the path that the money goes (hint, not where it’s supposed to). Another interesting fact is that the Seneca Nation provides annunities for it’s members, but if you took into consideration that 100k at that time is worth now 2 million bucks, it seems like a raw deal for the whole half of western New York. And if you maybe adjust that for purchasing power and say it’s worth 10-100 times that, say 2 Billion (a large but by no means large enough sum), a nominal 6% return on that money is 120 million per year. And if you were to divide that by the 8k members of the Seneca now, that’s close to $15,000 per year. Not bad, but still short of what members get now, and that amount is provided by the Nation proceeds now, definitely NOT by the federal government.
If you were to add in the $15k plus roughly $8k that the Nation gives now, it’s closer to $24K, which is an interesting and meaningful sum for people, and especially those in Indian Country that can really use it.
It’s all moot of course, because the money is such a difficult thing to try and follow. Assuming that the banks were liquidated like in the first article, you’ll probably be hard pressed to find where the money went exactly and how much it should be earning and returning for such a cheap promise.