In 1849, faced with the loss of reservation land due to fraudulent treaties, Seneca leaders met with Farmington Quakers to devise a strategy to reclaim these lost lands and prevent a Seneca 'trail of tears.' They were partially successful. 

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"Brothers...we want to be allowed to live on our land in peace. We love Tonawanda. We have no wish to leave it. It is the residue of the land of our fathers. Here we wish to lay our bones in peace." - Tonawanda Seneca leaders, petition read in Farmington, The Case of the Seneca Indians, in the State of New York, Illustrated by Facts (Philadelphia, 1840)

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With Quaker help, Tonawanda Seneca clan mothers petitioned President John Tyler in 1842 to restore their land. 

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"We pulled the strings, and the world's people danced." - Griffith Cooper, 1843. Cooper, a Quaker whose home in Williamson was a stop on the Underground Railroad, worked for Seneca Indian land rights and African American rights,