Maris B. Pierce papers

Maris B. Pierce was born at “Old Town” on the Allegany Reservation in 1811, the son of John Pierce. During his youth, he attended a Quaker school on the reservation. Later he was sent to the Fredonia Academy by his father, and then attended 2 years at the Academy in Homer, New York.

After his early education, Pierce went to Thetford, Vermont, to study and prepare for college. In 1836, at the age of 25, he entered Dartmouth College, becoming a part of the first generation of college educated Haudenosaunee. The year before graduating, Pierce was appointed as one of the four Seneca attorneys representing the Tonawanda, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Buffalo Creek Reservations in Washington, D.C. Pierce fought the Treaty of Buffalo Creek of 1838 and assisted in its renegotiation in 1842. After graduating college, he settled on the Buffalo Creek Reservation and continued his advocacy against the removal of Seneca from their lands.

Pierce was appointed as the U.S. interpreter between the federal government and the Seneca Nation. In 1843, he married Mary Jane Carrol of Utica, daughter of a British Officer, and they had four children. After the Buffalo Creek Reservation was dissolved in 1842 and the Indians were pushed out, Pierce and his family moved to the Cattaraugus Reservation. Pierce and his wife became advocates and were active in the schools on the reservation, dedicating much of their time to teaching.

Pierce was continually relied on by his fellow Native Americans for his sound judgement and good sense of managing their affairs. He was involved in other important issues including fighting the illegal cutting and removal of timber from reservation lands, conducting censuses, and properly advocating for better education on the reservations.
Pierce, or “Ha-dya-no-doh” (Swift Runner), died at his residence on the Cattaraugus Reservation on August 9, 1874 at the age of 65. Mary J. Pierce donated her husband’s materials to the Buffalo Historical Society in October of 1884.