Seneca Nation of New York

The Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized Seneca tribe based in western New York. They are one of three federally recognized Seneca entities in the United States, the others being the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (also in western New York) and the Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma. Some Seneca also live with other Iroquois peoples on the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.

The Seneca Nation has three reservations, two of which are occupied: Cattaraugus Reservation, Allegany Indian Reservation, and the mostly unpopulated Oil Springs Reservation. It has two alternating capitals on the two occupied reservations: Irving at Cattaraugus Reservation, and Jimerson Town near Salamanca on the Allegany Reservation. The tribe also claims sovereignty over a portion of the Canawaugus settlement as of 2022, which is not federally recognized. An additional territory de facto governed by the nation, the Cornplanter Tract in Pennsylvania, officially expired in 1957 and was submerged by the construction of the Allegheny Reservoir in 1965.

In 1848, Seneca Indians residing on the Allegany and Cattaraugus Territories in New York established this government through a constitutional convention. The Seneca Nation of Indians Constitution established a tri-partite governing structure based on general elections of 16 Councilors, three Executives (President, Treasurer, and Clerk), and Court Justices (Surrogates and Peacemakers). Elections take place every two years, on the first Tuesday in November, usually concurrent with Election Day in the United States. An exception is in years when November 1 is a Tuesday; in those years, the Seneca Nation hold their election on November 1 while the US hold their elections on November 8. The leadership rotates between the two reservations each election, so no officer can serve consecutive terms. There are no other term limits, and elected officers can serve numerous nonconsecutive terms.

The Council established rules for citizenship within the nation. In the 21st century, the Seneca Nation of Indians in New York has a total enrolled population of nearly 8,000 citizens.

Its territories are mostly rural with several residential areas. Many Seneca citizens live off-territory, and some are located across the United States, as well as in other countries. Off-territory residents, who often work in remote urban areas that provide more jobs, comprise nearly half of the enrolled citizens. These off-territory members are eligible to vote and are often bussed in during elections.

The Seneca Nation's republican form of government stands in contrast to that of the federally recognized Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians. That band of the Seneca retained its traditional government of hereditary chiefs chosen by clan mothers from the maternal lines responsible for such leadership. The Seneca Nation of New York deposed such hereditary leaders in the 1848 convention. Followers of the traditional government structure split off and organized the Tonawanda Band, who later also gained federal recognition.

The Seneca Nation government denied women the right to vote until the early 1960s, this despite the traditional pre-republic structure in which women were granted the right to choose chiefs. The nation's male voters rejected female suffrage in three consecutive referendums in the 1950s, all rejected with widespread opposition from the Allegany Reservation, before the referendum finally passed in 1964, with women granted the right to hold office in 1966.

In July 2024, Seneca Nation citizens voted against creating a tribal police department.