This 1820 map shows much of the area where Seneca John lived and traveled, including the Seneca Reserve. After 1831, the Seneca Indians were pushed west and the Seneca Reserve was divided up for sale to settlers.

Some sources say that the Seneca people in Ohio were not Seneca proper. They were originally called Mingo, and moved from Pennsylvania in the early 1700's, and eventually became known as the Seneca of Sandusky. Over the years, people of other tribes joined with them, including Erie, Conestoga, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, Onondaga, Tuscarora, and Wyandot. In 1831 the Seneca of Sandusky ceded their 40,000-acre reservation in Ohio to the U.S. government, and moved west to 67,000 acres in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. A second treaty was needed in 1832 to resolve boundary discrepancies in the land allocated to the tribe.

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