In 1872, R. Holland Duell, a representative from New York introduced the following joint resolution to the US house of representatives, acknowledging the branch of the tribe that survived in New York:

“Whereas, The Conestoga tribe of Indians, by the treaty made with William Penn, reserved to themselves the following tract of land situated in what is now known as the county of Lancaster, State of Pennsylvania, described as follows: "Extending from the mouth of Pequea Creek fourteen miles up the Susquehanna, measuring, by the course of the stream, to the neighborhood of Blue Rock, in Manor township, and extending back eastward up the Pequea Creek six miles, and continuing of that width at all points, thus making the east line of the tract of a serpentine course corresponding with the bends of the river;

Whereas, The said Conestoga Indians, after said treaty, occupied said reservation as owners until about the year when they were massacred by the whites. except a remnant of said tribe then with the Oneidas in the State of New York, and the said tribe never having parted in any way with their title to said reservation, either to the United States or the State of Pennsylvania, and the same is now occupied by various white persons, without color of title, to the exclusion of the survivors of said Conestoga Indians ; therefore, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled That the title to the tract of land hereinbefore described is hereby declared to be in the Conestoga tribe of Indians, and the survivors of said tribe are entitled to the possession and the free use and enjoyment of said lands ; and the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are here directed to take such steps as may be necessary to restore said lands to the possession of the survivors of said tribe and their descendants”