War of 1812 Era · 1802

Provisional Convention with the Choctaws, 1802

ID T-0026

Date 1802-10-17

Articles 1

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Choctaw Nation

Context

Executed October 17, 1802 at Fort Confederation, Mississippi Territory. A provisional convention — not a full treaty — addressing a boundary correction arising from the 1801 Fort Adams treaty. The Fort Adams road easement had raised questions about the precise location of the Choctaw boundary line that needed resolution before the road construction could proceed.

Significance

Brief provisional instrument confirming a specific boundary point. The legal status is ambiguous — 'provisional convention' rather than 'treaty' — and its ratification history is incomplete. The instrument represents the administrative machinery required to operationalize the road corridor treaties: the line on paper in the Fort Adams treaty required on-the-ground survey and confirmation, generating additional instruments.

Legal Observation

The proliferation of supplemental, provisional, and additional instruments around each major treaty reveals the gap between treaty text and physical reality. A line described in treaty language had to be surveyed, marked, and confirmed through additional legal instruments. Each step in that process was an opportunity for the U.S. to adjust the line in its favor.

TREATY WITH THE SENECAS. 1802, In restimony whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto, aud to two other indentures of the same tenor and date, one to remain with the United States, one to remain with the said parties of the first part, and one other to remain with the said parties of the second part, interchangeably set their hands and seals, the day and year first above written. Con-nea-ti-u, Soo-no-you, Koe-en-twah-ka, or Corn Planter, Au-wen-nau-sa, Won-don-goohkat, Soo-goo-ya-wau-tau, or Red Jacket, Te-kon-nou-du, Cosh-kou-tough, Te-yo-kai-hos-sa, Te-ki-ain-dau, Ona-ya-wos, or Farmer’s Brother, Sa-goo-yes, Tow-yo-cau-na, or Blue Sky, So-nau-goi-es, Koying-quau-tah, or Young King, Gish-ka-ka, or Little Billy, Ka-oun-doo-wand, or Pollard, Sus-sa-oo-wau. Con-na-wau-de-au, Wilhem Willink, Pieter Van Eeghen, Hendrik Vollenhoven, W. Willink, the younger, I. Willink the younger, (son of Jan) Jan Gabriel Van Staphorst, Roelof Vanstaphorst the younger, Cornelius Vollenhoven, and Hendrik Seye, by their Attorney, JOSEPH ELLICOTT. Sealed and delivered in the presence of Jno. Thomson, Israel Chapin, James W, Stevens. Horatio Jones, Jasper Parrish, Interpreters. To the Indian names are subjoined a mark and seal.

Done at

a full and general treaty of the Seneca nation of Indians, held at Buffalo Creek, in the county of Ontario, and state of New- York, on the thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two, under the authority of the United States.

In testimony whereof

I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the day and year aforesaid, JOHN TAYLER. AT A TREATY Held under the authority of the United States, at Buffalo Creek in the county of Ontario, and state of New-York, between the Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors of the Seneca Nation of Indians, on behalf of said nation, and Oliver Phelps, Esq. of the county of Ontario, Isaac Bronson, Esq. of the city of New- York, and Horatio Jones, of the said county of Ontario, in the presence of John Tayler, Esq. Commissioner appointed by the President of the United States for holding said treaty. Kxow aut Men by these presents, that the said Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors, for and in consideration of the sum of twelve hundred dollars, lawful money of the United States, unto them in hand paid by the said Oliver Phelps, Isaac Bronson and Horatio Jones, at or immediately before the sealing and delivery hereof, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, Have and by these presents po grant, remise, release and forever quit claim and confirm unto the said Oliver Phelps, Isaac Bronson and Horatio Jones, and to their heirs and assigns, ALL that tract of land commonly called and known by the name of Little Beard's Reservation, situate, lying and being in the said county of Ontario, BOUNDED on the East by the Genesee river and Little Beard's Creek, on the south and west by other lands of the said parties of the second

Source: U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. VII. Edited by Richard Peters, Esq. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846. Reprinted by Dennis & Co., Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., 1962. Source lines 7425–7508.