War of 1812 Era · 1803

Treaty with the Choctaws, 1803

Concluded at Hoe Buckintoopa

ID T-0030

Date 1803-08-31

Articles 1

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Choctaw Nation

Context

Executed August 31, 1803 at Hoe Buckintoopa, Mississippi Territory. This is the first Choctaw land cession — unlike the prior Choctaw instruments which addressed road rights-of-way, this instrument conveys actual territory. The Jefferson administration had been pressing the southern nations for cessions to settle Georgia's land claims.

Significance

The Choctaw ceded a tract in southwestern Mississippi Territory — present-day Adams County — in exchange for annuity increases and goods. The instrument also included a debt settlement: the U.S. assumed specific Choctaw debts to traders. The land ceded was small relative to the overall Choctaw territory, but it established the legal precedent of Choctaw territory as cessionable — a precedent that the Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty of 1830 would fulfill comprehensively.

Legal Observation

The first cession from a nation is legally significant regardless of its size. Before this instrument, the Choctaw had signed peace, protection, and road instruments — none of which transferred land. After this instrument, the legal framework for Choctaw territory cession existed. All subsequent cessions built on this precedent.

TREATY WITH THE KASKASKIAS. 1803. field not exceeding one hundred acres with a good and sufficient fence. And whereas, The greater part of the said tribe have been baptised and received into the Catholic church to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually for seven years one hundred dollars towards the support of a priest of that religion, who will engage to per- form for the said tribe the duties of his office and also to instruct as many of their children as possible in the rudiments of literature. And the United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church. The stipulations made in this and the preceding article, together with the sum of five hundred and eighty dollars, which is now paid or assured to be paid for the said tribe for the purpose of procuring some necessary articles, and to re- lieve them from debts which they have heretofore contracted, is con- sidered as a full and ample compensation for the relinquishment made to the United States in the first article. Arr. 4th. The United States reserve to themselves the right at any future period of dividing the annuity now promised to the said tribe amongst the several families thereof, reserving always a suitable sum for the great chief and his family. Arr. 5th. And to the end that the United States may be enabled to fix with the other Indian tribes a boundary between their respective claims, the chiefs and head warriors of the said Kaskaskia tribe do hereby declare that their rightfull claim is as follows, viz — Beginning at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Saline creek, about twelve miles below the mouth of the Wabash, thence along the dividing ridge between the said creek and the Wabash untill it comes to the general dividing ridge between the waters which fall into the Wabash, and those which fall into the Kaskaskia river; and thence along the said ridge untill it reaches the waters which fall into the Illinois river, thence in a direct course to the mouth of the Illinois river, and thence down the Mississippi to the be- ginning. Anr. 6th. As long as the lands which have been ceded by this treaty shall continue to be the property of the United States, the said tribe shall have the priviledge of living and hunting upon them in the same manner that they have hitherto done. Arr. 7th. This treaty is to be in force and binding upon the said parties, as soon as it shall be ratified by the President and Senate of the United States. In witness wHerzor, The said commissioner plenipotentiary and the head chiefs and warriors of the said Kaskaskia tribe of Indians have hereunto set their hands and affixed their seals, the thirteenth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, and of the independence of the United States the twenty-eighth, WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, Jean Baptiste Ducoigne, Ocksinga a Mitchigamian, Pedagouge, Kee-tin-sa a Cahokian. Nicolas or Nicholas, LOUIS DECOUCIGNE. Sealed and delivered (the words «and thence along the said ridge” between the third and fourth lines of the fifth article being first interlined) in the presence of Jno. Rice Jones, Secretary to the Commissioner. Henry Vanderburg, one of the Judges of the Indiana Territory. T. F. Rivet, Indian Missionary. Vigo, Colonel of Knox county Militia. Cornelius Lyman, Capt, Ist infi, regt, Jas. Johnson, of Indiana Territory. B. Parker, of the Indiana Territory. Joseph Barron, Interpreter. ‘To the Indian names are subjoined a mark and seal. Annual sum to be paid to a ca- tholic priest, given by U.S, or erecting a church. Ing annuity re- served to U. S. fixed. Indians may hunt, &c. on ceded lands. When to take effect. Aug. 31, 1803. Proclamation, Dec. 26, 1803. TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, Know ve, That the undersigned, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one part, and of the whole Choc- taw nation of the other part, being duly authorised by the President of the United States, and by the chiefs and headmen of the said nation, do hereby establish in conformity to the convention of Fort Confedera- tion, for the line of demarkation recognized in the said convention, the following metes and bounds, viz.: Beginning in the channel of the Hatchee Comesa, or Wax river, at the point where the line of limits, between the United States and Spain crosseth the same, thence up the channel of said river to the confluence of the Chickasaw-Hay and Buckhatannee rivers, thence up the channel of the Buckhatannee to Bogue Hooma or Red creek, thence up the said creek to a Pine tree standing on the left bank of the same, and blazed on two of its sides, about twelve links southwest of an old trading path, leading from the town of Mobile to the Hewanee towns, much worn, but not in use at the present time :—From this tree we find the following bearings and distances, viz.: south fifty four degrees thirty minutes, west, one chain, one link a black gum, north thirty nine degrees east one chain seventy five links a water oak; thence with the old British line of partition in its various inflections, to a Mulberry post, planted on the right bank of the main branch of Sintee Bogue or Snake creek, where it makes a sharp turn to the south east, a large broken top Cypress-tree standing near the opposite bank of the creek, which is about three poles wide, thence down the said creek to the T'ombigby river, thence down the 'Tombigby and Mobile rivers, to the above mentioned line of limits be- tween the United States and Spain, and with the same to the point of beginning: And we, the said commissioners plenipotentiary, do ratify and confirm the said line of demarkation, and do recognise and acknow- ledge the same to be the boundary which shall separate and distinguish the land ceded to the United States, between the Tombigby, Mobile and Pascagola rivers, from that which has not been ceded by the said Choctaw nation.

IN TESTIMONY wHEREOF

, We hereunto affix our hands and seals, this 31st day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, to triplicates of this tenor and date.

Done at

Hoe Buckintoopa, the day and year above written, and in the twenty-seventh year of the independence of the United States. JAMES WILKINSON. Mingo Poo Coos, Alatala Hooma. WITNESSES PRESENT — Young Gains, Interpreter. Joseph Chambers, United States’ Factor. Jno. Bowyer, Capt. 2d. U.S. rest. We the commissioners of the Choctaw nation duly appointed and the chiefs of the said nation who reside on the Tombigby river, next to Sintee Bogue, do acknowledge to have received from the United States of America, by the hands of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, as a consideration in full for the confirmation of the above concession, the following articles, viz. : fifteen pieces of strouds, three rifles, one hun-

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 8013–8192.