War of 1812 Era · 1805

Treaty with the Chickasaws, 1805

ID T-0035

Date 1805-07-23

Articles 1

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Chickasaw Nation

Context

Executed July 23, 1805, at a council in the Chickasaw Nation. The Jefferson administration had been pressing the Chickasaw for additional road rights and territory. The Natchez Trace, authorized by earlier treaties, was now operational — and its traffic was generating pressure for more access.

Significance

The Chickasaw granted additional road rights and made specific boundary adjustments. The instrument also contained an unusual provision: the United States assumed specific debts owed by the Chickasaw nation to named trading firms. The debt assumption mechanism — already present in several earlier instruments — was a direct mechanism for purchasing treaty consent by relieving financial pressure that traders had been applying.

Legal Observation

The named trading firms whose Chickasaw debts the U.S. assumed had financial interests in the cession. Their debt claims against the nation gave them leverage over Chickasaw leaders who needed the debt resolved. When the treaty was signed and the debts were assumed by the United States, the traders profited, the leaders were relieved of pressure, and the Chickasaw as a nation paid — in territory and in future annuities used to settle the assumption.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE

It is agreed that nothing in this treaty contained, shall affect the claim of any individual or individuals who may have obtained grants of land from the Spanish government, and which are not included within the general boundary line laid down in this treaty, provided that such grant have at any time been made known to the said tribes and recog- nized by them. Between the United States of America, and the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chipawa, Munsee and Delaware, Shawanee, and Pottawatima nations, holden at Fort Industry, on the Miami of the lake, on the fourth day of July, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and five. AnTicLE I. The said Indian nations do again acknowledge themselves and all their tribes, to be in friendship with, and under the protection of the United States. Arr. II. The boundary line between the United States, and the na- tions aforesaid, shall in future be a meridian line drawn north and south, through a boundary to be erected on the south shore of lake Erie, one hundred and twenty miles due west of the west boundary line of the state of Pennsylvania, extending north untill it intersects the boundary Treaty, when to take effect. July 4, 1805. Proclamation, April 24, 1806. Indians ac- knowledge pro- tection of U.S, Boundary line established. Cession from the Indians. Annuity stipu- lated to be paid by the U.S. Proportions to which the In- dian tribes are entitled out of the pec of the Connecticut land company, Indians at lib- erty to fish and hunt in ceded territories. TREATY WITH THE WYANDOTS, ETC. 1805. line of the United States, and extending. south it intersects a line here- tofore established by the treaty of Grenville. Arr. UL The Indian nations aforesaid, for the consideration of friendship to the United States, and the sums of money hereinafter mentioned, to be paid annually to the Wyandot, Shawanee, Munsee and Delaware nations, have ceded and do hereby cede and relinquish to said United States for ever, all the lands belonging to said United States, lying east of the aforesaid line, bounded southerly and easterly by the line established by said treaty of Grenville, and northerly by the north- ernmost part of the forty first degree of north latitude. Arr. IV. The United States, to preserve harmony, manifest their liberality, and in consideration of the cession made in the preceding article, will, every year forever hereafter, at Detroit, or some other con- venient place, pay and deliver to the Wyandot, Munsee, and Delaware nations, and those of the Shawanee and Seneca nations who reside with the Wyandots, the sum of eight hundred and twenty five dollars, current money of the United States, and the further sum of one hundred and seventy five dollars, making in the whole an annuity of one thousand dollars; which last sum of one hundred and seventy five dollars, has been secured to the President, in trust for said nations, by the Con- necticut land company, and by the company incorporated by the name of “the proprietors of the half million acres of land lying south of lake Erie, called Sufferer’s Land,” payable annually as aforesaid, and to be divided between said nations, from time to time, in such proportions as said nations, with the approbation of the President, shall agree. Arr. V. To prevent all misunderstanding hereafter, it is to be ex- pressly remembered, that the Ottawa and Chipawa nations, and such of the Pottawatima nation as reside on the river Huron of lake Erie, and in the neighbourhood thereof, have received from the Connecticut land company, and the company incorporated by the name of “ the proprie- tors of the half million acres of land lying south of lake Erie, called Sufferer’s Land,” the sum of four thousand dollars in hand, and have secured to the President of the United States, in trust for them, the further sum of twelve thousand dollars, payable in six annual instal- ments of two thousand each; which several sums is the full amount of

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 8825–8950.