Instrument Note
Parties
United States and the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Seneca, and Miami Nations
Context
Executed July 22, 1814 at Greenville, Ohio — during the War of 1812. Several of the signatory nations had allied with Britain and Tecumseh's confederation in the war. The Battle of the Thames in 1813 had killed Tecumseh and broken the confederation. This is the post-battle realignment instrument.
Significance
The nations acknowledged U.S. protection, agreed to assist the U.S. against Britain in the ongoing war, and renewed their peace obligations. No land is ceded. This is a political instrument — reestablishing U.S. treaty relationships with nations that had been at war with the U.S. — not a cession. The 1814 Greenville treaty repeats the protection formula and commits the signatory nations to active military assistance.
Legal Observation
The nations signing this instrument had recently been at war with the United States as part of Tecumseh's confederation. Their signature here was a surrender instrument dressed in treaty language. The protection formula — acknowledging no other sovereign — appears in an instrument that followed military defeat. The consent is real in the legal record. The context of its extraction is not.
TREATY WITH THE OSAGES. 1808.
Done at
Detroit, in the territory of Michigan, the day and year first above written. (Signed) WILLIAM HULL. Chippawas. Ottawas. Pee-wan-she-me nogh, p ER Ma-mau-she-gau-ta, (or bad legs) rise e ae Poo-qui-gau-boa-wie, Saw-ga-maw, ; Kiosk, . Ogouse, Po-qua-quet, (or the ball) Was-a-ga-shick. See-gau-ge-wau, Quit-chon-e-quit, or big cloud, Pottawuttamies. Qui-con-quish, To-quish. Puck e-nese, or the spark of fire, oe Ne-gig, (or the Otter) Sindy Me-a-si ta, NL Macquettequet, or Little Bear B m Ne-me-kas, (or Little Thunder) sts Sawanabenase, or, pe, che, ga, bu 8, or Grand Blane, idi Wyandots. Ton quish, Ska-ho.mat, Miott, Miere, or walk in the water, Meu-e-tu-ge-sheck, or the Little I-yo-na-yo-ta-ha. Cedar. In presence of Geo. McDougall, Chief Judge Ct. D. H. and D. C. Rush, Attorney- General. Jacob Visger, Associate Judge of the D. Court. Jos. Watson, Secretary to the Legislature of Michigan. Abijah Hull, Surveyor for Michigan Territory. Harris H. Hickman, Counsellor av Law. Abraham Fuller Hull, Counsellor at Law and Secretary to the commission. Whitmore Knaggs, William Walker, Sworn Inter- preters. To the Indian names are subjoined a mark and seal.
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 10680–10724.