Expansion Era · 1815

Treaty with the Pottawatimies, July 18, 1815

ID T-0053

Date 1815-07-18

Articles 1

Instrument Note

Parties

United States and the Potawatomi Nation

Context

Executed July 18, 1815 at Spring Wells, Michigan Territory. The first post-War of 1812 treaty in this volume. The war had ended with the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814. The spring 1815 instruments are the systematic restoration of U.S. treaty relations with nations that had allied with Britain during the war.

Significance

One article: peace restored, prior treaties reaffirmed, prisoners exchanged. The instrument is a form letter — one of eight virtually identical instruments executed within three days at Spring Wells with different nations. The brevity reflects the administrative nature of the transaction: the U.S. was not renegotiating; it was reinstalling the pre-war framework.

Legal Observation

The Spring Wells treaties were executed simultaneously with multiple nations over a few days in July 1815. The form was standardized; only the signatory nation changed. This is the treaty-making process at its most purely administrative — not diplomacy, but paperwork.

Big Osage, Nague mani, The war chief of the Big Osage, Ni ca nauthe, The war chief of the Little Osage, Chon me la se, The war chief of the Big Osage, Ne non bas, The war chief of the Little Osage, The Pograngue, The war chief of the Big Osage, The Cay que, Warrior, L. O. Non pe voite, do. B. O, Ve sa sa che, do. L. O. Ton che nanque, do. B. O, Cay ga che, do. L. O. Li hi bi, do. B. O. Gri na che, do. L. O. Ni Couil Bran, do. B. O, Chon non sogue, do. L. O. Li san sandhe, do. B. O. Me qua que, do. L. O. Man he gare, do. B. O. Me ga he, do. L. O. Me yhe, do. B. O. Nu dhe tavoi, do. L. O. The cay que, do. B. O. Voi tasean, do. L. O. Ca ha piche, do. B. O. Man he voi, do. L. O. Ta le chiga, do. B. O. TREATY WITH THE OSAGES. 1808. Pe dhe chiga, Warrior, L. O. Che ga non sas, do. B. O. Ne sa que, do. L. O. Lo le chinga, do. B. O. Pa ne voiguanda, do. L. O. Ta voin hi hi, do. B. O. Mi the chinga, do. L. O. Voi dhe nache, do. B. O. Man que si, do. L. O. Chin ga voi sa, do. B. Q. Ta le voi le, do. L. O. Voi en gran, do, B. O. Sca ma ni, do. L. O. Nura Hague, do. B. O. Me Chinga, do. L. O. Pa chi gue, Little chief, B. O. Rou da Nique, Warrior, L. O. Ne Paste, do. B. O. Voi bi sandhe, do. L. O. Ne hi Zanga, do. B. O. Ne hu dhe, do. L. O. The Pagranque, do. B. O. Cha he tonga, do. L. O. Manguepee Mani, do. B. O. Voi Ba lune, do. L. O. Ponea Voitaniga, do. B. O. Tas lon dhe, do. L. O.

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 11101–11200.