Native Americans: 22 Books on History, Mythology, Culture & Linguistic Studies. James Mooney

Cherokees:

      1. The United States agree to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, * * * of seven millions of acres of land, to be bounded as follows, viz: Beginning at a point on the old western Territorial line of Arkansas Territory, being twenty-five miles north from the point where the Territorial line crosses Arkansas River; thence running from said north point south on the said Territorial line to the place where said Territorial line crosses the Verdigris River; thence down said Verdigris River to the Arkansas River; thence down said Arkansas River to a point where a stone is placed opposite to the east or lower bank of Grand River at its junction with the Arkansas; thence running south forty-four degrees west one mile; thence in a straight line to a point four miles northerly from the mouth of the North Fork of the Canadian; thence along the said four miles line to the Canadian; thence down the Canadian to the Arkansas; thence down the Arkansas to that point on the Arkansas where the eastern Choctaw boundary strikes said river, and running thence with the western line of Arkansas Territory, as now defined, to the southwest corner of Missouri; thence along the western Missouri line to the land assigned to the Senecas; thence on the south line of the Senecas to Grand River; thence up said Grand River as far as the south line of the Osage Reservation, extended if necessary; thence up and between said south Osage line, extended west if necessary, and a line drawn due west from the point of beginning, to a certain distance west at which a line running north and south from said Osage line to said due-west line will make seven millions of acres within the whole described boundaries.

      In addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for and bounded, the United States further guarantee to the Cherokee Nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of said seven millions of acres, as far as the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend: Provided, however, That if the saline or salt plain on the great western prairie shall fall within said limits prescribed for said outlet, the right is reserved to the United States to permit other tribes of red men to get salt on said plain in common with the Cherokees. And letters patent shall be issued by the United States as soon as practicable for the land hereby guaranteed.

      2. The Cherokees relinquish to the United States all claim to all land ceded or claimed to have been ceded to them by treaty of May 6, 1828, not embraced within the limits fixed in this present supplementary treaty.

      3. The United States agree to cancel, at the request of the Cherokees, the sixth article of the treaty of May 6, 1828.

      4. The United States agree to furnish the Cherokees, during the pleasure of the President, four blacksmith's shops, one wagon-maker's shop, one wheelwright's shop, and necessary tools, implements, and material for the same; also four blacksmiths, one wagon-maker, and one wheelwright; also eight patent railway corn-mills, in lieu of those agreed to be furnished by article 4 of the treaty of May 6, 1828.

      5. These articles are supplementary to the treaty of May 6, 1828.

      6. One mile square to be set apart for the accommodation of the Cherokee Agency, to be selected jointly by the Cherokee Nation and United States agent.

      7. This treaty to be obligatory after ratification by the President and Senate.

      Historical Data

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Conflicting Land Claims of Creeks and Cherokees West of the Mississippi

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The treaty of January 24, 1826,336 with the Creek Indians had provided for the removal of that tribe west of the Mississippi. In accordance with its provisions, a delegation consisting of five representative men of the tribe proceeded to the western country and selected the territory designed for their future occupancy. The year following this selection a party of Creeks removed to and settled thereon. The country thus selected and occupied lay along and between the Verdigris, Arkansas, and Canadian Rivers.337

Subsequently, on the 6th day of May, 1828,338 a treaty was concluded with the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi, by the terms of which they ceded all their lands within the present limits of Arkansas and accepted a tract of 7,000,000 acres within the present limits of Indian Territory, in addition to a perpetual outlet extending as far west as the western limits of the United States at that time, being the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich.

      This new assignment of territory to the Cherokees, it was soon found, included a considerable portion of the lands selected by and already in the possession of the Creeks.

      The discovery of this fact produced much excitement and ill feeling in the minds of the people of both tribes, and led to many acts of injustice and violence during the course of several years.

      Territorial difficulties adjusted.—In the year 1832 a commission was constituted, consisting of Montfort Stokes, Henry L. Ellsworth, and John F. Schermerhorn, with instructions to visit the country west of the Mississippi and to report fully all information relating to the country assigned as a permanent home to the aborigines. Among the formidable difficulties presented for and earnestly urged upon their attention and consideration were these conflicting territorial claims of the Creeks and the Cherokees. Both parties claimed several million acres of the same land under treaty stipulations; both were equally persuaded of the justice of their respective claims, and at first were unyielding in their dispositions.

After a protracted public council, however, in which a careful examination and exposition of the various treaties was made, the commissioners succeeded in inducing the Creeks to accept other lands to the southward of their upper settlements on Verdigris River,339 and concluded treaties with both the Creeks and the Cherokees modifying their respective boundaries.

      This treaty of February 14, 1833, with the latter tribe occasioned a material change in the boundaries previously assigned them.

      Instead of following the western line of Arkansas and Missouri as far north as the point where the Grand or Neosho River crosses the boundary of the latter State, and running from thence due west to a point due north of the old western boundary line of Arkansas Territory, and thence south to the Arkansas River, the new line followed the present western boundary of Arkansas and Missouri as far north as the south line of the territory then recently assigned to the Senecas; thence west along the south line of the Senecas to Grand River, and following up Grand River to the south boundary of the Osage reservation, which was parallel with the present southern boundary of Kansas, and on the average about two miles to the north of it; thence west for quantity.

      Purchase of Osage Half-breed Reserves

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Prior340 to the conclusion of this treaty of 1833, a delegation of the Western Cherokees had visited Washington to insist upon a literal fulfillment of the treaty of 1828 and especially to demand that they be possessed of all lands and improvements within the outboundaries of their country as defined by the last named treaty. The lands and improvements alluded to were seven reservations of one section each on the Neosho River assigned to certain half-breed Osage Indians by the terms of the treaty of 1825341 with that tribe.

Although the treaty of 1833 failed to make provision for