According to the U. S. Constitution, a treaty is simply an agreement between two or more sovereign nations. The United States during the nineteenth century recognized Indian nations as sovereign entities and thus negotiated treaties with them. From the viewpoint of American law, there are three basic steps involved in the treaty process: (1) the treaty is negotiated, (2) it is then ratified by the Senate, and (3) it is proclaimed (signed) by the President.
Treaties were negotiated for many different reasons. In addition to establishing peace, and thus preventing war, the United States negotiated treaties to obtain land. The United States frequently gave voice to the idea that no Indian land was to be taken without the consent of the Indians.
Briefly described below are some of the treaties which were negotiated with American Indian nations 200 years ago, in 1823.
Seminole
The Seminoles broke off from the Creeks in Georgia and Alabama and began a series of migrations south into Florida in the eighteenth century. The United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. In an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma, historian Louise Welsh reports:
“Government officials had decided that the ideal solution to the Seminole problem was to remove them to the West or merge them with the Creeks. The Seminoles opposed both proposals so vigorously that they were removed to a reservation in the interior of the Florida peninsula below Tampa Bay.”
In Florida in 1823, the Seminoles signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. The terms of the treaty called for the Seminoles to give up all land claims in Florida except for a reservation in central Florida to be designated for them by the government. The Seminoles were to move to the reservation where they would to be provided with tools, annuities, and rations.
In his entry on the Seminoles in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Richard Sattler reports:
“A separate agreement allowed five chiefs and their towns to remain on the Apalachicola and lower Chattahoochee Rivers.”
Seneca
The Senecas—the big hill people—were the westernmost Indian nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their homelands were in western New York.
In 1823 the Senecas conveyed a parcel of land known as the Gordeau reservation to two non-Indians in a document called a “treaty” concluded by a commissioner under the authority of the United States. The “treaty” was not sent to the Senate for ratification.
Cherokee
In his book In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided, Walter Echo-Hawk reports:
“The aboriginal Cherokee homeland extends throughout the mountainous Allegheny region of the American Southeast in present-day Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas.”
In 1823, Creek Chief William McIntosh offered Cherokee leader John Ross $2,000 for his support of a treaty. Ross announced the attempted bribe before a Cherokee Council and told them that McIntosh “has mistaken my character and sense of honor.”
Navajo
New Mexico in 1823 was a Mexican province. Like the United States, Mexico also negotiated treaties with the Indian nations within this province.
In 1823, the Mexican government negotiated a treaty with the Navajos. The treaty was signed by two Navajo captains – Batolome Baca and Juan Antonio Sandoval. The treaty required: (1) the Navajos to hand over all prisoners, (2) Navajo prisoners to be returned unless they wanted to become Christians, (3) the Navajos were to return all stolen goods, and (4) the Navajos were to accept Christianity and settle in pueblos. The peace established by the treaty, according to oral tradition, was violated before the ink was dry.
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: Indian treaties 200 years ago, 1820
Indians 101: Treaties and Councils in 1819, 200 years ago
Indians 201: First U.S. treaties with the Navajo
Indians 101: The 1837 Winnebago Treaty
Indians 201: The Chippewa Treaty of 1837
Indians 101: The 1855 Walla Walla treaty council
Indians 101: The 1863 Nez Perce treaty