Choctaw

Treaty of January 20, 1825

Articles of a convention made between John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, being specially authorized therefore by the President of the United States, and the undersigned Chiefs and Head Men of the Choctaw Nation of Indians, duly authorized and empowered by said Nation, at the City of Washington, on the twentieth day of January, in the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five. Whereas a Treaty of friendship, and limits, and accommodation, having been entered into at Doake’s Stand, on the eighteenth of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty, between Andrew Jackson and … Read more

Treaty of October 24, 1816

A treaty of cession between the United States of America and the Chactaw nation of Indians. James Madison, President of the United States of America, by General John Coffee, John Rhea, and John M’Kee, esquires, commissioners on the part of the United States, duly authorized for that purpose, on the one part, and the mingoes, leaders, captains, and warriors, of the Chactaw nation, in general council assembled, in behalf of themselves and the whole nation, on the other part, have entered into the following articles, which, when ratified by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent … Read more

Supplementary Articles to the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek

Article I. Various Choctaw persons have been presented by the Chiefs of the nation, with a desire that they might be provided for. Being particularly deserving, an earnestness has been manifested that provision might be made for them. It is therefore by the undersigned commissioners here assented to, with the understanding that they are to have no interest in the reservations which are directed and provided for under the general Treaty to which this is a supplement. See Further: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek As evidence of the liberal and kind feelings of the President and Government of the United … Read more

Treaty of April 28, 1866

Articles of agreement and convention between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Indians, made and concluded at the City of Washington the twenty-eighth day of April, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, by Dennis N. Cooley, Elijah Sells, and E. S. Parker, special commissioners on the part of the United States, and Alfred Wade, Allen Wright, James Riley, and John Page, commissioners on the part of the Choctaws, and Winchester Colbert, Edmund Pickens, Holmes Colbert, Colbert Carter, and Robert H. Love, commissioners on the part of the Chickasaws. Article 1. Permanent peace and friendship are … Read more

Barataria Destroyed

Weighing all the facts, it is small wonder that the Delta Creoles coquetted with the Baratarians. To say no more of Spanish American or French West Indian tincture, there was the Embargo. There were the warships of Europe skimming ever to and fro in the entrances and exits of the Gulf. Rarely in days of French or Spanish rule had this purely agricultural country and non-manufacturing town been so removed to the world’s end as just at this time. The Mississippi, northward, was free; but its perils had hardly lessened since the days of Spanish rule. Then it was said, … Read more

The Creoles’ City

Scarcely had the low, clay chimneys of a few woodsmen’s cabins sent up, through a single change of seasons, their lonely smoke-wreaths among the silent willow jungles of the Mississippi, when Bienville began boldly to advocate the removal of the capital to this so-called ” New Orleans.” But, even while lie spoke, the place suffered a total inundation. Yet lie continued to hold it as a trading post of the Mississippi Company, and, by the close of 1720, began again, in colonial council, to urge it as the proper place for the seat of government; and though out-voted, lie sent … Read more

African Slaves and Indian Wars

The problem of civilization in Louisiana was early complicated by the presence and mutual contact of three races of men. The Mississippi Company’s agricultural colonial scheme was based on the West Indian idea of African slave labor. Already the total number of blacks had risen to equal that of the whites, and within the Delta, outside of New Orleans, they must have largely preponderated. In 1727 this idea began to be put into effect just without the town’s upper boundary, where the Jesuit fathers accommodated themselves to it in model form, and between 1726 and 1745 gradually acquired and put … Read more

1759, February 27, Fort Loudoun

Sir I received you Dispatches of the 2nd Inst. The 25th Last month I acquainted you Excellency that the Great Warriour had disappointed me in not going to Warr as he promised, Giving out in the town Houses that a Great many white people where coming up to destoy them from Charlestown, On which their Young people grew very Imertinent Threatening to kill the white people here, & then Stop the Communication between their & Keowee, the Same day the Exprefs left this I Send the Linguister to Chattuga, to see if Thickleggs, a warriour of that town wou’d go … Read more

1757 July, Fort Loudoun

Sir By Dennis Hegan I was honoured with your Excellys Letter of 9th ultimate, I can with pleasure Afsure your Excellency that Since my arriavall here I have not been able to discover anything in the behaviour of the Indians but what denotes good humour & Freindship, and give me Reason to hope that the Machinations of the french & Their Emmifaries are Frustrated. I shall now, Sir, From what Light I have acquired give your Excellency the best Idea I can of the State of the Trade in this Nation, when I said that he traders durst not go … Read more

1757, July 9, Fort Loudon Letter 1

Sir On the 5th Instant the two Mefsenger’s that where Sent to the Creek Nation, by Old hop, Arrived at Chota, one of them was not well pleafed, that we Should have killed the Savannah’s, whil he was in the Creek Nation, he Say’s he might have Lost his Life by it, they Report that when the five Savannah’s that made there Escape, got their they made great Complaints to the Creeks, of the I’lh usave of the English, the Creeks told them that they had been too Buisy, and Should not interger themselves in matters which did not concern … Read more

Treaty of November 16, 1805

A Treaty of Limits between the United States of America and the Chaktaw [sic] nation of Indians. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America, by James Robertson, of Tennessee, and Silas Dinsmoor, of New Hampshire, agent of the United States to the Chaktaws, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States, on the one part, and the Mingoes, Chiefs and warriors of the Chaktaw nation of Indians, in council assembled, on the other part, have entered into the following agreement, viz: Article 1. The Mingoes, chiefs and warriors of the Choctaw nation of Indians in behalf of themselves, and the … Read more

Treaty of August 31, 1803

To whom these presents shall come, Know ye, That the undersigned, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one part, and of the whole Choctaw Nation of the other part, being duly authorized by the President of the United States, and by the chiefs and headmen of the said nation, do hereby establish in conformity to the convention of Fort Confederation, for the line of demarcation recognized in the said convention, the following metes and bounds, viz.: Beginning in the channel of the Hatchee Comesa, or Wax River, at the point where the line of limits, between … Read more

Treaty of October 17, 1802

A provisional convention entered into and made by brigadier general James Wilkinson, of the state of Maryland, commissioner for holding conferences with the Indians south of the Ohio River, in behalf of the United States, on the one part, and the whole Choctaw nation, by their chiefs, head men, and principal warriors, on the other part. Preamble. For the mutual accommodation of the parties, and to perpetuate that concord and friendship, which so happily subsists between them, they do hereby freely, voluntarily, and without constraint, covenant and agree, Article 1. That the President of the United States may, at his … Read more

Treaty of October 17, 1801

A treaty of friendship, limits and accommodation between the United States of America and the Chactaw nation of Indians. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America, by James Wilkinson, of the state of Maryland, Brigadier-General in the army of the United States, Benjamin Hawkins, of North Carolina, and Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States on the one part, and the Mingos, principal men and warriors of the Chactaw nation, representing the said nation in council assembled, on the other part, have entered into the following articles and conditions, viz: Article 1. Whereas the … Read more

Treaty of January 3, 1786

Articles of a treaty concluded at Hopewell, on the Keowee, near Seneca Old Town, between Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens and Joseph Martin, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one part; and of Yockonahoma, great Medal Chief of Soonacoha; Yockehoopoie, leading Chief of Bugtoogoloo; Mingo-hoopoie, leading Chief of Hashooqua; Tobocoh, great Medal Chief of Congetoo; Pooshemastubie, Gorget Captain of Senayazo; and thirteen small medal Chiefs of the first Class, twelve Medal and Gorget Captains, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of all the Choctaw Nation, of the other part. The Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America give peace to … Read more

Treaty of August 24, 1835

Treaty with the Comanche and Witchetaw Indians and their associated Bands. For the purpose of establishing and perpetuating peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Comanche and Witchetaw nations, and their associated bands or tribes of Indians, and between these nations or tribes, and the Cherokee, Muscogee, Choctaw, Osage, Seneca and Quapaw nations or tribes of Indians, the President of the United States has, to accomplish this desirable object, and to aid therein, appointed Governor M. Stokes, M. Arbuckle Brigdi.-Genl. United States army, and F. W. Armstrong, Actg. Supdt. Western Territory, commissioners on the part of … Read more

Treaty of November 4, 1854

Whereas a convention and agreement was made and entered into by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, at Doaksville, near Fort Towson, in the Choctaw country, on the seventeenth day of January, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven; and, whereas, difficulties have arisen between said tribes in regard to the line of boundary, between the Chickasaw district and other districts of the Choctaw nation, described in article second of said convention and agreement; and, whereas, it is the desire of the said tribes, that there shall no longer exist any dispute in regard to the boundary of the Chickasaw … Read more

Treaty of June 22, 1855

Articles of agreement and convention between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, made and concluded at the city of Washington, the twenty-second day of June, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by George W. Manypenny, commissioner on the part of the United States, Peter P. Pitchlynn, Israel Folsom, Samuel Garland, and Dixon W. Lewis, commissioners on the part of the Choctaws; and Edmund Pickens and Sampson Folsom, commissioners on the part of the Chickasaws: Whereas, the political connection heretofore existing between the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes of Indians, has given rise to … Read more

Acts of a Supplemental Character

(7) Act of March 5, 1905 (33 Stat., 1048,1060} This act was supplemental to the regular enrollment acts and authorized the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, for 60 days following the approval of the act, to receive and consider the applications of certain newborn children for whose enrollment no provision had been made. This act was restrictive in three respects: (a) It restricted the right to make application to the offspring of persons whose enrollment had theretofore been approved by the Secretary of the Interior. This was probably an unintentional defect in the law, but nevertheless it operated to … Read more

Treaty of January 17, 1837

Treaty of January 17, 1837 page 7

The Treaty of January 17, 1837, was an agreement where the Choctaw tribe allowed the Chickasaws to create a district within Choctaw territory, known as the Chickasaw District of the Choctaw Nation. Amidst U.S. expansion policies like the Indian Removal Act, the treaty gave the Chickasaws autonomy and equal representation in the Choctaw council, excluding some financial rights. Boundaries for their district were defined, and the Chickasaws agreed to pay the Choctaws $530,000, with partial immediate payment and the remainder invested under U.S. supervision. Disputes would be settled by the Choctaw agent or ultimately the U.S. President. The treaty, signed in Doaksville, exemplifies Native American resilience and inter-tribal cooperation during forced negotiations due to American expansionism.