17 Treaties Between the Chickamauga and the United States

Treaty of Hopewell, 7 Stat. 18 (Nov. 28, 1785)

Focuses on peace and the treatment, release, and exchange of prisoners and the enslaved. Article 4 addresses “hunting grounds” of the Cherokee and provides a description of this tract of land. The United States agreed the Cherokees were to have exclusive control over this land. The ninth article provides that the United States has “the sole and exclusive right of regulating the trade with the Indians and managing all their affairs in such manner as they think proper”.

Chickamauga signatories:

At least 15 signatories are Chickamauga including: Gritzs of Chickamaga, Sower Mush of Kooloque, Water Hunter –“Duwali” or “Bowls” Choikamawga, Wyuka of Lookout Mountain, Tulco or Tom of Chatuga.  Witness – Author Coody

Treaty of Holston, 7 Stat. 39 (July 2, 1791)

This treaty also focuses on peace between the parties. Article 4 outlines the borders of the Cherokee Nation – boundaries which were to be officially marked by the parties. The Nation agreed to cede any land “to the right of” that boundary. Consideration for the cession included the United States’ commitment to pay the Nation $1,000 each year. Article 7 provides United States assurances to Cherokee Nation that the Nation will maintain sovereignty over all lands not ceded.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 37 of the 39 signers are Chickamauga including: Enoleh, or Black Fox, Chickasawtete or Chickasaw Killer, Tuskegatehe or Tuskega Killer, Kanetetoka or Standing Turkey, Kunoskeskie, or John Watts, Nenetooyah, or Bloody Fellow, Chuquilatague, or Double Head, Too wayelloh, “Duwali” or Bold Hunter, Talohteske or Upsetter

Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse, 7 Stat. 43 (Nov. 8, 1794)

This is a peace treaty between the United States and Lower Cherokee which ended the Chickamauga wars and restated boundaries from the Holston Treaty which were never fully ascertained.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 11 of the 13 signers are Chickamauga Including: Chruquiiatague, or Double Head

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Treaty of Tellico, 7 Stat. 62 (Oct. 2, 1798)

Despite the Treaty of Holston and its amendments, the Government’s assertion of the physical boundaries of the Nation’s Lands still had not been fully laid out or marked by the United States in the 13 years available to do so.  Because the United States failed to mark the boundaries, non-Cherokee settlers were enabled to enter Cherokee land.Additional land cessions were agreed to, in exchange for the United States’ “protection”. Article 4 describes the ceded land. In Article 6, the United States agreed to a onetime payment of $5,000 in “goods, wares and merchandise” and an annual payment of $1,000 in “other goods.” These payments were “in addition to the annuity already provided for”. The United States also“guarantee[d] of the remainder of their country forever”. The 1798 Tellico Treaty reaffirmed the prior treaties, indicating it was “additional to, and forming a part of, treaties already subsisting between the United States and the Cherokee Nation”.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 36 of the 39 signers are Chickamauga including: Nenetuah, or Bloody Fellow, Kanowsurhee, or Broom, Kettegiskie (Kittagiska), Tallotuskee (Talotiskee), Charly

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Treaty of Tellico, 7 Stat. 288 (Oct. 24, 1804)

The Cherokee Nation ceded land containing “Wafford's Settlement” and received from the United States a commitment to make payments of $5,000 (one time) and $1,000 (annually).‍

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 10 signers are Chickamauga including: Tolluntuskie, Broom, Sour Mush, James Vann

Treaty with the Cherokee, 7 Stat. 93 (Oct 25, 1805)

The Cherokee Nation ceded land to the United States. In consideration for the cessions, the United States agreed to pay the Nation $3,000 immediately plus $11,000 within ninety days, as well as a $3,000 “annuity.” It is believed that the term “annuity” meant at that time an obligation by the United States to pay the Nation $3,000 each year after the treaty. In the year 1805, the United States agreed the yearly annuity amounted to $10,000.

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 34 signers are Chickamauga including: Glass, or Tauquatehee, Double head, or Dhuqualutauge, Dick Justice, Talotiskee, Broom, or Cunnaweesoskee, John Greenwood, or Sour Mush, Katigiskee, John Jolly, or Eulatakee, Dreadfulwater, or Aumaudoskee, John Watts, Jr., Tuskegittihee or Long Fellow

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Treaty of Tellico, 7 Stat. 95 (Oct. 27, 1805)

The Nation ceded land for the creation of the State Assembly of Tennessee and the United States agreed to pay the Nation $1,600

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 14 signers are Chickamauga including: Black Fox, or Ennone, The Glass, or Tunnquetihee, Kutigeskee, Turtle at Home, or Sullicookiewalar, Dick Justice, Chuleaor Gentleman Tom, Broom, or Cannarwesoske, Double Head, or Chuquacuttague, Chickawawtihee or Chickasawtihee Killer

Treaty of Washington, 7 Stat. 101 (Jan. 7, 1806)

In it, the Cherokee Nation ceded land and received total financial consideration of $10,000 to be paid in yearly installments of $2,000. In addition, the United States agreed to build a grist mill “for the use of the Nation” and the United States agreed to provide the Nation with “a machine for cleaning cotton”. Article 4 provides that the United States “will secure to the Cherokees the title to the said reservations” (set out at the beginning of the treaty) “in such manner as will be equitable.”

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 17 signers are Chickamauga including: Double Head, James Vanu (Vann), Tallotiskee, Chulioa, Sour Mush, Turtle at home, Broom, John Jolly, John Lowery

Treaty of Washington, 7 Stat. 138 (Mar. 22, 1816)

The Cherokee Nation ceded its last remaining lands within the limits claimed by South Carolina. The United States “promise[d] and engage[d] that the State of South Carolina shall pay to the Cherokee nation” $5,000.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 5 of the 7 signers are Chickamauga including: Colonel John Lowry, Major Ridge

Treaty with the Cherokee, 7 Stat. 139 (Mar. 22, 1816)

Attempted to resolve the dispute over the boundary between Creek and Cherokee on the Coosa River. This agreement established a manner to lay out and mark the boundary. This was a resolution to the dispute which arose from the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Additionally, Article 5 provided that the United States would pay damages for losses the Cherokee Nation incurred as a result of the Creek Wars.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 5 of the 7 signers are Chickamauga including: Colonel John Lowry, Major Ridge

Treaty of Chickasaw Council House, 7 Stat. 148 (Sept. 14, 1816)

The Cherokee Nation ceded land and the United States agreed to pay the Nation $5,000 as well as “an annuity” of $6,000 per year for ten years “as compensation for any improvements.”

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 15 of the 17 signers are Chickamauga; Ratified by the whole Cherokee Council where All 10 Chiefs are Chickamauga including: Spring Frog, The Glass, Sour Mush, Chulioa, Dick Justice, Chickasawlua

Treaty of the Cherokee Agency, 7 Stat. 156 (July 8, 1817)

It provided financial incentives and practical assistance to those Cherokees who chose to emigrate west (to what became Arkansas) and offered one acre in the western lands for every one acre ceded in the eastern lands, as well as compensation for improvements that were left behind. Article 4 provides a method for dividing the yearly “annuity” payments between those who removed and those who did not. The treaty provides that the “parties,” which includes the Nation, shall have “free navigation of all the waters mentioned.”

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 23 of the 31 East of Mississippi signers are Chickamauga; All 15 of the Arkansas signers are Chickamauga including: Sour Mush, Chulioa, Chickasautchee, Big Half Breed, Going Snake, Leyestisky, Dreadful Water, Chyula, White Man Killer, Toochalar, The Glass, Wassosee, John Jolly, The Gourd, Spring Frog, John D. Chisholm, James Rogers, Wawhatchy, Attalona, Kulsuttchee, Tuskekeetchee, Chillawgatchee, John Smith, and Toosawallata

Treaty of Washington, 7 Stat. 195 (Feb. 27, 1819)

Affirms the Treaty of the Cherokee Agency (1817), but fails to define any western boundary of the Cherokee Reservation in Arkansas. The Tellico land reservation is “ceded to the United States, in trust for the Cherokee Nation as a school fund; to be sold by the United States and the proceeds invested as is hereafter provided in the fourth article of this treaty.” Article 4 states:

The United States stipulate that the reservations, and the tract reserved for a school fund, in the first article of this treaty, shall be surveyed and sold in the same manner, and on the same terms, with the public lands of the United States, and the proceeds vested, under the direction of the President of the United States, in the stock of the United States, or such other stock as he may deem most advantageous to the Cherokee nation. The interest or dividend on said stock, shall be applied, under his direction, in the manner which he shall judge best calculated to diffuse the benefits of education among the Cherokee nation on this side of the Mississippi. 

Under Article 6 of the 1819 Washington Treaty, the “annuity to the Cherokee nation shall be paid, two-thirds to the Cherokees east of the Mississippi, and one-third to the Cherokees west of that river.” The Treaty also provides for the development and lease of a roadway to the Unicoy Turnpike Company.

Chickamauga Signatories:

At least 2 of the 12 signers are Chickamauga including: Path Killer, Dick Justice, Path Killer, Jr., Going Snake

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Treaty of Washington, 7 Stat. 311 (May 6, 1828)

Redraws the western boundary of the State of Arkansas, and then establishes the western Cherokee lands to the West of Arkansas as a “home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension, in any way, of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State” in what would later become the State of Oklahoma. The United States promised “to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, and that guarantee is hereby solemnly pledged, of seven millions of acres of land, to be bounded as follows. . . .” The United States also granted to the Cherokee Nation “a free and unmolested use of all the Country lying West of the Western boundary of the above described limits, and as far West as the sovereignty of the United States, and their right of soil extend.” The United States agreed to pay for the value of improvements lost in Arkansas and to build a new grist and sawmill. Article 5 specified a number of payments (including famously a payment of $500 to Sequoyah for the Cherokee Alphabet). The money the United States promised the Nation was to be used for various things, including a school fund,to buy a printing press, and to construct new buildings. In Article 9, a 2-by-6-mile reservation of lands to the United States is made for Ft. Gibson for the “accommodation of the military force.”

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 9 signers are Chickamauga none were authorized by Council to sign this treaty.

Chief Black Fox – Died in 1811, Thomas Graves, George Guess – Sequoyah Not a Western Cherokee Chief, Thomas Maw – Paid by the Untied States to promote the Treaty to the Eastern Cherokee, George Marvis – Claims to have been made Chief in 1830, John Looney – Voted as the last Western Cherokee Chief in 1838 after John Jolly who did not sign, John Rogers Jr. became Chief in 1839 and was deposed by John Ross in 1839. According to War Department Records, these men did not go to Washington to sign a treaty.  They were kept in Washing DC for months (kidnapped and being under duress they could not legally sign a document) and refused to be allowed to return home by the military.  They refused to sign the treaty and the military plied them with alcohol for weeks before having them all so drunk (legally incapacitated and unable to legally sign a document), that they signed the treaty knowing they would be killed upon return because of the 1824 law against selling or trading lands of the Chickamauga.

Treaty of Ft. Gibson, 7 Stat. 414 (Feb. 14, 1833)

Renewed the United States’ guarantee to the Nation of the seven million acres, the perpetual outlet for the Nation west of those lands, and the free and unmolested use of the country west. Cherokee Tr. Funds, 117 U.S. 288, 300, 6 S. Ct. 718, 722 (1886). The 1833 Treaty also resolved a boundary line dispute between the Cherokee Nation and the Creek Nation. Article 4 required the building of blacksmith shops and for installing “railway corn mills. ”Article 6 provided for a 1-square-mile area of land to be set aside for the “Cherokee Agency.”‍

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 5 signers are Chickamauga including: John Jolly, Black Coat, Walter Webber, Glass

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Treaty of Camp Holmes, 7 Stat. 474 (Aug. 24, 1835)

This included the Cherokee Nation as a party and at Article 4 provided that “It is understood and agreed by all the Nation or tribes of Indians parties to this treaty, that each and all of the said Nation or tribes have free permission to hunt and trap in the Great Prairie west of the Cross Timber, to the western limits of the United States.”

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 2 (Cherokee) signers are Chickamauga including: Dutch

Treaty of New Echota, 7 Stat. 478 (Dec. 29, 1835)

Mississippi to the United States in exchange for $5,000,000, two tracts of land, and the use of “all the country west of the western boundary.” The first tract of land is the Seven Million acres described in the treaties of 1828 and 1833. The Treaty of New Echota states that land was to be “conveyed by patent.” The second tract is approximately 800,000 acres, which the United States conveyed to the Nation “by patent, in fee simple.” Article 3 of the Treaty of New Echota provides that all lands, including the “outlet” were to be conveyed in “one patent.” That patent excepted the Military reservation at Ft. Gibson. And, Article 3 provided that if Ft. Gibson were abandoned, the land would revert to the Cherokee Nation. Article 10 created a “permanent fund” for the Cherokee Nation that shall be invested “in some safe and most productive public stocks of the country for the benefit of the whole Cherokee nation. ”Article 11 commuted Cherokee Nation annuities for education into a one-time, lump sum payment. Article 12 also created a fund of $100,000 for the “poorer class of Cherokees as shall remove west.” In a supplementary agreement (May 23,1836) this “poor persons’ fund” was subsumed into the Cherokee National fund.

Chickamauga Signatories:

ALL 20 signers are Chickamauga including: Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, Stand Watie, John Ridge