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Treaties with the Cherokee

 Native American Nations | Cherokee Nation of Indians                    

 

Treaty Concluded November 28, 17851

At Hopewell, on the Keowee River, in South Carolina, between Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Lachlane M'Intosh, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States, and the Headmen and Warriors of all the Cherokees.

Material Provisions

The United States give peace to the Cherokees and receive them into favor and protection on the following conditions:

  • 1. The Cherokees to restore to liberty all prisoners citizens of the United States or subjects of their allies; also, all negroes and other property taken from citizens during the late war.

  • 2. The United States to restore to the Cherokees all Indian prisoners taken during the late war.

  • 3. The Cherokees to acknowledge themselves under the exclusive protection of the United States.

  • 4. The boundary line between the Cherokees' hunting-ground and the United States to be as follows, viz: Begin at the mouth of Duck River on the Tennessee; thence northeast to the ridge dividing the waters falling into the Cumberland from those falling into the Tennessee; thence eastwardly along said ridge to a northeast line to be run, which shall strike Cumberland River 40 miles above Nashville; thence along said line to the river; thence up the river to the ford where the Kentucky road crosses; thence to Campbell's line near Cumberland Gap; thence to the mouth of Claud's Creek on Holstein; thence to Chimney-Top Mountain; thence to Camp Creek, near the mouth of Big Limestone on Nolichueky; thence southerly six (6) miles to a mountain; thence south to the North Carolina line; thence to the South Carolina Indian boundary, and along the same southwest over the top of Oconee Mountain till it shall strike Tugaloo River; thence a direct line to the top of Currohee Mountain; thence to the head of the south fork of Oconee River.

  • 5. Citizens of the United States or persons other than Indians who settle or attempt to settle on lands west or south of said boundary and refuse to remove within six months after ratification of this treaty to forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians to punish them or not, as they please: Provided, That this article shall not extend to the people settled between the fork of French Broad and Holstein Rivers, whose status shall be determined by Congress.

  • 6. The Cherokees to deliver up for punishment all Indian criminals for offenses against citizens of the United States.

  • 7. Citizens of the United States committing crimes against Indians to be punished by the United States in the presence of the Cherokees, to whom due notice of the time and place of such intended punishment shall be given.

  • 8. Retaliation declared unjust and not to be practiced.

  • 9. The United States to have sole right of regulating trade with the Indians and managing their affairs.

  • 10. Traders to have liberty to trade with the Cherokees until Congress shall adopt regulations relative thereto.

  • 11. Cherokees to give notice of any designs formed by other tribes against the peace, trade, or interests of the United States.

  • 12. Cherokees to have the right to send a deputy of their choice to Congress whenever they think fit.

  • 13. The hatchet to be forever buried between the United States and Cherokees.


1 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 18.


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Bureau of Ethnology, Volume 5, Cherokee Nation of Indians, 1883-84

Cherokee Nation of Indians

 

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