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Treaty

Cherokee near Tellico on Cherokee Ground (1798)

At Tellico in 1798 the Cherokee ceded a tract in eastern Tennessee for $5,000 in goods and added yearly goods.

Signed
October 2, 1798
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 1.1 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On October 2, 1798, U.S. commissioners George Walton and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Butler signed a treaty near Tellico with Cherokee chiefs and warriors. The preamble explains why. The 1791 Treaty of Holston had not been carried out for a time because of "misunderstandings." Its boundary was not marked until late 1797. Before then, citizens of the United States had settled on Cherokee land beyond the line. The United States removed those settlers once the line was marked.

The new treaty aimed at "remedying inconveniences arising to citizens of the United States from the adjustment of the boundary line." In Article IV the Cherokee agreed to "relinquish and cede to the United States, all the lands within the following points and lines." The Tennessee Encyclopedia says the cession covered land settlers had entered between the Clinch River and the Cumberland Plateau and between the Tennessee and Little Tennessee rivers.

In return the United States delivered goods worth $5,000 on signing and promised $1,000 in goods each year, on top of the existing annuity. It also promised to continue its guarantee of the Cherokee's remaining country "forever," and let Cherokee hunters take game on the ceded lands until settlements made that improper.

The OSU database records ratification on April 30, 1802, and proclamation on May 4, 1802, almost four years after signing.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. remedying inconveniences arising to citizens of the United States from the adjustment of the boundary lineTreaty with the Cherokee, 1798 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the Cherokee nation agree, and do hereby relinquish and cede to the United States, all the lands within the following points and linesTreaty with the Cherokee, 1798 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. to the amount of five thousand dollarsTreaty with the Cherokee, 1798 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. It granted land that settlers had entered between the Clinch River and the Cumberland Plateau and between the Tennessee and Little Tennessee rivers.Treaties (Tennessee Encyclopedia)

Research notes. No acreage is given in the sources opened. The reason for the four-year gap between signing (1798) and ratification (1802) is not given. Whether the annual goods and the guarantee were delivered or kept is not shown in the sources opened.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.1 million acres given up. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-cherokee-1798-0051reference work
    Oct. 2, 1798. | 7 Stat., 62. / scan: 51

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.