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Treaty

Choctaw at Fort Adams on the Mississippi (1801)

At Fort Adams the Choctaw allowed a wagon road, agreed to re-mark a boundary, and gave up land near the Mississippi.

Signed
December 17, 1801
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 2.2 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 17, 1801, three U.S. commissioners, James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, signed a treaty at Fort Adams on the Mississippi with the Choctaw mingos, principal men and warriors. The first article renewed the peace the United States had given the Choctaw at the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786.

Article II gave the Choctaw's "free consent" to a wagon way through their lands. It would run from the northern edge of the Mississippi Territory's settlements to the lands claimed by the Chickasaw, and would be "a high-way for the citizens of the United States and the Choctaws" forever. The Choctaw were to name two men to serve as guides.

Article III dealt with land. The old line set by British officers and the Choctaw, running parallel to the Mississippi, was to be retraced and marked in the presence of two Choctaw representatives. The Choctaw relinquished "all their right, title and pretension" to the land between that line and the Mississippi River, bounded on the south by latitude 31 degrees north and on the north by the Yazoo River. The commissioners agreed that settlers beyond the line would be removed within it and their cabins demolished.

For these concessions the United States gave goods worth $2,000 at signing and promised three sets of blacksmith's tools. A later Choctaw cession, at Mount Dexter in 1805, has its own record in the atlas.

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. that a convenient and durable wagon way may be explored, marked, opened and madeTreaty with the Choctaw, 1801 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. all their right, title and pretension to the land lying between the said line and the Mississippi riverTreaty with the Choctaw, 1801 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. all persons who may be settled beyond this line, shall be removed within itTreaty with the Choctaw, 1801 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. the value of two thousand dollars in goods and merchandiseTreaty with the Choctaw, 1801 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. No acreage is given in the OSU text. Whether the road followed the Natchez Trace is not stated in the sources opened. Whether settlers were actually removed is not shown.

What the treaty did to the land

About 2.2 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-choctaw-1801-0056reference work
    Dec. 17, 1801. | 7 Stat. 66. / scan: 56 TREATY WITH THE CHOCTAW, 1801.

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