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Treaty

Creeks at Fort Wilkinson (1802)

At Fort Wilkinson in 1802 the Creek ceded land in Georgia for $3,000 a year, $25,000 and U.S. garrisons on their land.

Signed
June 16, 1802
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 1.2 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On June 16, 1802, U.S. commissioners James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens met the kings, chiefs, head men and warriors of the Creek nation. They signed a "treaty of limits" at the commissioners' camp near Fort Wilkinson on the Oconee River.

In Article I the Creek "cede to the United States" all the "tract and tracts of land" inside a described boundary. The line starts at the Appalachee River, a branch of the Oconee, runs down the Oconee to the Ocmulgee, follows the Altamaha, and reaches the mounts marked at the Okefinocau swamp near the head of the St. Marys River. The Creek relinquished "all their right, title, interest and pretensions" to this land forever.

The United States agreed to pay the Creek $3,000 every year, plus $1,000 a year for ten years to the chiefs who administer the government. It also agreed to pay $25,000: $10,000 in goods, $10,000 to satisfy debts owed to the U.S. trading factory, and $5,000 for claims over property taken from U.S. citizens after the Treaty of Colerain. Two sets of blacksmith's tools, and men to work them, were promised for three years.

Article III said garrisons for the frontier would be placed on Creek land "in the manner and on the terms established by the treaty of Colerain."

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. do by these presents cede to the United States of America all that tract and tracts of landTreaty with the Creeks, 1802 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the sum of three thousand dollars, and one thousand dollars for the term of ten yearsTreaty with the Creeks, 1802 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. ten thousand dollars to satisfy certain debts due from Indians and white persons of the Creek country to the factory of the United StatesTreaty with the Creeks, 1802 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. in the manner and on the terms established by the treaty of ColerainTreaty with the Creeks, 1802 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. The text describes one boundary enclosing 'tract and tracts' of land, and states no motive for the cession. No acreage given.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.2 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-creeks-1802-0058reference work
    June 16, 1802. | 7 Stat., 68. / scan: 58

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