Delaware at Vincennes, Indiana Territory (1804)

What happened

On August 18, 1804, at Vincennes, William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, signed a treaty with the sachems, chiefs and head warriors of the Delaware. The preamble gives the reasons. It says the Delaware found their annuity "not sufficient" for their comfort. It says the "extensiveness" of their country sent hunting parties far from their towns, and that the United States wanted "to connect their settlements on the Wabash with the state of Kentucky."

In Article 1 the Delaware "relinquish to the United States forever" the tract between the Ohio and Wabash rivers, below the Fort Wayne cession of 1803 and the road from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio. In return they were to get an added $300 a year for ten years, another $300 a year for five years to pay for teachers of fencing, farming and domestic arts, and horses, cattle, hogs and tools worth $400. Goods worth $800 were delivered at once. The text calls all this "full compensation."

Article 4 said the United States would treat the Delaware as the rightful owners of the country between the White and Ohio rivers, and says the Miami acknowledged their title at a Fort Wayne council in June 1803. Article 5 says the Piankeshaw "obstinately persisted" in refusing to recognize it. If they rejected the United States' offers and the United States chose not to take the land without their consent, the treaty's promises would be "null and void."

Good to know. The reasons in the preamble, an annuity too small and a country too large, are the treaty's own framing.

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