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Treaty

Piankashaw at Vincennes, Indiana Territory (1805)

At Vincennes in 1805 the Piankashaw ceded land between the Wabash and the 1803 Kaskaskia cession for an annuity and $1,100.

Signed
December 30, 1805
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 2.6 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 30, 1805, William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, signed a treaty at Vincennes with the chiefs and head men of the Piankishaw tribe.

In Article I the tribe "cedes and relinquishes to the United States for ever" all the country between the Wabash River and the tract the Kaskaskia ceded in 1803, south of a line drawn from the northwest corner of the Vincennes tract. One reservation was excepted from the cession.

Article II had the United States take the Piankishaw "under their immediate care and patronage" and promise protection as effective as the Kaskaskia received. The tribe promised never to commit depredations or make war on other tribes without U.S. consent. Article III added a yearly annuity of $300, paid the same way as the annuity from the Treaty of Greenville. The United States kept the right to divide it among individuals of the tribe.

The text calls those terms, plus $1,100 delivered at signing, "a full compensation." In Article V the tribe kept the right to live and hunt on the ceded land while it remained U.S. property. It also reserved a tract of two square miles, or 1,280 acres, to remain theirs "for ever." The OSU record shows the Senate ratified the treaty on May 22, 1807. This follows the Piankeshaw cession of August 1804. The text gives no total acreage for the cession, and no source here describes the council.

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. The Piankishaw tribe cedes and relinquishes to the United States for ever, all that tract of countryTreaty with the Piankashaw, 1805 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. The United States take the Piankishaw tribe under their immediate care and patronageTreaty with the Piankashaw, 1805 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. is considered a full compensation for the cession and relinquishment above mentionedTreaty with the Piankashaw, 1805 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. the said tribe shall have the privilege of living and hunting upon themTreaty with the Piankashaw, 1805 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. This summary rests on the treaty text alone. No total acreage, negotiation detail or later events appear in the sources cited. The text does not locate the cession by state.

What the treaty did to the land

About 2.6 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

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-piankashaw-1805-0089reference work
    Dec. 30, 1805. | 7 Stat., 100. / scan: TREATY WITH THE PIANKASHAW, 1805. 89

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