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Treaty

Cherokee at Washington, DC (1806)

In Washington in 1806 the Cherokee ceded land north of the Tennessee River for $10,000, a mill and a cotton machine.

Signed
January 7, 1806
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 4.5 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 151,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On January 7, 1806, Secretary of War Henry Dearborn signed a convention in Washington with chiefs and head men of the Cherokee Nation, "duly authorized and empowered by said nation."

In Article I the Cherokee relinquished "all right, title, interest and claim" to the country north of the Tennessee River and west of a line from the Chickasaw Old Fields to the head of the Duck River. They excepted two tracts. One was at Muscle Shoals and was to be the common property of the Cherokee living there. The other, two miles wide on the north bank of the Tennessee, was to belong to Moses Melton and Charles Hicks in equal shares. They also gave up claims to Long Island in the Holston River.

In Article II the United States agreed to pay $2,000 on ratification and $2,000 in each of the next four years, $10,000 in all. It also promised to build a grist mill within a year, furnish a machine for cleaning cotton, and pay the old chief Black Fox $100 a year for life. In Article III the United States promised to use its influence with the Chickasaw over a boundary south of the Tennessee, but did not promise to secure it.

An "Elucidation" signed on September 11, 1807, fixed the eastern limit of the cession to include all the waters of the Elk River, "any thing expressed in said convention to the contrary notwithstanding." It also provided another $2,000. The sources here do not give acreage or say what led to the cession.

Good to know. The ceded tract had been claimed by both the Cherokee and the Chickasaw since 1794.

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. all right, title, interest and claim, which they or their nation have or ever had to all that tract of countryTreaty with the Cherokee, 1806 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the United States will pay to the Cherokee nation two thousand dollars in money as soon as this convention shall be duly ratifiedTreaty with the Cherokee, 1806 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. that a grist mill shall within one year from the date hereof, be built in the Cherokee countryTreaty with the Cherokee, 1806 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. any thing expressed in said convention to the contrary notwithstandingTreaty with the Cherokee, 1806 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. The Elucidation says the ceded tract had been claimed by both the Cherokee and the Chickasaw since 1794. No acreage is stated. No cited source describes the council or gives the Cherokee Nation's own account.

What the treaty did to the land

About 4.5 million acres given up. about 151,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. 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.

  1. 1806

    This treaty

    About 4.5 million acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee. About 151,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Cherokee

    In Washington in 1806 the Cherokee ceded land north of the Tennessee River for $10,000, a mill and a cotton machine.

  2. 1807

    Land kept

    About 4.5 million acres recognized as land of the Cherokee

    The 1899 record: “This treaty is explanatory and in elucidation of the cession made by article 1 of the treaty of Jan. 7, 1806, and”

    area 64

  3. 1817

    Land lost

    About 151,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee

    By Treaty with the Cherokee (Cherokee Agency), 1817

    area 85 area 86

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-1806-0090reference work
    Jan. 7, 1806. | 7 Stat., 101. / scan: 90 TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEE, 1806.

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