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Treaty

Cherokee at Washington, DC (1816)

A Cherokee convention in 1816 fixed a boundary with former Creek land, allowed U.S. roads and waterways, and promised indemnity.

Signed
March 22, 1816
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 126,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On March 22, 1816, George Graham made a convention in Washington with chiefs and headmen of the Cherokee nation "duly authorized and empowered by the said nation." It was signed the same day as the South Carolina cession.

The preamble says doubts had existed about the northern edge of the Creek lands west of the Coosa River that the Creek ceded to the United States at Fort Jackson in 1814. It also notes that the 1806 treaty with the Cherokee had recognized a Cherokee claim to lands south of the Big Bend of the Tennessee River, as far west as the Flat Rock on Bear Creek. Article 1 set a line from the west bank of the Coosa to the Flat Rock as the boundary between the Creek cession and the lands the Cherokee claimed.

In Article 2 the Cherokee agreed the United States could open roads through the part of the Cherokee nation north of that line, for travel between Tennessee, Georgia and the Mississippi Territory. U.S. citizens could "freely navigate and use as a highway, all the rivers and waters within the Cherokee nation." The Cherokee agreed to keep up ferries and public houses on those roads. Articles 3 and 4 had Cherokee commissioners help run the boundary and mark the roads, paid by the United States.

In Article 5 the United States agreed to indemnify individual Cherokee for losses caused by "the march of the militia and other troops" through their nation, which agents had put at $25,500. The sources here do not give acreage or describe 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. a line shall be run from a point on the west bank of the Coosa riverTreaty with the Cherokee, 1816 (7 Stat. 139) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the citizens of the United States shall freely navigate and use as a highway, all the rivers and waters within the Cherokee nationTreaty with the Cherokee, 1816 (7 Stat. 139) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. The United States agree to indemnify the individuals of the Cherokee nation for losses sustained by themTreaty with the Cherokee, 1816 (7 Stat. 139) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. which losses have been ascertained by the agents of the United States to the amount of twenty-five thousand five hundred dollarsTreaty with the Cherokee, 1816 (7 Stat. 139) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. This summary rests on the treaty text alone. This is mainly a boundary and road convention, so no acreage is involved. The $25,500 indemnity figure is the amount the treaty says U.S. agents ascertained; whether it was paid is not shown in the sources cited.

What the treaty did to the land

About 126,000 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.

  1. 1816

    Land lost

    About 126,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee

    By Cherokee at Washington, DC (1816)

    area 76

  2. 1816

    This treaty

    Signed

    A Cherokee convention in 1816 fixed a boundary with former Creek land, allowed U.S. roads and waterways, and promised indemnity.

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-1816-0125reference work
    Mar. 22, 1816. | 7. Stat., 139. / scan: TREATY Wl'i'H THE CH~ROKEE, 1816. 125

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