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Treaty

Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi at St. Louis (1816)

In 1816 the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi gave up claims to part of the 1804 Sauk and Fox cession and ceded a Chicago-area tract.

Signed
August 24, 1816
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 9.0 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On August 24, 1816, three U.S. commissioners, Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, signed a "treaty of peace, friendship, and limits" at St. Louis. The other side was the chiefs and warriors of the united Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi living on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers and the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan.

The preamble says "a serious dispute" had for some time existed over the right to part of the lands the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States on November 3, 1804. In Article 1 the three nations relinquished "all their right, claim, and title" to the part of that cession south of a due west line from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. They also ceded a separate tract described from the Fox River of Illinois, around the Chicago portage, to the Kankakee and Illinois rivers. They could hunt and fish on it while it remained U.S. property.

In Article 2 the United States delivered "a considerable quantity of merchandise" and agreed to pay goods worth $1,000 a year for twelve years. It also relinquished "to the said tribes" the part of the 1804 Sauk and Fox cession north of that line. It excepted three leagues square at the mouth of the Wisconsin River and other tracts the President might choose to reserve, up to five leagues square in all.

The treaty text does not say how the dispute was resolved beyond these terms. The sources here give no acreage and describe no later events.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 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 serious dispute has for some time past existed between the contracting parties relative to the right to a part of the lands cededTreaty with the Ottawa, etc., 1816 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. all the land contained in the before-mentioned cession of the Sacs and Foxes, which lies south of a due west lineTreaty with the Ottawa, etc., 1816 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. goods to the value of one thousand dollarsTreaty with the Ottawa, etc., 1816 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. This summary rests on the treaty text alone; no acreage stated. The text does not name the states involved. The treaty text spells the Wisconsin River 'Ouisconsing'.

What the treaty did to the land

About 9.0 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.

  1. 1816

    This treaty

    About 7.3 million acres ceded to the United States by the Chippewa, Ottowa and others. About 1.7 million acres of reservation taken back by the United States. About 45,000 acres kept by the United States for itself

    In 1816 the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi gave up claims to part of the 1804 Sauk and Fox cession and ceded a Chicago-area tract.

  2. 1829

    Land lost

    About 1.7 million acres ceded to the United States by the Chippewa, Ottawa nations of the waters of the Illinois, Milwaukee, and Manitowoc rivers and others

    By United Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi (of the Waters of the Illinois, Milwaukee, and Manitoouck Rivers) at Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory (1829)

    area 147

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:

Working with these nations

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-ottawa-etc-1816-0132reference work
    Aug. 24. 1816. | 7 Stat., 146. / scan: 132 TREATY WITH THE OTTAWA, ETC., 1816.

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