Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Creeks at Creek Agency, Flint River (1818)

In 1818 the Creek ceded two tracts along the Altamaha, Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee for $20,000 plus $10,000 a year for ten years.

Signed
January 22, 1818
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 1.5 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On January 22, 1818, David Brydie Mitchell, agent of Indian affairs for the Creek nation and sole U.S. commissioner, signed a "treaty of limits" with the kings, chiefs, head men and warriors of the Creek nation "in council assembled." The meeting was at the Creek Agency on the Flint River. William McIntosh was among the signers.

In Article 1 the Creek ceded "two tracts of land" for "certain sums of money." The first begins at the mouth of Goose Creek on the Altamaha River. It follows the line toward the mounts at the head of the St. Marys River to the line run under the Treaty of Fort Jackson, then by the head of a creek to the Ocmulgee River and down to its junction with the Oconee. The second begins at the high shoals of the Appalachee River, follows the line set by the 1805 Washington treaty to the Ulcofauhatchie, and runs by a path to the Chattahoochee River, up it to Suwannee old town and back to the start.

Article 2 says the United States would pay $20,000 within the year and $10,000 annually for ten more years, eleven payments in all and $120,000 in total, "without interest." Article 3 promised two blacksmiths and strikers for three years. Article 4 let the President have any needed boundary lines run.

The treaty names no state or acreage, and the sources here do not describe the council.

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. the said nation have, or claim, in or unto, the two following tracts of landTreaty with the Creeks, 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and ten thousand dollars shall be paid annually for the term of ten succeeding yearsTreaty with the Creeks, 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. the whole sum to be paid, one hundred and twenty thousand dollarsTreaty with the Creeks, 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. This summary rests on the treaty text alone. No acreage is stated and the text names no state. The transcript adds '[fifteen]' after the 1805 date of the Washington treaty; the line meant is that of the Creek treaty of November 14, 1805.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.5 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

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-creeks-1818-0155reference work
    Jan. 22, 1818. | 7 Stat., 171. / scan: 155

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