Wyandot, Seneca, Shawnee, and Ottawa at St. Mary's, Ohio (1818)
Supplementary Ohio treaty turned 1817 land grants into reservations and added acreage and annuities for the Wyandot, Shawnee, Seneca and Ottawa.
- Signed
- September 17, 1818
- Senate
- Ratified
- Land set aside for the nations
- about 371,000 acres
What happened
What happened
On September 17, 1818, Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur signed a supplementary treaty at St. Mary's, Ohio, with the Wyandot, Seneca, Shawnee and Ottawa. It built on the 1817 treaty made at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie.
Article 1 changed what the 1817 treaty had promised. That treaty had said the United States would grant land by patent to chiefs for their people. This one said those tracts "shall not be thus granted, but shall be excepted from the cession" and "held by them in the same manner as Indian reservations have been heretofore held." They were reserved for the Indians named in the schedule and held "by them and their heirs forever, unless ceded to the United States." A Myaamia Center blog says U.S. senators had objected to land granted in fee simple, and that this treaty offered a kind of renegotiation of how Native landholding was described.
The treaty also added reservations: 55,680 acres and 160 acres for the Wyandot, 16,000 acres for the Wyandot at Solomon's Town and Blanchard's Fork, 12,800 acres for the Shawnee, 8,960 acres for the Shawnee and Seneca at Lewistown, and 10,000 acres for the Seneca. Article 3 barred the named persons from conveying their granted tracts without the President's permission.
Article 4 added annuities forever: $500 to the Wyandot, $1,000 to the Shawnee and the Lewistown Seneca, $500 to the Seneca, and $1,500 to the Ottawa. The sources here do not describe later removals.
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.
shall be excepted from the cession made by the said tribes to the United States, reserved for the use of the said Indians
Treaty with the Wyandot, etc., 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)fifty-five thousand six hundred and eighty acres of land
Treaty with the Wyandot, etc., 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)shall never be conveyed, by them or their heirs, without the permission of the President of the United States
Treaty with the Wyandot, etc., 1818 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)U.S. senators, meanwhile, objected that the Fort Meigs negotiation allowed too many Indian reservations
The Lost Treaty of Fort Meigs (Myaamia Center, Miami University)
Research notes. The Senate-objection context comes from the Myaamia Center blog, a student research piece with faculty guidance. The text gives acreage for the added reservations; no total ceded acreage appears.
What the treaty did to the land
About 371,000 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.
set aside as a reservationabout 185,000 acres
Land of the Wyandot in Ohio, ceded 1842 (area 259)
Granted to the Wyandot at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in 1817 and enlarged in 1818; what remained was ceded in the 1842 treaty.
set aside as a reservationabout 70,000 acres
Land of the Shawnee (residing at Wapaghkonnetta and Hog creek) in Ohio, ceded 1831 (area 165)
Set aside for the Shawnee at Wapaghkonetta as 10 miles square in 1817, plus 12,800 acres in 1818, then ceded in August 1831.
set aside as a reservationabout 47,000 acres
Land of the Seneka and Shawnee (mixed band residing at and around Lewistown) in Ohio, ceded 1831 (area 164)
Set aside in 1817 as a 48-square-mile reserve at Lewistown for the Seneca and Shawnee and enlarged in 1818, then ceded to the United States in July 1831.
set aside as a reservationabout 46,000 acres
Land of the Seneka of Sandusky river in Ohio, ceded 1831 (area 163)
Granted to the Seneca of Sandusky as 30,000 acres in 1817 and enlarged by 10,000 acres in 1818, then ceded to the United States in February 1831.
set aside as a reservationabout 46,000 acres
Land of the Wyandot tribe in Ohio in Ohio, ceded 1836 (area 211)
Granted to the Wyandot as a 12-mile-square reserve at Upper Sandusky in 1817 and enlarged in 1818; a 5-mile strip off the east end was ceded in April 1836, and the rest in March 1842.
set aside as a reservationabout 23,000 acres
Land of the Wyandot (band residing at Big Spring) in Ohio, ceded 1832 (area 171)
Set aside in 1818 for the Wyandot band at Big Spring as 16,000 acres, then ceded to the United States in January 1832.
set aside as a reservation
Land of the Wyandot tribe in Ohio in Ohio, ceded 1836 (area 213)
Set aside for the Wyandot as 160 acres on the west side of the Sandusky River in 1818, then exchanged and ceded in the April 1836 treaty.
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.
- 1817
- 1818
This treaty
About 371,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Wyandot, Shawnee (residing at Wapaghkonnetta and Hog creek) and others
Supplementary Ohio treaty turned 1817 land grants into reservations and added acreage and annuities for the Wyandot, Shawnee, Seneca and Ottawa.
- 1831
Land lost
About 46,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Seneka of Sandusky river
By Seneca of Sandusky River, Ohio, at Washington, DC (1831)
- 1831
Land lost
About 47,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Seneka and Shawnee (mixed band residing at and around Lewistown)
By Seneca and Shawnee at Lewistown, Ohio (1831)
- 1831
Land lost
About 70,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Shawnee (residing at Wapaghkonnetta and Hog creek)
By Shawnee at Wapaghkonnetta, Ohio (1831)
- 1832
Land lost
About 23,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Wyandot (band residing at Big Spring)
The 1899 record: “The band of Wyandots residing at tbe lUg Spring, in tlie county of Crawford in the state of Ohio, cede to the 1'. S. tbe reser-”
- 1836
Land lost
About 46,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Wyandot tribe in Ohio
By Wyandot at Washington, DC (1836)
- 1842
Land lost
About 185,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Wyandot
By Wyandot at Council House, Upper Sandusky, Ohio (1842)
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.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians
- Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan
- Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan
- Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan
- Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma
- Seneca-Cayuga Nation
- Seneca Nation of Indians
- Tonawanda Band of Seneca
Working with these nations
- Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) Nation government Ojibwe treaty rights in ceded territories, natural resource stewardship, manoomin, and a Land Conservancy program… Give on their site Website
- Oneida Indian Nation Nation government About 18,000 acres in trust (2022 est.), 25,000-acre cap under 2013 agreement
- Honor the Earth Native-led Pipeline resistance, sovereignty, energy justice Give on their site Website
- Native Land Conservancy (Massachusetts) Native-led Native-led land conservation Give on their site Website
- White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) Native-led Recover the original White Earth reservation land base Give on their site Website
- Rematriation Native-led Indigenous women-led media, education, community advocacy Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Sources
Sources
- treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-wyandot-etc-1818-0162reference work
Sept. 17, 1818. | 7 Stat., 178. / scan: 162 TR:E.ATY WITH THE WYANDOT, ETC., 1818,
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.