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All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Kickapoo at Edwardsville, Illinois (1819)

In 1819 the Kickapoo ceded land on the Wabash and in the Illinois country for land on the Osage River in Missouri Territory.

Signed
July 30, 1819
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 14 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 1.9 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On July 30, 1819, Auguste Chouteau and Benjamin Stephenson, commissioners for the United States, signed a treaty at Edwardsville, Illinois, with the principal chiefs and warriors of the Kickapoo tribe.

In Article 1 the Kickapoo ceded "all their land on the southeast side of the Wabash river, including the principal village in which their ancestors formerly resided." They said they had never ceded it before. They also ceded a second tract bounded by the Wabash, the Illinois-Indiana line, the Kankakee River, the Illinois River and the Vincennes tract. The treaty says they claimed a large part of it "by descent from their ancestors" and the rest "by conquest from the Illinois nation, and uninterrupted possession for more than half a century." In Article 3 they promised to remain under U.S. protection "and of no other nation."

In return the United States paid $3,000 in merchandise and ceded them a tract in Missouri Territory beginning at the junction of the Pommes de Terre and Osage rivers. They could never sell it without the President's consent. It also promised $2,000 a year in silver for fifteen years, paid at their town on the Osage River. In Article 7 the United States promised to guarantee them peaceable possession and to keep white people from hunting, settling or intruding. Article 8 provided two boats to carry their property from the Illinois River.

The treaty was proclaimed on January 13, 1821.

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. including the principal village in which their ancestors formerly residedTreaty with the Kickapoo, 1819 (Edwardsville) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the balance by conquest from the Illinois nation, and uninterrupted possession for more than half a centuryTreaty with the Kickapoo, 1819 (Edwardsville) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. two thousand dollars in silver, annually, for fifteen successive yearsTreaty with the Kickapoo, 1819 (Edwardsville) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  4. For the purpose of facilitating the removal of the said tribe to the tract of land hereby ceded to themTreaty with the Kickapoo, 1819 (Edwardsville) (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)

Research notes. Single source (treaty text). The treaty provides for the Kickapoo to move to Missouri, so it is partly a removal agreement; the treaty text does not describe coercion. No acreage is stated. Article 6 was rewritten by a supplementary treaty of July 19, 1820.

What the treaty did to the land

About 14 million acres given up. about 1.9 million 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. 1819

    This treaty

    About 14 million acres ceded to the United States by the Kickapoo (of the Vermillion). About 1.9 million acres set aside as a reservation for the Kickapoo

    In 1819 the Kickapoo ceded land on the Wabash and in the Illinois country for land on the Osage River in Missouri Territory.

  2. 1819

    Land lost

    Part of the land ceded by the Kickapoo (of the Vermillion)

    By Kickapoo of the Vermilion at Fort Harrison, Indiana (1819)

    area 110

  3. 1820

    Land kept

    About 1.9 million acres set aside as a reservation for the Kickapoo

    By Kickapoo at St. Louis (1820)

    area 179

  4. 1832

    Land lost

    About 1.9 million acres ceded to the United States by the Kickapoo

    By Kickapoo at Castor Hill, St. Louis County, Missouri (1832)

    area 179

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-kickapoo-1819-0182reference work
    July 30, 1819. | 7 Stat., 200. / scan: 182 TREATY WITH THE KICKAPOO, 1819.

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