Treaty of Indian Springs (1825) with the Creeks (McIntosh treaty)

What happened

On February 12, 1825, commissioners Duncan G. Campbell and James Meriwether signed a convention at Indian Springs with "the Chiefs of the Creek Nation." The preamble says the commissioners told the Creeks it was U.S. policy that tribes inside states should move west of the Mississippi. It says the chiefs of the Creek towns agreed, "those of Tokaubatchee excepted."

The Creeks ceded all their lands in Georgia and a large area north and west of a line in Alabama. The United States offered the same amount of land "acre for acre" on the Arkansas River, and $400,000 for losses and the costs of removal.

The Encyclopedia of Alabama gives a darker account. It says the Creek National Council had refused to sell more land and had made ceding land punishable by death. It says the commissioners then turned to William McIntosh, who "had accepted bribes in the past," and that he and two others were killed on April 30, 1825. A large majority of chiefs and warriors objected that McIntosh lacked authority.

In 1826 a new treaty in Washington said the great majority of chiefs had protested that the Indian Springs treaty was signed by "persons having no sufficient authority." Article 1 declared it "null and void." The Creeks did not, however, get their territory back; the new treaty ceded Georgia land of its own.

Good to know. The claim that about half the $400,000 would go to McIntosh and his friends, and the three million acre Alabama figure, come from the Encyclopedia of Alabama, not the treaty.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error