Winnebago and United Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa at Green Bay, Michigan Territory (1828)

What happened

On 25 August 1828, at Green Bay in the Territory of Michigan, Lewis Cass and Pierre Menard signed a "temporary arrangement" for the United States with the Winnebago tribe and the united tribes of Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa.

The treaty's preamble explains what came before. The government had named commissioners to buy the Indians' title to land in Illinois and Michigan Territory between the Illinois River and the lead mines on Fever River. It says it proved impracticable to gather the Indians in sufficient numbers, and the chiefs assembled at Green Bay declined at this time to make the desired cession. The arrangement was meant to remove difficulties from white persons occupying part of the mining country not yet ceded.

Article 1 set a provisional boundary running from the Wisconsin River past the Blue Mounds, then south to the line from Chicago to the Mississippi near Rock Island. The United States could freely occupy the country between that line and the Mississippi until a treaty for its cession was held, which the text presumed would be in 1829. If white persons crossed the line to mine, the Indians were not to interfere; the President would decide on removal. The Indians also agreed to ferries over Rock River.

Article 2 promised twenty thousand dollars in goods, shared among the tribes, as full compensation for injuries from the white occupation up to the time of that treaty. The page lists a proclamation on 7 January 1829.

Good to know. The treaty called the boundary provisional and the whole arrangement temporary, pending a later cession 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