Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Wyandot at McCutcheonsville, Ohio (1832)

In January 1832 the Big Spring band of Wyandots sold their 16,000-acre Ohio reservation for $1.25 an acre as lands were sold.

Signed
January 19, 1832
Senate
Ratified

What happened

On 19 January 1832, at McCutcheonsville in Crawford County, Ohio, James B. Gardiner, special commissioner for the United States, made a treaty with the chiefs, headmen and warriors of the band of Wyandots living at the Big Spring. They owned a reservation of 16,000 acres there.

The preamble says the band had become convinced that while they stayed in Ohio, near a growing white population, they could not prosper and be happy. They understood the government was willing to buy their reservation.

Article 1: the band ceded the 16,000 acres granted them by the St. Mary's treaty of 17 September 1818. Article 2: the United States would survey the land into sections and sell it as public land. As acres were sold, it would pay the chiefs, for the whole band, one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre in silver, whatever the sale price was. Article 3: the United States would pay a fair appraised value for improvements. Article 4 reserved a half section, 320 acres, for the old chief Roe-nu-nas.

Article 5 says the band could remove to Canada, to the Huron River reservation in Michigan, or elsewhere they obtained a right to go. Article 6 is marked "[Rejected]"; an explanation signed by Gardiner says the first draft provided for removal west of the Mississippi, but the band refused to accept land or move there. The page lists a proclamation on 6 April 1832.

Good to know. Some listings date this to 29 January 1832, but the text says it was concluded 19 January 1832. The band's stated reasons come from the commissioner's English-language text.

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. do hereby forever cede and relinquish to the United States the reservation of sixteen thousand acres of landTreaty with the Wyandot, 1832, Tribal Treaties Database
  2. the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for each and every acre so sold or for saleTreaty with the Wyandot, 1832, Tribal Treaties Database
  3. they refused to accept of a grant of land, or to remove there, and the articles having relation thereto were accordingly omittedTreaty with the Wyandot, 1832, Tribal Treaties Database
  4. they cannot prosper and be happy, and the morals of many of their people will be daily becoming more and more vitiatedTreaty with the Wyandot, 1832, Tribal Treaties Database

Research notes. Some listings give 29 January 1832; the treaty text says it was concluded 19 January 1832. The text says the band's reasons (white population, morals); that is the commissioner's English-language text, not the band's own account. The sources cited do not say how much was finally paid. Where the band went is not stated.

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-wyandot-1832-0339reference work
    Jan. 19, 1832. | 7 Stat., 364. / scan: • TREATY WITH THE WYANDOT, 1832. 339

Corrections to this record

  • The signing date was listed as “1832-01-29”; corrected from treaties.okstate.eduon the nineteenth day of January, 1832

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