Potawatomi of the Prairie and Kankakee at Camp Tippecanoe, Indiana (1832)

What happened

On October 20, 1832, commissioners Jonathan Jennings, John W. Davis and Marks Crume signed a treaty at Camp Tippecanoe, Indiana, for the United States. The other party was the chiefs and headmen of the Potawatamie Tribe of Indians of the Prairie and Kankakee.

In Article 1 the tribe ceded a tract that began on Lake Michigan ten miles south of the mouth of the Chicago River. It ran to the Kankakee River ten miles above its mouth, then along the Kankakee and Illinois rivers to the mouth of the Fox River. From there it followed the southern boundary of the Indian Territory to the Illinois-Indiana line and north to Lake Michigan. The text gives no acreage.

Article 2 carved out small reservations from the cession for named people and families, ranging from half a section to five sections. In Article 3 the United States agreed to pay $15,000 a year for twenty years, plus life annuities to three men. Article 4 set $28,746 for claims against the tribe, $45,000 in merchandise on signing, $30,000 more at Chicago in 1833 and $1,400 for horses stolen during the late war.

The treaty says the tribe had been "the faithful allies of the United States during the late conflict with the Sacs and Foxes." For that, the United States agreed to let them hunt and fish on the ceded land while it remained government property. The Statutes at Large record a proclamation on January 21, 1833.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error