Potawatomi (Wabash and Elkhart Bands) at Tippecanoe River, Indiana (1832)

What happened

On October 26, 1832, commissioners Jonathan Jennings, John W. Davis and Marks Crume signed a treaty on the Tippecanoe River, Indiana, for the United States. The other party was the chiefs, headmen and warriors of the Pottawatimie Indians.

In Article 1 the Potawatomi agreed to cede "their title and interest to lands in the State of Indiana." The tract began on Lake Michigan at the Illinois-Indiana line and followed the lake shore. Its lines ran along the Michigan road and the Tippecanoe River to the Illinois-Indiana line. The treaty states no acreage.

Article 2 kept reservations out of the cession for named bands. These were thirty-six sections for the band of Aub-be-naub-bee, twenty-two for four other bands, and smaller tracts for other bands and for J. B. Shadernah. They add up to eighty sections.

In Article 3 the United States agreed to pay an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, goods worth $100,000 soon after signing, and $30,000 more in goods in 1833. In Article 4 it agreed "to pay the debts due by the Pottawatimies" listed in an attached schedule, amounting to $62,412. Article 5 promised that if the tribe wished to change residence, the United States would provide goods and supplies equal to what any other emigrating tribe received. Article 6 promised a sawmill. 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