Ottawa at Maumee, Ohio (1833)
In 1833 an Ottawa band ceded its Lake Erie reserves for $29,440 paid on its debts and agreed to leave.
- Signed
- February 18, 1833
- Senate
- Ratified
- Land given up
- about 23,000 acres
What happened
What happened
On February 18, 1833, George B. Porter, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty at Maumee, Ohio, with the chiefs and head men of the Band of Ottawa Indians residing on the Indian Reserves on the Miami of Lake Erie. The preamble recalls two reservations. One was thirty-four square miles granted by the 1817 treaty at the Rapids of the Miami. The other was four miles square on Miami Bay, reserved in the 1807 Detroit treaty. The band was living on both.
In Article 1 the band ceded all its land on either side of the Miami River of Lake Erie or on Miami Bay, in both reservations "or to which they have any claim." The page gives no total acreage. Article 2 set aside tracts from the cession for individuals. Among them were 320 acres for the chief Au-to-kee at the mouth of the river and 800 acres for the Navarre family. Smaller tracts went to other chiefs and to residents such as Robert A. Forsyth and John E. Hunt, "at the especial request of the said band."
In Article 3 the United States agreed to pay $29,440, applied "by direction of the said band" to its debts to named creditors. The band agreed "to remove from all the lands herein ceded." The treaty also notes the band's claim that $18,000 was due under the 1831 treaty. The Statutes at Large record a proclamation on March 22, 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
What the sources say, and how this was checked
Well supported by the sources below.
the said Indians agree to remove from all the lands herein ceded
Tribal Treaties Database (OSU)the sum of twenty-nine thousand four hundred and forty dollars, to be, by direction of the said band, applied in extinguishment of their debts
Tribal Treaties Database (OSU)Ottawa
Statutes at Large, vol. 7 (GovInfo)
Research notes. The page does not say how the negotiation was conducted or whether the band faced pressure. The sources cited do not cover later events.
What the treaty did to the land
About 23,000 acres given up. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.
ceded to the United Statesabout 23,000 acres
Land of the Ottawa Indians residing on the Indian reserves on the Miami of Lake Erie and in the vicinity thereof in Ohio, ceded 1833 (area 182)
Granted to the Ottawa in 1817 as 34 square miles at Tushquegan (McCarty's village) on the Miami of Lake Erie, then ceded in February 1833.
ceded to the United States
Land of the Ottawa Indians residing on the Indian reserves on the Miami of Lake Erie and in the vicinity thereof in Ohio, ceded 1833 (area 183)
Kept for the Ottawa in 1807 as 4 miles square on Miami Bay, including the villages of Meshkemau and Wangau, then ceded in February 1833.
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.
- 1807
- 1817
Land kept
About 23,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Ottawa Indians residing on the Indian reserves on the Miami of Lake Erie and in the vicinity thereof
By Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie), 1817
- 1833
This treaty
About 23,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Ottawa Indians residing on the Indian reserves on the Miami of Lake Erie and in the vicinity thereof
In 1833 an Ottawa band ceded its Lake Erie reserves for $29,440 paid on its debts and agreed to leave.
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.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians
- Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan
- Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan
- Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan
- Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma
- Anishinaabe
Working with these nations
- Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) Nation government Ojibwe treaty rights in ceded territories, natural resource stewardship, manoomin, and a Land Conservancy program… Give on their site Website
- Honor the Earth Native-led Pipeline resistance, sovereignty, energy justice Give on their site Website
- Native Land Conservancy (Massachusetts) Native-led Native-led land conservation Give on their site Website
- White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) Native-led Recover the original White Earth reservation land base Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Sources
Sources
- treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-ottawa-1833-0392reference work
Feb. 18, 1833. | 7 Stat., 420. / scan: 392 TREATY WITH THE OTTAWA, 1833.
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.