Treaty of Chicago with the Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, 1833

What happened

On September 26, 1833, commissioners George B. Porter, Thomas J. V. Owen and William Weatherford signed a treaty at Chicago for the United States. The other party was the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottowa and Potawatamie Indians. In Article 1 they ceded "all their land, along the western shore of Lake Michigan," and the treaty puts it as "supposed to contain about five millions of acres."

In Article 2 the United States agreed to grant them land west of the Mississippi "not less in quantity than five millions of acres," along the Missouri River. They would be removed at United States expense, with a year's subsistence after arrival. Those in Illinois had to leave on ratification. Those north of the state line could stay three years.

Article 3 lists payments. These included $100,000 for people who had asked for reservations and for Chippewa lake-shore claims, $150,000 for claims against the nation, and $280,000 in annuities of $14,000 for twenty years. They also included $100,000 in goods, $150,000 for mills and farms and $70,000 for education.

Supplementary articles signed the next day added a cession of Michigan reservations south of the Grand River. They added $100,000 and gave the Indians three years to leave. The Senate later directed a commissioner to examine the debts and changed the western boundary. The Statutes at Large record a proclamation on February 21, 1835.

Good to know. The five million acre figure is the treaty's own estimate.

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