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Treaty

Pawnee at Grand Pawnee Village, Platte River (1833)

In 1833 four Pawnee bands ceded their claims south of the Platte River for twelve years of goods, schools, tools and farm help.

Signed
October 9, 1833
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 8.8 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On October 9, 1833, Henry L. Ellsworth, a commissioner for the United States, met the chiefs and head-men of four confederated Pawnee bands at the Grand Pawnee village on the Platte River. The bands were the Grand Pawnees, Pawnee Loups, Pawnee Republicans and Pawnee Tappaye. In Article I they ceded and relinquished to the United States all their right, interest and title to the land south of the Platte. The treaty states no acreage.

In return the United States promised $4,600 in goods each year for twelve years, split among the bands. It promised $500 in farm tools to each band for five years, $1,000 a year for ten years for schools, and two blacksmiths with a shop and tools. Each band was to get a farmer for five years and a horse-mill for grinding corn. Article II kept the ceded land as a common hunting ground at the President's pleasure, where not assigned to a tribe.

Much of this was conditional. Article X says the United States need not provide the schools, the farmers and stock, or the mills until the bands settled in farming districts and stayed there year-round. Article VII held back the oxen and stock until the President judged it safe to hand them over. The treaty was proclaimed on April 12, 1834. The Oklahoma State University treaty database lists the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma as the successor in interest.

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.

  1. cede and relinquish to the United States all their right, interest, and title in and to all the land lying south of the Platte riverTreaty with the Pawnee, 1833 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. shall not be bound to fulfil the stipulation contained in the fifth, seventh, and eighth articlesTreaty with the Pawnee, 1833 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. all their right, interest, and title in and to all the land lying south of the Platte riverTreaty with the Pawnees, 7 Stat. 448 (govinfo)

Research notes. The treaty text gives no acreage. The sources used here do not describe how the promises were carried out or what followed. The conditional language in Article X could be read as pressure to settle; the treaty does not say so.

What the treaty did to the land

About 8.8 million acres given up. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

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

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-pawnee-1833-0416reference work
    Treaty with the Pawnee, 1833 Oct. 9, 1833. | 7 Stat., 448.

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