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Treaty

Potawatomi (Mota's Band) at Indian Agency, Logansport, Indiana (1834)

In December 1834 Mota's Potawatomi band ceded four reserved sections and agreed to move west of the Mississippi River.

Signed
December 17, 1834
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 23,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 17, 1834, William Marshall, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty at the Indian Agency at Logansport, Indiana. The other party was Mota, a chief of the Potawatomi (spelled Potawattimie in the text), acting for his band.

In Article 1 the chief and his band ceded the four sections of land reserved for them by the second article of the October 1832 treaty. In Article 2 they agreed to yield peaceable possession and to remove, with their families, to a country the United States would provide for them west of the Mississippi River. They were to go within three years or less of the ratification date of the 1832 treaty.

The United States stipulated to remove the chief, head men and their bands to the new country, and to furnish goods, farming utensils or other articles, as provided in the fifth article of the October 1832 treaty. It also paid six hundred and eighty dollars in goods at signing, which the treaty acknowledges as received, and promised six hundred dollars in cash with the 1835 annuity payment. The treaty was proclaimed on March 16, 1835.

The treaty text does not say how the band was brought to sign or what happened to the band afterward.

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. to remove, with their families, to a country provided for them by the United States, west of the Mississippi riverTreaty with the Potawatomi, 1834 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the sum of six hundred and eighty dollars in goods, at the signing of this treatyTreaty with the Potawatomi, 1834 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. west of the Mississippi river, within three years or lessTreaty with the Potawatomi, 7 Stat. 469 (govinfo)

Research notes. Acreage is not stated (four sections). The sources used here do not describe the circumstances of signing or the band's later history.

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.

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.

  1. 1832

    Land kept

    About 23,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Potawatomi (Mota's band)

    By Potawatomi (St. Joseph, Cold Water, Wabash, and Elkhart Bands) at Tippecanoe River, Indiana (1832)

    area 201

  2. 1834

    This treaty

    About 23,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Potawatomi (Mota's band)

    In December 1834 Mota's Potawatomi band ceded four reserved sections and agreed to move west of the Mississippi River.

  3. 1836

    Land lost

    About 23,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Potawatomi (Mota's band)

    By Potawatomi (of the Wabash) at Chippewanaung, Indiana (1836)

    area 201

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.

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-potawatomi-1834-0431reference work
    Treaty with the Potawatomi, 1834 Dec. 17, 1834. | 7 Stat., 469.

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