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SoutheastTreaty

Treaty of New Echota with the Cherokee, 1835

The 1835 Treaty of New Echota, signed by twenty Cherokee men who held no elected office, ceded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi.

Signed
December 29, 1835
Senate
Ratified 1836-05
Land given up
about 7.1 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 778,000 acres
Promises
1 of 1 broken or only partly kept
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 29, 1835, commissioners William Carroll and John F. Schermerhorn signed the Treaty of New Echota in Georgia for the United States. Under Article 1 the Cherokee ceded all the lands they owned, claimed or possessed east of the Mississippi River for five million dollars. Article 16 required the Cherokee to remove to their new homes within two years of ratification. Article 8 promised steamboats and baggage-wagons to carry them, and subsistence for one year after arrival.

The treaty's own preamble records the split. It says the Cherokee had authorized a delegation of twenty to negotiate, that this delegation went to Washington though told the President would not receive it, and that a council was called at New Echota for December 21, 1835. The National Park Service says twenty Cherokee men, none of them elected officials of the tribe, signed. It says John Ross, the Principal Chief, had persuaded the Cherokee council not to approve a treaty. It says Ross won the support of the majority of the nation, and that the treaty was widely protested by Cherokee and by whites.

The Oklahoma State University database shows the proclamation on May 23, 1836. The NPS says that in spring 1838 federal troops forced thousands of Cherokee into camps for the journey west, and that the last group arrived in March 1839. It also says the U.S. government never paid the $5 million promised in the treaty.

What was promised, and what happened

  • Broken

    United States to pay five million dollars for the ceded lands east of the Mississippi. (Art. 1)

    The U.S. government never paid the $5 million promised to the Cherokee in the Treaty of New Echota. nps.gov

Good to know. That the promised $5 million was never paid is the National Park Service's statement.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 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. they shall remove to their new homes within two years from the ratification of this treatyTreaty with the Cherokee, 1835 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. Twenty Cherokee men, none of them elected officials of the tribe, signed the treaty."You cannot remain where you are now": Cherokee Resistance and Relocation in the 1830s (National Park Service)
  3. The U.S. government never paid the $5 million promised to the Cherokee in the Treaty of New Echota."You cannot remain where you are now": Cherokee Resistance and Relocation in the 1830s (National Park Service)
  4. to the United States all the lands owned claimed or possessed by themTreaty with the Cherokee, 7 Stat. 478 (govinfo)

Research notes. The National Park Service page says the Senate approved the treaty on December 29, 1835, but that is the date the treaty was signed; the treaty was proclaimed on May 23, 1836. The statement that the $5 million was never paid comes from the National Park Service. Article 1 also set aside $300,000 more for spoliation claims if the Senate found none had been allowed for.

What the treaty did to the land

About 7.1 million acres given up. about 778,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. 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. 1830

    Law

    Indian Removal Act

    The Indian Removal Act of 1830 let the President swap eastern tribal lands for districts west of the Mississippi River.

  2. 1831

    In court

    Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

    The Court dismissed the Cherokee Nation's suit against Georgia, calling tribes 'domestic dependent nations' rather than foreign states.

  3. 1832

    In court

    Worcester v. Georgia

    In 1832 the Court held Georgia's laws had no force in the Cherokee Nation and reversed the missionary Samuel Worcester's conviction.

  4. 1835

    This treaty

    About 7.1 million acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee. About 778,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Cherokee

    The 1835 Treaty of New Echota, signed by twenty Cherokee men who held no elected office, ceded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi.

  5. 1835

    Promise broken

    Treaty of New Echota (1835) and the Trail of Tears (1838-39)

    A minority Treaty Party signed the 1835 New Echota treaty over Ross's objections; the Senate ratified it and troops enforced removal.

  6. 1836

    This treaty

    Ratified by the Senate

  7. 1866

    Land lost

    About 778,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee

    By Reconstruction Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866

    area 490

  8. 1868

    Land record

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Cherokee

    By Cherokee at Washington, DC (1868)

    area 490

The law behind it

The legal ideas behind the decisions, and related records without a date. Court cases and laws with a date are in what happened next, above.

  • Legal doctrine

    domestic dependent nations

    In 1831 Marshall called tribes 'domestic dependent nations' whose relation to the United States 'resembles that of a ward to his guardian.'

  • Legal doctrine

    guardianship

    The 'guardian and ward' idea in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia has been used to justify federal power and to demand federal fiduciary care.

  • Legal doctrine

    trust doctrine

    The 1831 'ward and guardian' description became a trust relationship that courts enforce for damages mainly where a statute or regulation creates the duty.

  • Legal doctrine

    canons of construction

    Courts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.

  • Legal doctrine

    inherent sovereignty

    Tribes' powers of self-government predate the Constitution and are not delegated by Congress, though the Supreme Court says Congress can limit or end them.

  • Legal doctrine

    preemption

    Federal law displaces state law in Indian country when state action conflicts with federal and tribal interests, under White Mountain Apache v. Bracker (1980).

  • Legal doctrine

    state jurisdiction

    The Supreme Court has swung between shielding reservations from state law in Worcester and Williams v. Lee, and allowing state prosecutions in Castro-Huerta.

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

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/183393855reference work
Research notes

Acreage east of the Mississippi not stated in sources read; Royce polygons would supply. OSU TTD record carries Cherokee Nation Attorney General note about successor-in-interest (UKB). Wikipedia: 20 signatories. Ratification detail: 1836-05 (Senate, one-vote margin); proclaimed 1836-05-23

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