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Treaty

Potawatomi at Near Yellow River, Indiana (1836)

An 1836 Potawatomi treaty ceded 22 reserved sections near Yellow River; an editor's note says named chiefs protested they never signed.

Signed
August 5, 1836
Senate
Ratified
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On August 5, 1836, Abel C. Pepper, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty at a camp near Yellow River, Indiana. The other parties were Pe-pin-a-waw, No-taw-kah and Mac-kah-tah-mo-ah, chiefs and headmen of the Potawatomi (spelled Potawattimie in the text), and their bands.

Article 1 ceded twenty-two sections of land reserved for them by the second article of the October 26, 1832 treaty on the Tippecanoe River. The treaty states no acreage. Article 2 had the United States pay $14,080 in specie, meaning coin. Article 4, made at the request of the band, had a commissioner pay the band's debts that he found just, deducted from that sum. In Article 3 the chiefs, headmen and their bands agreed to remove west of the Mississippi River within two years. The treaty was proclaimed on February 18, 1837.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community publishes this treaty with an editor's note. It says the treaty is unusual because it carries signatures of people unaffected by it, "Proper chiefs of the Wabash Patawattamies." It says Menominee, Muck-kah-tah-mo-way, Pee-pin-oh-waw and the sons of No-taw-kah wrote at least three letters protesting that none of them had attended the council or signed, and that the treaty was invalid. The note adds that the treaty does not carry Menominee's name. Menominee here is a Potawatomi chief, not the Menominee nation of Wisconsin.

Good to know. The claim that named chiefs never signed comes from an editor's note on the Forest County Potawatomi Community page, not from the treaty itself.

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

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. agree to remove to the country west of the Mississippi river, provided for the Potawattimie nation by the United States within two yearsTreaty with the Potawatomi, 1836 (OSU Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. wrote at least three letters protesting that none of them had attended the council or signed the treaty and that the treaty was invalidAugust 5, 1836 treaty (Forest County Potawatomi Community)
  3. twenty-two sections of land reservedTreaty with the Potawatomi, 7 Stat. 505 (govinfo)

Research notes. The protest claim comes from an editor's note on the Forest County Potawatomi Community page, not from the treaty. The cited sources do not say how the treaty was negotiated or what it led to. Acreage not stated (22 sections).

What the treaty did to the land

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

    Land set aside as a reservation for the Potawatomi (bands of Po-pin-a-waw, No-taw-kah and Mac-kah-tah-mo-ah)

    By Potawatomi (Wabash and Elkhart Bands) at Tippecanoe River, Indiana (1832)

    area 218

  2. 1836

    This treaty

    Land ceded to the United States by the Potawatomi (bands of Po-pin-a-waw, No-taw-kah and Mac-kah-tah-mo-ah)

    An 1836 Potawatomi treaty ceded 22 reserved sections near Yellow River; an editor's note says named chiefs protested they never signed.

  3. 1836

    Promise broken

    Potawatomi Trail of Death (1838) and the disputed Yellow River treaty (1836)

    A disputed 1836 Potawatomi land cession in Indiana preceded the 1838 forced march of about 859 people to Kansas, in which 41 died.

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:

Working with these nations

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. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-potawatomi-1836-0462reference work
    Treaty with the Potawatomi, 1836 Aug. 5, 1836. | 7 Stat., 505.

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