Iowa at Great Nemaha Subagency (1838)
In 1838 the Iowa ceded their claims between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers for $157,500, invested at five percent.
- Signed
- October 19, 1838
- Senate
- Ratified
What happened
What happened
On October 19, 1838, at the Great Nemaha sub-agency, agent John Dougherty and the chiefs and headmen of the Ioway tribe made a treaty of cession.
Article 1 has the Ioway cede "all right or interest in the country between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers" within a boundary drawn in an 1825 treaty, to the extent recognized there, along with claims under treaties made since by the United States with the Sacs and Foxes. They also gave up claims under treaties of 1824, 1830 and 1836, except for what the 1836 treaty had secured for them: two hundred sections of land and a list of goods and services.
Article 2 sets the price. The United States agreed to pay $157,500, to invest it, and to guarantee an annual income of at least five percent. Part of that income would go for a blacksmith shop, farming help and education under the President's direction, and the balance would be paid to the tribe in money or merchandise each October.
Article 3 adds ten houses on land the Ioway chose. The treaty was proclaimed on March 2, 1839.
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.
All right or interest in the country between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Iowa at Great Nemaha Subagency (1838)To pay to the said Ioway tribe of Indians the sum of one hundred and fifty-seven thousand five hundred ($157,500) dollars.
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Iowa at Great Nemaha Subagency (1838)guaranty them an annual income of not less than five per cent. thereon during the existence of their tribe
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Iowa at Great Nemaha Subagency (1838)
Research notes. The treaty text does not say what happened afterward.
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.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Sources
Sources
- treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-iowa-1838-0518reference work
Treaty with the Iowa, 1838 Oct. 19, 1838. | 7. Stat., 568.
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.