Osage at Fort Gibson, West of Arkansas (1839)
In 1839 the Osage gave up claims to reserves inside other tribes' lands for a twenty-year annuity of $20,000.
- Signed
- January 11, 1839
- Senate
- Ratified
What happened
What happened
The Great and Little Osage made this treaty with General M. Arbuckle at Fort Gibson, west of Arkansas, on January 11, 1839.
Article 1 has the Osage cede "all titles or interest in any reservation heretofore claimed by them within the limits of any other tribe," and all claims under treaties of 1808 and 1825, except the sixth article of the 1825 treaty. The Osage also agreed to remove from the lands of other tribes and stay within their own boundaries.
Article 2 lists what the United States promised. It would pay a twenty-year annuity of $20,000, twelve thousand in money and eight thousand in goods, stock, provisions or money. It would furnish two blacksmiths and two assistants for twenty years, a grist and saw mill, and one thousand cows and calves, two thousand breeding hogs, and a thousand each of plows, sets of horse gear, axes and hoes. Each family that formed an agricultural settlement would get a set. It would also build houses for named chiefs, pay up to $30,000 of claims against the Osage for depredations, and buy individual reserves from the 1825 treaty at up to two dollars an acre.
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
Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.
Of all titles or interest in any reservation heretofore claimed by them within the limits of any other tribe
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Osage at Fort Gibson, West of Arkansas (1839)an annuity of twenty thousand dollars to be paid in the Osage nation, twelve thousand in money and eight thousand in goods
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Osage at Fort Gibson, West of Arkansas (1839)To purchase the reservations provided for individuals in the fifth article of the treaty of June second, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Osage at Fort Gibson, West of Arkansas (1839)
Research notes. The treaty text does not say what happened afterward. Article 2 also repaid $3,000 taken from the 1825 annuity and $3,000 of the 1829 annuity that the government agent wrongly withheld from Clermont's band.
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
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Sources
Sources
- treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-osage-1839-0525reference work
Treaty with the Osage, 1839 Jan. 11, 1839. | 7 Stat., 576.
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.