Oto and Missouri at Washington, DC (1854)

What happened

On March 15, 1854, George W. Manypenny, commissioner for the United States, signed a treaty at Washington with seven chiefs of the confederate tribes of the Ottoe and Missouria Indians. In Article 1 the tribes ceded to the United States all their country west of the Missouri River except a strip ten miles wide on the waters of the Big Blue River. The treaty states no acreage. Article 2 said they would vacate the ceded country and remove to the reserved lands within a year after the United States made the necessary provision.

In Article 4 the United States agreed to pay $20,000 a year for three years from 1855, then $13,000 a year for ten years, $9,000 a year for fifteen years and $5,000 a year for twelve years. The President could decide how much was paid in money and how much spent on education, farms, goods and other uses. Article 5 added $20,000 for settling affairs, moving, and a year of subsistence, and Article 3 relinquished claims under former treaties. Article 6 let the President survey the reserve and assign lots to individuals who chose to settle on them. The treaty was ratified on April 17, 1854 and proclaimed on June 21, 1854. The OSU page cross-references a later treaty of December 9, 1854.

The Kansas Historical Society says Manypenny's approach of 1853 to 1854 favored allotments, with excess land bought by the government and sold to railroad companies, settlers and speculators, and that he convinced 11 Kansas tribes to cede nearly 13 million acres between March and June 1854.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error