Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Iowa at Washington, DC (1854)

In 1854 the Ioway ceded their Missouri River strip, keeping a reserve at the mouth of the Great Nemaha.

Signed
May 17, 1854
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 94,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On May 17, 1854, in Washington, Commissioner George W. Manypenny and four delegates of the Ioway tribe signed a treaty. The Ioway ceded the upper half of the "four hundred sections" strip along the Missouri River assigned to them and the Sac and Fox of Missouri by the 1836 treaty. They kept a tract beginning at the mouth of the Great Nemaha River, which "shall be the future and permanent home of the Ioway Indians." The treaty sets no acreage for it.

Instead of a fixed price, the United States agreed to survey the ceded land, offer it at public auction, and pay the Ioway the proceeds after costs. Land unsold after three years of private entry could be reduced in price by Congress. No white person could settle until the survey was approved. The treaty also granted 320 acres to a mission board.

The Kansas Historical Society says Manypenny convinced 11 Kansas tribes to cede nearly 13 million acres between March and June 1854, and that under his allotment plan excess land was to be sold to railroad companies, white settlers and speculators. It lists an Iowa reservation, in Brown and Doniphan counties, among four federally recognized reservations in Kansas today. The Society does not link today's reservation to this treaty.

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.

  1. which country, it is hereby agreed, shall be the future and permanent home of the Ioway IndiansTreaty with the Iowa, 1854 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. convincing 11 Kansas tribes between March and June of 1854 to cede nearly 13 million acresKansas Territory map, Kansapedia (Kansas Historical Society)
  3. the Iowa reservation is in Brown and Doniphan countiesKansas Territory map, Kansapedia (Kansas Historical Society)

Research notes. The Kansas Historical Society page lists today's Iowa reservation in Kansas but does not say it derives from the 1854 reserve.

What the treaty did to the land

About 94,000 acres given up. 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. 1836

    Land kept

    About 94,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Iowa and Sauk and Fox of the Missouri and the Iowa

    By Iowa and Sauk and Fox of the Missouri (West of Missouri) at Fort Leavenworth (1836)

    area 323 area 428

  2. 1854

    This treaty

    About 94,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Iowa. Land recognized as land of the Sauk and Fox of the Missouri and the Iowa

    In 1854 the Ioway ceded their Missouri River strip, keeping a reserve at the mouth of the Great Nemaha.

  3. 1854

    Land lost

    Part of the land ceded by the Iowa

    The 1899 record: “Cede tract assigned them by treaty of Sept. 17, 1836”

    area 323

  4. 1861

    Land record

    About 94,000 acres named in the record

    By Sauk and Fox of the Missouri and Iowa at Great Nemaha Agency, Nebraska Territory (1861)

    area 323 area 428

  5. 1876

    Land lost

    Land ceded to the United States by the Sauk and Fox of the Missouri and the Iowa

    The 1899 record: “Provides for the sale, with their consent, of 10 sections off W. end of their reserve”

    area 428

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. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-iowa-1854-0628reference work
    Treaty with the Iowa, 1854 May 17, 1854. | 10 Stats., p. 1069.

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