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All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Kickapoo at Washington, DC (1854)

In 1854 the Kickapoo ceded their Kansas reservation and kept 150,000 acres in its western part, for $300,000.

Signed
May 18, 1854
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 495,000 acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 118,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On May 18, 1854, in Washington, Commissioner George W. Manypenny and five Kickapoo delegates, including John Kennekuk, signed a treaty. The Kickapoo ceded the country southwest of the Missouri River promised them in the 1832 Castor Hill treaty, described as including "at least twelve hundred square miles." They kept 150,000 acres in the western part "for a future and permanent home," to be set off by metes and bounds. If the delegates could not find a suitable location in the specified western part, they could extend it west of the ceded line over public land.

The United States agreed to pay $300,000: $100,000 to be invested, and $200,000 in installments of $25,000 and then smaller amounts over later years. The Kansas Historical Society says Manypenny pushed tribes toward allotment, with excess land bought and sold to railroad companies, settlers and speculators.

The Society also notes that a Kickapoo reservation in Brown County is one of four federally recognized reservations in Kansas today. In 1885 Manypenny wrote that had he known what would result from those treaties, "I would be compelled to admit that I had committed a high crime." The Society does not say whether today's reservation derives from the 1854 reserve.

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. saving and reserving, in the western part thereof, one hundred and fifty thousand acres for a future and permanent homeTreaty with the Kickapoo, 1854 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. Any excess property would be purchased by the government which would sell it to railroad companies, white settlers, and speculators.Kansas Territory map, Kansapedia (Kansas Historical Society)
  3. the Kickapoo reservation is in Brown CountyKansas Territory map, Kansapedia (Kansas Historical Society)

Research notes. The Kansas Historical Society page does not tie the present reservation to this treaty. Whether the Kickapoo selected their 150,000 acres inside or outside the cession is not determined by the text. The treaty reserves 150,000 acres; the earlier reserve was described as at least 1,200 square miles.

What the treaty did to the land

About 495,000 acres given up. about 118,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. 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

    About 495,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Kickapoo

    The 1899 record: “The boundaries as changed are as follows ... so as to include in the lands assigned the Kickapoos at least 1,200 square miles”

    area 325

  2. 1832

    Land kept

    About 118,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Kickapoo

    The 1899 record: “so as to include in the lands assigned the Kickapoos at least 1,200 square miles”

    area 437 area 436

  3. 1854

    This treaty

    About 495,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Kickapoo. About 118,000 acres recognized as land of the Kickapoo

    In 1854 the Kickapoo ceded their Kansas reservation and kept 150,000 acres in its western part, for $300,000.

  4. 1862

    Land kept

    About 118,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Kickapoo

    By Kickapoo at Kickapoo Agency, Kansas (1862)

    area 437

  5. 1862

    Land lost

    Land ceded to the United States by the Kickapoo

    By Kickapoo at Kickapoo Agency, Kansas (1862)

    area 436

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-kickapoo-1854-0634reference work
    Treaty with the Kickapoo, 1854 May 18, 1854. | 10 Stat., 1078.

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