Miami at Washington, DC (1854)
In 1854 the Miami ceded their Kansas tract, estimated at 500,000 acres, keeping 70,000 acres and receiving $200,000.
- Signed
- June 5, 1854
- Senate
- Ratified
- Land given up
- about 361,000 acres
- Land set aside for the nations
- about 48,000 acres
What happened
What happened
On June 5, 1854, in Washington, Commissioner George W. Manypenny and five Miami delegates signed a treaty, with five Miami living in Indiana present and assenting. The Miami ceded the tract assigned to them in Kansas in 1841, "bounded on the east by the State of Missouri" and "estimated to contain five hundred thousand acres." They excepted and reserved 70,000 acres for homes and a section of 640 acres for school purposes. The ceded and reserved land would be surveyed, and Miami living on the lands would select individual holdings of 200 acres per person.
The United States agreed to pay $200,000 in installments and an invested fund. The treaty also relieved the United States of paying a permanent annuity of $25,000. The Kansas Historical Society says Manypenny's 1854 treaties promoted allotment, with excess property bought by the government and sold to railroad companies, settlers and speculators, and that he later regretted it, writing in 1885 that had he known what would result, "I would be compelled to admit that I had committed a high crime."
The Society adds that the 1887 Dawes Act formalized allotment and that many tribal holdings were mortgaged, leased or sold to whites. The OSU treaty database lists ratification on August 4, 1854.
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.
excepting and reserving therefrom seventy thousand acres for their future homes
Treaty with the Miami, 1854 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)the sum of two hundred thousand dollars
Treaty with the Miami, 1854 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)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)
Research notes. The Kansas Historical Society page does not name the Miami. The treaty estimates the ceded tract at 500,000 acres and reserves 70,000 acres plus a 640-acre school section.
What the treaty did to the land
About 361,000 acres given up. about 48,000 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.
ceded to the United Statesabout 361,000 acres
Land of the Miami in Kansas, ceded 1854 (area 329)
Promised to the Miami in Kansas in 1838 and assigned in 1840, then ceded in the 1854 treaty, except a 70,000-acre reserve.
set aside as a reservationabout 48,000 acres
Land of the Miami in Kansas, ceded 1873 (area 330)
Kept by the Miami as a 70,000-acre home in Kansas under the 1854 treaty and partly divided into allotments; an act of March 1873 provided for selling the rest.
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.
- 1838
Land kept
About 361,000 acres recognized as land of the Miami
By Miami at Forks of the Wabash, Indiana (1838)
- 1840
Land kept
About 361,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Miami
By Miami at Forks of the Wabash, Indiana (1840)
- 1854
This treaty
About 361,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Miami. About 48,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Miami
In 1854 the Miami ceded their Kansas tract, estimated at 500,000 acres, keeping 70,000 acres and receiving $200,000.
- 1873
Land lost
About 48,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Miami
The 1899 record: “Remainder of reserve in Kansas to be sold and Miamis may become merged with Kaskaskias et al”
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-miami-1854-0641reference work
Treaty with the Miami, 1854 June 5, 1854. | 10 Stats., 1093.
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.