Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

Treaty

United Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf at Washington, DC (1862)

The 1862 Ottawa treaty set allotments and ended the tribe's federal relationship after five years.

Signed
June 24, 1862
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 48,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On June 24, 1862, at Washington, Commissioner William P. Dole signed a treaty with a chief and three councilmen of the united Ottawa bands of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf, then living in Franklin County, Kansas. The treaty says the Ottawa "having become sufficiently advanced in civilization" wished to become U.S. citizens. Their organization and relations with the United States as a tribe were to be dissolved five years after ratification.

The reservation was to be surveyed into eighty-acre tracts. Heads of families and chiefs would receive 160 acres, other members eighty acres, and five sections were set aside to reward chiefs and headmen. Twenty thousand acres were to endow a school, and up to $15,000 of tribal debts could be paid.

The wording about "civilization" is the treaty's own, not a finding. The OSU treaty database lists ratification on July 16, 1862. It records proclamation on July 28, 1862.

Good to know. The language about "civilization" is the treaty's own wording.

Summarized with AI assistance from 2 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. their organization, and their relations with the United States as an Indian tribe shall be dissolved and terminatedTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf, 1862
  2. twenty thousand acres of average lands for the purpose of endowing a schoolTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf, 1862

Research notes. This account is based on the treaty text alone, so it does not describe how the termination clause played out; the 1867 Ottawa agreement is a separate instrument. The sentence describing \"civilization\" is the treaty's wording. The treaty set apart 20,000 acres to endow a school for the Ottawa.

What the treaty did to the land

About 48,000 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. 1831

    Land kept

    About 48,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf

    By Ottawa (Ohio) at Lake Erie (1831)

    area 435

  2. 1862

    This treaty

    About 48,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf

    The 1862 Ottawa treaty set allotments and ended the tribe's federal relationship after five years.

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:

Working with these nations

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-ottawa-of-blanchards-fork-and-roche-de-boeufreference work
    Treaty with the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf, 1862 June 24, 1862 | 12 Stats., 1237.

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