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Treaty

Chippewa (Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River) at Isabella, Michigan (1864)

In 1864 the Saginaw, Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas released their Saginaw Bay townships and kept the unsold land at Isabella, Michigan.

Signed
October 18, 1864
Senate
Ratified
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On October 18, 1864, at the Isabella Indian Reservation in Michigan, two U.S. officials signed an agreement with the Chippewas of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River. They were special commissioner H. J. Alvord and Indian agent D. C. Leach. The Chippewas were parties to an earlier treaty of August 2, 1855, which had reserved townships for them in two places: on Saginaw Bay and in Isabella County.

In this treaty the Chippewas released the Saginaw Bay townships to the United States. They also gave up any claim to locate lands in place of land the United States had sold or disposed of on the Isabella reservation. They gave up the right to buy the unselected lands there as well.

In return, the United States agreed to set apart, for the exclusive use of the Chippewas, all the unsold land in the six Isabella County townships named in the 1855 treaty. Anyone who had picked land on Saginaw Bay could choose the same amount at Isabella. Each chief who signed received eighty more acres, and one headman in each band forty, with fee-simple patents (full private title).

The database record lists the treaty as ratified May 22, 1866, and proclaimed August 16, 1866. The treaty text does not say why the bands agreed. The sources here do not trace what followed, so later events are not covered.

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. do hereby release to the United States the several townships of land reserved to said tribeTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Chippewa of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, 1864
  2. all of the unsold lands within the six townships in Isabella CountyTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Chippewa of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, 1864
  3. Ratified May 22, 1866. | Proclaimed Aug. 16, 1866.Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Chippewa of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, 1864

Research notes. The treaty text does not say why the bands released the Saginaw Bay townships, and the sources cited here do not trace what followed.

What the treaty did to the land

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.

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.

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-chippewa-of-saginaw-swan-creek-and-black-rivreference work
    Treaty with the Chippewa of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, 1864 Oct. 18, 1864. | 14 Stats., 637.

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