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All treaties and agreements

Treaty

Omaha at Washington, DC (1865)

In 1865 the Omaha ceded the north side of their Nebraska reservation for $50,000 so the United States could place the Winnebago there.

Signed
March 6, 1865
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 181,000 acres
Promises
0 of 1 broken or only partly kept
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On March 6, 1865, in Washington, the Omaha tribe signed a treaty ceding a tract from the north side of their Nebraska reservation. The tract ran west from the Missouri River to the reservation's western boundary line. The Omaha agreed to vacate it immediately after ratification.

The treaty is open about the purpose. It says "the object of the Government in purchasing the land herein described is for the purpose of locating the Winnebago tribe thereon." If the Winnebago presence proved harmful to the peace of the whites and the two tribes, the Omaha could repurchase the land.

The United States agreed to pay $50,000 on ratification, to be spent on goods, provisions, cattle, horses, buildings, farming tools and other improvements. It also agreed to pay $7,000 for damages from the Winnebago's temporary stay on Omaha land and their use and destruction of timber.

The Omaha also agreed to divide the rest of the reservation among tribe members in severalty, meaning individual tracts, citing a wish to promote "settled habits of industry and enterprise." Two days later, the United States set the ceded tract apart as a home for the Winnebago. The sources here do not give the Omaha account or later events.

What was promised, and what happened

  • Not known

    The Omaha may repurchase the ceded land if the Winnebago presence harms peace among whites and the two tribes. (Art. 5)

    the Omahas shall have the privilege of repurchasing the land herein ceded treaties.okstate.edu

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 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. hereby cede, sell, and convey to the United States a tract of land from the north side of their present reservationTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Omaha, 1865
  2. the object of the Government in purchasing the land herein described is for the purpose of locating the Winnebago tribe thereonTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Omaha, 1865
  3. the sum of seven thousand dollars as damages in consequence of the occupancy of a portion of the Omaha reservationTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Omaha, 1865
  4. all that certain tract or parcel of land ceded to the United States by the Omaha tribe of Indians on the sixth day of MarchTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Winnebago, 1865

Research notes. This account draws on the Omaha and Winnebago treaty texts only. No Omaha-authored source is cited, so the Omaha view is not described.

What the treaty did to the land

About 181,000 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. 1854

    Land kept

    About 181,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Omaha

    By Omaha at Washington, DC (1854)

    area 467

  2. 1865

    This treaty

    About 181,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Omaha

    In 1865 the Omaha ceded the north side of their Nebraska reservation for $50,000 so the United States could place the Winnebago there.

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-omaha-1865-0872reference work
    Treaty with the Omaha, 1865 Mar. 6, 1865. | 14 Stats., 667.

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