Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights
All treaties and agreements

SoutheastTreaty

Reconstruction Treaty with the Seminole, 1866

In 1866 the Seminole Nation ceded its whole domain at fifteen cents an acre and took 200,000 acres of Creek land at fifty cents.

Signed
March 21, 1866
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 800,000 acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 250,000 acres
Promises
1 of 1 broken or only partly kept
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On March 21, 1866, in Washington, the Seminole Nation signed a new treaty with U.S. commissioners D. N. Cooley, Elijah Sells and Ely S. Parker. The preamble says the Seminoles had made a treaty with the "so-called Confederate States" on August 1, 1861. That treaty, it says, "incurred the liability of forfeiture of all lands and other property held by grant or gift of the United States." A treaty of peace was made at Fort Smith in 1865, in which the Seminoles revoked the Confederate treaty.

In Article 3, "in compliance with the desire of the United States to locate other Indians and freedmen thereon," the Seminoles ceded their entire domain, estimated at 2,169,080 acres. The United States agreed to pay $325,362, at fifteen cents an acre. The United States had obtained the western half of the Creek Nation's lands, and granted the Seminoles 200,000 acres of it. The Seminoles were to pay fifty cents an acre, or $100,000, deducted from the payment. Article 2 gave persons of African descent among the Seminoles the rights of native citizens.

The Interior Department's testimony on the Five Tribes' Reconstruction treaties says the freedmen provisions differed in each. In Seminole Nation v. United States (1942) the Supreme Court noted that for 1867 to 1874 the United States paid only $16,902.80 of the $20,000 appropriated under Article 3's school fund. It said the Nation's right to the $3,097.20 deficiency was undisputed.

What was promised, and what happened

  • Partly kept

    Establish a $50,000 school fund and pay five percent interest ($2,500 a year) for schools. (Art. 3)

    During the period from 1867 to 1874 the Government only partially discharged this annual obligation law.cornell.edu

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 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. thereby incurred the liability of forfeiture of all lands and other property held by grant or gift of the United StatesTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Seminole, 1866
  2. the Seminoles cede and convey to the United States their entire domainTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Seminole, 1866
  3. said purchase being at the rate of fifteen cents per acreTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Seminole, 1866
  4. The Freedmen provisions in each of the 1866 treaties differed in important respects.U.S. Department of the Interior: Oklahoma Tribes Reconstruction Treaties
  5. a $50,000 trust fund for the Seminole Nation and to pay thereon annual interest of 5% ($2,500) for the support of schoolsSeminole Nation v. United States, 316 U.S. 286 (1942)

Research notes. No Seminole Nation source is cited, so the Nation's own account is not described. The Supreme Court's 1942 opinion covers several claims; only the Article 3 school-fund claim is described here, and the Court left the Nation entitled only to the small deficiency in that item, disallowing the rest of it.

What the treaty did to the land

About 800,000 acres given up. about 250,000 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. 1856

    Land kept

    About 800,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Seminole

    By Creeks and Seminole at Washington, DC (1856)

    area 480

  2. 1866

    This treaty

    About 800,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Seminole. About 250,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Seminole

    In 1866 the Seminole Nation ceded its whole domain at fifteen cents an acre and took 200,000 acres of Creek land at fifty cents.

  3. 1870

    Promise broken

    Seminole Nation v. United States (1942): annuities paid to corrupt officials despite treaty duties

    The Seminole Nation said treaty money was paid to corrupt tribal officers; in 1942 the Court held the U.S. to the most exacting fiduciary standards.

  4. 1898

    Law

    Curtis Act

    The 1898 Curtis Act abolished tribal courts in Indian Territory and ordered the Dawes Commission to allot Five Tribes land.

  5. 1898

    Promise broken

    Curtis Act (1898) and Oklahoma statehood (1907): Five Tribes governments dismantled and lands allotted

    The 1898 Curtis Act let allotment of Five Tribes land proceed without tribal consent and weakened their governments.

  6. 1942

    In court

    Seminole Nation v. United States

    In 1942 the Supreme Court said the United States must be judged by "the most exacting fiduciary standards" when it handles Indian treaty money.

  7. 1985

    In court

    United States v. Dann

    In 1985 the Court held that depositing a $26 million claims award in a Treasury account for the Shoshone Tribe counted as "payment."

  8. 2020

    In court

    McGirt v. Oklahoma

    Land promised to the Creek Nation by treaty remains a reservation, so Oklahoma could not prosecute a tribal member there.

The law behind it

The legal ideas behind the decisions, and related records without a date. Court cases and laws with a date are in what happened next, above.

  • Legal doctrine

    claims

    The 1946 Indian Claims Commission let tribes press land and treaty claims against the United States for money, as in the Sioux case.

  • Legal doctrine

    trust doctrine

    The 1831 'ward and guardian' description became a trust relationship that courts enforce for damages mainly where a statute or regulation creates the duty.

  • Legal doctrine

    aboriginal title

    Aboriginal title is Native nations' right to land held before European arrival; unrecognized title can be ended without payment.

  • Legal doctrine

    federal recognition

    Federal recognition acknowledges a tribe's political existence; Congress, Interior or a court can grant it, and only Congress can end it.

  • Legal doctrine

    canons of construction

    Courts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.

  • Legal doctrine

    criminal jurisdiction

    Who may prosecute a crime in Indian country depends on who the offender and victim are and where it happened.

  • Legal doctrine

    diminishment

    Only Congress can shrink a reservation, and courts require a clear statement; Solem, Hagen and Parker show how that test works.

  • Legal doctrine

    disestablishment

    Disestablishment means Congress ended a reservation entirely; courts require clear intent from Congress, and McGirt (2020) held the Creek Reservation was never disestablished.

  • Legal doctrine

    indian country

    Federal law defines 'Indian country' as reservations, dependent Indian communities and Indian allotments; the definition decides which government's laws apply.

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. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/178931070reference work
Research notes

Stat. page per Stat. vol. 14 OCR index; Kappler page. Reconstruction treaties penalised tribes that allied with the Confederacy (see UNL Confederate treaties of 1861).

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