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Treaty

Cherokee at Washington, DC (1868)

An 1868 Cherokee supplemental treaty settled who would buy the 800,000-acre Cherokee Neutral Lands in Kansas, moving the contract to James F. Joy.

Signed
April 27, 1868
Senate
Ratified
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On April 27, 1868, in Washington, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Nathaniel G. Taylor and eight Cherokee commissioners signed a supplemental article to the Cherokee treaty of July 19, 1866. The Cherokee commissioners included Lewis Downing and Elias C. Boudinot. Article 17 of the 1866 treaty had ceded in trust the "so-called Cherokee neutral lands" in Kansas, which this text says contained 800,000 acres, more or less.

The preamble tells a dispute. Interior Secretary James Harlan had contracted on August 30, 1866, to sell the land to the American Emigrant Company, a Connecticut corporation. Secretary Orville H. Browning, "regarding said sale as illegal and not in conformity with said treaty," made a contract on October 9, 1867, with James F. Joy of Detroit.

The 1868 article settled it. The American Emigrant Company would assign its contract to Joy, who would take on its obligations, and his 1867 contract would be cancelled. Within ten days of ratification, $75,000 would be paid to the Secretary of the Interior as trustee for the Cherokee Nation. Joy and the company would take only what remained after "actual settlers" had received the lands they were entitled to.

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. the so-called "Cherokee neutral lands," in the State of Kansas, containing eight hundred thousand acres, more or lessTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Cherokee, 1868
  2. regarding said sale as illegal and not in conformity with said treaty and amendments theretoTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Cherokee, 1868
  3. the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars shall be paid to the Secretary of the Interior as trustee for the Cherokee NationTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Cherokee, 1868
  4. shall assign their said contract and all their right, title, claim, and interest in and to the saidTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Cherokee, 1868

Research notes. This account rests on the treaty text alone. The same Royce cession area (490) is also tied to the 1866 Cherokee treaty.

What the treaty did to the land

Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

  • earlier terms confirmedabout 778,000 acres

    Land of the Cherokee in Kansas, ceded 1866 (area 490)

    The Cherokee Neutral Land in Kansas: granted to the Cherokee in the 1835 New Echota treaty, given up in 1866 to be sold on their behalf, with an 1868 treaty reaffirming its sale to James F. Joy.

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. 1835

    Land kept

    About 778,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Cherokee

    By Treaty of New Echota with the Cherokee, 1835

    area 490

  2. 1866

    Land lost

    About 778,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Cherokee

    By Reconstruction Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866

    area 490

  3. 1868

    This treaty

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Cherokee

    An 1868 Cherokee supplemental treaty settled who would buy the 800,000-acre Cherokee Neutral Lands in Kansas, moving the contract to James F. Joy.

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-cherokee-1868-0996reference work
    Treaty with the Cherokee, 1868 Apr. 27, 1868. | 16 Stats., 727.

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