Treaty with the Choctaws, 1816
The Treaty of Fort St. Stephens, the sixth treaty, was signed on October 24, 1816. It provided for the cession of Choctaw land east of the Tombigbee River, approximately 10,000 acres. As compensation the Choctaw were to receive $6,000 per year for twenty years plus $10,000 in merchandise, which was to be delivered immediately. The Choctaw decided to sign the treaty because the money could be used to establish and maintain Choctaw schools. A couple of years later, the American Board of Missions did establish a school in the Choctaw Nation; the mission school was established by Cyrus Kingsbury at Elliot, along the Yalobusha River.
TREATY WITH THE CHOCTAWS, 1816.
A treaty of cession between the United States of America and the Chactaw nation of Indians.
JAMES MADISON , president of the United States of America, by general John Coffee, John Rhea, and John M'Kee, esquires, commissioners on the part of the United States, duly authorized for that purpose, on the one part, and the mingoes, leaders, captains, and warriors, of the Chactaw nation, in general council assembled, in behalf of themselves and the whole nation, on the other part, have entered into the following articles, which, when ratified by the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the senate, shall be obligatory on both parties:
ARTICLE I. The Chactaw nation, for the consideration hereafter mentioned, cede to the United States all their title and claim to lands lying east of the following boundary, beginning at the mouth of Ookitibbuha, and the Chickasaw boundary, and running from thence down the Tombigby river, until it intersects the northern boundary of a cession made to the United States by the Chactaws, at Mount Dexter, on the 16th November, 1805.
ART. II. In consideration of the foregoing cession, the United States engage to pay to the Chactaw nation the sum of six thousand dollars annually, for twenty years; they also agree to pay them in merchandise, to be delivered immediately on signing the present treaty, the sum of ten thousand dollars.
The seventh treaty, the Treaty of Doak's Stand, involved a land swap. The head negotiator for the United States was Andrew Jackson. The treaty, signed on October 18, 1820, provided for the exchange of 5,169,788 acres, the southwestern one-third of the remaining Choctaw land fronting the Mississippi River, for a wild tract (13,000,000) of Quapaw land lying beyond the Mississippi River between the Canadian-Arkansas and Red rivers, comprosing the southern half of the present state of Oklahoma and a large area in Arkansas. Before the Treaty of Doak's Stand, the United States had taken the land from the Quapaw for about $4,000 plus a $1,000 annuity. Intimidation, as well as bribery, was used to persuade the Choctaw to swap their extremely valuable delta land for the 13 million acres in the West. The Choctaw resisted, because the western land would not be of use to them unless they agreed to removal.7 For the first time, the idea of removal was openly discussed. Before the Choctaw could reach their new land, the part of it that lay in Arkansas was settled by white pioneers. It is particularly noteworthy that the Treaty of Doak's Stand traded to the Choctaw all the land they were ever to receive in present-day Oklahoma.