Drum Creek Treaty

Last updated October 31, 2023

The Drum Creek Treaty came about from the controversy over the Sturges Treaty of 1868.^[1] The Sturges Osage Treaty was a treaty negotiated between the United States and the Osage Nation in 1868. The treaty was submitted to both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate but was never ratified.^[2]^: 300

The treaty arose out of a growing need to relocate the Osage to a new reservation. American settlers began to arrive and establish farmsteads on Osage lands in the early 19th century. Their growing presence and pressure were instrumental in the decline of Osage control in Kansas. In the late 1860s, settlers infiltrated Osage lands at such a rate that the tribe resorted to requesting U.S. military assistance to help turn them back. As a result of this pressure the Osage began negotiating the treaty with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The Canville Treaty of 1865 required that the United States sell the Osage Lands in Kansas on behalf of the tribe at $1.25 per acre ($3.09/ha) (equivalent to $24in 2022) and then purchase new lands in Oklahoma using the proceeds from the sale. However, the Sturges Treaty proposed to sell the 8,000,000-acre (32,000 km²) Osage Diminished Reserve to the Leavenworth, Lawrence, & Galveston Railroad Company directly, at a price of 20 to 25 cents per acre.^[3]^[4]^[5]

The settlers, along with lobbying members of the House and Senate, strongly opposed the Sturges Treaty and were largely responsible for its failure.^[2]^{: 303–309}

The Osage would, however, come to an agreement with the United States that restored the terms of the Canville Treaty of 1865. It was contained in an act of Congress shown below:

The Act of July 15, 1870 – Removal of Osage from Kansas - 16 Stat. 335, Chapter 296^[6]

SEC. (12.)
And be it further enacted, That whenever the Great and Little Osage Indians shall agree thereto, in such manner as the President shall prescribe, it shall be the duty of the President to remove said Indians from the State of Kansas to lands provided or to be provided for them for a permanent home in the Indian Territory, to consist of a tract of land in compact form equal in quantity to one hundred and sixty acres [65 ha] for each member of said tribe, or such part thereof as said Indians may desire, to be paid for out of the proceeds of the sales of their lands in the State of Kansas, the price per acre for such lands to be procured in the Indian Territory not to exceed the price paid or to be paid by the United States for the same. And to defray the expenses of said removal, and to aid in the subsistence of the said Indians during the first year, there is hereby appropriated out of the treasury, out of any money not otherwise appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the sum of fifty thousand dollars, to be reimbursed to the United States from the proceeds of the sale of their present diminished reservation, which lands shall be open to settlement after survey, excepting the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, which shall be reserved to the State of Kansas for school purposes, and shall be sold to actual settlers only, said settlers being heads of families or over twenty-one years of age, in quantities not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres [65 ha], in square form, to each settler, at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; payment to be made in cash within one year from date of settlement or of the passage of this act; and the United States, in consideration of the relinquishment by said Indians of their lands in Kansas, shall pay annually interest on the amount of money received as proceeds of sale of said lands, at the rate of five per centum, to be expended by the President for the benefit of said Indians, in such manner as he may deem proper. And for this purpose an accurate account shall be kept by the Secretary of the Interior of the money received as proceeds of sale, and the aggregate amount received prior to the first day of November of each year shall be the amount upon which the payment of interest shall be based. The proceeds of sale of said land shall be carried to the credit of said Indians on the books of the treasury, and shall bear interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum: Provided, That the diminished reserve of said Indians in Kansas shall be surveyed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior as other public lands are surveyed, as soon as the consent of said Indians is obtained as above provided, the expense of said survey to be paid from the proceeds of sale of said land.
SEC. (13.)
And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, as compensation to Osages for the stock and farming utensils which the United States agreed to furnish them by the second article of the treaty of January eleven, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and which were only in part furnished, twenty thousand dollars; and as compensation for the saw and grist mill(s) which the United States agreed by said treaty to maintain for them fifteen years, and which were only maintained five years, ten thousand dollars; which sums shall be expended, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in the following manner: Twelve thousand dollars in erecting agency buildings, a warehouse, and blacksmith's dwellings, and a blacksmith shop, and the remaining eighteen thousand dollars in the erection of a schoolhouse and church, and a saw and grist mill at their new home in the Indian Territory.

This legislation led to the Drum Creek Treaty of 1870 with the signing of this treaty completed on September 10, 1870.

"When the ratification of the treaty fell upon the shoulders of the U.S. Congress, it would be Kansas Senator Sidney Clarke who would raise the loudest voice, not in the name of the railroad but in the rights of the agrarian settlers. He insisted that the Osage lands be open for settlement instead of deeded to a railroad company. Saying that the sale of the Osage lands to the railroad was an unjustifiable abuse to the settlers, Clarke was able to get the treaty withdrawn from the senate in 1869, shortly after President Ulysses S. Grant had come to the presidency. In return, Clarke in July 1870 would offer an Indian appropriation bill, asking that the Osage Diminished Reserve be open to settlement at $1.25 per acre. Congress quickly ratified Clarke's Indian appropriation bill, and settlement immediately sprang up while the railroad continued its southward progression. President Grant, upon signing the bill, authorized the removal of the Osages to a new home in Indian Territory, now present-day Oklahoma. Clarke's bill was the predecessor to the Drum Creek Treaty of 1870." ^[3]

Related Research Articles

The Kickapoo people are an Algonquian-speaking Native American and Indigenous Mexican tribe, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. Today, three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes are in the United States: the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. The Oklahoma and Texas bands are politically associated with each other. The Kickapoo in Kansas came from a relocation from southern Missouri in 1832 as a land exchange from their reserve there. Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members.

Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held original Indian title to their land as a sovereign independent state. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation.

Montgomery County is a county located in Southeast Kansas. Its county seat is Independence, and its most populous city is Coffeyville. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 31,486. The county was named after Richard Montgomery, a major general during the American Revolutionary War.

Osage County is the largest county by area in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Created in 1907 when Oklahoma was admitted as a state, the county is named for and is home to the federally recognized Osage Nation. The county is coextensive with the Osage Nation Reservation, established by treaty in the 19th century when the Osage relocated there from Kansas. The county seat is in Pawhuska, one of the first three towns established in the county. The total population of the county as of 2020 was 45,818.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek</span> 1831 land cession treaty between the U.S. Government and the Choctaw tribe

The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty which was signed on September 27, 1830, and proclaimed on February 24, 1831, between the Choctaw American Indian tribe and the United States Government. This treaty was the first removal treaty which was carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act. The treaty ceded about 11 million acres (45,000 km²) of the Choctaw Nation in what is now Mississippi in exchange for about 15 million acres (61,000 km²) in the Indian territory, now the state of Oklahoma. The principal Choctaw negotiators were Chief Greenwood LeFlore, Mosholatubbee, and Nittucachee; the U.S. negotiators were Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton.

The Cherokee Outlet, or Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma in the United States. It was a 60-mile-wide (97 km) parcel of land south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border between 96 and 100°W. The Cherokee Outlet was created in 1836. The United States forced the Cherokee Nation of Indians to cede to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River in exchange for a reservation and an "outlet" in Indian Territory. At the time of its creation, the Cherokee Outlet was about 225 miles (360 km) long. The cities of Enid, Woodward, Ponca City, and Perry were later founded within the boundaries of what had been the Cherokee Outlet.

The Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek (Muskogee) and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled. By 1883, it was bounded by the Cherokee Outlet on the north, several relocated Indian reservations on the east, the Chickasaw lands on the south, and the Cheyenne-Arapaho reserve on the west. The area amounted to 1,887,796.47 acres.

The Cherokee Strip of Kansas, in the United States, was a disputed strip of land on the southern border of the state.

The Osage Nation is a Midwestern American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 B.C. along with other groups of its language family. They migrated west after the 17th century, settling near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as a result of Iroquois expansion into the Ohio Country in the aftermath of the Beaver Wars.

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands of former Indian Territory, which had earlier been assigned to the Creek and Seminole peoples. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the present-day US state of Oklahoma.

The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Woodland tribe, who speak an Algonquian language. They are affiliated with the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, and the Mexican Kickapoo.

This Fort Bridger Treaty Council of 1868, was also known as the Great Treaty Council, was a council that developed the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868. The Shoshone, also referred to as the Shoshoni or Snake, were the main American Indian group affected by this treaty. The event itself is significant because it was the last treaty council which dealt with establishing a reservation. After that council, executive Orders were used to establish reservations.

Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any other military post in the United States. It formed part of the north–south chain of forts that was intended to maintain peace on the frontier of the American West and to protect the southwestern border of the Louisiana Purchase. The fort succeeded in its peacekeeping mission for more than 50 years, as no massacres or battles occurred there.

The Treaty of Mendota was signed in Mendota, Minnesota, on August 5, 1851, between the United States federal government and the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota people of Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Fort Clark</span> 1808 treaty between the United States and Osage

The Treaty of Fort Clark was signed at Fort Osage on November 10, 1808, in which the Osage Nation ceded all the land east of the fort in Missouri and Arkansas north of the Arkansas River to the United States. The Fort Clark treaty and the Treaty of St. Louis in which the Sac (tribe) and Fox (tribe) ceded northeastern Missouri along with northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin were the first two major treaties in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. The affected tribes, upset with the terms, were to side with the British in the War of 1812. Following the settlement of that war, John C. Sullivan for the United States was to survey the ceded land in 1816 (adjusting it 23 miles westward to the mouth of the Kansas River to create the Indian Boundary Line west of which and south of which virtually all tribes were to be removed in the Indian Removal Act in 1830.

An Organic Act is a generic name for a statute used by the United States Congress to describe a territory, in anticipation of being admitted to the Union as a state. Because of Oklahoma's unique history an explanation of the Oklahoma Organic Act needs a historic perspective. In general, the Oklahoma Organic Act may be viewed as one of a series of legislative acts, from the time of Reconstruction, enacted by Congress in preparation for the creation of a united State of Oklahoma. The Organic Act created Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory that were Organized incorporated territories of the United States out of the old "unorganized" Indian Territory. The Oklahoma Organic Act was one of several acts whose intent was the assimilation of the tribes in Oklahoma and Indian Territories through the elimination of tribes' communal ownership of property.

On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.

The Mexican Kickapoo are a binational Indigenous people, some of whom live both in Mexico and in the United States. In Mexico, they were granted land at Hacienda del Nacimiento near the town of Múzquiz in the state of Coahuila in 1850. A few small groups of Kickapoo also live in the states of Sonora and Durango. The Mexican Kickapoo often work as migrants in Texas and move throughout the Midwest and the Western United States, returning in winter to Mexico. They are affiliated with the federally recognized tribes of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of St. Louis (1804)</span> 1804 series of treaties between the United States and Native Americans

The Treaty of St. Louis of 1804 was a treaty concluded by William Henry Harrison on behalf of the United States of America and five Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs led by Quashquame.

References

↑ Named for William Sturges, president of the Leavenworth, Lawrence, & Galveston Railroad Company.
1 2 Burns, Louis F (2004). A History of the Osage People. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama.
1 2 Cherryvale Chronicle, September 13, 1995.
↑ Parson, David (1940). The Removal of the Osages from Kansas (Thesis). University of Oklahoma. as quoted in Burns, A History of the Osage People
↑ Finney, Frank F. (1958). "The Osages and their Agency During the Term of Isaac T. Gibson, Quaker Agent" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 417. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
↑ "Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties: Vol. IV, Laws". Archived from the original on 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2012-07-12.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Named for William Sturges, president of the Leavenworth, Lawrence, & Galveston Railroad Company.

[Burns-2] 1 2 Burns, Louis F (2004). A History of the Osage People. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama.

[Chronicle-3] 1 2 Cherryvale Chronicle, September 13, 1995.

[4] Parson, David (1940). The Removal of the Osages from Kansas (Thesis). University of Oklahoma. as quoted in Burns, A History of the Osage People

[5] Finney, Frank F. (1958). "The Osages and their Agency During the Term of Isaac T. Gibson, Quaker Agent" (PDF). Chronicles of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society. p. 417. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2010-01-27.

[6] "Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties: Vol. IV, Laws". Archived from the original on 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2012-07-12.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]