Significant Native American Treaties

Why This Matters

Treaties between Native American nations and the United States government represent far more than historical documents—they're the legal foundation for understanding sovereignty, land rights, and federal Indian policy that still shapes contemporary Native American life. When you study these treaties, you're tracing the evolution of U.S. expansion strategies, from early post-Revolutionary negotiations to the systematic dispossession that defined the nineteenth century. The patterns you'll see—promises of permanent boundaries, guaranteed protections, and recognized sovereignty—reveal how treaty-making became a tool for legitimizing land acquisition while creating a paper trail of broken commitments.

You're being tested on your ability to recognize how these treaties functioned within broader narratives of expansion, resistance, and survival. Don't just memorize dates and land cessions—understand what each treaty reveals about the balance of power at that moment, how Native nations exercised agency within constrained circumstances, and why certain treaties became flashpoints for resistance. The most effective exam responses connect specific treaty provisions to larger themes of federal policy shifts, Native sovereignty, and the gap between legal promises and lived reality.

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Post-Revolutionary Boundary Setting (1784–1795)

The earliest U.S. treaties with Native nations emerged from a young republic desperate to establish legitimacy and secure its contested western boundaries. These agreements attempted to create fixed borders between "American" and "Indian" lands—a concept that would prove fundamentally incompatible with settler expansion.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)

• First U.S.-Native treaty after independence—established the new nation's approach to Indian affairs as a matter of federal rather than state authority
• Iroquois Confederacy land cessions created the template for future negotiations, treating tribes as conquered peoples despite their wartime alliance with Britain
• Boundary-line diplomacy promised permanence but immediately faced pressure from settlers who ignored the agreed limits

Treaty of Hopewell (1785)

• Cherokee sovereignty recognized—the U.S. acknowledged Cherokee territorial boundaries and pledged to prevent settler encroachment
• Trade and protection provisions established the federal government as the sole legitimate negotiating partner with tribes, bypassing state claims
• Enforcement failures began almost immediately, foreshadowing the pattern of promises made and broken that would define the treaty era

Treaty of Greenville (1795)

• Ended the Northwest Indian War—marked the defeat of a pan-tribal resistance movement that had successfully challenged U.S. expansion for years
• Ohio Valley cessions opened massive territories to settlement, demonstrating that military defeat preceded treaty negotiation
• Boundary line establishment created the fiction of a permanent Native-settler divide, though the line would be pushed westward within a decade

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Expansion and Dispossession (1809–1835)

As the United States consolidated power, treaties shifted from boundary negotiations to instruments of removal. The legal fiction of "voluntary" land cessions masked systematic pressure, military threats, and exploitation of internal tribal divisions.

Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)

• Over 3 million acres ceded—Potawatomi, Delaware, and Miami nations lost territory in present-day Indiana through negotiations conducted with leaders who lacked full tribal authority
• Sparked Tecumseh's resistance—the treaty's legitimacy was immediately challenged, demonstrating that not all Native peoples accepted these agreements as binding
• Northwest Territory expansion accelerated, showing how individual treaties served the larger project of clearing land for settlement

Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814)

• Creek War conclusion forced the Creek Nation to surrender 21 million acres despite the fact that many Creeks had fought alongside Andrew Jackson
• Punitive rather than negotiated—this treaty punished an entire nation for the actions of one faction, setting a precedent for collective punishment
• Southeastern dominance established—opened Alabama and Georgia to cotton cultivation and slavery's expansion

Treaty of New Echota (1835)

• Signed by unauthorized faction—the "Treaty Party" represented a minority of Cherokee, yet the U.S. treated their agreement as binding on the entire nation
• Removal to Indian Territory mandated relocation west of the Mississippi, promising the Cherokee permanent lands in present-day Oklahoma
• Trail of Tears authorization—this treaty provided the legal basis for forced removal that killed approximately 4,000 Cherokee, becoming the defining symbol of removal-era injustice

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Plains Treaties and Reservation Policy (1851–1868)

Western expansion brought the treaty system to the Great Plains, where the U.S. attempted to confine mobile, buffalo-hunting nations to fixed reservations. These treaties promised protection and supplies in exchange for land—promises that collapsed under the pressure of gold discoveries and railroad construction.

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

• Multi-tribal peace agreement—brought together Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, and other nations to establish recognized territorial boundaries
• Oregon Trail protections guaranteed safe passage for settlers in exchange for annuity payments, attempting to manage rather than stop westward migration
• Precedent-setting provisions created a framework for Plains diplomacy that would be repeatedly violated and renegotiated

Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867)

• Southern Plains reservation system—Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche agreed to relocate to designated territories in Indian Territory
• Promised supplies and protection were supposed to compensate for the loss of buffalo hunting grounds, but deliveries were chronically late, inadequate, or stolen by corrupt agents
• Peace that wasn't—continued conflicts demonstrated that treaties alone couldn't resolve the fundamental incompatibility between reservation confinement and Plains lifeways

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

• Great Sioux Reservation established—guaranteed the Black Hills and surrounding territory as permanent Sioux land, "as long as the grass shall grow"
• Red Cloud's War conclusion—this treaty followed Native military success, one of the few times the U.S. negotiated from a position of relative weakness
• Sacred lands protected—the Black Hills held profound spiritual significance, making later violations not just legal breaches but attacks on Lakota religious practice

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Treaty Violations and Aftermath

The final phase of the treaty era revealed the fundamental contradiction at its heart: treaties promised permanence, but U.S. expansion demanded flexibility. When valuable resources were discovered on treaty-protected lands, the legal promises proved worthless.

Agreement of 1877 (Sioux)

• Black Hills seizure—following the discovery of gold, the U.S. demanded the Sioux surrender lands guaranteed "forever" just nine years earlier
• Coerced without consent—the agreement lacked the signatures required by the 1868 treaty, making it legally invalid under the terms the U.S. itself had established
• Ongoing legal dispute—in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled the taking was illegal and awarded compensation, but the Sioux have refused payment, demanding return of the land itself

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Quick Reference Table

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Self-Check Questions

1. Which two treaties were both signed at Fort Laramie, and how did their purposes differ in terms of U.S. policy goals?

2. Identify two treaties where the U.S. negotiated with factions rather than full tribal consent. What does this pattern reveal about the treaty-making process?

3. Compare the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868): one followed Native military defeat, the other followed Native military success. How did this power dynamic affect the treaty terms?

4. If an FRQ asked you to trace the evolution of federal Indian policy from "boundary-setting" to "removal" to "reservation," which three treaties would best illustrate each phase?

5. The Agreement of 1877 violated the terms of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. What does this sequence reveal about the gap between treaty law and U.S. expansion priorities, and why does this dispute continue today?