Treaty with The Seminole
March 21, 1866
Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Washington,
D.C., March 21, A.D., 1866, between the United States Government,
by its commissioners, D.N. Cooley, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian affairs, and
Ely S. Parker, and the Seminole Indians, by their chiefs,
John Chup-co, or Long John, Cho-cote-harjo, Fos-ha[r]-jo,
John F. Brown.
Whereas existing, treaties between the United States and
the Seminole Nation are insufficient to meet their mutual
necessities; and
Whereas the Seminole Nation made a treaty with the so-called
Confederate States, August 1st, 1861, whereby they threw off
their allegiance to the United States, and unsettled their
treaty relations with the United States, and thereby incurred
the liability of forfeiture of all lands and other property
held by grant or gift of the United States; and whereas a
treaty of peace and amity was entered into between the United
States and the Seminole and other tribes at Fort Smith, September
13 [10,] 1865, a whereby the Seminoles revoked, canceled.
and repudiated the said treaty with the so-called Confederate
States; and whereas the United States, through its commissioners,
in said treaty of peace promised to enter into treaty with
the Seminole Nation to arrange and settle all questions relating
to and growing out of said treaty with the so-called Confederate
States; and whereas the United States, in view of said treaty
of the Seminole Nation with the enemies of the Government
of the United States, and the consequent liabilities of said
Seminole Nation, and in view of its urgent necessities for
more lands in the Indian Territory, requires a cession by
said Seminole Nation of part of its present reservation, and
is willing to pay therefor a reasonable price, while at the
same time providing new and adequate land for them:
Now, therefore, the United States, by its commissioners aforesaid,
and the above-named delegates of the Seminole Nation, the
day and year above written, mutually stipulate and agree,
on behalf of the respective parties, as follows, to wit;
Article 1.
There shall be perpetual peace between the United States
and the Seminole Nation, and the Seminoles agree to be and
remain firm allies of the United States, and always faithfully
aid the Government thereof to suppress insurrection and put
down its enemies.
The Seminoles also agree to remain at peace with all other
Indian tribes and with themselves. In return for these pledges
of peace and friendship, the United States guarantee them
quiet possession of their country, and protection against
hostilities on the part of other tribes; and, in the event
of such hostilities, that the tribe commencing and prosecuting
the same shall make just reparation therefor. Therefore the
Seminoles agree to a military occupation of their country
at the option and expense of the United States.
A general amnesty of all past offences against the laws of
the United States, committed by any member of the Seminole
Nation, is hereby declared; and the Seminoles, anxious for
the restoration of kind and friendly feelings among themselves,
do hereby declare an amnesty for all past offenses against
their government, and no Indian or Indians shall be proscribed
or any act of forfeiture or confiscation passed against those
who have remained friendly to or taken up arms against the
United States, but they shall enjoy equal privileges with
other members of said tribe, and all laws heretofore passed
inconsistent herewith are hereby declared inoperative.
*A copy of this agreement, which has never been ratified,
is found in an Appendix to the Report of the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs for 1865, with the report of the negotiating
commissioners, which copy has been reproduced in the appendix
to this compilation, post, p. 1050.
Article 2.
The Seminole Nation covenant that henceforth in said nation
slavery shall not exist, nor involuntary servitude, except
for and in punishment of crime, whereof the offending party
shall first have been duly convicted in accordance with law,
applicable to all the members of said nation. And inasmuch
as there are among the Seminoles many persons of African descent
and blood, who have no interest or property in the soil, and
no recognized civil rights it is stipulated that hereafter
these persons and their descendants, and such other of the
same race as shall be permitted by said nation to settle there,
shall have and enjoy all the rights of native citizens, and
the laws of said nation shall be equally binding upon all
persons of whatever race or color, who may be adopted as citizens
or members of said tribe.
Article 3.
In compliance with the desire of the United States to locate
other Indians and freedmen thereon, the Seminoles cede and
convey to the United States their entire domain, being the
tract of land ceded to the Seminole Indians by the Creek Nation
under the provisions of article first, (1st,) treaty of the
United States with the Creeks and Seminoles, made and concluded
at Washington, D. C., August 7, 1856. In consideration of
said grant and cession of their lands, estimated at two million
one hundred and sixty-nine thousand and eighty (2,169,080)
acres, the United States agree to pay said Seminole Nation
the sum of three hundred and twenty-five thousand three hundred
and sixty-two ($325,362) dollars, said purchase being at the
rate of fifteen cents per acre. The United States having obtained
by grant of the Creek Nation the westerly half of their lands,
hereby grant to the Seminole Nation the portion thereof hereafter
described, which shall constitute the national domain of the
Seminole Indians. Said lands so granted by the United States
to the Seminole Nation are bounded and described as follows,
to wit: Beginning on the Canadian River where the line dividing
the Creek lands according to the terms of their sale to the
United States by their treaty of February 6, 1866,a following
said line due north to where said line crosses the north fork
of the Canadian River; thence up said north fork of the Canadian
River a distance sufficient to make two hundred thousand acres
by running due south to the Canadian River; thence down said
Canadian River to the place of beginning. In consideration
of said cession of two hundred thousand acres of land described
above, the Seminole Nation agrees to pay therefor the price
of fifty cents per acre, amounting to the sum of one hundred
thousand dollars, which amount shall be deducted from the
sum paid by the United States for Seminole lands under the
stipulations above written. The balance due the Seminole Nation
after making said deduction, amounting to one hundred thousand
dollars, the United States agree to pay in the following manner,
to wit: Thirty thousand dollars shall be paid to enable the
Seminoles to occupy, restore, and improve their farms, and
to make their nation independent and self-sustaining, and
shall be distributed for that purpose under the direction
of the Secretary of the Interior; twenty thousand dollars
shall be paid in like manner for the purpose of purchasing
agricultural implements, seeds, cows, and other stock; fifteen
thousand dollars shall be paid for the erection of a mill
suitable to accommodate said nation of Indians; seventy thousand
dollars to remain in the United States Treasury, upon which
the United States shall pay an annual interest of five per
cent.; fifty thousand of said sum of seventy thousand dollars
shall be a permanent school-fund, the interest of which shall
be paid annually and appropriated to the support of schools;
the remainder of the seventy thousand dollars, being twenty
thousand dollars, shall remain a permanent fund, the
* This refers to the Creek treaty of June 14, 1866, post,
p. 931. See Annual Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1866, p. 10.
interest of which shall be paid annually for the support
of the Seminole government; forty thousand three hundred and
sixty-two dollars shall be appropriated and expended for subsisting
said Indians, discriminating in favor of the destitute; all
of which amounts, excepting the seventy thousand dollars to
remain in the Treasury as a permanent fund, shall be paid
upon the ratification of said treaty, and disbursed in such
manner as the Secretary of the Interior may direct. The balance,
fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary
to pay the losses ascertained and awarded as hereinafter provided,
shall be paid when said awards shall have been duly made and
approved by the Secretary of the Interior. And in case said
fifty thousand dollars shall be insufficient to pay all said
awards, it shall be distributed pro rata to those whose claims
are so allowed; and until said awards shall be thus paid,
the United States agree to pay to said Indians, in such manner
and for such purposes as the Secretary of the Interior may
direct, interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum from
the date of the ratification of this treaty.
Article 4.
To reimburse such members of the Seminole Nation as shall
be duly adjudged to have remained loyal and faithful to their
treaty relations to the United States, during the recent rebellion
of the so-called Confederate States for the losses actually
sustained by them thereby, after the ratification of this
treaty, or so soon thereafter as the Secretary of the Interior
shall direct, he shall appoint a board of commissioners, not
to exceed three in number, who shall proceed to the Seminole
country and investigate and determine said losses. Previous
to said investigation the agent of the Seminole Nation shall
prepare a census or enumeration of said tribe, and make a
roll of all Seminoles who did in no manner aid or abet the
enemies of the Government, but remained loyal during said
rebellion; and no award shall be made by said commissioners
for such losses unless the name of the claimant appear on
said roll, and no compensation shall be allowed any person
for such losses whose name does not appear on said roll, unless
said claimant, within six months from the date of the completion
of said roll, furnishes proof satisfactory to said board,
or to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that he has at all
times remained loyal to the United States, according to his
treaty obligations. All evidence touching said claims shall
be taken by said commissioners, or any of them, under oath,
and their awards made, together with the evidence, shall be
transmitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for his
approval, and that of the Secretary of the Interior. Said
commissioners shall be paid by the United States such compensation
as the Secretary of the Interior may direct. The provisions
of this article shall extend to and embrace the claims for
losses sustained by loyal members of said tribe, irrespective
of race or color, whether at the time of said losses the claimants
shall have been in servitude or not; provided said claimants
are made members of said tribe by the stipulations of this
treaty.
Article 5.
The Seminole Nation hereby grant a right of way through
their lands to any company which shall be duly authorized
by Congress, and shall, with the express consent and approbation
of the Secretary of the Interior, undertake to construct a
railroad from any point on their eastern to their western
or southern boundary; but said railroad company, together
with all its agents and employés, shall be subject
to the laws of the United States relating to the intercourse
with Indian tribes, and also to such rules and regulations
as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior for
that purpose. And the Seminoles agree to sell to the United
States, or any company duly authorized as aforesaid, such
lands, not legally owned or occupied by a member or members
of the Seminole Nation lying along the line of said contemplated
railroad, not exceeding on each side thereof a belt or strip
of land three miles in width, at such price per acre as may
be eventually agreed upon between said Seminole Nation and
the party or parties building said road--subject to the approval
of the President of the United States: Provided, however,
That said land thus sold shall not be reconveyed, leased,
or rented to, or be occupied by, any one not a citizen of
the Seminole Nation, according to its laws and recognized
usages: Provided also, That officers, servants, and employés
of said railroad necessary to its construction and management
shall not be excluded from such necessary occupancy, they
being subject to the provisions of the Indian-intercourse
laws, and such rules and regulations as may be established
by the Secretary of the Interior; nor shall any conveyance
of said lands be made to the party building and managing said
road, until its completion as a first-class railroad and its
acceptance as such by the Secretary of the Interior.
Article 6.
Inasmuch as there are no agency buildings upon the new Seminole
reservation, it is therefore further agreed that the United
States shall cause to be constructed, at an expense not exceeding
ten thousand (10,000) dollars, suitable agency buildings,
the site whereof shall be selected by the agent of said tribe,
under the direction of the superintendent of Indian affairs;
in consideration whereof, the Seminole Nation hereby relinquish
and cede forever to the United States one section of their
lands upon which said agency buildings shall be directed,
[erected,] which land shall revert to said nation when no
longer used by the United States, upon said nation paying
a fair value for said buildings at the time vacated.
Article 7.
The Seminole Nation agrees to such legislation as Congress
and the President may deem necessary for the better administration
of the rights of person and property within the Indian Territory:
Provided, however, [That] said legislation shall not in any
manner interfere with or annul their present tribal organization,
rights, laws, privileges, and customs.
The Seminole Nation also agree that a general council, consisting
of delegates elected by each nation, a tribe lawfully resident
within the Indian Territory, may be annually convened in said
Territory which council shall be organized in such manner
and possess such powers as are hereinafter described:
1st. After the ratification of this treaty, and as soon as
may be deemed practicable by the Secretary of the Interior,
and prior to the first session of said council, a census or
enumeration of each tribe lawfully resident in said Territory
shall be taken, under the direction of the superintendent
of Indian affairs, who, for that purpose, is hereby authorized
to designate and appoint competent persons, whose compensation
shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior and paid by
the United States.
2d. The first general council shall consist of one member
from each tribe, and an additional member for each one thousand
Indians, or each fraction of a thousand greater than five
hundred, being members of any tribe lawfully resident in said
Territory, and shall be elected by said tribes, respectively,
who may assent to the establishment of said general council;
and if none should be thus formally selected by any nation
or tribe, the said nation or tribe shall be represented in
said general council by the chiefs and head-men of said tribes,
to be taken in the order of their rank, in the same number
and proportion as above indicated. After the said census shall
have been taken and completed, the superintendent of Indian
affairs shall publish and declare to each tribe the number
of members of said council to which they shall be entitled
under the provisions of this article; and the persons so entitled
to represent said tribe shall meet at such time and place
as he shall appoint; but thereafter the time and place of
the sessions of said council shall be determined by its action:
Provided, That no session in any one year shall exceed the
term of thirty days, And provided That special sessions of
said council may be called by said superintendent whenever,
in his judgment, or that of the Secretary of the Interior,
the interest of said tribes shall require.
3d. Said general council shall have power to legislate upon
all rightful subjects and matters pertaining to the intercourse
and relations of the Indian tribes and nations resident in
said Territory; the arrest and extradition of criminals and
offenders escaping from one tribe to another; the administration
of justice between members of the several tribes of said Territory,
and persons other than Indians and members of said tribes
or nations; the construction of works of internal improvement
and the common defence and safety of the nation of said Territory.
All laws enacted by said council shall take effect at such
time as may therein be provided, unless suspended by direction
of the Secretary of the Interior or the President of the United
States. No law shall be enacted inconsistent with the Constitution
of the United States, or the laws of Congress, or existing
treaty stipulations with the United States; nor shall said
council legislate upon matters pertaining to the organization,
laws, or customs of the several tribes except as herein provided
for.
4th. Said council shall be presided over by the superintendent
of Indian affairs, or, in case of his absence for any cause,
the duties of said superintendent enumerated in this article
shall be performed by such person as the Secretary of the
Interior may direct.
5th. The Secretary of the Interior shall appoint a secretary
of said council, whose duty it shall be to keep an accurate
record of all the proceedings of said council, and who shall
transmit a true copy of all such proceedings, duly certified
by the superintendent of Indian affairs, to the Secretary
of the Interior immediately after the session of said council.
He shall be paid out of the Treasury of the United States
an annual salary of five hundred dollars.
6th. The members of said council shall be paid by the United
States the sum of four dollars per diem during the time actually
in attendance upon the sessions of said council, and at the
rate of four dollars for every twenty miles necessarily traveled
by them in going to said council and returning to their homes,
respectively, to be certified by the secretary of the said
council and the sup[erintenden]t of Indian affairs.
7th. The Seminoles also agree that a court or courts may
be established in said Territory, with such jurisdiction and
organized in such manner as Congress may by law provide.
Article 8.
The stipulations of this treaty are to be a full settlement
of all claims of said Seminole Nation for damages and losses
of every kind growing out of the late rebellion, and all expenditures
by the United States of annuities in clothing and feeding
refugee and destitute Indians since the diversion of annuities
for that purpose, consequent upon the late war with the so-called
Confederate States. And the Seminoles hereby ratify and confirm
all such diversions of annuities heretofore made from the
funds of the Seminole Nation by the United States. And the
United States agree that no annuities shall be diverted from
the object for which they were originally devoted by treaty
stipulations, with the Seminoles, to the use of refugee and
destitute Indians, other than the Seminoles or members of
the Seminole Nation, after the close of the present fiscal
year, June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six.
Article 9.
The United States re-affirms and reassumes all obligations
of treaty stipulations entered into before the treaty of said
Seminole Nation with the so-called Confederate States, August
first, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, not inconsistent herewith;
and further agree to renew all payments of annuities accruing
by force of said treaty stipulations, from and after the close
of the present fiscal year, June thirtieth, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, except
as is provided in article eight, (viii.)
Article 10.
A quantity of land not exceeding six hundred and forty acres,
to be selected according to legal subdivisions, in one body,
and which shall include their improvements, is hereby granted
to every religious society or denomination which has erected,
or which, with the consent of the Indians, may hereafter erect,
buildings within the Seminole country for missionary or educational
purposes; but no land thus granted, nor the buildings which
have been or may be erected thereon, shall ever be sold or
otherwise disposed of except with the consent and approval
of the Secretary of the Interior. And whenever any such land
or buildings shall be so sold or disposed of, the proceeds
thereof shall be applied, under the direction of the Secretary
of the Interior, to the support and maintenance of other similar
establishments for the benefit of the Seminoles and such other
persons as may be, or may hereafter become, members of the
tribe according to its laws, customs, and usages.
Article 11.
It is further agreed that all treaties heretofore entered
into between the United States and the Seminole Nation which
are inconsistent with any of the articles or provisions of
this treaty shall be, and are hereby, rescinded and annulled.
In testimony whereof, the said Dennis N. Cooley, Commissioner
of Indian affairs, Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian
affairs, and Col. Ely S. Parker, as aforesaid, and the undersigned,
persons representing the Seminole nation, have hereunto set
their hands and seals the day and year first above written.
- Dennis N. Cooley, [SEAL.] Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
- Elijah Sells, [SEAL.] Superintendent Indian Affairs.
- Col. Ely S. Parker[SEAL.] Special commissioner.
- John Chup-co, his x mark. [SEAL.] King or head chief.
- Cho-cote-harjo, his x mark, [SEAL.] Counselor.
- Fos-harjo, his x mark, chief. [SEAL.]
- John F. Brown, [SEAL.] Special delegate for Southern Seminoles.
In presence of--
- Robert Johnson, his x mark.
- United States interpreter for Seminole Indians.
- Geo. A. Reynolds, United States Indian agent for Seminoles.
- Ok-tus-sus-har-jo, his x mark, or Sands.
- Cow-e-to-me-ko, his x mark.
- Che-chu-chee, his x mark.
- Harry Island, his x mark.
- United States interpreter for Creek Indians.
- J. W. Dunn, United States Indian agent for the Creek Nation.
- Perry Fuller.
Signed by John F. Brown, special delegate for the Southern
Seminoles, in presence of, this June thirtieth, eighteen hundred
and sixty-six--
- W.R. Irwin.
- J. M. Tebbetts.
- Geo. A. Reynolds, United States Indian agent.
- Robert Johnson, his x mark, United States interpreter.
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