SEPTEMBER 27:

September 27, 1850:  The "Donation Act" was passed by Congress.  This allowed settlers to have lands in the Oregon Territory, regardless of indian claims.

September 27, 1830:  The "Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty" was concluded whereby the Chahta agreed to sell lands in Mississippi and move to Indian Territory. Their new lands would be bounded by Fort Smith along the Arkansas River to the source of the Canadian Fork, to the Red River, to Arkansas Territory. This was the first treaty after the passage of the indian removal act.  Many Chiefs got large parcels of land or money for signing, including Principal Chief Greenwood le Flore.  The Chahta had three years to complete the move. The United States' representatives were Generals John Coffee and John Eaton.

September 27, 1827:  According to some historians, today marks the end of the "Winnebago Expedition." After the "Red Bird War", which started on June 29, 1827, Winnebago Chief Red Bird surrenders, in response to the army's threat to destroy the entire tribe. Red Bird is found guilty of murdering several settlers and rivermen, but he dies in prison before he is sentenced.
 

BACKGROUND:
 

The full text of the Treaty is at: http://www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/treaty.html
 

*****

>From http://www.bc.bia.edu/
 

Chahta Hapia Hoke "We are the Choctaw"

... The first recorded history shows that Hernando de Soto saw the Choctaws in the early part of the sixteenth century in and around Neshoba where they remained until they were removed in the 1830's. When De Soto was exploring the Southeastern United States in 1540, it is thought that he fought the Choctaws at the Warrior River in Alabama. From that time until about 1700, records are unavailable for the tribe.

Before the Europeans came to America, the Choctaws dominated the Southeast in numbers and language. At this time, there was no private property among the Choctaws. Those that were able helped the ones that were not. There were family lines of leadership, but his did not guarantee succession. The tribal government was divided along lines of war and peace among different leaders called Mikos. The first white people that influenced the Choctaws were the French. Before the United States gained its independence from England, the Choctaws were influenced by the Spanish and English. When the French left, the English gained control over the Choctaw tribe in 1763. The Choctaws began to use horses and agricultural techniques that they saw the Europeans using. As the Choctaws turned away from their traditional ways of farming, the whites began to try to take over their land. In the American Revolution, Choctaw warriors were scouts for Washington. Treaties with England were signed by Choctaw statesmen. The Miko Franchimastabe went to Georgia to make peace with the United States.

After the American Revolution, the United States began to enter into a series of treaties with the Choctaws to gain their land. The Treaty of Hopewell was signed on January 3, 1789. This was the first of nine agreements they would make with the United States government between 1786 and 1830. The Spanish became concerned about the Choctaws being so friendly with the United States. They talked the Choctaws into parting with some more land. The Spanish convinced them that a fort in this location would protect them if the United States were to become hostile to them. The Spanish presence among the Choctaw did not last long. In 1795, they signed the Pinckney's Treaty. It was named after Major General Thomas Pinckney, who helped negotiate it. The Spanish left the area and the United States formed a program for dealing with the Choctaws and other southern tribes. The Treaty of Fort Adams was signed on December 17, 1801. With this treaty, the government obtained over two and one half million acres of land in the southwest corner of the Choctaw's territory. The treaty also said that a road could be constructed from the town of Natchez, on the Mississippi River, northeast across Choctaw country to Nashville, Tennessee. On October 7, 1802, the Choctaws signed the Treaty of Fort Confederation. This took away about 50,000 acres of the eastern boundary of Choctaw territory. The Choctaws did this to help keep their relationship with the United States friendly. In the next treaty, the Choctaws signed over 850,000 acres of land north of Mobile to the United States government. The Choctaws didn't want to take part in this, but were reminded of a debt the tribe owed to the British Trading Company of Panton, Leslie and Company. They signed over this land so the United States would pay this bill. This was the Treaty of Hoe Buckintoopa on August 31, 1803.

The United States came up with a new way to get the Choctaws' land. They would get the Choctaws to exchange land for debts they owed. The Choctaws owed another debt to Panton, Leslie and Company in the amount of $48,000. The United States bribed the chiefs by offering them money as long as they were in office. This was the beginning of giving gifts to chiefs in exchange for their cooperation in land deals. When the United States bought Louisiana from France in 1803, they wanted a place to relocate the Choctaws and use their land for white settlers. Congress passed the Louisiana Territorial Act in 1804. It gave them power to negotiate with the Indians for their land. The United States was continuing removal practices and also moving Americans into Indian owned territory. This caused the leader of the Shawnee tribe, Tecumseh, to try and form an Indian confederacy. Some of the warriors went with him South to Choctaw land to get the tribe to help them rise up against the white intruders in 1811. The chief of the Choctaws at that time was Pushmataha. He didn't want to get involved because he was friendly with the United States. The council kicked out Tecumseh and he went to the land of the Creek . Along with them, these Creek Indians massacred the whites at Fort Mims in Alabama territory. This caused war between the Creeks and Tecumseh against the United States. The Choctaws sided with the United States army. The Choctaws were once again showing their loyalty to the United States as they had in the War of 1812 against the British.

In the Treaty of 1816, the Indians signed over three million more acres of land east of the Tombigbee. The Choctaws were to be paid $6,000. each year for twenty years. They would also receive the interest from this money. It would be used to help fund the first school in Choctaw territory. It was started in 1818 near the present day town of Grenada. The Choctaws asked Cyrus Kingsbury who was a Presbyterian missionary to set it up. The western portion of the Mississippi territory became the state of Mississippi in 1817. More and more whites came to settle on the land given up by the Choctaws to the government. The government made an effort for peace between the whites and Choctaws. The whites wanted the United States to get more of the Indians' land and to move the tribe West. At first the Choctaws refused to give up any more territory. In October 1820, General Andrew Jackson and Choctaw chiefs Pushmataha, Moshulatubbee, and Apukshunnubbee met at Doak's Stand. This is near the Pearl River in central Mississippi. The Choctaws reluctantly signed the Treaty of Dock's Stand on October 18, 1820. They gave up over five million acres of their land in exchange for about thirteen million acres of land in the west. Chief Pushmataha from 1803-1824.

Pushmataha had been a Brigadier General under General Jackson as a commander of 800 warriors at the Battles of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans. He led a group in protest to Washington in 1824. He died of a throat infection before he could make his plea. He was give n a full state military funeral because of his support of the War of 1812. Federal documents tell that James McDonald, a Chootaw of mixed blood that lived in the District of Columbia, was left to protest in Pushmataha's place. After the American Revolution, both Spain and the United States tried to gain control of the Choctaw tribe. The United States won after they purchased the Louisiana territory.

Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States in 1829. One of his first legislative acts was the Indian Removal Act. It said that any native American that stood in the way of white progress was to be sent West.

>From 1800 - 1839 was a dramatic time for the Choctaws. White settlers wanted their land. Bitter debates raged in Congress over Andrew Jackson's removal bill. Through eight treaties during this time, the Choctaws' ancestral homeland turned upside down. In 1830, the Choctaws were forced to sign away the last ten million acres of land in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The treaty was conducted by the secretary of war. The negotiations went on for two days, but a majority of the Choctaws walked out. In this treaty, the Choctaw nation east was signed out of existence. Article 14 in the treaty gave the Choctaws a chance to choose a section of land and become citizens of Mississippi or move to Oklahoma. Under the treaty, about five hundred square miles were requested, but the Choctaws never received anything like that. The Choctaws received paper oaths and property in Oklahoma and Arkansas territories that had been taken by the United States from other tribes. Some Choctaws went to check out the land, but found that it was already occupied by white settlers. Only three hundred Choctaws were allotted land. Several thousand others stayed in Mississippi.

The period between 1830 and 1846 was the most corrupt period in the history of the Choctaws. One Indian who did not suffer was Greenwood Leflore. He was elected chief of the entire Choctaw tribe shortly after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. He received one thousand acres of land for his part in the negotiations on the treaty. Some of the Choctaws felt Leflore did them wrong because he was one of the leading chiefs involved in the treaty. He also signed it. Leflore was a Mississippi representative and senator. He also had a city and county named for him. The Choctaw "Trail of Tears" was a march of about twelve thousand to the west that began after the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. After the Civil War, almost all of the land was owned by whites. A Catholic mission was set up in the Tucker community around 1900. About 1910, the Choctaw population was a little over 1,200. One fifth of the remaining population was killed in a flu epidemic in 1918. Because of these conditions, the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the Choctaw Indian Agency in Philadelphia in 1918. By 1930, the number of Choctaw births exceeded the number of deaths. By 1944, the Federal Government had purchased 18,000 acres to be apportioned among eight communities. Theses communities are Pearl River, Red Water, Bogue Chitto, Tucker, Standing Pine, Crystal Ridge, Conehatta, and Bogue Homa.

Descendants of those tribal members who elected to remain in Mississippi under the agreements in The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek are the members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians today. A tribal referendum approved a constitution which established a tribal government in 1945. In the 1960's, federal resources for social programs began to improve the lives of the Choctaw people.
 

*****
 

>From http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ms/state/treatyofdancingrabbit.html
 

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, (also known as the Treaty of 1830)

By the year 1829, the original two million acres in the Natchez district open to settlement, had been enlarged to include about half the area of the State, through purchase by the United States government from the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. There was not a rapid demand for the lands already opened. Only about one-third of the Choctaw purchase of 1820, which embraced Hinds county and the main portion of the Yazoo delta, had been disposed of either to settlers or speculators. Nevertheless there was a tremendous pressure by speculators for more lands, and the people generally were easily persuaded that it was time for the Indians to move. In his message of 1829 Governor Brandon declared that the prosperity of the State was greatly retarded by such a large portion of fertile lands remaining in the possession of "savage tribes of Indians, who, as they progress in civilization, become attached to the soil and cannot be induced to remove by the policy heretofore used of treating them as a sovereign people, and will, eventually set up for themselves a government, professing to be an independent sovereignty within our limits, in defiance of the authority of the state. These things cannot be tolerated, consistent with our best interest, honor of the government, led to the act of the legislature, 1829, extending the jurisdiction of the justices and courts of certain adjoining counties over all the Indian territory.

Trouble was feared on this account, but the governor was able to report a year later that "the acknowledgment on the part of the general government, of the right of the States to exercise an unlimited sovereignty over all territory within their chartered limits, is a source of much gratifications, and at once puts to rest the question which portended great difficulty between many of the states, our own amongst the number, and their INdian population." He suggested that the legislature, if it assumed sovereignty, must also take care to pass laws for the government and protection of the Indians; but that would be very difficult.

The authority of their chiefs must first be annulled, and this would be improper until some provision was made for other officers. And the governor frankly added, "The extension of the laws of the state to the Indians will be received by them with feelings of jealousy and distrust, from the view that such a measure was adopted with a view to harass and thereby coerce them to remove."

The legislature responded with the act of February, 1830, that proposed to abolish all the Indian laws and customs and extend over them the law of Mississippi, and prohibited any person from assuming the office of chief or mingo, under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment. These laws were not seriously enforced. At the request of the United States government after the treaty of 1830 they were, in effect, suspended by the governor, so far as they related to Indians. There were similar circumstances in Georgia, involving much defiant talk adn proceedings. But the result was the same - the Indians were frightened into going west. In March 1831, the United States Supreme Court decided that the action of the Georgia Courts in sentencing four missionaries among the Creeks to four years in the penitentiary at hard labor was contrary to the laws and treaties of the United States and therefore null and void. In the following month the treaty was ratified by which the Creeks agreed to move west of the Mississippi.

Governor Scott, in 1833, vetoed a bill for the division of Yazoo county, asserting the principle of the national constitution that treaties are the supreme law of the land. It was expressly stipulated in the treaty of 1830 that the Choctaws might in part remain until the fall of 1833, and that the lands within the Choctaw district should not be sold until then, with the obvious intention of preventing settlements until that date. But the legislature passed the bill almost unanimously over the veto.

The treaty of 1830 with the Choctaws was made at the council ground between the two prongs of Dancing Rabbit creek (Chukfi ahihla bok, literally, Rabbit-there-dances creek) in what is now the bounds of NOxubee county. The spot was about a hundred yards west of the well-known spring that bears the same name as the creek. The Chickasaw trail to the southern Choctaw towns (Six towns) ran by this spring, and Tecumseh traveled that way in 1811. This was the first Indian treaty at which the United States commissioners arrived in carriages. Maj. John H. Eaton and Gen. John Coffee, of Tennessee, close friends of President Andrew Jackson, were the commissioners, and they were instructed by the president to fail not to make a treaty. Gen. George S. Gaines was the commissary, and collected provisions for three thousand persons for one week. On their arrival the commissioners found a large number of Choctaws assembled, and the Indians continued to come and go throughout the negotiations, the estimate being that from first to last there were six thousand in camp, bringing with them many supplies, as the Indians were very sensitive about their independence. The people of the three mingoes, Leflore, Moshuli-topee and Nittakechi, were given separate camps. Leflore was attired in citizens clothes, which made some of the more ignorant Indians imagine he was in collusion with the whites; MOshuli-topee wore a new blue uniform presented by General Jackson; Nittakechi was glorious in hunting shirt and leggins, a bright colored shawl, silver bands and gorgets. The Christian party, under David FOlsom, spent the evenings in signing and prayer; more sought the gambling tables and drinking places open by the white tabble that followed the commissioners. "By a strange paradox in the nature of the Choctaws, than whom no more chaste race ever existed, there was no licentiousness whatever at Dancing Rabbit." The Commissioners went to great trouble to drive away the missionaries and allowed the faro tables to remain unmolested. The talk began September 18, Eaton doing most of that work, and John PItchlynn serving as interpreter. It is unnecessary to detail what was said. It was a repetition of what had been said in previous treaties, reinforced by the threat that if the Choctaws did not now make an arrangement with the United States they would be left to the laws of Mississippi, or to escape therefrom at their own expense.

At their first consideration of the proposition, Little Leader proposed to make war to hold their lands; other chiefs recited the stories of the wars they had fought for the United States and the injustice of the present demand, and only one councilman, Killihota, who was in fact an agent of the government, voted for removal. Eaton's intemperate reply to this decision caused many of the Indians to leave the camp and go home. There was a small party, however, disposed to make the best of necessity, the leader of these being Greenwood Leflore, who took part in framing another proposition, which after some stormy discussions, was made ready to sign September 27th. When it was presented, the INdians refused to sign, and Eaton made the greatest effort of his life, in an eloquent portrayal of the situation of the Choctaws. He was successful, thus, in causing the chiefs and headmen to affix their names, in a panic, after which there was tremendous excitement, and threats of personal violence upon the commissioners. Colonel Gaines was called upon as a pacificator, and he agreed to act as exploring agent in the west for the Choctaws, and join with Reynolds the Chickasaw agent, in persuading that nation to go west and live with the Choctaws. The commissioners beat a hasty retreat and Gaines was able to reduce the excited red men to a condition of quiet despair at last. It was Lincecum's testimony that "no treaty could have been made but for the solemn assurances of the commissioners that all might stay and keep their homes who did not wish to go, and the Indians distinctly understood that this was put down as part of the treaty."

The treaty was finally signed September 27, 1830, and among other provisions recited that, "the United States under a grant specially to be made by the President of the U.S. shall cause to be conveyed to the Choctaw Nation a tract of country west of the Mississippi river, in fee simple to them and their descendants, to inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it, beginning near Fort Smith where the Arkansas boundary crosses the Arkansas river, running thence to the source of the Canadian Fork, if in the limits of the United States, or to those limits; thence due south to Red River, and down Red River to the west boundary of the Territory of Arkansas; thence north along that line to the beginning . . . . the Choctaw Nation of Indians consent and hereby cede to the United States, the entire country they own and possess, east of the Mississippi river; and they agree to move beyond the Mississippi river, early as practicable, and will so arrange their removal, that as many as possible of their people not exceeding one-half of the whole number, shall depart during the falls of 1831 and 1832; the residue to following during the succeeding fall of 1833. Then ensued certain stipulations providing that self-government should be secured to the Choctaws within their Western limits, subject only to the constitution, laws and treaties of theU.S..; that the United States yield the same protection to the Choctaws that it gives to the citizens of the U.S.; that offenders within the nation be delivered up to the U.S. authorities for punishment when the rights of a U.S. Citizen is involved; that offences against the Choctaws by U.S. citizens be referred to the president for equitable adjustment; that only duly authorized traders shall be permitted within the nation; that all navigable streams shall be free to the Choctaws; that post offices, military post roads, and posts, as deemed necessary, may be established within the nation by theU.S..; that all intruders shall be removed form the nation; that the right of private property shall always be respected; and only taken for public purposes on the payment of due compensation to the owner, and that a qualified agent be appointed for the Choctaws every four years, who shall fix his residence convenient to the great body of the people, respect to be paid the wishes of the Choctaw nation in the selection of said agent immediately after the ratification of the treaty.

Article XLV declared:  "Each Choctaw head of a family being desirous to remain and become a citizen of the United States, shall be permitted to do so, by signing his intention with the Agent within six months from the ratification of this treaty, and he or she shall thereupon be entitled to a reservation of one section of six hundred and forty acres of land, to be bounded by sectional lines in survey; in like manner shall be entitled to one-half the quantity for each unmarried child which is living with him over 10 years of age to adjoin the location of the parent. If they reside upon said lands intending to become citizens of the States for five years after the ratification of this treaty, in that case a grant in fee simple shall issue; said reservation shall include the present improvement of the head of the family, or a portion of it. Persons who claim under this article shall not lose the privilege of a Choctaw citizen, but if they ever remove are not entitled to any portion of the Choctaw annuity."

The succeeding article made special reservations on four sections of land to each of the principal chiefs: Greenwood, Leflore, Moshuli-topee, and Nittakechi, together with small annuities to continue 20 years; also made special provision in money and clothing to certain of the lesser chiefs, captains and warriors.

Then ensued certain articles relating to the removal of the Indians by the U.S., food supplies, payment for cattle, survey of the ceded lands, reservations of land to specific classes of individuals, particularly to those who had certain acres under cultivation, orphans, etc. The United States further agreed to educate forty Choctaw youths for twenty years; to erect a Council House for the Nation; a house for each chief, and a church and a schoolhouse in each district; to provide teachers for 20 years; blacksmiths for 16 years; a mill-wright for five years, and to furnish 2,100 blankets, a rifle to each warrior who emigrated; 1,000 axes, ploughs, hoes, wheels and cards each; and 400 looms; also one ton of iron and 200 weight of steel annually to each District for 16 years.

The day following, September 28, certain supplementary stipulations were agreed to and signed. These stipulations chiefly related to special reservations of lands to specified individuals, amongwhoo were two children of the U.S. interpreter John Pitchlynn and John Donly, for 25 years mail carrier through the Choctaw nation; provided for an exploring party of Choctaws to examine the new country; also for the payment of certain debts due Allen Glover and George S. Gaines, licensed traders. (For further research, see Indian Affairs, VOl. 2, Treaties; also Story of the Treaty, by H.S. Halbert, Publ. Miss. Hist. Soc., VI, 373; also articles on Choctaw Land Frauds.)

In accordance with this treaty Congress in March 1831 appropriated $80,248 for the Choctaws - $9,593 for salaries of chiefs, suits of clothes and broadswords for 99 captains; $12,500 for the cattle arrangement; $10,000 to build council house, chief's houses and churches in the west; $5,500 for teachers and industrial outfits; $27,650 for blankets, rifles, agricultural implements, etc., and $5,000 for transportation. The annual appropriate for the Choctaw nation in 1832 and succeeding years was $66,000 in addition to various extra allowances.