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TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE CHEROKEE AND SEMINOLE NATIONS AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Articles of agreement and convention at the town of Monk’s Corner on the nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, between the United States, represented by Thomas L. McKenney, Superintendent of Indian Trade in the War Department, and the Cherokee Nation of Indians and the Seminole Nation of Indians, represented by John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokees.

PREAMBLE.

Whereas existing treaties between the United States and the Cherokee and Seminole Nations are deemed to be insufficient, the said contracting parties agree as follows, viz:

ARTICLE 1.

Amnesty is hereby declared by the United States and the Cherokee and Seminole Nation for all crimes and misdemeanors committed by one Cherokee or Seminole on the person or property of another Cherokee or Seminole, or of a citizen of the United States, prior to the first day of October, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight; and no right of action arising out of wrongs committed in aid or in the suppression of the rebellion shall be prosecuted or maintained in the courts of the United States or in the courts of the Cherokee or Seminole Nation.

But the Cherokee and Seminole Nation stipulate and agree that any or all public property, particularly ordnance, ordnance stores, arms of all kinds, and quartermaster’s stores in their possession or control are now property of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation without any reservation.

ARTICLE 2.

The confiscation laws of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation shall be retained, and the same, and all sales of farms, and improvements on real estate, made or pretended to be made in pursuance thereof, are hereby agreed and declared to be null and void, and the former Cherokee and Seminole owners of such property so sold, their heirs or assigns, shall have the right peaceably to re-occupy their homes, and the purchaser under the confiscation laws, or his heirs or assigns, shall be repaid by the treasurer of the United States from the national funds, the money paid for said property and the cost of permanent improvements on such real estate, made thereon since the confiscation sale.

ARTICLE 3.

All the Cherokees and Seminoles and freed persons who were formerly slaves to any Cherokee or Seminole, and all free negroes not having been such slaves, who resided in the Cherokee and Seminole Nation prior to June first, eighteen hundred and twenty eight, who may within two years elect not to reside in the Cherokee Nation within the boundaries of the former states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, shall have the right to settle in and occupy the Canadian district southwest of the Arkansas River, and also all that tract of country lying northwest of Grand River, and bounded on the southeast by Grand River and west by the Creek reservation to the northeast corner thereof; from thence west on the north line of the Creek reservation to the ninety-sixth degree of west longitude; and thence north on said line of longitude so far that a line due east to Grand River will include a quantity of land equal to one hundred and sixty acres for each person who may so elect to reside in the territory above-described in this article: Provided, That that part of said district north of the Arkansas River shall not be set apart until it shall be found that the Canadian district is not sufficiently large to allow one hundred and sixty acres to each person desiring to obtain settlement under the provisions of this article.

ARTICLE 4.

The inhabitants electing to reside in the district described in the preceding article shall have the right to elect all their local officers and judges, and the number of delegates to which by their numbers they may be entitled in any general council to be established in the Indian Territory under the provisions of this treaty, as stated in Article XII, and to control all their local affairs, and to establish all necessary police regulations and rules for the administration of justice in said district, not

inconsistent with the constitution or the laws of the United States; Provided, The inhabitants residing in said district shall enjoy all the rights and privileges of other inhabitants who may elect to settle in said district as hereinbefore provided, and shall hold the same rights and privileges and be subject to the same liabilities as those who elect to settle in said district under the provisions of this treaty; Provided also, That if any such police regulations or rules be adopted which, in the opinion of the President, bear oppressively on any citizen of the nation, he may suspend the same. And all rules or regulations in said district, or in any other district of the nation, discriminating against the citizens of other districts, are prohibited, and shall be void.

ARTICLE 5.

The inhabitants of the said district hereinbefore described shall be entitled to representation according to numbers in the national council, and all laws of the United States shall be uniform throughout said nation. And should any such law, either in its provisions or in the manner of its enforcement, in the opinion of the President of the United States, operate unjustly or injuriously in said district, he is hereby authorized and empowered to correct such evil, and to adopt the means necessary to secure the impartial administration of justice, as well as a fair and equitable application and expenditure of the national funds as between the people of this and of every other district in said nation.

ARTICLE 6.

No license to trade in goods, wares, or merchandise shall be granted by the United States to trade in the Cherokee and Seminole Nation, unless approved by the Cherokee and Seminole national government.

ARTICLE 7.

The Cherokee and Seminole Nation having, voluntarily, in December, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, by an act of the national council, forever abolished slavery, hereby covenant and agree that never hereafter shall either slavery or involuntary servitude exist in their nation otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, in accordance with laws applicable to

all the members of said tribe alike. They further agree that all freedmen who have been liberated by voluntary act of their former owners or by law, as well as all free colored persons who were in the country at the commencement of the rebellion, and are now residents therein, or who may return within six months, and their descendants, shall have all the rights of native Cherokees and Seminoles: Provided, That owners of slaves so emancipated in the Cherokee Nation shall never receive any compensation or pay for the slaves so emancipated.

ARTICLE 8.

Every Cherokee and Seminole and freed person resident in the Cherokee and Seminole Nation shall have the right to sell any products of his farm, including his or her live stock, or any merchandise or manufactured products, and to ship and drive the same to market without restraint, paying any tax thereon which is now or may be levied by the Cherokee and Seminole Nation on the quantity sold.

ARTICLE 9.

It is agreed that the precise boundary line between the Cherokee and Seminole Nation and the United States shall exist along the same boundaries already established as the north boundary lines of South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and on the west, along the established west boundary of Alabama. The boundaries shall be marked by permanent and conspicuous monuments by two commissioners, one of whom shall be designated by the Cherokee and Seminole Nation and one by the United States.

ARTICLE 10.

The United States guarantee to the people of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation the quiet and peaceable possession of their country and protection against hostilities of the United States. They shall also be protected against interruptions or intrusion from all unauthorized citizens of the United States who may attempt to settle on their lands or reside in their territory. In case of hostilities, the United States agree that the party or parties commencing the same shall, so far as practicable, make reparation for the damages done.

ARTICLE 11.

The United States shall have no right to establish military posts or stations in the Cherokee and Seminole Nation. And all persons not citizens of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation, are to be prohibited from coming into the Cherokee and Seminole Nation, or remaining in the same, except as herein otherwise provided; and it is the duty of the United States Indian agent for the Cherokees and Seminoles to have such persons, not lawfully residing or sojourning therein, removed from the nation, as they now are, or hereafter may be, required by the Indian intercourse laws of the United States.

In testimony whereof, the said commissioners on the part of the United States, and the said delegation on the part of the Cherokee and Seminole Nation, have hereunto set their hands and seals at the Monk’s Corner, this nineteenth day of December, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.

Thomas L. McKenney, Superintendent of Indian Trade

John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

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