1833 Treaty of Chicago

The negotiation of the cession treaty came roughly three years after the United States government ratified the Indian Removal Act. While many cession treaties had previously been negotiated between the United States government and Native American tribes during the late 18th century and the early 19th century, those that were negotiated after the ratification of the Indian Removal Act differed by usually including stipulations requiring that required Native American tribes that were parties to the treaties to move west of the Mississippi River. In such post-Indian Removal Act cession treaties, the United States government agreed to compensate tribes for their lands, liquidate their debts, and assist them in establishing a new permanent settlement west of the Mississippi. The Chicago Treaty of 1833 was typical of such treaties. One of the impetuses for the treaty were rumors that had arisen in the aftermath of the 1832 Black Hawk War that Native Americans were coming into conflict with the settlers arriving in Illinois. The number of settlers arriving in Illinois and its surrounding area in search of farmland had increased after the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, with the canal having opened up an easier route to travel Illinois from the Eastern United States via the Great Lakes. Illinois residents pressured the government to remove the Indians from the land they occupied in the state, which would make that land instead available to settlers. One of the ways in which advocates applied pressure was by making regular reports to complain of misconduct and hostility from the Native peoples. These reports were relayed by John Reynolds to the United States Department of War. The reports delivered by Reynolds and the reports made by investigators that Reynolds tasked with examining this state of affairs were founded entirely on second-hand accounts. Officials that were closer to the situation gave accounts that contradict the reports of native misconduct and aggression. Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen (the United States government's Indian agent in Chicago and the president of the Chicago Town Board of Trustees), General Winfield Scott, and George Bryan Porter (the territorial governor of Michigan) all communicated to the Office of Indian Affairs that the rumors and newspaper stories covering them were untrue and unfair. In early 1833, the Office of Indian Affairs began exploring the prospect of removing the Potawatomi. Elbert Herring (the commissioner of Indian affairs) and Lewis Cass (the United States secretary of war) ordered several figures to find land that could be used to house removed the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Chippewa populations "should they consent to remove." Among those who receive such instructions were Montfort Stokes, Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, and John F. Schermerhorn. The latter had been previously involved in the relocation of the Potawatomi of Indiana to land west of the Mississippi River. In a March 5, 1833 letter, Chicago Indian Agent Owen told Herring that, after having spoken with the, "most intelligent and influential" native chiefs, he had concluded that it was very unlikely that they would agree to cede all of their lands. His letter declared that he believed that they could be induced to move west only if they were first permitted to have a delegation travel to inspect the land they would be moving to first and that they would be "unwilling to make any exchange until they are satisfied of the fact that their new home and country possessed advantages not inferior to those incident to" they land they already occupied. He opined that Potawatomi land cession would be expensive to secure. A copy of the letter was also sent to Governor Porter, who expressed the belief that the spending of great expenses would be justified if it secured the cession of the Potawatomi from their lands. Porter also believed that the government could recoup its expense when it would sell the land to settlers. He also suggested that Michigan Territory could possibly secure a cession of the few remaining plots of land in the territory that were still controlled by Native Americans. ==Negotiations==

The federal government decided for there to be treaty negotiations with the Potawatomi, Odawa, Chippewa, and Kickapoo natives. At the time, Chicago was just a small village with merely 150 buildings. Supplementary articles were agreed to the following day. Porter, who had been enthusiastic in his role in creating and finalizing the treaty, wrote a letter to Lewis Cass to report the completion of the treaty. In it, he also suggested that the United States act fast to remove from Native possession remaining small reservations; "thus this whole country may probably be altogether relieved from any serious impediment to its entire settlement, by the removal of a population which will always embarrass and retard it." ==Signatories and witnesses==

The treaty ceded of land to the United States government. It also stipulated that the Odawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi would cede their lands in Illinois, the Wisconsin Territory, and the Michigan Territory in exchange for a sum of presents, certain annuities, liquidation of all their debt, and a tract of equal size in the Kansas Territory along the Missouri River, to where they were required move within three years. The Potawatomi were the largest tribe in regards to population residing West of the Mississippi among the three tribes that were party to the treaty. The sum promised to the tribes was unprecedented for such a treaty. The treaty marked the cession of what was the last immense tract of Native American land that remained north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. That marked a landmark in accomplishing the Indian removal goals being pursued by President Andrew Jackson and the Office of Indian Affairs. ==Ratification and implementation==

Commissioner Herring and Secretary Cass both considered the treaty to be a significant success for the United States. On March 3, 1835, federal appropriations for the treaty were approved. The appropriations saw $1,032,689.53 () allocated for grants provided by the treaty. A further $2,536.53 () was appropriated to pay the balance exceeding the $10,000 previously appropriated to cover the costs incurred in spending related to facilitating the negotiations. $9,453 () was appropriated to cover the expenses of an exploratory trip by fifty representatives of the Potawatomi to inspect the land they would be allotted west of the Mississippi. On August 31, 1835, before the residents of Chicago, in an act of defiance ahead of their impending removal, five-hundred Native American warriors gathered in Chicago in full dress and brandishing tomahawks and put on dramatic war dance displays. That was the last recorded war dance in the Chicago area. A plaque in suburban Western Springs, Illinois, near its border with Indian Head Park at Plainfield and Wolf Roads, marks the location of an 1835 camp site for some of the final Native Americans to depart the Chicago area. Some natives moved to northern Wisconsin, rather than moving west of the Mississippi. For years, only the Potawatomi that had moved west of the Mississippi to Kansas would receive the stipulated annuities from the United States government. However, the United States government moved to rectify that in 1913, when it paid the Wisconsin Potawatomi $447,339 (). ==References==