Copyright © 1995 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

1.  The Cherokee Nation cedes to the United States all the land claimed by said Nation east  

of the Mississippi River, and hereby releases all claims on the United States for spoliation of  

every kind for and in consideration of $5,000,000. In case the United States Senate should decide 

that this sum does not include spoliation claims, then $300,000  additional should be allowed for

that purpose. 





2.   The description of the 7,000,000 acres of land guaranteed to the Cherokees west of the

Mississippi by the Treaties of 1828 and 1833 is repeated, and in addition thereto the further

guaranty is made to the Cherokee Nation of a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested

use of all the country west of the western boundary of said 7,000,000 acres, as far west as

the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend, provided that if the salt

plain shall fall within the limits of said outlet the right is reserved to the United States to

permit other tribes of Indians to procure salt thereon. "And letters patent shall be issued by

the United States as soon as practicable for the land hereby guaranteed."





       It being apprehended that the above would afford insufficient land for the Cherokees, the

United States, in consideration of $500,000, agree to patent to them in fee simple the following

additional tract, viz.: Beginning at the southeast corner of the Osage Reservation, and running

north along the east line of the Osage lands 50 miles to the northeast corner thereof, thence

east to the west lineof the State of Missouri, thence with said line south 50 miles, thence west

to the place of beginning, estimated to contain 800,00 acres, it being understood that if any of

the Quapaw lands should fall within these limits they should be excepted. 





3.   All the foregoing described lands to be included in one patent, under the provisions of the

act of  May 28, 1830; the United States to retain possession of the Fort Gibson military

reservation until abandoned, when it shall revert to the Cherokees. The United States reserve

the right to establish post and military roads and forts in any part of the Cherokee country. 





4.   The United States agree to extinguish for the Cherokees the Osage half-breed titles to

reservations under the treaty of 1825 for the sum of $15,000. The United States agree to

pay to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions the appraised value of their

improvements at Union and Harmony Missions. 





5.   The United States agree that the land herein guaranteed to the Cherokees shall never,

without their consent, be included within the limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory.

The United States also agree to secure them the right to make and carry into effect such laws 

as they deem necessary, provided they shall not be inconsistence with the Constitution of the

United States and such acts of Congress as provide for the regulation of trade and intercourse

with the Indian tribes; and provided also they shall not effect such citizens and army of the

United States as may travel or reside in the Indian country by permission granted under the

laws or regulations thereof. 





6.   Perpetual peace shall exist between the United States and the Cherokees. The United

States shall protect the Cherokees from domestic strife, foreign enemies, and from war with

other tribes, as well as from the unlawful intrusion of citizens of the United States. The

Cherokees shall endeavor to maintain peace among themselves and with their neighbors. 





7.   The Cherokees shall be entitled to a delegate in the United States House of  

Representative whenever Congress shall make provision for the same. 





8.   The United States agree to remove the Cherokees to their new home and to provide

them with one year's subsistence thereafter. Those desiring to remove themselves shall be

allowed a commutation of $33 1/3 per head in lieu of the one year's promised subsistence.

Cherokees residing outside the limits of the nation who shall remove within two years to  

the new Cherokee country shall be entitled to the same allowances as others. 





9.  The United States agree to make an appraisement of the value of all Cherokee improvements

and ferries. The just debts of the Indians shall be paid out of any moneys due them for

improvements and claims. The Indians shall be furnished with sufficient funds for their  

removal, and the balance of their dues shall be paid them at the Cherokee Agency west of 

the Mississippi. Missionary establishments shall be appraised and the value paid to the  

treasures of the societies by whom they were established. 





10.   The President of the United States shall invest in good interest paying stocks the 

following sums for the benefit of the Cherokee people, the interest thereon only to be  

expended: $200,000, in addition to their present annuities, for a general national fund; 

$50,000 for an orphans fund; $150,000, in addition to existing school fund, for a permanent 

national school fund: the disbursement of the interest on the foregoing funds to be subject  

to examination and any misapplications thereof to be corrected by the President of the  

United States.

 

     On two year's notice the Cherokee Council may withdraw their funds by the consent of the

President  and the United States Senate, and invest them in such manner as they deem proper.

The United States agree to appropriate $60,000 to pay the just debts and claims against the

Cherokee Nation held by citizens of the same, and also claims of citizens of the United States

for services rendered the nation. $300,000 is appropriated by the United States to liquidate

Cherokee claims against the United States for spoliations of everykind. 





11.    The Cherokees  agree to commute their existing permanent annuity of $10,000 for the

sum of $214,000, the same to be invested by the President as a part of the General Fund of

the nation. Their present school fund shall also constitute a portion of the permanent national

school fund. 





12.   Such Cherokees as are averse to removal west of the Mississippi and desire to become

citizens of the states where they reside, if qualified to take care of themselves and their

property, shall receive their proportion of all the personal benefits accruing under this treaty

for claims, improvements, and per capita.

 

       Such heads of Cherokee families as desire to reside within the States of North

Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, subject to the laws thereof and qualified to become useful

citizens, shall be entitled to a pre-emption right of 160 acres at the minimum Congress price, to

include their improvements. John Ross and eleven others named are designated as a committee on

the part of the Cherokees to recommend persons entitled to take pre-emption rights, to select

the missionaries who shall be removed with the Nation, and to transact all business that may

arise with the United States in carrying the treaty into effect. $100,000 shall be expended by

the United States for the benefit of such of the poorer classes of Cherokees as shall remove

west. 





13.   All Cherokees and their heirs to whom reservations had been made by any previous treaty,

and who not sold or disposed of the name, such reservations being subsequently sold by the

United States should be entitled to receive the present value thereof from the United States

as unimproved lands. All such reservations not sold were to be confirmed to the reservees or

their heirs. All persons entitled to reservations under Treaty of 1817, whose reservations, as

selected, were included by the Treaty of 1819 in the unceded lands of the Cherokee Nation,

shall be entitled to a grant for the same. All reservees who were obliged by the laws of the

states in which their reservations were situated to abandon the same or purchase them from the

states, shall be deemed to have a just claim against the United States for the value thereof or

for the amount paid therefor, with interest. The amount allowed for reservations under this

article is to be paid independently, and not out of the consideration allowed to the Cherokees for

spoliation claims and their cession of lands. 





14.   Cherokee warriors wounded in the service of the United States during the late war with

Great Britain and the southern tribes of Indians shall be allowed such pensions as Congress shall

provide. 





15.   The balance of the consideration herein stated, after deducting the amount actually

expended for improvements, ferries, claims, spoliations, removal, subsistence, debts, and claims

upon the Cherokee Nation, additional quantity of lands, goods for the poorer class of Cherokees,

and the several sums to be invested for the general national funds, shall be devided equally

among all the people belonging to the Cherokee Nation east, according to the census just

completed. Certain Cherokees who had removed west since June, 1833, were to be paid for

their improvements. 





16.   The Cherokees stipulate to remove west within two years from the ratification of this

treaty, during which time the United States shall protect them in the possession and enjoyment

of their property, and in case of failure to do so shall pay all losses and damages sustained by

them in consequence thereof. The United States and the several states interested in the

Cherokee lands immediately proceed to survey the lands ceded by this treaty, but the agency

building and tract of land surveyed and laid off for the use of Col. R.J. Meigs, Indian Agent,

shall continue subject to the control of the United States or such agent as may be specially

engaged in superintending the removal of the tribe. 





17.   All claims arising under or provided for in this treaty shall be examined and adjudicated by

General William Carroll and John F. Schermerhorn, or by such commissioners as shall be

appointed by the President of the United States for that purpose, and their decision shall be

final, and the several claimants shall be paid on their certificate by the United States. All

stipulations of former treaties not superseded or annulled by this treaty shall continue in force. 





18.   The annuities of the nation which may accrue during the next two years preceding their

removal shall, on account of the failure of crops. be expended in provisions and clothing for the

benefit of the poorer classes of the nation as soon after the ratification of this treaty as an

appropriation shall be made. No interference is, however, intended with that part of the

annuities due the Cherokee west under the Treaty of 1819. 





19.   This treaty is to be obligatory after ratification. 





20. The United States guarantee the payment of all unpaid just claims upon the Indians, without

expense to them, out of the proper funds of the United States for the settlement of which a

cession or cessions of land has or have been heretofore made by the Indians in  Georgia,

provided the United States or State of Georgia has derived benefit therefrom without having

made payment therefor.

The Treaty of New Echota was signed on tht December 29, 1835 by: 

Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, Elias "Buck Oolwatie" Boudinot, and Stand 

Watie.

To: The Senate and House of Representatives

From: Chief John Ross
Red Clay Council Ground,
Cherokee Nation,

September 28, 1836

It is well known that for a number of years past we have been harassed by a series of vexations, which it is deemed unnecessary to recite in detail, but the evidence of which our delegation will be prepared to furnish. With a view to bringing our troubles to a close, a delegation was appointed on the 23rd of October, 1835, by the General Council of the nation, clothed with full powers to enter into arrangements with the Government of the United States, for the final adjustment of all our existing difficulties. The delegation failing to effect an arrangement with the United States commissioner, then in the nation, proceeded, agreeably to their instructions in that case, to Washington City, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty with the authorities of the United States.

After the departure of the Delegation, a contract was made by the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, and certain individual Cherokees, purporting to be a "treaty, concluded at New Echota, in the State of Georgia, on the 29th day of December, 1835, by General William Carroll and John F. Schermerhorn, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and people of the Cherokee tribes of Indians." A spurious Delegation, in violation of a special injunction of the general council of the nation, proceeded to Washington City with this pretended treaty, and by false and fraudulent representations supplanted in the favor of the Government the legal and accredited Delegation of the Cherokee people, and obtained for this instrument, after making important alterations in its provisions, the recognition of the United States Government. And now it is presented to us as a treaty, ratified by the Senate, and approved by the President [Andrew Jackson], and our acquiescence in its requirements demanded, under the sanction of the displeasure of the United States, and the threat of summary compulsion, in case of refusal. It comes to us, not through our legitimate authorities, the known and usual medium of communication between the Government of the United States and our nation, but through the agency of a complication of powers, civil and military.

By the stipulations of this instrument, we are despoiled of our private possessions, the indefeasible property of individuals. We are stripped of every attribute of freedom and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized; we are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the human family! We have neither land nor home, nor resting place that can be called our own. And this is effected by the provisions of a compact which assumes the venerated, the sacred appellation of treaty.

We are overwhelmed! Our hearts are sickened, our utterance is paralized, when we reflect on the condition in which we are placed, by the audacious practices of unprincipled men, who have managed their stratagems with so much dexterity as to impose on the Government of the United States, in the face of our earnest, solemn, and reiterated protestations.

The instrument in question is not the act of our Nation; we are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people. The makers of it sustain no office nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government, and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our possessions, and our common country. And we are constrained solemnly to declare, that we cannot but contemplate the enforcement of the stipulations of this instrument on us, against our consent, as an act of injustice and oppression, which, we are well persuaded, can never knowingly be countenanced by the Government and people of the United States; nor can we believe it to be the design of these honorable and highminded individuals, who stand at the head of the Govt., to bind a whole Nation, by the acts of a few unauthorized individuals. And, therefore, we, the parties to be affected by the result, appeal with confidence to the justice, the magnanimity, the compassion, of your honorable bodies, against the enforcement, on us, of the provisions of a compact, in the formation of which we have had no agency.

The Papers of Chief John Ross, vol 1, 1807-1839, Norman OK
Gary E. Moulton, ed. University of Oklahoma Press, 1985

Note: John Ross gathered 16,000 signatures of Cherokees who opposed removal.