The treaty of January 24, 1826,[336] with the Creek Indians had
provided for the removal of that tribe west of the Mississippi. In
accordance with its provisions, a delegation consisting of five
representative men of the tribe proceeded to the western country and
selected the territory designed for their future occupancy. The year
following this selection a party of Creeks removed to and settled
thereon. The country thus selected and occupied lay along and between
the Verdigris, Arkansas, and Canadian Rivers.[337]
Subsequently, on the 6th day of May, 1828,[338] a treaty was concluded
with the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi, by the terms of which
they ceded all their lands within the present limits of Arkansas and
accepted a tract of 7,000,000 acres within the present limits of Indian
Territory, in addition to a perpetual outlet extending as far west as
the western limits of the United States at that time, being the one
hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich.
This new assignment of territory to the Cherokees, it was soon found,
included a considerable portion of the lands selected by and already in
the possession of the Creeks.
The discovery of this fact produced much excitement and ill feeling
in the minds of the people of both tribes, and led to many acts of
injustice and violence during the course of several years.
_Territorial difficulties adjusted._--In the year 1832 a commission
was constituted, consisting of Montfort Stokes, Henry L. Ellsworth,
and John F. Schermerhorn, with instructions to visit the country west
of the Mississippi and to report fully all information relating to
the country assigned as a permanent home to the aborigines. Among the
formidable difficulties presented for and earnestly urged upon their
attention and consideration were these conflicting territorial claims
of the Creeks and the Cherokees. Both parties claimed several million
acres of the same land under treaty stipulations; both were equally
persuaded of the justice of their respective claims, and at first were
unyielding in their dispositions.
After a protracted public council, however, in which a careful
examination and exposition of the various treaties was made, the
commissioners succeeded in inducing the Creeks to accept other lands
to the southward of their upper settlements on Verdigris River,[339]
and concluded treaties with both the Creeks and the Cherokees modifying
their respective boundaries.
This treaty of February 14, 1833, with the latter tribe occasioned a
material change in the boundaries previously assigned them.
Instead of following the western line of Arkansas and Missouri as far
north as the point where the Grand or Neosho River crosses the boundary
of the latter State, and running from thence due west to a point due
north of the old western boundary line of Arkansas Territory, and
thence south to the Arkansas River, the new line followed the present
western boundary of Arkansas and Missouri as far north as the south
line of the territory then recently assigned to the Senecas; thence
west along the south line of the Senecas to Grand River, and following
up Grand River to the south boundary of the Osage reservation, which
was parallel with the present southern boundary of Kansas, and on the
average about two miles to the north of it; thence west for quantity.