The Treaty of Payne's Landing (Treaty with the Seminole, 1832) was an agreement signed on 9 May 1832 between the government of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and several chiefs of the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

Indians in the Territory of Florida, before it acquired statehood.

Background

By the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, the Seminoles had relinquished all claims to land in the

Florida Territory The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish ...

in return for a reservation in the center of the Florida peninsula and certain payments, supplies and services to be provided by the U.S. government, guaranteed for twenty years. After the election of

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

in 1828, the movement to transfer all Indians in the United States to west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

grew, and in 1830 the

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passed the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States president Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, ...

. Determined to move the Seminoles west, the

United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

appointed James Gadsden to negotiate a new treaty with them. In the spring of 1832 the Seminoles on the reservation were called to a meeting at Payne's Landing on the Oklawaha River. The negotiations were conducted in obscurity, if not secrecy. No minutes were taken, nor were any detailed accounts of the negotiations ever published. This was to lead to trouble later.Missall. p. 83. The U.S. government wanted the Seminoles to move to the Creek Reservation in what was then part of the

Arkansas Territory The Arkansas Territory was a organized incorporated territory of the United States, territory of the United States from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the ...

(which later became part of the

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

), to become part of the

Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large grou ...

, and to return all runaway slaves (

maroons Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas and islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery, through flight or manumission, and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with Indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into ...

) to their lawful owners. None of these demands were agreeable to the Seminoles. They had heard that the climate at the Creek Reservation was harsher than in Florida. The Seminoles of Florida did not consider themselves part of the Creeks. Although many of the groups in Florida had come from what whites called Creek tribes, they did not feel any connection. Some of the groups in Florida, such as the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

, Yamasees, and the

Yuchi The Yuchi people are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma, though their original homeland was in the southeastern United States. In the 16th century, the Yuchi lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley. By the late 17th century, they had ...

s had never been grouped with the Creeks. Finally, runaway slaves, while often held as slaves by the Seminoles (under much milder conditions than with whites), were fairly well integrated into the bands, often inter-marrying, and rising to positions of influence and leadership.

Treaty contents

The treaty negotiated at Payne's Landing called for the Seminoles to move west if the land were found to be suitable. The delegation of seven chiefs who were to inspect the new reservation did not leave Florida until October 1832. After touring the area for several months and conferring with the Creeks who had already been settled there, the seven chiefs signed on March 28, 1833 at Fort Gibson, Arkansas Territory a statement (also referred to as the Treaty of Fort Gibson) that the new land was acceptable. Upon their return to Florida, however, most of the chiefs renounced the statement, claiming that they had not signed it, or that they had been forced to sign it, and in any case, that they did not have the power to decide for all the tribes and bands that resided on the reservation. Even some U.S. Army officers observed that the chiefs "had been wheedled and bullied into signing." Furthermore, "there is evidence of trickery by the whites in the way the treaty is phrased." Maj. Ethan Allen Hitchcock recorded in his journal, "The treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832 by which it was attempted to remove the Indians, was a fraud upon them and they have in fact never agreed to emigrate. I say therefore that the Indians are in the right to defend themselves in the country to the best of their ability." Several villages had been allowed to stay in the area of the

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately long, in the state of Florida. The river's large drainage basin, watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) River Basin, drains an area of approximately ...

after 1823 when the rest of the Seminoles had been forced into the new reservation. Gadsden was able to persuade the chiefs of these villages to move, however, and they went west in 1834. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

finally ratified the Treaty of Payne's Landing in April 1834.Missall. pp. 8690.

Refusal to move

The treaty had given the Seminoles three years to move west of the

. The government interpreted the three years as starting in 1832, and expected the Seminoles to move in 1835. Fort King, in what is now Ocala was reopened in 1834. A new Seminole agent, Wiley Thompson, was appointed in 1834, and the task of persuading the Seminoles to move fell to him. He called the chiefs together at Fort King in October 1834 to talk to them about the removal to the west. The Seminoles informed Thompson that they had no intention of moving, and that they did not feel bound by the Treaty of Payne's Landing. Thompson then requested reinforcements for Fort King and

Fort Brooke Fort Brooke was a historical military post established at the mouth of the Hillsborough River (Florida), Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida in 1824. Its original purpose was to serve as a check on and trading post for the native S ...

, reporting that, "the Indians after they had received the Annuity, purchased an unusually large quantity of Powder & Lead." Brigadier General Duncan L. Clinch,

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

commander for Florida, also warned Washington that the Seminoles did not intend to move, and that more troops would be needed to force them to move. In March 1835 Thompson called the chiefs together to read a letter from Andrew Jackson to them. In his letter, Jackson said, "Should you ... refuse to move, I have then directed the Commanding officer to remove you by force." The chiefs asked for thirty days to respond. A month later the Seminole chiefs told Thompson that they would not move west. Thompson and the chiefs began arguing, and General Clinch had to intervene to prevent bloodshed. Eventually, eight of the chiefs agreed to move west, but asked to delay the move until the end of the year, and Thompson and Clinch agreed. Five of the most important of the Seminole chiefs, including Micanopy of the Alachua Seminoles, had not agreed to the move. In retaliation, Thompson declared that those chiefs were removed from their positions. As relations with the Seminoles deteriorated, Thompson forbid the sale of guns and ammunition to the Seminoles.

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Vsse Yvholv in Muscogee language, Creek, also spelled Asi-yahola), named Billy Powell at birth, was an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfa ...

, a young warrior beginning to be noticed by the whites, was particularly upset by the ban, feeling that it equated Seminoles with slaves and said, "The white man shall not make me black. I will make the white man red with blood; and then blacken him in the sun and rain ... and the buzzard live upon his flesh." In spite of this, Thompson considered Osceola to be a friend, and gave him a rifle. Later, though, when Osceola was causing trouble, Thompson had him locked up at Fort King for a night. The next day, in order to secure his release, Osceola agreed to abide by the Treaty of Payne's Landing and to bring his followers in. In August 1835 Private Kinsley Dalton (for whom Dalton, Georgia is named) was killed by Seminoles as he was carrying the mail from Fort Brooke to Fort King. In November, Chief Charley Emathla, wanting no part of a war, led his people towards Fort Brooke where they were to board ships to go west. This was considered a betrayal by other Seminoles. Osceola met Emathla on the Fort King trail and killed him. The next month the Second Seminole War would begin with the Dade massacre. On the same day as the Dade Massacre, Osceola and his followers shot and killed Wiley Thompson and six others outside of Fort King.

Signatories

* James Gadsden *Holati Emartla, his x mark *Jumper, his x mark *Fuch-ta-lus-ta-Hadjo, his x mark *Charley Emartla, his x mark *Coa Hadjo, his x mark * Ar-pi-uck-i, or Sam Jones, his x mark * Ya-ha Hadjo, his x mark *Mico-Noha, his x mark *Tokose-Emartla, or Jno. Hicks. his x mark *Cat-sha-Tusta-nuck-i, his x mark *Hola-at-a-Mico, his x mark (aka Billy Bowlegs) *Hitch-it-i-Mico, his x mark *E-ne-hah, his x mark *Ya- ha- emartla Chup- ko, his mark *Moke-his-she-lar-ni, his x mark Witnesses: *Douglas Vass, Secretary to Commissioner, *John Phagan, Agent, *Stephen Richards, Interpreter, *

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

, Interpreter, his x mark, *Cudjo, Interpreter, his x mark, *Erastus Rogers, *B. Joscan.Treaty With The Seminole, May 9, 1832. , 7 Stat., 368. , Proclamation, April 12, 1834.Indian Affairs: Laws And Treaties Vol. II, Treaties, compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.

Notes and references

References

* Missal, John and Mary Lou Missal. 2004. ''Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict''. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.

External links

Treaty of Payne's Landing original text
from johnhorse.com

from the

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