152 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
litical existence for about four years. During this interval the author- 
ities of the so-called State negotiated two treaties with the Cherokee Na- 
tion, the first one being entered into near the mouth of Dumplin Creek, on 
the north bank of French Broad River, May 31, 1785.! This treaty estab- 
lished the ridge dividing the waters of Little River from those of the Ten- 
nessee as the dividing line between the possessions of the whites and 
Indians, the latter ceding all claim to lands south of the French Broad 
and Holston, lying east of that ridge. The second treaty or conference 
was held at Chotee Ford and Coytoy, July 51 to August 3, 1786. The 
Franklin Commissioners at this conference modestly remarked, ‘* We 
only claim the island in Tennessee at the mouth of Holston and from 
the head of the island to the dividing ridge between the Holston River, 
Little River, and Tennessee to the Blue Ridge, and the lands North 
Carolina sold us on the north side of Tennessee.” They urged this 
claim under threat of extirpating the Cherokees as the penalty of re- 
fusal.? 
TREATY RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 
This general history of the Cherokee Nation and the treaty relations 
that had existed with the colonial authorities from the period of their 
first official contact with each other is given as preliminary to the con- 
sideration of the history and provisions of the first treaty negotiated 
between commissioners on the part of the United States and the said 
Cherokee Nation, viz, the treaty concluded at Hopewell, on the Keowee 
River, November 28, 1785, an abstract of the provisions of which is 
hereinbefore given.® 
The conclusion of this treaty marked the beginning of a new era in 
the relations between the whites and Cherokees. The boundaries then 
fixed were the most favorable it was possible to obtain from the latter 
without regard to previous purchases and pretended purchases made 
by private individnals and others. Although the Indians yielded an 
extensive territory to the United States,‘ yet, on the other hand, the 
latter conceded to the Cherokees a considerable extent of territory that 
had already been purchased from them by private individuals or asso- 
ciations, though by methods of more than doubtful legality. 
The contentions between the border settlers of Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as of the authorities of those 
States, with the Cherokees and Creeks, concerning boundaries and the 
constantly recurring mutual depredations and assaults upon each other’s 
lives and property, prompted Congress, though still deriving its powers 
from the Articles of Confederation, to the active exercise of its treaty- 
making functions. It was, therefore, determined® to appoint commis- 


‘ Ramsey’s Annals of Tennessee, p. 299. 
2Tb., p. 345. 
‘United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 18. 
+See Nos, 10a and 10b on accompanyivg map of Cherokee cessions. 
5 By resolution of Congress, March 15, 1785. 
