ROYCE.) TREATY OF FEBRUARY 14, 1833. 251 
7. This treaty to be obligatory after ratification by the President and 
Senate. 
HISTORICAL DATA. 
CONFLICTING LAND CLAIMS OF CREEKS AND CHEROKEES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
The treaty of January 24, 1826,! 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 terri- 
tory designed for their future occupancy. The year following this se- 
lection a party of Creeks removed to and settled thereon. The country 
thus selected and occupied lay along and between the Verdigris, Ar- 
kansas, and Canadian Rivers.’ 
Subsequently, on the 6th day of May, 1828,° 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 hun- 
dredth 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 injus- 
tice 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 Mis- 
sissippi and to report fully all information relating to the country assigned 
as a permanent home to the aborigines. Among the formidable difii- 
culties presented for and earnestly urged upon their attention and con- 
sideration 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 exami- 
nation and exposition of the various treaties was made, the commission- 
ers succeeded in inducing the Creeks to accept other lands to the south- 
ward of their upper settlements on Verdigris River, and concluded 
treaties with both the Creeks and the Cherokees modifying their respect- 
ive boundaries. 
' United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 236. 
2See Creek treaty of 1833, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 417. 
5 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 311. 
4See preamble to Creek treaty of February 14, 1533, United States Statutes at 
Large, Vol. VIL, p. 417. 

