Franklin Treaty

John R. Coffee, negotiator and signer of the contract

The Franklin Treaty was a land assignment treaty between the Chickasaw and the United States of America . He was born on August 31, 1830 at Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 7 signed in Franklin , Tennessee . The negotiations were conducted on the Chicksaw's side by the Indian tribal leaders of the council, while the interests of the United States were represented by Colonel John R. Coffee and Secretary of War John Henry Eaton .

With the previous Treaty of Old Town from 1818, the Chickasaw had already withdrawn from their ancestral territory in Tennessee. By concluding the Franklin Treaty, the Chickasaw ceded their settlement area east of the Mississippi River against the allocation of new tribal areas in Indian territory in what is now Oklahoma . In addition to the agreement of regular maintenance payments to the people and the allocation of parcels to the tribal members, one of the contractual conditions stipulated that the contract should only become valid after the acquisition of a suitable area. After the search for new areas through expeditions of the Chickasaw dragged on and the living conditions of the Chickasaw in Mississippi deteriorated significantly due to discrimination and persecution, new contracts were concluded after 1832. With the Treaty of Pontotoc of 1832, which helped the Treaty of Franklin to be valid, and the Washington Treaty of 1834 exchanged the Chickasaw the remaining tribal areas in the region as part of the Indian Removal Act ( Indian Relocation Act ) final against land in Indian Territory present-day Oklahoma. In the course of the Indian resettlement described as the Path of Tears , the Chickasaw left their ancestral territories in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama around 1837 .

The building where the contract was signed, the neo-Gothic Masonic Lodge, Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 7 , in 1973 was a National Historic Landmark ( historical Significant site ) explained.

literature

• Francis Paul Prucha: American Indian Treaties. The History of a Political Anomaly . University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1997, ISBN 0-520-20895-1 , pp. 174-175.
• Arrell M. Gibson: The Chickasaws. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK et al. 1971, ISBN 0-8061-0945-9 ( The Civilization of the American Indian Series 109)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Charles J. Kappler. Washington: United States Government Printing Office , 1904: TREATY WITH THE CHICKASAW, 1830. In: Electronic Publishing Center Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma State University, accessed April 24, 2009 (transcribed from the original text of the Franklin Treaty). 
2. ^ Charles J. Kappler. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904: TREATY WITH THE CHICKASAW, 1818. In: Electronic Publishing Center Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma State University, accessed April 24, 2009 (transcribed from the original text of the Old Town Treaty). 
3. ^ Charles J. Kappler. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904: TREATY WITH THE CHICKASAW, 1832. In: Electronic Publishing Center Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma State University, accessed April 24, 2009 (transcribed from the original text of the Pontotoc Treaty). 
4. ^ Charles J. Kappler. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904: TREATY WITH THE CHICKASAW, 1834. In: Electronic Publishing Center Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma State University, accessed April 24, 2009 (transcribed from the original text of the Treaty of Washington, 1834). 
5. ↑ National Park Service: Ben Levy, Cecil N. McKithan: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 7 / Masonic Hall from February 26, 1973 (English; PDF; 288 kB)
6. ↑ Photograph of the Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 7 ( PDF , English; 406 kB)