The Narrative of the Cherokee Nation. Charles C. Royce
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North Carolina claimed for her southern boundary the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude.
The line of this parallel was, however, at that time supposed to run about 12 miles to the north of what was subsequently ascertained to be its true location.
Between this supposed line of 35° north latitude and the northernmost boundary of Georgia, as settled upon by a convention between that State and South Carolina in 1787, there intervened a tract of country of about 12 miles in width, from north to south, and extending from east to west, from the top of the main ridge of mountains which divides the eastern from the western waters to the Mississippi River. This tract remained, as was supposed, within the chartered limits of South Carolina, and in the year 1787 was ceded by that State to the United States, subject to the Indian right of occupancy. When the Indian title to the country therein described was ceded to the United States by the treaty of 1798 with the Cherokees, the eastern portion of this 12-mile tract fell within the limits of such cession.
On its eastern extremity near the head-waters of the French Broad River, immediately at the foot of the main Blue Ridge Mountains, had been located, for a number of years prior to the treaty, a settlement of about fifty families of whites, who by its ratification became occupants of the public domain of the United States, but who were outside the territorial jurisdiction of any State. These settlers petitioned Congress to retrocede the tract of country upon which they resided to South Carolina, in order that they might be brought within the protection of the laws of that State.122 A resolution was reported in the House of Representatives, from the committee to whom the subject had been referred, favoring such a course,123 but Congress took no effective action on the subject, and when the State boundaries came to be finally adjusted in that region the tract in question was found to be within the limits of North Carolina.
Yellow Creek settlement.—After that portion of the boundary of the country ceded by the treaty of 1798 which extended along the foot of Cumberland Mountain until it intersected "Campbell's Line" had been surveyed, complaint was made by certain settlers on Yellow Creek that by the action of the surveyors in not prolonging the line to its true point of termination, their homes had been left within the Indian country.
Thereupon the Secretary of War instructed Agent Meigs124 to go in person and examine the line as surveyed with a view to ascertaining the truth concerning the complaints.
It was ascertained that the "point" of Campbell's Line was not on Cumberland Mountain proper, but on the ridge immediately east thereof, known as Poor Valley Ridge. This ridge is nearly as lofty as the main range, and Colonel Campbell, in approaching it from the east, had mistaken it for that range and established his terminal point accordingly. The surveyors under the treaty of 1798, assuming the correctness of Colonel Campbell's survey, had made the line of their survey close thereon. By such action the Indian boundary in that locality was extended 332 poles further to the east than would have been the case had the true reading of the treaty been followed.
A number of families of settlers on Yellow Creek, together with a tract of about 2,500 acres of land, were thus unfortunately left within the Indian country. All efforts of Agent Meigs to secure a relinquishment of this strip of territory from the Indians were, however, ineffectual.125
Treaty Concluded October 24, 1804
PROCLAIMED MAY 17, 1824.126
Held at "Tellico Block House," Tennessee, between Daniel Smith and Return J. Meigs, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the principal chiefs representing the Cherokee Nation.
Material Provisions
It is agreed and stipulated that—
1. The Cherokee Nation relinquish and cede to the United States a tract of land bounding southerly on the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, beginning at a point on the said boundary line northeasterly of the most northeast plantation in the settlement known by the name of Wafford's Settlement, and running at right angles with the said boundary line 4 miles into the Cherokee land, thence at right angles southwesterly and parallel to the first mentioned boundary line so far as that a line to be run at right angles southerly to the said first mentioned boundary line shall include in this cession all the plantations in Wafford's Settlement, so called, as aforesaid.
2. In consideration of this cession the United States agree to pay the Cherokees $5,000, in goods or cash, upon the signing of the treaty, and an annuity of $1,000.
Historical Data
New Treaty Authorized by Congress
Congress, under date of February 19, 1799,127 appropriated $25,000 to defray the expense of negotiating a treaty or treaties with the Indians, and again, on the 13th of May, 1800,128 appropriated $15,000 to defray the expense of holding a treaty or treaties with the Indian tribes southwest of the Ohio River, with the proviso that nothing in the act should be construed to admit an obligation on the part of the United States to extinguish for the benefit of any State or individual the Indian claim to any lands lying within the limits of the United States.
Pursuant to the authority conferred by these enactments, President Jefferson appointed129 General James Wilkinson, Wm. R. Davie, and Benj. Hawkins as commissioners, and they were instructed by the Secretary of War to proceed to negotiate treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.
Objects of the treaty.—The objects sought to be attained with the Cherokees were to secure their consent, 1st. To cede to the United States all that portion of their territory lying to the northward of a direct line to be run from a point mentioned in treaty of October 2, 1798, on Tennessee River, 1 mile above its junction with the Clinch, to the point at or near the head of the West Fork of Stone's River, on the ridge dividing the waters of the Cumberland and Duck Rivers which is struck by a southwest line from the point where the Kentucky road crosses Cumberland River, as described in the treaty of Holston.
2. That the Tennessee River should be the boundary from its mouth to the mouth of Duck River; that Duck River should be the boundary thence to the mouth of Rock Creek; and that a direct line should be run for a continuation of the boundary from the mouth of Rock Creek to the point on the ridge that divides the waters of Cumberland from Duck River.
3. That a road should be opened from the boundary line to a circular tract on Tennessee River at the mouth of Bear River, reserved to the United States by treaty of 1786 with the Chickasaws. From this point the road should continue until it reached the Choctaw territory, where it was to connect with a road through the country of the latter to Natchez. The entire line of this road must be open to the free use of citizens of the United States.
4. In case the Indians should refuse to cede any of the lands designated, the commissioners were instructed to obtain, if possible, a cession of all the land lying northward of the road leading from Knoxville to the Nashville settlements, run conformably to the treaty of 1791. If they should be unwilling to grant this, then to ask for a strip of land from 1 to 5 miles in width, to include the said road in its whole extent across their lands. Whether success or failure should attend the first or second objects of their mission, the commissioners were to seek the consummation of the third proposition for a road to the Bear Creek reservation, which would otherwise be of no practical value to the United States.
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