Drum Creek Treaty

The Drum Creek Treaty was a treaty negotiated between the United States and the Osage Nation. The treaty was submitted to both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate but was never ratified.^[1]

The treaty arose out of a growing need to relocate the Osage to a new reservation. White settlers began to arrive and establish farmsteads on Osage lands in the early 19th century. Their growing presence and pressure were instrumental in the decline of Osage control in Kansas. In the late 1860s, settlers infiltrated Osage lands at such a rate that the tribe resorted to requesting U.S. military assistance to help turn them back. As a result of this pressure the Osage began negotiating the treaty with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This treaty proposed that the United States sell the Osage Lands in Kansas on behalf of the tribe and then purchase new lands in Oklahoma using the proceeds from the sale.^[2][3]

The settlers, along with lobbying members of the House and Senate, strongly opposed the Drum Creek Treaty and were largely responsible for its failure.^[4]

The Osage would, however, come to an agreement with the United States that looked very similar to the Drum Creek Treaty.^[5]

References

1. ^ [1], Louis F. Burns, A History of the Osage People, (University of Alabama, 2004),300.
2. ^ ,David parson, The Removal of the Osages from Kansas, (Ph.D. diss., University of Oklahoma, 1940) as qtd. in Burns, A History of the Osage people
3. ^ [2], Frank F. Finney, “The Osages and their Agency During the Term of Isaac T. Gibson, Quaker Agent,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 36, no. 4 (Oklahoma Historical Society: 1958),417.
4. ^ [3], Burns, A History of the Osage People,pp 303-309.
5. ^ ,House of Representatives, Executive Document No 131: Letter from The Secretary of the Interior relative to the Osage Indians in Kansas (Washington DC, 1871), pp 1-4.