Key Treaties Defining the Boundaries Separating English and Native American Territories

Treaty of 1646

- signed by Chief Necotowance (who replaced Opechancanough, after he was murdered while in captivity in 1646 after leading the 1644 uprising)

- restricted the Pamunkey to the north side of the York River, forcing them to abandon claims to the Peninsula between the James and York rivers

- prohibited Englishman from being in the Indian territory, unless with permission from Chief Necotowance or the Governor

1677 Treaty of Middle Plantation

- signed by Cockacoeske ("Queen of Pamunkey") after conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion, and theoretically included Chickahominy and Rappahannock tribers under her authority

- defined Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations and the annual quitrent requirement of "twentie beaver skinns"

- required colonists to avoid settling near Native American towns

"Whereas by the mutaull discontents, Complaints, jealousies, and feares of English and Indians occasioned by the violent intrusions of divers English into their lands, forceing the Indians by way of Revenge, to kill the Cattle & hoggs of the English, whereby offence, and injuries being given, and done on boeth sides, the peace of this his Majesties Colony hath bin much disturbed, and the late unhappy Rebellion by this means in a great measure begunne & fomented which hath involved this Country into soe much Ruine, & misery, for prevention of which injuries and evill consequences as much as possible we may for time to come it is hereby concluded and enacted that noe English, shall seate or plant nearer then three miles of any Indian towne, and whosoever hath made or shall make any encroachment upon their Lands shall be removed from thence...

1679 Albany Conference

- permitted Iroquois to hunt and travel trough Manahoac lands, blocked Algonquian tribes in Tidewater from Piedmont

1684 Albany treaty signed by Lord Howard

- blocked English settlement in Iroquois-controlled Piedmont, restricting Northern Virginia occupation to Tidewater area

1722 Treaty of Albany

- restricted Iroquois to west of the Blue Ridge

- last treaty in which the remnants of the Powhatan tribes participated¹

1744 Treaty of Lancaster²

- Iroquois sold Virginia their claims of lands "to the setting sun," pushing them out of Shenandoah Valley to west of the Alleghenies

- In the negotiations for the Treaty of Lancaster, the Iroquois described how the 1722 Treaty of Albany had failed to eliminate conflict with the colonists:

You may remember, that about twenty years ago you had a treaty with us at Albany, when you took a belt of wampum, and made a fence with it on the Middle of the Hill [i.e., Blue Ridge], and told us, that if any of the warriors of the Six Nations came on your side of the Middle of the Hill, you would hang them; and you gave us liberty to do the same with any of your people who should be found on our side of the Middle of the Hill. This is the Hill we mean, and we desire that treaty may be now confirmed.

After we left Albany, we brought our road a great deal more to the west, that we might comply with your proposal; but, tho' it was of your own making, your people never observed it, but came and lived on our side of the Hill, which we don't blame you for, as you live at a great distance, near the seas, and cannot be thought to know what your people do in the back-parts: And on their settling, contrary to your own proposal, on our new road, it fell out that our warriors did some hurt to your people's cattle, of which a complaint was made, and transmitted to us by our Brother Onas; and we, at his request, altered the road again, and brought it to the foot of the Great Mountain, where it now is; and it is impossible for us to remove it any further to the west, those parts of the country being absolutely impassable by either man or beast.

We had not been long in the use of this new road before your people came, like flocks of birds, and sat down on both sides of it...

1752 Treaty of Logstown

- in 1748, Virginia and Pennnsylvania distribute gifts to Ohio River tribes at Logstown (part of competition with French traders)

- limited Delaware and Shawnee claims south of the Ohio River

1754 Albany Congress

-

1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix

-

Treaty of Hard Labor

-

1770 Treaty of Lochaber

- Cherokees cede title to the lands between the Kentucky and Kanawha rivers

- Donelson's Indian Line surveyed to mark boundary established in treaty

1775 Treaty of Sycamore Shoals

- limited Cherokee claims in far Southwestern Virginia

1777 Treaty of Long Island

- limited Cherokee claims in far Southwestern Virginia

Location of Logstown (on French translation of Thomas Hutchins' "New map of the western part of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina," 1778)
Source: Library of Congress, Partie occidentale de la Virginie, Pensylvanie, Maryland, et Caroline Septle. la rivière d'Ohio, et toutes celles qui s'y jettent,
partie de la Rivière Mississippi, tout le cours de la rivière de Illinois, le Lac Erie, partie des Lacs Huron et Michigan &. toutes les contrées qui bordent ces lacs et rivières, par Hutchins, capitaine anglais

Links

• Colonial Period Indian Land Cessions in the American Southeast
• Early Recognized Treaties With American Indian Nations, reprinted from O'Callaghan, E. B. (Ed.). (1855). Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. 6. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, and Co.,
• Library of Congress
• Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894
• The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 8. Virginia Records Manuscripts. 1606-1737 (with copy of 1646 treaty between amunkey and Virginia
• Treaty of Middle Plantation
• Virginia Memory - Treaty Between the English and the Powhatan Indians, October 1646

References