page_title: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
section_title: Terms
hierarchical_section_title: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek / Terms
caption_attribution_description: Mó-sho-la-túb-bee, He Who Puts Out and Kills, Chief of the Tribe
context_page_description: The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty signed on September 27, 1830, and proclaimed on February 24, 1831, between the Choctaw American Indian tribe and the United States Government. This was the first removal treaty carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act. The treaty ceded about 11 million acres of the Choctaw Nation in what is now Mississippi in exchange for about 15 million acres in the Indian territory, now the state of Oklahoma. The principal Choctaw negotiators were Chief Greenwood LeFlore, Musholatubbee, and Nittucachee; the U.S. negotiators were Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton.
  The site of the signing of this treaty is in the southwest corner of Noxubee County; the site was known to the Choctaw as Bok Chukfi Ahilha. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was the last major land cession treaty signed by the Choctaw. With ratification by the U.S. Congress in 1831, the treaty allowed those Choctaw who chose to remain in Mississippi to become the first major non-European ethnic groups to gain recognition as U.S. citizens.
context_section_description: The preamble begins with,
  A treaty of perpetual, friendship, cession and limits, entered into by John H. Eaton and John Coffee, for and in behalf of the Government of the United States, and the Mingoes, Chiefs, Captains and Warriors of the Choctaw Nation, begun and held at Dancing Rabbit Creek, on the fifteenth of September, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty ...
  — -Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 1830
  The following terms of the treaty were:
  1. Perpetual peace and friendship. 
  
  2. Lands (in what is now Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River to be conveyed to the Choctaw Nation.
  
  3. Lands east of the Mississippi River to be ceded and removal to begin in 1831 and end in 1833.
  
  4. Autonomy of the Choctaw Nation (in Oklahoma) and descendants to be secured from laws of U.S. states and territories forever.
  
  5. U.S. will serve as protectorate of the Choctaw Nation.
  
  6. Choctaw or party of Choctaws part of violent acts against the U.S. citizens or property will be delivered to the U.S. authorities.
  
  7. Offenses against Choctaws and their property by U.S. citizens and other tribes will be examined and every possible degree of justice applied.
  
  8. No harboring of U.S. fugitives with all expenses to capture him or her paid by the U.S.
  
  9. Persons ordered from Choctaw Nation. 
  
  10. Traders require a written permit.
  11. Navigable streams will be free for Choctaws, U.S. post-offices will be established in the Choctaw Nation, and U.S. military posts and roads may be created. 
  
  12. Intruders will be removed from the Choctaw Nation. U.S. citizens stealing Choctaw property shall be returned and offender punished. Choctaw offending U.S. laws shall be given a fair and impartial trial. 
  
  13. U.S. agent appointed to the Choctaws every four years. 
  
  14. Choctaws may become U.S. citizens and are entitled to 640 acres (2.6 km²) of land (in Mississippi) with additional land for children. 
  
  15. Lands granted to the Choctaw chiefs (Greenwood LeFlore, Musholatubbee, and Nittucachee) with annuities granted to each of them.
  
  16. Transportation in wagons and steamboats will be provided at the costs of the U.S. Ample food will be provided during the removal and 12 months after reaching the new homes. Reimbursements will be provided for cattle left in Mississippi Territory. 
  
  17. Annuities to Choctaws to continue from other treaties. Additional payments after removal.
  
  18. Choctaw Country to be surveyed
  
  19. Lands granted to I. Garland, Colonel Robert Cole, Tuppanahomer, John Pytchlynn, Charles Juzan, Johokebetubbe, Eaychahobia, and Ofehoma. 
  
  20. Improve the Choctaw condition with Education. Provide tools, weapons, and steel. 
  
  21. Choctaw Warriors who marched and fought in the army of U.S. General Wayne during the American Revolution and Northwest Indian War will receive an annuity.
  
  22. Choctaw delegate on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
caption: Mosholatubbee sought to be elected to the Congress of the United States. 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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