The first removal treaty enacted under the Indian Removal Act, ceding 11 million acres of Choctaw land and setting a precedent for subsequent Native American relocations.
Key Facts
- Date Signed
- September 27, 1830
- Land Ceded by Choctaw
- ~11 million acres in Mississippi
- Land Granted to Choctaw
- ~15 million acres in Indian Territory
- Proclaimed
- February 24, 1831
- Ratified by U.S. Congress
- 1831
- Citizenship Provision
- Choctaw who remained gained U.S. citizenship
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing the federal government to negotiate treaties that would relocate eastern Native American tribes west of the Mississippi River. This legislation created the legal framework pressuring the Choctaw Nation to cede their ancestral lands in Mississippi and Alabama.
On September 27, 1830, Choctaw chiefs Greenwood LeFlore, Mosholatubbee, and Nittucachee signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with U.S. negotiators Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton. The treaty ceded approximately 11 million acres of Choctaw territory in Mississippi in exchange for roughly 15 million acres in what would become Oklahoma.
Ratified by Congress in 1831, the treaty became the first removal treaty carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act, leading to the relocation of the Choctaw people westward. Those who chose to remain in Mississippi became among the first non-European ethnic group formally recognized as U.S. citizens, while the treaty established the template for subsequent forced relocations of other tribes.
Political Outcome
Choctaw Nation ceded ~11 million acres in Mississippi; received ~15 million acres in Indian Territory; remaining Choctaw granted U.S. citizenship upon ratification in 1831.
Choctaw Nation held approximately 11 million acres of land in Mississippi
Choctaw Nation relocated to Indian Territory; Mississippi lands ceded to the United States