1823 treaty between the United States and several Seminole leaders in Florida
The treaty confined Florida's Native Americans to a central peninsula reservation, setting conditions that led to forced removal and the Second Seminole War.
Key Facts
- Date signed
- September 18, 1823
- Permitted stay in Florida
- 20 years years
- Reservation location
- Central Florida peninsula
- Superseded by
- Treaty of Payne's Landing (less than 10 years later)
- Conflict triggered
- Second Seminole War
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The United States government sought to consolidate Native American populations in Florida, removing them from coastal and fertile lands coveted by American settlers. Multiple bands and groups occupied various parts of the territory, and the government aimed to concentrate them in a controlled interior reservation away from white settlements.
In 1823, U.S. government representatives and chiefs of several Native American groups and bands in Florida signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. The agreement established a reservation in the center of the Florida peninsula, required most Native Americans to relocate there, and granted smaller reservations to certain western Florida bands. The U.S. pledged support to reservation residents for twenty years.
The U.S. government abandoned its twenty-year commitment within a decade, imposing the Treaty of Payne's Landing and demanding Native Americans relocate west of the Mississippi River. Widespread resistance to this forced removal among the Seminole and allied peoples sparked the Second Seminole War, one of the longest and costliest conflicts between the U.S. government and Native Americans.
Political Outcome
A central Florida reservation was established for most Native Americans in the territory, with small western reservations for certain bands; the U.S. committed to twenty years of support before later breaking the agreement.
Native American groups occupied diverse regions across Florida.
Native Americans confined to a central peninsula reservation, ceding most of Florida to U.S. control.