Treaty signed on October 20, 1832 by representatives of the United States and the Chiefs of the Chickasaw Nation
The treaty ceded over 6.2 million acres of Chickasaw homeland in Mississippi, directly leading to the forced Chickasaw emigration to Oklahoma by 1838.
Key Facts
- Date signed
- October 20, 1832
- Land ceded
- 6,283,804 acres acres
- Location
- National Council House, Pontotoc Creek, Mississippi
- Chickasaw emigration completed
- 1837–1838
- Destination territory
- Present-day Oklahoma
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Mississippi applied increasing pressure to extend state jurisdiction over the Chickasaw. An earlier 1830 agreement to relocate west had failed when the Chickasaw found the assigned land unsuitable. Facing continued state aggression and federal pressure from President Andrew Jackson's administration, Chickasaw leaders agreed in 1832 to negotiate a new relocation treaty.
On October 20, 1832, U.S. representatives and Chickasaw chiefs signed the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek at the National Council House on Pontotoc Creek, Mississippi. The Chickasaw ceded all remaining 6,283,804 acres of their Mississippi homeland in exchange for an equivalent area of land west of the Mississippi River, with proceeds from settler sales of the ceded land to be retained by the Chickasaw Nation.
The treaty directly initiated the Chickasaw Trail of Tears, by which the entire Chickasaw Nation was forced to emigrate to new territory in present-day Oklahoma between 1837 and 1838, completing the removal of the Chickasaw people from their ancestral Mississippi homeland as part of the broader Indian removal policy of the era.
Political Outcome
Chickasaw Nation ceded 6,283,804 acres in Mississippi to the U.S. in exchange for equivalent land west of the Mississippi River; proceeds from land sales reserved for the Chickasaw.
Chickasaw Nation held sovereignty over remaining Mississippi homeland
U.S. assumed control of Chickasaw lands; Chickasaw Nation relocated to present-day Oklahoma