1. Peace and friendship are established between the United States and Cherokees.
2. The Cherokee Nation acknowledge the following as their western boundary: South of the Tennessee River, commencing at Camp Coffee, on the south side of the Tennessee River, which is opposite the Chickasaw Island; running from thence a due south course to the top of the dividing ridge between the waters of the Tennessee and Tombigby Rivers; thence eastwardly along said ridge, leaving the headwaters of the Black Warrior to the right hand until opposed by the west branch of Wells' Creek; down the east bank of said creek to the Coosa River, and down said river.
3. The Cherokees cede all claim to land south and west of the above line. In consideration for such cession the United States agree to pay an annuity of $6,000 for ten years and the sum of $5,000 within sixty days after ratification of the treaty.
4. The boundary line above described, after due notice given to the Cherokees, shall be ascertained and marked by commissioners appointed by the President, accompanied by two representatives of the Cherokee Nation.
5. The Cherokee Nation agree to meet the United States treaty commissioners at Turkeytown, on Coosa River, September 28, 1816, to confirm or reject said treaty; a failure to so meet the commissioners to be equivalent to ratification.
Ratified at Turkeytown by the whole Cherokee Nation, October 4, 1816.
HISTORICAL DATA.
FURTHER PURCHASE OF CHEROKEE LANDS.
On the 27th of May, 1816, the Secretary of War instructed Agent Meigs to endeavor, at the next session of the national council of the Cherokees, to obtain a cession of the Cherokee claim north of Tennessee River within the State of Tennessee. For this proposed cession he was authorized to pay $20,000, in one or more payments, and $5,000 in presents; also to give Colonel Lowry, an influential chief among them, a sum equal to the value of his improvements.[218]
He was further instructed to make an effort to secure the cession of the lands which they had declined to sell the previous winter and which lay to the west of a line drawn due south from that point of the Tennessee River intersected by the eastern boundary of Madison County, Alabama.