Treaty Research

1962 pestition by the Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux from digital collections OKState
Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands, The Lower Sioux Indian Community, Petitioners, v. the United States of America, Defendant, 1962. Oklahoma State University digital collection on Indian Affaris. https://cdm17279.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17279coll10/id/251/rec/7

The following archival links will lead you to treaties OR LAND DISPUTES signed between the colonial, state,  or U.S. government and Native American nations. Treaties determine relationship between nations, which often include geographical boundaries and/or territorial changes, but they also document the negotiation that took place, enumerate the people present during those negotiations,  and reference earlier treaties.


Locate at least one treaty OR LAND DISPUTE relating to your area or Indian nation. To read the treaty, you will need to have an atlas open to a page that shows the rivers of your region, because land historically was identified with rivers (your library will have many).  In reading the Treaty, you will likely not understand all. Read slowly and carefully (i.e., some hours here), with the map at hand, and at the end, you will understand more than you understood to start with. This is really where you start to get the details of how Indians lost their land.
Upload an image of the treaty to your site and situate it within its historical context. Mention not only when and where the treaty took place, but other relevant information that you may obtain, such as who participated in the negotiations, what the outcomes were for both sides, etc.

The Avalon Project at Yale

Oklahoma State Treaties

Info on Secret Indian Treaties of California

The Unratified California Treaties

Indigenous Law Portal

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