being taken as a captive in southwestern Penn-
sylvania during the French and Indian War (see
entry for JULY 4, 1754). Adopted into the tribe,
Jemison had two Seneca husbands and chose not
to return to white society when she later had the
opportunity.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is created.
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun establishes the
Bureau of Indian Affairs within the War Depart-
ment. The bureau is charged with administering
the United States’s various dealings with the Indian
tribes within its borders. Calhoun chooses Thomas
McKenney (see entry for 1821) as the bureau’s first
head and instructs him to manage funds allocated
for Indians, regulate Indian trade, and oversee
Indian schools.
1825The Choctaw Academy is established.
The Choctaw Academy, a boarding school for
Choctaw boys, is founded in Kentucky using tribal
funds from earlier land cessions. The first manual
labor school for Indians, the institution offers stu-
dents both academic and religious instruction and
training in farming and shop work.
The Treaty of Prairie du Chien attempts to
settle Dakota-Ojibway land disputes.
For more than 100 years, the Dakota and the Ojib-
way have fought for control over lands to the west of
the Great Plains. To try to establish a peace between
the two groups, Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro
calls Indian leaders to a council at Prairie du Chien,
in present-day Wisconsin. In addition to the Dakota
and Ojibway, the Sac, Fox, Menominee, Iowa,
Winnebago, Ottawa, and Potawatomi send repre-
sentatives. The treaty negotiated at Prairie du Chien
fixes the Red River as the boundary between the
Dakota and Ojibway territory. Both tribes, how-
ever, will ignore this border. The conflict between
them will continue more than 30 years until the
groups are confined on reservations.
Alexis de Tocqueville analyzes white
Americans’ treatment of Indians.
Following a nine-month tour of the United States
and Canada, French nobleman Alexis de Toc-
queville writes Democracy in America. In this classic
commentary on American behavior and values, he
writes that Americans “kindly take the Indian by
the hand and lead them to a grave far from the
lands of their fathers.” He predicts that even after
eastern Indians are removed to western land “the
most grasping nation of the globe” will continue to
displace tribes by eventually taking over their new
homelands.February 12William McIntosh signs away Creek land in
the Treaty of Indian Springs.
A leader of the Lower Creek (also called the White
Sticks), William McIntosh signs the Treaty of In-
dian Springs, in which he cedes most of the Creek’s
remaining land in the Southeast. Long a supporter
of the United States, McIntosh served as a general
in the U.S. army during the Creek War (see entry
for JULY 27, 1813). He has since become an advo-
cate for the Creek’s removal to the West. Believing
their relocation is inevitable. McIntosh and fifty
other Lower Creek agree to sell the territory to ob-
tain money to fund the removal. (See also entry for
MAY 31, 1825.)May 31The Creek execute William McIntosh.
On the orders of the Creek council, a force of 170
men is sent to the home of Lower Creek leader Wil-
liam McIntosh. They are led by Menawa, an Upper
Creek political opponent of McIntosh. The war-
riors capture McIntosh and hang him for violating
the council’s prohibition on further land cessions
by negotiating the Treaty of Indian Springs with the
United States (see entry for FEBRUARY 12, 1825).
Congress will later nullify the treaty, maintaining
that McIntosh and the other signers did not have the
authority to speak for the Creek Nation as a whole.