The Treaty of Tippecanoe, 1832

The Treaty of Tippecanoe, signed in 1832, was an agreement between the Potawatomi nation and the U.S. government. This treaty concerned Potawatomi lands in the northwestern part of Indiana. The Potawatomi nation was granted $100,000 in goods, payment of over $60,000 in debts, and yearly $20,000 payments for the next 20 years. The treaty also offered the Potawatomi new lands west of the Mississippi River, assistance moving there, as well as farming tools and supplies to cultivate the land.

This treaty was also the first major Indiana treaty to be signed after the Indian Removal Act was made into law in 1830. The Indian Removal Act created an official U.S. federal policy of purchasing, trading, or exchanging Native lands east of the Mississippi River to the U.S. government. Native peoples living on these eastern lands would be moved further west. The most common locations for resettlement were in what is now Oklahoma, then called Indian Territory, and Kansas as well. Reservations were given as and used as ways to control these Native nations. Native peoples who had previously provided for themselves with a mix of farming and hunting instead were forced to convert to a fully western style of agriculture. The lands which were given in the west were often poor and unfertile lands, making this impossible.