Treaty of Indian Springs
historyvisited Washington, D.C. in 1826 to protest the Treaty of Indian Springs. Painted by Charles Bird King.]]
There are two Treaties of Indian Springs with the Creek Indians. The first treaty was signed January 8, 1821. In it, the Creeks ceded land to the state of Georgia in return for cash payments totaling $200,000 over a period of 14 years. Further, the state of Georgia would receive payment from the Federal Government, to satisfy claims of citizens of Georgia against the Creeks for seizure or destruction of property prior to the 1802 act of Congress which regulated intercourse with Indian tribes.
The leading signatory for the Lower Creeks was Chief William McIntosh. The son of a Loyalist officer and a Muscogee woman he supported U.S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins 'civilizing mission,' and led the Lower Creeks in the Creek War of 1812-13, against the traditionalist Red Stick faction of the Upper Creeks, and the First Seminole War. He acquired slaves and built a medium-sized cotton plantation on the Chattahoochee at Lockhau Talofau (Acorn Bluff) in present-day Carroll County. For his role in signing the First Treaty of Indian Springs, McIntosh received 1,000 acres of land at Indian Springs, where he built a second plantation and a hotel to draw tourists to local hot springs.
The second treaty was signed at the Indian Springs Hotel on February 12, 1825 and ratified March 7, 1825. It was negotiated by McIntosh and his first cousin, Georgia Governor George Troup. Under this treaty the Lower Creeks surrendered their lands east of the Chattahoochee, including the sacred Ocmulgee Old Fields, and accepted relocation west of the Mississippi River to an equivalent parcel of land along the Arkansas River. In compensation for the move to unimproved land, for the inconvenience of the move and to obtain supplies, the Creek nation would receive $200,000 paid in decreasing installments over a period of years. A controversial article provided additional payments to McIntosh for the lands granted to him in 1821.»http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3541 This second treaty started a Tale of Lost Treasure, as treasure hunters have spent time looking for the $400,000.00 in gold coins that it was believed Chief McIntosh took from the Treaty signing location, as stated in "Georgia's Fabulous Treasure Tales", by Ernest M. Andrews.
The treaty was popular with Georgians, who re-elected Troupe in the state's first popular election in 1825. However, it was only signed by six chiefs, and the Creek National Council denounced it, ordering the execution of McIntosh and the other Muscogee signatories. On April 29, Upper Creek Chief Menawa attacked Chief McIntosh's plantation at Lokchau Talofau with 200 warriors, killing him and setting fire to his home. The second Treaty of Indian Springs was ratified by the U.S. Congress by one vote, but a delegation from the Creek National Council led by Chief Opothleyahola traveled to Washington with a petition to John Quincy Adams to have it revoked. They negotiated the 1826 Treaty of Washington, in which the Muscogee surrendered most of the lands claimed by Georgia under more generous terms, retaining a small piece of land on the Georgia-Alabama border, and were not required to move west. Troup refused to recognize the new treaty, ordering the lands surveyed for a lottery, and began forcibly evicting the Lower Creeks. Adams threatened federal intervention, but backed down after Troup mobilized Georgia militia.
The area around the spring is protected as Indian Springs State Park between Jackson and Flovilla in Butts County, Georgia.
- List of treaties