Beschreibung:

Fine collection of 142 Indian treaties, issued as official proclamations of the United States and signed in type by U.S. Presidents, Washington, 1829-1869. 2-15 pages each, mostly folio, stitched or in original wrappers. Housed in nine custom blue quarter morocco slipcases, spines gilt-lettered, chemises. Overall in excellent condition. SUPERB COLLECTION OF INDIAN TREATIES, QUITE SCARCE INDIVIDUALLY AND UNIQUE AS THE COLLECTION OF FRANK T. SIEBERT, the most important collector to date in the field of North American Indians. These treaties were generally printed in small runs for the principal participants only and are primary source documents for 40 years of relations between Indian tribes and the federal government, recording ever-shifting boundaries, Indian removals and land transfers. Many bear penciled acquisition and bibliographic references. All but 27 of them were collected by Siebert and purchased at his sale, the remainder (which include no duplicates) were purchased from William Reese Company three years later. Individually noteworthy treaties include: the earliest treaty in the group, proclaimed Feb 23, 1829 with the Chippeway, Menomonie and Winnebago tribes, fixing the tribal boundaries in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota; Apr 4, 1832, in which the Creeks ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi in return for lands in the West (Georgia and Alabama Creeks refused to sign); the Treaty of Fort Gibson, present-day Oklahoma, Apr 12, 1834, mapping out and guaranteeing seven million acres to the Cherokees "forever"; the famous Treaty of Chicago, Feb 21, 1835, establishing reservations in Indiana and Michigan; the treaty with the Confederated Tribes of Sac and the Fox Indians, Feb 27, 1837, to which George Catlin was a witness; the Treaty of Council Bluffs, Jul 22, 1846, in which the United Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes ceded all their lands in Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana for a tract in Kansas; the treaty with the Winnebagos, Mar 23, 1861, proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln and probably his first Indian treaty; the Treaty of Fort Wise, Dec 5, 1861, the first Indian treaty in Colorado, witnessed by "Jeb" Stuart and proclaimed by Lincoln; the treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, Jul 10 1866, obtaining "rights of way" and making the Superintendent of Indian Affairs "Governor of the Territory of Oklahoma"; the important treaty with the Cherokee Nation, Aug 11, 1866 granting amnesty to the Cherokees who had repudiated their treaty with the Confederacy; the treaty with the Sissiton and Warpeton Bands of Dakota and Sioux Indians, May 2, 1867, in which these bands disavowed participation in the Sioux Outbreak of 1862 and were given a "permanent" reservation along the Cheyenne River. The treaties have been organized and preserved in nine handsome morocco-backed cases, as follows: Plains Tribes: Seneca; Kickapoo (13) Plains Tribes: Omaha; Delaware; Kansas; Pawnee; Osage (13) Northern Plains: Sioux Tribes (18) Southwest: Comanche; Kiowa; Cheyenne; Osage; Caddo; Apache (13) Southwest: Cherokee; Choctaw; Creek; Seminole (14) Old Northwest: Sac & Fox; Miami; Menomonie; Ioway (18) Old Northwest: Chippewa; Ottawa; Winnebago (23) Various Tribes: Washington Territory; Navajo; Utah Tribes (15) Oregon Tribes: Nez Perce; Rogue River; Assorted Tribes (15) Acquisition: 115 of these treaties were purchased in the Siebert sale, Sotheby's New York, Oct 29, 1999, lot 1064 for $20,700; the remaining 27 treaties purchased from William Reese Company, 2002, $13,950.