Civilized settlement & nomadic dominion: Inter-tribal treaties and grand councils between the Cherokee and Osage Indians, 1817-1828

The inter-tribal councils and treaties of 1818 and 1822 between the Cherokee and Osage tribes in the Missouri and Arkansas territories are the focus of the thesis. The tribes that migrated into western territories fled warfare and American pressure for tribal lands and found the landscapes populated by vastly different tribes. Inter-tribal diplomacy is one potentially vital factor for Cherokee relocation into Osage country. Cherokee survival within Osage country hinged on councils and diplomacy that attempted to stop the violence that arose due to the use of hunting grounds and retaliatory murders. Cherokee and Osage diplomacy in the western territories of Missouri and Arkansas Territory occurred as migrant Native Americans headed into the western regions. The growing pressures for resources called attention to the need for creating diplomatic meetings to quell inter-tribal violence and misunderstandings between tribes. The thesis examines Cherokee and Osage inter-tribal diplomacy by tracing how the Cherokee in the western territories dealt with the issues of violence and warfare with the Osage Nation. The thesis concludes with the Cherokees and Osages having attempted inter-tribal diplomacy and the failures of the peace accords. The Cherokee-Osage inter-tribal warfare provided American settlers with examples used to justify greater United States military occupation in the western territories. The Cherokee and Osage councils and treaties of 1818 and 1822 are crucial years for inter-tribal diplomacy between the two nations and highlight the history of Native peoples in the territories created by the United States