Treaty Of Spring Wells / Treaty of Spring Wells

After the War of 1812, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass recognized the need to ease tensions between the United States and the Native Peoples who had allied with the British during the war. He asked President James Madison to appoint commissioners to negotiate a peace treaty with eight tribes. President Madison named General William Henry Harrison, General Duncan McArthur and John Graham as commissioners. They met Native American leaders at Spring Wells, a sandy hill with flowing springs near the Detroit River. Leaders from the Odawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Ojibwa, Wyandot, Delaware, Miami and Shawnee tribes attended. The council fire was lit on August 31, 1815, and negotiations began. Treaty of Spring Wells Native American leaders and United States commissioners met at Spring Wells, located near what became in 1843 the site of Fort Wayne. All parties agreed that prior treaties would be honored as written. They did not add any new land grants or payments. On September 8, 1815, commissioners and tribal leaders signed the treaty after it was translated by interpreters. When completed, the parchment document was nearly six feet long. On December 26, 1815, the United States Congress ratified the treaty. There were later treaties involving Michigan tribes, but the Treaty of Spring Wells was the last peace treaty to be signed in Michigan by the United States government.