Improvements to Annexed Cherokee Lands

By article 2 of the treaty of May 6, 1828 (7 Stat., 311), the United States, in order to secure to the Cherokee Nation "a permanent home," agreed to "possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever," 7,000,000 acres of land, within described boundaries, and in addition "guaranteed to the Cherokee Nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of the above-described limits, and as far west as the sovereignty of the United States, and their right of soil, extend."

Two things occurred in this treaty, first, the United States acknowledged the Cherokee Tribe's sovereignty over the 7 million acres of land, and the Cherokee Tribe ceded any remaining lands back to the United States. Some of the Cherokee settlers who had already settled on land originally thought to be Tribal, now found themselves excluded from the Tribal lands, and their land was to be ceded back to the United States.

The following documents list the improvements made, with the proprietors' name, on those lands which were ceded back to the United States. It was the expectation of those named, that in return for ceding of their lands, they would receive a cash payment equal to the improvements.

List of the improvements, with the proprietors' names, on lands ceded by the Cherokees to the United States, by the treaty of the 6th of May, 1828, with the appraised value, &c. annexed.

Note: The information above was taken from a printed source, which in turn came from the original Senate Document. That Senate Document would have been a printed copy of the original handwritten record. What I'm trying to get across is there have been several layers of transcriptions, and wherever humans are involved, mistakes can and do occur. Indeed, there appears mathematical errors in the total calculations for a few individuals... that could either be a mathematical error, or an error by an item being left off of the transcription. Furthermore, since this is a Native American document, one should expect spelling errors in the names. Most Native American's during this time frame were unable to write, and may not been able to spell their own name. E. W. Duval would have wrote the name out as he heard it from the Native American. A good example would be "Big Sinews" which likely should have been "Big Snooze." So think phonetically if looking for the Indian name.