Treaty of Saginaw

Native Americans ceded a large tract of land (more than six million acres (24,000 km2) in the central portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

The Anishinaabeg people living in the area were allied with British Canada, being major participants in the North American fur trade.

The United States saw this alliance as a threat to national security, and sought to end the fur trade and thus Britain's influence in the area.

Undeterred, Cass and Louis Campau sent two large boats to Saginaw with soldiers and supplies and built a council house for the meeting.

Ogamawkeketo, a representative of the Anishinaabeg, delivered a rousing rebuttal, decrying the Americans for being greedy and invasive compared to the British.

We smoke with you the pipe of peace.This angered Cass, who informed the council that the United States had reigned victorious in the War of 1812 and thus could easily take over Saginaw without payment.

Eventually Neome, an influential Saginaw Ojibwe leader from the Flint basin, started talks with trader Jacob Smith.

As a condition, the Saginaw Ojibwe demanded their annuity be paid in full, unlike the delayed payments of the Treaty of Detroit.

The Americans handled out fifteen barrels of whiskey to quell the situation, leading to the eventual albeit tense resolution of the debate and the signing of the Treaty of Saginaw, ceding most of the land in question to the United States.

The signing of the treaty caused the influence of the Native nations in the old northwest to substantially weaken as the fur trade collapsed, their historic lands were settled, and they became forcibly dependent on annuity payments from the United States.