This compact, with an attached note signed by five Ottawa chiefs, was passed in a general council of twenty-one Indian nations held at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Apparently this compact was a way for emigrant tribes, who were now living in close proximity, to "cultivate just and friendly relations among our several communities." It included eight resolutions regulating the contact between nations; for instance, it condemned the practice of revenge killings and bans alcoholic beverages. The chiefs' closing note explained that the council would reconvene in seventy days to hear if each individual nation had accepted the terms of this compact. The Ottawa chiefs had not yet decided if they would agree to these terms. The compact and note are both in Jotham Meeker's handwriting; Meeker was a Baptist missionary at the Ottawa Mission near present-day Ottawa, Kansas.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Tahlequah Compact and note signed by Ottawa chiefs - 1