[Footnote 188: See report of General Knox, Secretary of War, to President Washington, July 7, 1789; Creek treaty of 1790; Cherokee treaty of 1791, etc.] [Footnote 189: Confidential message of President Jefferson to Congress, January 18, 1803.] [Footnote 190: March 25.] [Footnote 191: See letter of Secretary of War to Col. R. J. Meigs, May 5, 1808.] [Footnote 192: May 5, 1808.] [Footnote 193: January 9, 1809] [Footnote 194: Letter of Secretary of War to Col. R. J. Meigs, November 1, 1809.] [Footnote 195: March 27, 1811.] [Footnote 196: Indian Office files.] [Footnote 197: March 28, 1811.] [Footnote 198: December 26.] [Footnote 199: November 22, 1815.] [Footnote 200: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 138.] [Footnote 201: March 26, 1816.] [Footnote 202: May 8, 1811.] [Footnote 203: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 120.] [Footnote 204: Letter of Secretary of War to Agent Meigs, November 22, 1815.] [Footnote 205: March, 1816.] [Footnote 206: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 139.] [Footnote 207: Letter from General Jackson to Secretary of War, June 10, 1816.] [Footnote 208: Letter from Secretary of War to United States Senators from Tennessee, April 4, 1816.] [Footnote 209: See letter of Secretary of War to Barnett, Hawkins, and Gaines, April 16, 1816.] [Footnote 210: April 16, 1816. These boundary commissioners were William Barnett, Col. Benjamin Hawkins, and Maj. E. P. Gaines.] [Footnote 211: Letter of General Jackson to Secretary of War, June 10, 1816; also from Commissioner Barnett, June 7, 1816.] [Footnote 212: Old map on file in General Land Office.] [Footnote 213: June 7, 1816.] [Footnote 214: From a letter of Agent Meigs bearing date December 26, 1804, it seems that he was just in receipt of a communication from the Chickasaw chiefs relative to their claim to lands on the north side of Tennessee River. The chiefs assert that part of their people formerly lived at a place called Chickasaw Old Fields, on the Tennessee, about 20 miles above the mouth of Elk River; that while living there they had a war with the Cherokees, when, finding themselves too much separated from their principal settlements, they removed back thereto. Afterwards, on making peace with the Cherokees, their boundaries were agreed on as they are defined in the instrument given them by President Washington in 1794. They further state that they had a war with the Shawnees and drove them from all the waters of the Tennessee and Duck Rivers, as well as conflicts with the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Creeks, in which they defeated all attempts of their enemies to dispossess them of their country. Agent Meigs remarks that he is convinced the claim of the Chickasaws is the best founded; that until recently the Cherokees had always alluded to the country in controversy as the hunting ground of the four nations, and that their few settlements within this region were of recent date.]