Hundreds of the government treaty signers were connected in extended families.


The significance of these family connections lies in the distribution of direct material gain from the treaty making process. 


While the U.S. in general, and all of its non-indigenous citizens to some extent, ultimately benefited materially from the acquisition of Indian land, specific families benefited immediately from participating in treaty making.


The road to personal wealth through treaty making was made easier when everyone signing the treaty for the government was a cousin, brother or in-law of the commissioner on hand. Members of these kinship groups were also connected through a labyrinth of business and political ties each other and to larger networks of signers.


The two largest of these extended families are referred to here as the Chouteau Kinship Group and the Cass Kinship Group.  These two groups include one out of every twenty government signers from all of the Indian treaties, and account for nearly 15 percent of all the government signatures. (Many men signed multiple treaties.) Scores of other signers are connected through smaller extended families.


  1. Connect to Chouteau Kinship Group

  2. Connect to Cass Kinship Group

  3. Connect to other Kinship Groups

In genealogical research, surprising connections are commonplace. It is not difficult to construct a family tree that includes a half dozen Presidents, Elvis Presley and Charlemagne. The extended families referred to here are much more tightly-knit groups --  signers who are connected to fellow signers by the following relationships only:

  1. BulletFather/son

  2. BulletGrandfather/grandson

  3. BulletBrothers, half-brothers and step-brothers

  4. BulletUncle/nephew

  5. BulletBrother-, father-, son- and grandson-in-law

  6. BulletFirst cousins

One of most noticeable features of the 2,500 signers is that they share only 1,500 last names. Treaty making was often a family affair; several extensive kinship groups account for more than one fourth of all the signatures on all the treaties. Family connections were not limited to treaties with specific indigenous nations,, treaties in specific eras, or treaties in specific geographic areas. Members of the Chouteau kinship group, for instance, signed treaties over an 80-year period. with scores of indigenous groups from New York to the Pacific Northwest. Through these kinship ties, signers pursued opportunities for material gain in U.S. Indian relations. Link to the more extensive kinship groups here.