Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, Chief of the Choctaws, (1806-1881) was one of the persons selected by the Choctaws in 1828 to survey the southeast section of Indian Territory, the land they had chosen for their home when they were forced to leave Mississippi. Peter Pitchlynn's father was John Pitchlynn, a white man and interpreter for the United States Government, who had married a Choctaw woman of the famous Folsom family. Peter Pitchlynn signed the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty of 1830 whereby the Choctaws gave up their lands in Mississippi for the lands in Indian Territory. Pitchlynn was a well-educated and enlightened man and left a legacy of valuable historical documents in the form of his personal papers which, together with those of his daughter, Sophia, make the Pitchlynn collection a most important one. He was appointed official Choctaw Delegate to Washington in 1853 and carried on negotiations with the Federal Government for the payment of claims, known as the "Net Proceeds Claims," for the land from which they had been removed. As principal chief, it was his duty to negotiate the Treaty of 1866 which readmitted the Choctaws to the Union following the Civil War. His portrait, a watercolor owned by the Gilcrease Institute, was painted by George Catlin in 1834. Included are the original drafts of the "Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty," papers stating the position of the tribe in the Civil War, and letters pertaining to family affairs.