| Indian Territory | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unorganized territory ofindependentIndian nations of the United States | |||||||||||
| 1834–1907 | |||||||||||
 TheOklahoma (west of the red line) and Indian Territories (east of the red line) in 1890 | |||||||||||
| Capital |
| ||||||||||
| • Type | Devolved independent tribal governments | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 30 June 1834 | |||||||||||
• The 'Old Settlers' first arrivals | 1802 | ||||||||||
• Platte Purchase | 1836 | ||||||||||
• Kansas–Nebraska Act | May 30, 1854 | ||||||||||
• NameOklahoma created | September 21, 1865 | ||||||||||
• Oklahoma Territory separated | May 2, 1890 | ||||||||||
• Merged into Oklahoma | June 16, 1906 | ||||||||||
• Oklahoma statehood | 16 November 1907 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||||
Indian Territory and theIndian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by theUnited States government for the relocation ofNative Americans who heldoriginal Indian title to their land as an independent nation. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy ofIndian removal. After theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one ofassimilation.
Indian Territory later came to refer to anunorganized territory whose general borders were initially set by theNonintercourse Act of 1834, and was the successor to the remainder of theMissouri Territory afterMissouri received statehood. The borders of Indian Territory were reduced in size as variousOrganic Acts were passed byCongress to createorganized territories of the United States. The 1906Oklahoma Enabling Act created the single state ofOklahoma by combiningOklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, ending the existence of an unorganized independent Indian Territory as such, and formally incorporating the tribes and residents into the United States.
Before Oklahoma statehood, Indian Territory from 1890 onward comprised the territorial holdings of theCherokee,Choctaw,Chickasaw,Creek,Seminole, and other displaced Eastern American tribes.Indian reservations remain within the boundaries of U.S. states, but are largely exempt from state jurisdiction. The term "Indian country" today is used to signify lands under the control of Native nations, including Indian reservations, trust lands onOklahoma Tribal Statistical Area, or, more casually, to describe anywhere large numbers of Native Americans live.
_(14770610601).jpg)
Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land in theUnited States reserved for the forced resettlement ofNative Americans. As such, it was not a traditional territory for the tribes settled upon it.[1] The general borders were set by theIndian Intercourse Act of 1834. The territory was located in theCentral United States.
While Congress passed severalOrganic Acts that provided a path for statehood for much of the originalIndian Country, Congress never passed an Organic Act for the Indian Territory. Indian Territory was never anorganized territory of the United States. In general, tribes could not sell land to non-Indians (Johnson v. McIntosh). Treaties with the tribes restricted entry of non-Indians into tribal areas; Indian tribes were largely self-governing, weresuzerain nations, with established tribal governments and well established cultures. The region never had a formal government until after theAmerican Civil War.
After the Civil War, the Southern Treaty Commission re-wrote treaties with tribes that sided with theConfederacy, reducing the territory of theFive Civilized Tribes and providing land to resettlePlains Indians and tribes of theMidwestern United States.[2] These re-written treaties included provisions for a territorial legislature with proportional representation from various tribes.
In time, the Indian Territory was reduced to what is nowOklahoma. TheOrganic Act of 1890 reduced Indian Territory to the lands occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes and the Tribes of theQuapaw Indian Agency (at the borders of Kansas and Missouri). The remaining western portion of the former Indian Territory became theOklahoma Territory.
The Oklahoma Organic Act applied the laws ofNebraska to the organized Oklahoma Territory, and the laws ofArkansas to the still unorganized Indian Territory, since for years the federal U.S. District Court on the eastern borderline inFt. Smith, Arkansas had criminal and civil jurisdiction over the territory.
The concept of an Indian territory is the successor to the BritishIndian Reserve, aBritish American territory established by theRoyal Proclamation of 1763 that set aside land for use by theNative American tribes. The proclamation limited the settlement of Europeans to lands east of theAppalachian Mountains. The territory remained active until theTreaty of Paris that ended theAmerican Revolutionary War, and the land was ceded to the United States. The Indian Reserve was slowly reduced in size via treaties with the American colonists, and after the British defeat in the Revolutionary War, the Reserve was ignored byEuropean Americansettlers who slowlyexpanded westward.
At the time of the American Revolutionary War, many Native American tribes had long-standing relationships with the British, and were loyal toGreat Britain, but they had a less-developed relationship with the American colonists. After the defeat of the British in the war, the Americans twice invaded theOhio Country and were twice defeated. They finally defeated the IndianWestern Confederacy at theBattle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and imposed theTreaty of Greenville, which ceded most of what is now Ohio, part of present-dayIndiana, and the lands that include present-dayChicago andDetroit, to theUnited States federal government.
The period after the American Revolutionary War was one of rapid western expansion. The areas occupied byNative Americans in the United States were called Indian country. They were distinguished from "unorganized territory" because the areas were established by treaty.
In 1803, the United States agreed to purchaseFrance's claim toFrench Louisiana for a total of $15 million (less than 3 cents per acre).[3]
PresidentThomas Jefferson doubted the legality of the purchase.Robert R. Livingston, the chief negotiator of the purchase, however, believed that the 3rd article of the treaty of theLouisiana Purchase would be acceptable toCongress. The 3rd article stated, in part:[4]
the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess.
— 8 Stat. at L. 202
This committed the U.S. government to "the ultimate, but not to the immediate, admission" of the territory as multiple states, and "postponed its incorporation into the Union to the pleasure of Congress".[4]
After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson and his successors viewed much of the land west of the Mississippi River as a place to resettle the Native Americans, so that white settlers would be free to live in the lands east of the river.Indian removal became the official policy of the United States government with the passage of the 1830Indian Removal Act, formulated by PresidentAndrew Jackson.
WhenLouisiana became a state in 1812, the remaining territory was renamedMissouri Territory to avoid confusion.[clarification needed]Arkansaw Territory, which included the present State of Arkansas plus much of the state of Oklahoma, was created out of the southern part of Missouri Territory in 1819. During negotiations with theChoctaw in 1820 for theTreaty of Doak's Stand, Andrew Jackson ceded more of Arkansas Territory to the Choctaw than he realized, from what is now Oklahoma into Arkansas, east ofFt. Smith, Arkansas.[5] TheGeneral Survey Act of 1824 allowed a survey that established the western border of Arkansas Territory 45 miles west of Ft. Smith. But this was part of the negotiated lands ofLovely's Purchase where theCherokee, Choctaw, Creek and other tribes had been settling, and these indian nations objected strongly. In 1828 a new survey redefined the western Arkansas border just west of Ft. Smith.[6] After these redefinitions, the "Indian zone" would cover the present states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and part of Iowa.[7]
Before the 1871Indian Appropriations Act, much of what was called Indian Territory was a large area in the central part of the United States whose boundaries were set by treaties between the US Government and various indigenous tribes. After 1871, the Federal Government dealt with Indian Tribes through statute; the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act also stated that "hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to invalidate or impair the obligation of any treaty heretofore lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian nation or tribe".[8][9][10][11]
The Indian Appropriations Act also made it a federal crime to commit murder, manslaughter, rape, assault with intent to kill, arson, burglary, or larceny within any Territory of the United States. The Supreme Court affirmed the action in 1886 inUnited States v. Kagama, which affirmed that the U.S. government hasplenary power over Native American tribes within its borders using the rationalization that "The power of the general government over these remnants of a race once powerful ... is necessary to their protection as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell".[12] While the federal government of the United States had previously recognized the Indian Tribes as semi-independent, "it has the right and authority, instead of controlling them by treaties, to govern them by acts of Congress, they being within the geographical limit of the United States ... The Indians [Native Americans] owe no allegiance to a State within which their reservation may be established, and the State gives them no protection."[13]
_-_Geographicus_-_NebraskaKansas-colton-1855.jpg)
White settlers continued to flood into Indian country. As the population increased, the homesteaders could petition Congress for creation of a territory. This would initiate anOrganic Act, which established a three-part territorial government. The governor and judiciary were appointed by the President of the United States, while the legislature was elected by citizens residing in the territory. One non-voting representative was allowed a seat in theU.S. House of Representatives. The federal government took responsibility for territorial affairs. Later, the inhabitants of the territory could apply for admission as a full state. No such action was taken for the so-called Indian Territory, so that area was not treated as a legal territory.[7]
The reduction of the land area of Indian Territory (or Indian Country, as defined in theIndian Intercourse Act of 1834), the successor of Missouri Territory began almost immediately after its creation with:
Indian Country was reduced to the approximate boundaries of the current state of Oklahoma by theKansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which createdKansas Territory andNebraska Territory. The key boundaries of the territories were:
Kansas became a state in 1861, and Nebraska became a state in 1867. In 1890 theOklahoma Organic Act created Oklahoma Territory out of the western part of Indian Territory, in anticipation of admitting both Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory as a future single State of Oklahoma.
Some in federal leadership, such as Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward, did not believe in the rights of Indians to continue their separate tribal governments, and vocally championed opening the area to white settlement while campaigning forAbraham Lincoln in 1860.[14] Some historians argued Seward's words steered many tribes, notably the Cherokee[15] and the Choctaw[16] intoan alliance with the Confederate States.
At the beginning of theCivil War, Indian Territory had been essentially reduced to the boundaries of the present-day U.S. state ofOklahoma, and the primary residents of the territory were members of the Five Civilized Tribes orPlains tribes that had been relocated to the western part of the territory on land leased from the Five Civilized Tribes. In 1861, the U.S. abandonedFort Washita, leaving theChickasaw and Choctaw Nations defenseless against the Plains tribes. Later the same year, theConfederate States of America signed aTreaty with Choctaws and Chickasaws. Ultimately, the Five Civilized Tribes and other tribes that had been relocated to the area, signed treaties of friendship with the Confederacy.
During the Civil War, Congress gave the U.S. president the authority to, if a tribe was "in a state of actual hostility to the government of the United States... and, by proclamation, to declare all treaties with such tribe to be abrogated by such tribe"(25 USC Sec. 72).[17]
Members of the Five Civilized Tribes, and others who had relocated to the Oklahoma section of Indian Territory, fought primarily on the side of the Confederacy during theAmerican Civil War in Indian territory. Brigadier GeneralStand Watie, a Confederate commander of theCherokee Nation, became the last Confederate general to surrender in the American Civil War, near the community ofDoaksville on June 23, 1865. TheReconstruction Treaties signed at the end of the Civil War fundamentally changed the relationship between the tribes and the U.S. government.
TheReconstruction era played out differently in Indian Territory and for Native Americans than for the rest of the country. In 1862, Congress passed a law that allowed the president, by proclamation, to cancel treaties with Indian Nations siding with the Confederacy (25 USC 72).[18]TheUnited States House Committee on Territories (created in 1825) was examining the effectiveness of the policy of Indian removal, which was after the war considered to be of limited effectiveness. It was decided that a new policy ofAssimilation would be implemented. To implement the new policy, the Southern Treaty Commission was created by Congress to write new treaties with the Tribes siding with the Confederacy.
After the Civil War the Southern Treaty Commission re-wrote treaties with tribes that sided with the Confederacy, reducing the territory of the Five Civilized Tribes and providing land to resettle Plains Native Americans and tribes of the mid-west.[19] General components of replacement treaties signed in 1866 include:[20]
One component of assimilation would be the distribution of property held in-common by the tribe to individual members of the tribe.[21]
TheMedicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name given to three treaties signed inMedicine Lodge, Kansas between the U.S. government and southern Plains Indian tribes who would ultimately reside in the western part of Indian Territory (ultimately Oklahoma Territory). The first treaty was signed October 21, 1867, with theKiowa andComanche tribes.[22]The second, with thePlains Apache, was signed the same day.[23] The third treaty was signed with theSouthern Cheyenne andArapaho on October 28.[24]
Another component of assimilation was homesteading. TheHomestead Act of 1862 was signed into law by PresidentAbraham Lincoln. The Act gave an applicantfreeholdtitle to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres (65 hectares or one-fourthsection) of undevelopedfederal land. Within Indian Territory, as lands were removed from communal tribal ownership, a land patent (or first-title deed) was given to tribal members. The remaining land was sold on a first-come basis, typically byland run, with settlers also receiving a land patent type deed. For these now former Indian lands, theUnited States General Land Office distributed the sales funds to the various tribal entities, according to previously negotiated terms.
It was in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal government on the use of the land, that Choctaw Nation ChiefKiliahote suggested that Indian Territory be given the nameOklahoma, which derives from theChoctaw phraseokla, 'people', andhumma, translated as 'red'.[25] He envisioned an all–American Indian state controlled by the tribes and overseen by the United StatesSuperintendent of Indian Affairs.Oklahoma later became the de facto name forOklahoma Territory, and it was officially approved in 1890, two years after that area was opened to white settlers.[26][27][28]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 180,182 | — |
| 1900 | 392,060 | +117.6% |
| Source: 1890–1900[29] | ||
The Oklahoma Organic Act of 1890 created an organized Oklahoma Territory of the United States, with the intent of combining the Oklahoma and Indian territories into a single State of Oklahoma. The citizens of Indian Territory tried, in 1905, to gain admission to the union as theState of Sequoyah, but were rebuffed byCongress and an Administration which did not want two new Western states, Sequoyah and Oklahoma.Theodore Roosevelt then proposed a compromise that would join Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory to form a single state. This resulted in passage of theOklahoma Enabling Act, which President Roosevelt signed June 16, 1906.[30] empowered the people residing in Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory to elect delegates to a state constitutional convention and subsequently to be admitted to the union as a single state. Citizens then joined to seek admission of a single state to the Union.
With Oklahoma statehood in November 1907, Indian Territory was effectively extinguished. However, in 2020, the United States Supreme Court prompted a review of tribal lands through its decision inMcGirt v. Oklahoma. Subsequently, almost the entire eastern half of Oklahoma was found to have remainedIndian country.
Indian Territory marks the confluence of theSouthern Plains andSoutheastern Woodlandscultural regions. Its western region is part of theGreat Plains, subjected to extended periods ofdrought and high winds, and theOzark Plateau is to the east in ahumid subtropical climate zone. Tribes indigenous to the present day state of Oklahoma include bothagrarian andhunter-gatherer tribes. The arrival of horses with the Spanish in the 16th century ushered inhorse culture-era, when tribes could adopt anomadic lifestyle and follow abundantbison herds.
TheSouthern Plains villagers, an archaeological culture that flourished from 800 to 1500 AD, lived in semi-sedentary villages throughout the western part of Indian Territory, where they farmedmaize and hunted buffalo. They are likely ancestors of theWichita and Affiliated Tribes. The ancestors of the Wichita have lived in the eastern Great Plains from the Red River north to Nebraska for at least 2,000 years.[31] The early Wichita people were hunters and gatherers who gradually adopted agriculture. By about 900 AD, farming villages began to appear on terraces above theWashita River andSouth Canadian River in Oklahoma.
Member tribes of theCaddo Confederacy lived in the eastern part of Indian Territory and are ancestors of theCaddo Nation. The Caddo people speak aCaddoan language and is a confederation of several tribes who traditionally inhabited much of what is nowEast Texas,North Louisiana, and portions of southernArkansas, andOklahoma. The tribe was once part of theCaddoan Mississippian culture and thought to be an extension of woodland period peoples who started inhabiting the area around 200 BC. In an 1835 Treaty[32] made at the agency-house in theCaddo Nation and state ofLouisiana, the Caddo Nation sold their tribal lands to the U.S. In 1846, the Caddo, along with several other tribes, signed a treaty that made the Caddo a protectorate of the U.S. and established framework of a legal system between the Caddo and the U.S.[33] Tribal headquarters are inBinger, Oklahoma.
The Wichita and Caddo both spokeCaddoan languages, as did theKichai people, who were also indigenous to what is now Oklahoma and ultimately became part of theWichita and Affiliated Tribes. The Wichita (and other tribes) signed a treaty of friendship with the U.S. in 1835.[34] The tribe's headquarters are inAnadarko, Oklahoma.
In the 18th century, prior toIndian Removal by the U.S. federal government, theKiowa,Apache, andComanche people entered into Indian Territory from the west, and theQuapaw andOsage entered from the east. During Indian Removal of the 19th century, additional tribes received their land either by treaty via land grant from thefederal government of the United States or they purchased the land receivingfee simplerecorded title.
Many of the tribes forcibly relocated to Indian Territory were fromSoutheastern United States, including the so-calledFive Civilized Tribes orCherokee,Chickasaw,Choctaw,Muscogee Creeks, andSeminole, but also theNatchez,Yuchi,Alabama,Koasati, andCaddo people.
Between 1814 and 1840, theFive Civilized Tribes had gradually ceded most of their lands in the Southeast section of the US through a series of treaties. The southern part of Indian Country (what eventually became the State of Oklahoma) served as the destination for the policy of Indian removal, a policy pursued intermittently byAmerican presidents early in the 19th century, but aggressively pursued by President Andrew Jackson after the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Five Civilized Tribes in theSouth were the most prominent tribes displaced by the policy, a relocation that came to be known as theTrail of Tears during the Choctaw removals starting in 1831. The trail ended in what is now Arkansas and Oklahoma, where there were already many Indians living in the territory, as well as whites and escaped slaves. Other tribes, such as theDelaware,Cheyenne, andApache were also forced to relocate to the Indian territory.
TheFive Civilized Tribes established tribal capitals in the following towns:
These tribes founded towns such asTulsa,Ardmore,Muskogee, which became some of the larger towns in the state. They also brought their Africanslaves to Oklahoma, which added to theAfrican American population in the state.
TheWestern Lakes Confederacy was a loose confederacy of tribes around theGreat Lakes region, organized following the American Revolutionary War to resist the expansion of the United States into theNorthwest Territory. Members of the confederacy were ultimately removed to the present-day Oklahoma, including theShawnee,Delaware, also calledLenape,Miami, andKickapoo.
The area ofPottawatomie County, Oklahoma was used to resettle theIowa,Sac and Fox,Absentee Shawnee,Potawatomi, andKickapoo tribes.
TheCouncil of Three Fires is an alliance of theOjibwe,Odawa, andPotawatomi tribes. In theSecond Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1829, the tribes of the Council of Three Fires ceded to the United States their lands inIllinois,Michigan, andWisconsin. The 1833 Treaty of Chicago forced the members of the Council of Three Fires to move first to present-dayIowa, thenKansas andNebraska and ultimately toOklahoma.[37]
The Illinois Potawatomi moved to present-day Nebraska and the Indiana Potawatomi moved to present-dayOsawatomie, Kansas, an event known as thePotawatomi Trail of Death. The group settling in Nebraska adapted to the Plains Indian culture but the group settling in Kansas remained steadfast to theirwoodlands culture. In 1867, part of the Kansas group negotiated the "Treaty of Washington with the Potawatomi" in which the KansasPrairie Band Potawatomi Nation split and part of their land in Kansas was sold, purchasing land near present-dayShawnee, Oklahoma, they became theCitizen Potawatomi Nation.[38]
The Odawa tribe first purchased lands nearOttawa, Kansas, residing there until 1867 when they sold their lands in Kansas and purchased land in an area administered by theQuapaw Indian Agency inOttawa County, Oklahoma, becoming theOttawa Tribe of Oklahoma.
ThePeoria tribe, native toSouthern Illinois, moved south toMissouri then andKansas, where they joined thePiankashaw,Kaskaskia, andWea tribes. Under stipulations of the Omnibus Treaty of 1867, these confederated tribes and theMiami tribe left Kansas for Indian Territory on lands purchased from theQuapaw.[39]
TheIroquois Confederacy was an alliance of tribes, originally from theUpstate New York area consisting of theSeneca,Cayuga,Onondaga,Oneida,Mohawk, and, later,Tuscarora. In the pre-Revolutionary War era, their confederacy expanded to areas fromKentucky andVirginia north. All of the members of the Confederacy, except the Oneida and Tuscarora, allied with theBritish during the Revolutionary War, and were forced to cede their land after the war. Most moved toCanada after theTreaty of Canandaigua in 1794, though some remained inNew York state and some moved toOhio, where they joined the Shawnee.
The 1838 and 1842Treaties of Buffalo Creek were treaties with New York Indians, such as the Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, andOneida Indian Nation, which covered land sales of tribal reservations under the U.S. Indian removal program, under which they planned to move most eastern tribes to Indian Territory. Initially, the tribes were moved to the present state ofKansas, and later toOklahoma on land administered by the Quapaw Indian Agency.
Western Indian Territory is part of the Southern Plains and is the ancestral home of theWichita people, a Plains tribe. Additionalindigenous peoples of the Plains entered Indian Territory during the horse culture era. Prior to adoption of the horse, some Plains Indian tribes were agrarian and others werehunter-gatherers. Some tribes used the dog as adraft animal to pull smalltravois (or sleighs) to help move from place to place; however, by the 18th century, many Southern Plains tribes adopted thehorse culture and becamenomadic. Thetipi, an animal hide lodge, was used byPlains Indians as a dwelling because they were portable and could be reconstructed quickly when the tribe settled in a new area for hunting or ceremonies.
The Arapaho historically had assisted the Cheyenne andLakota people in driving theKiowa andComanche south from the Northern Plains, their hunting area ranged from Montana to Texas. Kiowa and Comanche controlled a vast expanse of territory from the Arkansas River to the Brazos River. By 1840 many plains tribes had made peace with each other and developedPlains Indian Sign Language as a means of communicate with their allies.
After theModoc War from 1872 to 1873,Modoc people were forced from their homelands in southernOregon and northernCalifornia to settle at theQuapaw Agency, Indian Territory. The federal government permitted some to return to Oregon in 1909. Those that remained in Oklahoma became theModoc Tribe of Oklahoma.[46]
TheNez Perce, aPlateau tribe from Washington and Idaho, were sent to Indian Territory as prisoners of war in 1878, but after great losses in their numbers due to disease, drought and famine, they returned to their northwestern homelands in 1885.[47]
During the Reconstruction Era, when the size of Indian Territory was reduced, the renegotiated treaties with theFive Civilized Tribes and the tribes occupying the land of the Quapaw Indian Agency contained provisions for a government structure in Indian Territory. Replacement treaties signed in 1866 contained provisions for:[20]
In a continuation of the new policy, the 1890 Oklahoma Organic Act extended civil and criminal laws of Arkansas over the Indian Territory,[48] and extended the laws of Nebraska over Oklahoma Territory.[49]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
| Prior to 19th century |
|
|---|---|
| 19th century |
|
| 20th century |
|
| 21st century |
|
