Misplaced Pages

#907092

98-459: Most were forced to move from Ohio to Indian Territory in the early 1830s under the federal Indian Removal program. At the turn of the 20th century, they lost control of communal lands when property was allocated to individual households in a government assimilation effort related to the Dawes Act and extinguishing Indian claims to prepare for the admission of Oklahoma as a state . In

196-521: A State within which their reservation may be established, and the State gives them no protection." 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 an Organic Act , which established a three-part territorial government. The governor and judiciary were appointed by the President of

294-617: A band of Cayuga from Canada joined the Seneca in Indian Territory. In 1902, several years before Oklahoma Territory was admitted as a state, 372 members of the joint tribe received individual land allotments under a federal program to extinguish communal tribal land holdings so that statehood could take place, and to encourage assimilation to the European-American model. This resulted in considerable loss of their lands in

392-553: 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 in United States v. Kagama , which affirmed that the U.S. government has plenary power over Native American tribes within its borders using the rationalization that "The power of the general government over these remnants of

490-649: A few exceptions, the United States east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes was emptied of its Native American population. The movement westward of indigenous tribes was characterized by a large number of deaths occasioned by the hardships of the journey. The U.S. Congress approved the Act by a narrow majority in the House of Representatives . The Indian Removal Act was supported by President Jackson and

588-679: A genocide. The first removal treaty signed was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, in which Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. The Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835 and resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. The Seminoles and other tribes did not leave peacefully, as they resisted

686-566: A mass influx of settlers, that the federal government was unable to prevent. As Robert V. Remini stated: Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. And although that statement sounds monstrous, and although no one in the modern world wishes to accept or believe it, that is exactly what he did. He saved the Five Civilized Nations from probable extinction. Similarly, historian Francis Paul Prucha argued that removal

784-511: A policy of political and military action for the removal of Natives from these lands and worked toward enacting a law for "Indian removal". In his 1829 State of the Union address , Jackson called for Indian removal . The Indian Removal Act was put in place to annex Native land and then transfer that ownership to Southern states, especially Georgia . The Act was passed in 1830, although dialogue had been ongoing since 1802 between Georgia and

882-637: A practice of cultural assimilation, meaning that tribes such as the Cherokee were forced to adopt aspects of white civilization. This acculturation was originally proposed by George Washington and was well underway among the Cherokee and the Choctaw by the beginning of the 19th century. Native peoples were encouraged to adopt European customs. First, they were forced to convert to Christianity and abandon traditional religious practices. They were also required to learn to speak and read English , although there

980-601: A race once powerful ... is necessary to their protection as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell". 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

1078-799: A region that had been sparsely populated for decades but controlled as a hunting ground by the Iroquois League of the Five Nations. The "Mingo dialect" that dominated the Ohio valley from the late 17th to early 18th centuries is considered a variant most similar to the Seneca language . After the French and Indian War (1754-1763), France was defeated and ceded its lands east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. Many Cayuga people of

SECTION 10

#1732765697908

1176-577: A single state. This resulted in passage of the Oklahoma Enabling Act , which President Roosevelt signed June 16, 1906. 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

1274-417: A survey that established the western border of Arkansas Territory 45 miles west of Ft. Smith. But this was part of the negotiated lands of Lovely's Purchase where the Cherokee , 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. After these redefinitions, the "Indian zone" would cover

1372-698: Is an alliance of the Ojibwe , Odawa , and Potawatomi tribes. In the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1829, the tribes of the Council of Three Fires ceded to the United States their lands in Illinois , Michigan , and Wisconsin . The 1833 Treaty of Chicago forced the members of the Council of Three Fires to move first to present-day Iowa , then Kansas and Nebraska and ultimately to Oklahoma . The Illinois Potawatomi moved to present-day Nebraska and

1470-603: Is used to signify lands under the control of Native nations, including Indian reservations, trust lands on Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area , or, more casually, to describe anywhere large numbers of Native Americans live. Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land in the United States reserved for the forced resettlement of Native Americans . As such, it

1568-488: The French and British colonies. New France , which was established in the Great Lakes region , generally pursued a cooperative relationship with the Native tribes, with the existence of certain traditions such as marriage à la façon du pays , a marriage between tradesmen ( coureur des bois ) and Native women. This tradition was seen as a fundamental social and political institution that helped maintain relations and bond

1666-759: The Great Lakes region , organized following the American Revolutionary War to resist the expansion of the United States into the Northwest Territory . Members of the confederacy were ultimately removed to the present-day Oklahoma, including the Shawnee , Delaware , also called Lenape , Miami , and Kickapoo . The area of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma was used to resettle the Iowa tribe , Sac and Fox , Absentee Shawnee , Potawatomi , and Kickapoo tribes. The Council of Three Fires

1764-756: The Great Plains , subjected to extended periods of drought and high winds, and the Ozark Plateau is to the east in a humid subtropical climate zone. Tribes indigenous to the present day state of Oklahoma include both agrarian and hunter-gatherer tribes. The arrival of horses with the Spanish in the 16th century ushered in horse culture -era, when tribes could adopt a nomadic lifestyle and follow abundant bison herds. The Southern Plains villagers , an archaeological culture that flourished from 800 to 1500 AD, lived in semi-sedentary villages throughout

1862-813: The Native American tribes . The proclamation limited the settlement of Europeans to lands east of the Appalachian Mountains . The territory remained active until the Treaty of Paris that ended the American 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,

1960-582: The Nonintercourse Act of 1834, and was the successor to the remainder of the Missouri Territory after Missouri received statehood. The borders of Indian Territory were reduced in size as various Organic Acts were passed by Congress to create organized territories of the United States . The 1906 Oklahoma Enabling Act created the single state of Oklahoma by combining Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory, annexing and ending

2058-453: The North 's history regarding Native nations within their claimed territory. Jackson stated that "progress requires moving forward." Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country and philanthropy has long been busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress never has for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from

SECTION 20

#1732765697908

2156-663: The Piankashaw , Kaskaskia , and Wea tribes . Under stipulations of the Omnibus Treaty of 1867, these confederated tribes and the Miami tribe left Kansas for Indian Territory on lands purchased from the Quapaw . Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson . The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with

2254-483: The Shawnee , and the Lenape . The Indian Removal Act was controversial. Many Americans during this time favored its passage, but there was also significant opposition. Many Christian missionaries protested against it, most notably missionary organizer Jeremiah Evarts . In Congress, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen , Kentucky Senator Henry Clay , and Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett spoke out against

2352-634: The South were the most prominent tribes displaced by the policy, a relocation that came to be known as the Trail 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 the Delaware , Cheyenne , and Apache were also forced to relocate to

2450-604: The Treaty Party ) challenged their relocation, but were unsuccessful in the courts; they were forcibly removed by the United States government in a march to the west that later became known as the Trail of Tears . Since the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism ; some view it as all three. Many European colonists saw Native Americans as savages. However, euro-native relations varied, particularly between

2548-564: The United States Supreme Court handed down a decision stating that Indians could occupy and control lands within the United States but could not hold title to those lands. Jackson viewed the union as a federation of highly esteemed states , as was common before the American Civil War . He opposed Washington's policy of establishing treaties with Indian tribes as if they were sovereign foreign nations. Thus,

2646-502: The United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held original Indian title to their land as an independent nation-state. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal . After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation . Indian Territory later came to refer to an unorganized territory whose general borders were initially set by

2744-663: The Washita River and South Canadian River in Oklahoma. Member tribes of the Caddo Confederacy lived in the eastern part of Indian Territory and are ancestors of the Caddo Nation. The Caddo people speak a Caddoan language and is a confederation of several tribes who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas , North Louisiana , and portions of southern Arkansas , and Oklahoma . The tribe

2842-644: The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery in territories won from Mexico ... the Kansas-Nebraska bill would have failed." The Removal Act paved the way for the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of American Indians from their land into the West in an event widely known as the " Trail of Tears ," a forced resettlement of the Indian population. This forced resettlement has been characterized as

2940-417: The federal government concerning the possibility of such an act. Ethan Davis states that "the federal government had promised Georgia that it would extinguish Indian title within the state's borders by purchase 'as soon as the such purchase could be made upon reasonable terms'". As time passed, Southern states began to speed up the expulsions by claiming that the deal between Georgia and the federal government

3038-450: The 18th century, prior to Indian Removal by the U.S. federal government, the Kiowa , Apache , and Comanche people entered into Indian Territory from the west, and the Quapaw and Osage entered from the east. During Indian Removal of the 19th century, additional tribes received their land either by treaty via land grant from the federal government of the United States or they purchased

Mingo - Misplaced Pages Continue

3136-539: The 1930s, Mingo descendants reorganized as a tribe with self-government. They were recognized by the federal government in 1937 as the Seneca–Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma . The etymology of the name Mingo derives from the Delaware (Lenape) word, mingwe or Minque , as adapted from their Algonquian language, meaning "stealthy". In the 17th century, the terms Minqua or Minquaa were used interchangeably to refer to

3234-786: The American Revolutionary War. At the time, Great Britain ceded its territory south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River to the newly independent American states, including most of the lands controlled by the Iroquois in New York and Pennsylvania. Some of the Six Nations also have bands with reservations in New York State, their original homeland. In the US, these governments are recognized as separate tribes. Logan and

3332-668: The Confederacy, reducing the territory of the Five Civilized Tribes and providing land to resettle Plains Native Americans and tribes of the mid-west. General components of replacement treaties signed in 1866 include: One component of assimilation would be the distribution of property held in-common by the tribe to individual members of the tribe. The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name given to three treaties signed in Medicine Lodge, Kansas between

3430-527: The Democratic Party, southern and white settlers, and several state governments, especially that of Georgia . Indigenous tribes and the Whig Party opposed the bill, as did other groups within white American society (e.g., some Christian missionaries and clergy). Legal efforts to allow Indian tribes to remain on their land in the eastern U.S. failed. Most famously, the Cherokee (excluding

3528-587: 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 the American Civil War in Indian territory . Brigadier General Stand Watie , a Confederate commander of the Cherokee Nation , became the last Confederate general to surrender in the American Civil War, near the community of Doaksville on June 23, 1865. The Reconstruction Treaties signed at

3626-629: The Five Nations also moved to Ohio, where the British granted them a reservation along the Sandusky River . They were joined there by the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee of Ohio and the rest of the Mingo confederacy. Their villages were increasingly an amalgamation of Iroquoian-speaking Seneca, Wyandot , and Susquehannock; Siouan -language speaking Tutelo and Algonquian -language Shawnee and Delaware migrants. Although

3724-621: The House of Representatives passed the Act by a vote of 101 to 97. On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. Historian Garry Wills has speculated that without the additional slave state votes in the House of Representatives due to the Three-Fifths Compromise , "slavery would have been excluded from Missouri ... Jackson's Indian removal policy would have failed ...

3822-552: The Indian Western Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and imposed the Treaty of Greenville , which ceded most of what is now Ohio, part of present-day Indiana , and the lands that include present-day Chicago and Detroit , to the United States federal government . The period after the American Revolutionary War was one of rapid western expansion. The areas occupied by Native Americans in

3920-482: The Indian territory. The Five Civilized Tribes established tribal capitals in the following towns: These tribes founded towns such as Tulsa , Ardmore , Muskogee , which became some of the larger towns in the state. They also brought their African slaves to Oklahoma, which added to the African American population in the state. The Western Lakes Confederacy was a loose confederacy of tribes around

4018-450: The Indiana Potawatomi moved to present-day Osawatomie, Kansas , an event known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death . The group settling in Nebraska adapted to the Plains Indian culture but the group settling in Kansas remained steadfast to their woodlands culture . In 1867, part of the Kansas group negotiated the "Treaty of Washington with the Potawatomi" in which the Kansas Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation split and part of their land in Kansas

Mingo - Misplaced Pages Continue

4116-498: The Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal east of the river Mississippi ". During the presidency of Jackson (1829–1837) and his successor Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) more than 60,000 Native Americans from at least 18 tribes were forced to move west of the Mississippi River where they were allocated new lands. The southern tribes were resettled mostly in Indian Territory ( Oklahoma ). The northern tribes were resettled initially in Kansas . With

4214-414: The Iroquois Confederacy had claimed hunting rights and sovereignty over much of the Ohio River Valley since the late 17th century, these peoples in Ohio increasingly acted independently. When Pontiac's Rebellion broke out in 1763 against the British at the end of the French and Indian War, many Mingo joined with other tribes in an attempt to drive the British out of the Ohio Country. At that time, most of

4312-422: The Mingo in the period following Lord Dunmore's War are featured prominently in the Gothic novel Logan (1822) by John Neal . The story can be read as issuing an indictment of American imperialism by depicting Indigenous genocide as central to the American story. Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by

4410-399: The Mississippi River. The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, especially in Georgia , which was the largest state in 1802 and was involved in a jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee. President Jackson hoped that removal would resolve the Georgia crisis. Besides the Five Civilized Tribes , additional people affected included the Wyandot , the Kickapoo , the Potowatomi ,

4508-462: The Reserve was ignored by European American settlers who slowly expanded westward . At the time of the American Revolutionary War, many Native American tribes had long-standing relationships with the British, and were loyal to Great 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 the Ohio Country and were twice defeated. They finally defeated

4606-423: 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 by American 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

4704-407: 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 Indians and tribes of the Midwestern United States . These re-written treaties included provisions for a territorial legislature with proportional representation from various tribes. In time, the Indian Territory

4802-475: The U.S. and established framework of a legal system between the Caddo and the U.S. Tribal headquarters are in Binger, Oklahoma . The Wichita and Caddo both spoke Caddoan languages , as did the Kichai people , who were also indigenous to what is now Oklahoma and ultimately became part of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes . The Wichita (and other tribes) signed a treaty of friendship with the U.S. in 1835. The tribe's headquarters are in Anadarko, Oklahoma . In

4900-428: 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 the Kiowa and Comanche tribes. The second, with the Plains Apache , was signed the same day. The third treaty was signed with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho on October 28. Another component of assimilation

4998-533: The US passed the Indian Removal Act in that same year, the government pressured the Mingo to sell their lands and migrate west of the Mississippi River to Kansas , which they did in 1832. In Kansas, the Mingo joined other Seneca and Cayuga bands, and the tribes shared the Neosho Reservation. In 1869, after the American Civil War , the US government pressed for Indian removal of these tribes from Kansas to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The three tribes moved to present-day Ottawa County, Oklahoma . In 1881,

SECTION 50

#1732765697908

5096-409: 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 purchase France 's claim to French Louisiana for a total of $ 15 million (less than 3 cents per acre). President Thomas Jefferson doubted the legality of the purchase. Robert R. Livingston , the chief negotiator of

5194-413: 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, were suzerain nations, with established tribal governments and well established cultures. The region never had a formal government until after the American Civil War . After the Civil War,

5292-403: The United States, while the legislature was elected by citizens residing in the territory. One elected representative was allowed a seat in the U.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

5390-457: 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 the State of Sequoyah , but were rebuffed by Congress 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

5488-472: 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. 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". After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson and his successors viewed much of

5586-436: The belief in European cultural and racial superiority was generally widespread among high ranking colonial officials and clergymen in this period. During American colonial times , many colonialists and particularly the English felt their civilization to be superior: they were Christians , and they believed their notions of private property to be a superior system of land tenure . Colonial and frontier encroachers inflicted

5684-406: The boundaries of the present-day U.S. state of Oklahoma , and the primary residents of the territory were members of the Five Civilized Tribes or Plains 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. abandoned Fort Washita , leaving the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations defenseless against the Plains tribes. Later

5782-528: The condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion? According to historian H. W. Brands , Jackson sincerely believed that his population transfer

5880-493: The creation of Indian jurisdictions was a violation of state sovereignty under Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. As Jackson saw it, either Indians comprised sovereign states (which violated the Constitution) or were subject to the laws of existing states of the Union. Jackson urged Indians to assimilate and obey state laws. Further, he believed he could only accommodate the desire for Native self-rule in federal territories, which required resettlement on Federal lands west of

5978-450: The earth... But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another... In the monuments and fortresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated or has disappeared to make room for the existing savage tribes… Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to

SECTION 60

#1732765697908

6076-462: The end of the Civil War fundamentally changed the relationship between the tribes and the U.S. government. The Reconstruction 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). The United States House Committee on Territories (created in 1825)

6174-496: 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 the Cherokee , 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 "

6272-410: The five nations of the Iroquois League and to the Susquehannock, another Iroquoian-speaking people. The Mingo had a bad reputation and were sometimes called "Blue Mingo" or "Black Mingo" for their misdeeds. The people who became known as Mingo migrated to the Ohio Country along the river in the mid-eighteenth century, part of a movement of various Native American tribes away from European pressures to

6370-452: The following decades. In 1937 after the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act was passed, the descendants of these tribes reorganized to re-establish self-government. They identified as the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and became federally recognized. Today, the tribe numbers over 5,000 members. They continue to maintain cultural and religious ties to the Six Nations of the Iroquois , which have been based largely in Ontario, Canada since after

6468-405: The greatest number of and most powerful tribes tended to side with the French, though other tribes such as the Iroquois supported the English for various strategic reasons. For strategic economic and military purposes, the French also had a practice of building forts and trading posts within Native villages, such as that of Fort Miami in Indiana within the Miami village of Kekionga . However,

6566-480: The historical comparisons between the United States concept of manifest destiny and Nazi Germany 's concept of Lebensraum and how American removal policy served as a model for racial policy during Generalplan Ost . An alternative view posits that the Indian Removal Act, despite the deaths and forced relocation, it benefitted those peoples by saving their societies from a worse fate that likely awaited them were they to remain in their home territories to face

6664-442: The land receiving fee simple recorded title . Many of the tribes forcibly relocated to Indian Territory were from Southeastern United States , including the so-called Five Civilized Tribes or Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Muscogee Creeks , and Seminole , but also the Natchez , Yuchi , Alabama , Koasati , and Caddo people . Between 1814 and 1840, the Five Civilized Tribes had gradually ceded most of their lands in

6762-486: 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 1830 Indian Removal Act , formulated by President Andrew Jackson . When Louisiana became a state in 1812, the remaining territory was renamed Missouri Territory to avoid confusion. Arkansaw Territory , which included

6860-417: The laws of Arkansas to the still unorganized Indian Territory, since for years the federal U.S. District Court on the eastern borderline in Ft. Smith, Arkansas had criminal and civil jurisdiction over the territory. The concept of an Indian territory is the successor to the British Indian Reserve , a British American territory established by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that set aside land for use by

6958-455: The legislation. The Removal Act passed only after a bitter debate in Congress. Clay extensively campaigned against it on the National Republican Party ticket in the 1832 United States presidential election . Jackson viewed the demise of Native nations as inevitable, pointing to the steady expansion of European-based lifestyles and the decimation of Native nations in the U.S.'s northeast region. He called his Northern critics hypocrites, given

7056-585: The name Oklahoma, which derives from the Choctaw phrase okla , 'people', and humma , translated as 'red'. He envisioned an all–American Indian state controlled by the tribes and overseen by the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs . Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory , and it was officially approved in 1890, two years after that area was opened to white settlers. The Oklahoma Organic Act of 1890 created an organized Oklahoma Territory of

7154-490: The newspaper he edited, The Cherokee Phoenix . Despite the adoption of white cultural values by many natives and tribes, the United States government began a systematic effort to remove Native peoples from the Southeast. The Chickasaw , Choctaw , Muscogee-Creek , Seminole , and original Cherokee nations had been established as autonomous nations in the southeastern United States. Andrew Jackson sought to renew

7252-409: 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 the Choctaw in 1820 for the Treaty 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 of Ft. Smith, Arkansas . The General Survey Act of 1824 allowed

7350-614: The present states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and part of Iowa. Before the 1871 Indian 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

7448-570: The purchase, however, believed that the 3rd article of the treaty of the Louisiana Purchase would be acceptable to Congress . The 3rd article stated, in part: 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

7546-694: The removal along with fugitive slaves . The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842 and resulted in the government allowing them to remain in south Florida swampland. Only a small number remained, and around 3,000 were removed in the war. In the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism or as all three Forms of these. Historian Richard White wrote that because of "claimed parallels between ethnic cleansing and Indian removal, any examination of Indian removal will inevitably involve discussions of ethnic cleansing." Other scholarship has focused on

7644-515: The resulting Lord Dunmore's War . He was not likely to have been at the climactic Battle of Point Pleasant . Rather than take part in the peace conference, he expressed his thoughts about the encroachment by Europeans in " Logan's Lament ." His speech was printed and widely distributed. It is one of the most well-known examples of Native American oratory. By 1830, the Mingo were flourishing in western Ohio, where they had improved their farms and established schools and other civic institutions. After

7742-539: The rights of Indians to continue their separate tribal governments, and vocally championed opening the area to white settlement while campaigning for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Some historians argued Seward's words steered many tribes, notably the Cherokee and the Choctaw into an alliance with the Confederate States. At the beginning of the Civil War , Indian Territory had been essentially reduced to

7840-654: The same year, the Confederate States of America signed a Treaty 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). Members of

7938-649: The six Iroquois nations based in New York (who then numbered six, as the Tuscarora had joined them from the South about 1722) were closely allied to the British because of their lucrative fur trading. Guyasuta (c. 1725–c. 1794), a chief of the Mingo-Seneca, was one of the leaders in Pontiac's War. Another famous Mingo leader was Chief Logan (c. 1723–1780), who had good relations with neighboring white settlers. He

8036-479: The territories were: Kansas became a state in 1861, and Nebraska became a state in 1867. In 1890 the Oklahoma 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 State William H. Seward did not believe in

8134-411: 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". The Indian Appropriations Act also made it

8232-582: The two cultures. Many of the missionaries were also known to teach the tribes how to use iron tools, build European-style homes, and improve farming techniques; teachings the Wyandot , who maintained a century long friendship with French Canadians , would spread on to other tribes as they relocated to the Maumee Valley . Throughout the 17th and 18th century during the Beaver and French and Indian Wars ,

8330-602: The western part of Indian Territory, where they farmed maize and hunted buffalo. They are likely ancestors of the Wichita 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. The early Wichita people were hunters and gatherers who gradually adopted agriculture. By about 900 AD, farming villages began to appear on terraces above

8428-519: Was a "wise and humane policy" that would save the Native Americans from "utter annihilation". Jackson portrayed the removal as a paternalistic act of mercy. According to Robert M. Keeton, proponents of the bill used biblical narratives to justify the forced resettlement of Native Americans. On April 24, 1830, the Senate passed the Indian Removal Act by a vote of 28 to 19. On May 26, 1830,

8526-604: Was effectively extinguished. However, in 2020, the United States Supreme Court prompted a review of tribal lands through its decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma . Subsequently, almost the entire eastern half of Oklahoma was found to have remained Indian country . Indian Territory marks the confluence of the Southern Plains and Southeastern Woodlands cultural regions . Its western region is part of

8624-588: 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 of Assimilation 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

8722-428: Was homesteading. The Homestead Act of 1862 was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln . The Act gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres (65 hectares or one-fourth section ) of undeveloped federal 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

8820-575: Was interest in creating a writing and printing system for a few Native languages , especially Cherokee , exemplified by Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary . The Native Americans also had to adopt settler values, such as monogamous marriage and abandon non-marital sex. Finally, they had to accept the concept of individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances, African people as slaves). Many Cherokee people adopted all, or some, of these practices, including Cherokee chief John Ross , John Ridge , and Elias Boudinot , as represented by

8918-468: Was invalid and that Southern states could pass laws extinguishing Indian title themselves. In response, the federal government passed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830, in which President Jackson agreed to divide the United States territory west of the Mississippi River into districts for tribes to replace the land from which they were removed. In the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh ,

9016-403: Was not a war chief , but a village leader. In 1774, as tensions between whites and Indians were on the rise due to a series of violent conflicts, a band of white outlaws murdered his family. Local chiefs counseled restraint, but acknowledged his right to revenge. He conducted a series of raids against white settlers with a dozen followers, not all of whom were Mingo. Logan did not participate in

9114-580: Was not a traditional territory for the tribes settled upon it. The general borders were set by the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834. The territory was located in the Central United States . While Congress passed several Organic Acts that provided a path for statehood for much of the original Indian Country , Congress never passed an Organic Act for the Indian Territory. Indian Territory was never an organized territory of

9212-522: Was not treated as a legal territory. The reduction of the land area of Indian Territory (or Indian Country, as defined in the Indian 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 the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which created Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory . The key boundaries of

9310-595: Was once part of the Caddoan Mississippian culture and thought to be an extension of woodland period peoples who started inhabiting the area around 200 BC. In an 1835 Treaty made at the agency-house in the Caddo Nation and state of Louisiana , 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

9408-558: Was reduced to what is now Oklahoma . The Organic Act of 1890 reduced Indian Territory to the lands occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes and the Tribes of the Quapaw Indian Agency (at the borders of Kansas and Missouri). The remaining western portion of the former Indian Territory became the Oklahoma Territory . The Oklahoma Organic Act applied the laws of Nebraska to the organized Oklahoma Territory, and

9506-550: Was sold on a first-come basis, typically by land run , with settlers also receiving a land patent type deed. For these now former Indian lands, the United 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 Chief Kiliahote suggested that Indian Territory be given

9604-748: Was sold, purchasing land near present-day Shawnee, Oklahoma , they became the Citizen Potawatomi Nation . The Odawa tribe first purchased lands near Ottawa, Kansas , residing there until 1867 when they sold their lands in Kansas and purchased land in an area administered by the Quapaw Indian Agency in Ottawa County, Oklahoma , becoming the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma . The Peoria tribe , native to Southern Illinois , moved south to Missouri then and Kansas , where they joined

#907092