Okla-homey
4/28/2010, 06:39 AM
April 28, 1897 Chickasaw and Choctaw abandon communal lands
113 years ago today, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, two of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, become the first to agree to abolish tribal government and communal ownership of land. The other three tribes soon followed, finally throwing open all of Indian Territory to white settlement.
Representatives of the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes had been negotiating their future with the Dawes Commission since 1893. President Grover Clevelandappointed the commission members.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3382/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz32.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's how it was supposed to work. Backers of the Dawes Severalty Act believed Indians would be better able to integrate and assimilate into mainstream "white" society if they abandoned tribal governments and ownership of land.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/6161/366pxhenrylaurensdawes1ln9.jpg
Sen. Henry Dawes. He believed the only way to save the Indian was to make him act white. Allotment of land to individual Indians was the key
Instead, every Indian head of household would be allotted a quarter section (160 acres) of land to own privately. The theory was the Indian would become a yeoman farmer and/or rancher just like most everyone else in the West.
This was not a total act of federal largesse. Any formerly tribal land that remained-which in most cases was a substantial amount-would be open to settlement by whites. Thus, if the I.T. tribes signed up, land not given to individual indians was in "play" and therefore available to white homeseekers in the territory.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8055/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz27.th.jpg
Former exclusive Chickasaw land assigns
In order to understand why convincing I.T. tribes to agree to the terms of the Dawes Act was so critical here, you need to understand this important fact: Most US Indian tribes were forced to abide by the Dawes Severalty Act regardless of their wishes. However, a treaty from 1830 promised the Five Civilized Tribes living in Oklahoma Indian Territory their land for "as long as the grass grows and water runs," and the Dawes Act did not apply to them.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8107/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.jpg)
Former exclusively Choctaw lands
Instead, the Dawes Commission was formed to convince them to adopt its principles voluntarily. Today is the 111th aniversary of the day the first two tribes in Indian Territory became convinced and signed up to the act's provisions.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/922/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz33.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The result of tribes' agreeing to the terms of the Dawes Severalty Act.
Don't misunderstand, although they were'nt required to sign, the Chickasaws and Choctaws were pressured to sign. What follows is a little more on that.
At the same time, Congress also threatened to make it harder for the Five Civilized Tribes to maintain their traditional ways of life. The Curtis Act, for example, invalidated the authority of all tribal courts and tribal legislatures. Recognizing that they had little hope of maintaining their old ways, in 1897, the Choctaws and Chickasaws became the first to agree to abandon tribal government and land ownership. By 1902, the other three tribes-the Cherokee, Seminole, and Muscogee (Creek) -had followed suit.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9323/charlescurtisgl9.jpg
Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was a Representative and a Senator from Kansas as well as the thirty-first Vice President of the United States. Nearly half of Curtis' background was made up of American Indian stock. His mother, Ellen Pappan Curtis, was one-fourth Kaw, one-fourth Osage, and one-fourth Pottawatomie (as well as one-fourth French). Curtis spent part of his early life on a Kaw reservation, and is the first and only person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. Curtis was the last U.S. Vice President or President to wear a beard or mustache—in his case, a mustache—while in office.
Despite the sincere humanitarian goals of some on the Dawes Commission, the ultimate effect was to deprive Indians of most of their landholdings. Fraud was rampant, and some Indians either did not know they needed to apply for their private acreage or refused to do so in protest.
In fact, in a recent scholarly and extremely well documented account written by a Kent Carter, a curator and researcher assigned to the Fort Worth National Archives repository where most of the Dawes papers are stored, Carter asserts fully up to 70% of Indians in what is now modern Oklahoma refused to step forward and sign the Dawes Rolls which were the basis for the allotments. These people either never got the word, or, simply didn't trust the government.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5659/dawescommission572vg6.jpg
Kent Carter's book. If this period and the Dawes Roll doings in Oklahoma are of interest to you, you really need to get this book.
From 1887 to 1934, Indian landholdings declined from 138 million to 47 million acres. Since the Dawes Act was rescinded in 1934, however, tribal ownership and government have again become legal -- which, BTW made it possible to open casinos someday :D .
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9news3si.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img242.echo.cx/img242/936/naland5hm.jpg
Indian lands in 1880 and 1990 graphically displaying the effect of the Dawes Severalty Act.
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg
113 years ago today, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, two of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, become the first to agree to abolish tribal government and communal ownership of land. The other three tribes soon followed, finally throwing open all of Indian Territory to white settlement.
Representatives of the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes had been negotiating their future with the Dawes Commission since 1893. President Grover Clevelandappointed the commission members.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3382/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz32.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here's how it was supposed to work. Backers of the Dawes Severalty Act believed Indians would be better able to integrate and assimilate into mainstream "white" society if they abandoned tribal governments and ownership of land.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/6161/366pxhenrylaurensdawes1ln9.jpg
Sen. Henry Dawes. He believed the only way to save the Indian was to make him act white. Allotment of land to individual Indians was the key
Instead, every Indian head of household would be allotted a quarter section (160 acres) of land to own privately. The theory was the Indian would become a yeoman farmer and/or rancher just like most everyone else in the West.
This was not a total act of federal largesse. Any formerly tribal land that remained-which in most cases was a substantial amount-would be open to settlement by whites. Thus, if the I.T. tribes signed up, land not given to individual indians was in "play" and therefore available to white homeseekers in the territory.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8055/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz27.th.jpg
Former exclusive Chickasaw land assigns
In order to understand why convincing I.T. tribes to agree to the terms of the Dawes Act was so critical here, you need to understand this important fact: Most US Indian tribes were forced to abide by the Dawes Severalty Act regardless of their wishes. However, a treaty from 1830 promised the Five Civilized Tribes living in Oklahoma Indian Territory their land for "as long as the grass grows and water runs," and the Dawes Act did not apply to them.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8107/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.th.jpg (http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.jpg)
Former exclusively Choctaw lands
Instead, the Dawes Commission was formed to convince them to adopt its principles voluntarily. Today is the 111th aniversary of the day the first two tribes in Indian Territory became convinced and signed up to the act's provisions.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/922/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz33.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The result of tribes' agreeing to the terms of the Dawes Severalty Act.
Don't misunderstand, although they were'nt required to sign, the Chickasaws and Choctaws were pressured to sign. What follows is a little more on that.
At the same time, Congress also threatened to make it harder for the Five Civilized Tribes to maintain their traditional ways of life. The Curtis Act, for example, invalidated the authority of all tribal courts and tribal legislatures. Recognizing that they had little hope of maintaining their old ways, in 1897, the Choctaws and Chickasaws became the first to agree to abandon tribal government and land ownership. By 1902, the other three tribes-the Cherokee, Seminole, and Muscogee (Creek) -had followed suit.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9323/charlescurtisgl9.jpg
Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was a Representative and a Senator from Kansas as well as the thirty-first Vice President of the United States. Nearly half of Curtis' background was made up of American Indian stock. His mother, Ellen Pappan Curtis, was one-fourth Kaw, one-fourth Osage, and one-fourth Pottawatomie (as well as one-fourth French). Curtis spent part of his early life on a Kaw reservation, and is the first and only person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. Curtis was the last U.S. Vice President or President to wear a beard or mustache—in his case, a mustache—while in office.
Despite the sincere humanitarian goals of some on the Dawes Commission, the ultimate effect was to deprive Indians of most of their landholdings. Fraud was rampant, and some Indians either did not know they needed to apply for their private acreage or refused to do so in protest.
In fact, in a recent scholarly and extremely well documented account written by a Kent Carter, a curator and researcher assigned to the Fort Worth National Archives repository where most of the Dawes papers are stored, Carter asserts fully up to 70% of Indians in what is now modern Oklahoma refused to step forward and sign the Dawes Rolls which were the basis for the allotments. These people either never got the word, or, simply didn't trust the government.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5659/dawescommission572vg6.jpg
Kent Carter's book. If this period and the Dawes Roll doings in Oklahoma are of interest to you, you really need to get this book.
From 1887 to 1934, Indian landholdings declined from 138 million to 47 million acres. Since the Dawes Act was rescinded in 1934, however, tribal ownership and government have again become legal -- which, BTW made it possible to open casinos someday :D .
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2756/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9news3si.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img242.echo.cx/img242/936/naland5hm.jpg
Indian lands in 1880 and 1990 graphically displaying the effect of the Dawes Severalty Act.
http://img214.echo.cx/img214/5669/insane2ee.jpg