A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 45

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645

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The appointments of United States commission- ers by said court held at Muscogee, in the Indian Territory, heretofore made, and all acts in pur- suance of law and in good faith performed by them, are hereby ratified and validated.

SEC. 40. That persons charged with any offense or crime in the Indian Territory, and for whose arrest a warrant has been issued, may be arrested by the United States marshal or any of his depu- ties, wherever found in said Territory, but in all cases the accused shall be taken, for preliminary examination, before the commissioner in the judi- cial division whose office or place of business is nearest by the route usually traveled to the place where the offense or crime was committed; but this section shall apply only to crimes or offenses over which the courts located in the Indian Ter- ritory have jurisdiction: Provided, That in all

cases where persons have been brought before a United States commissioner in the Indian Terri- tory for preliminary examination, charged with the commission of any crime therein and where it appears from the evidence that a crime has been committed, and that there is probable cause to believe the accused guilty thereof, but that the crime is one over which the courts in the Indian Territory have no jurisdiction, the accused shall not, on that account, be discharged, but the case shall be proceeded with as provided in section ten hundred and fourteen of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

SEC. 41. That the judge of the United States court in the Indian Territory shall have the same power to extradite persons who have taken refuge in the Indian Territory, charged with crimes in the States or other Territories of the United States, that may now be exercised by the governor of Arkansas in that State, and he may issue requisi- tions upon governors of States and other Terri- tories for persons who have committed offenses in the Indian Territory, and who have taken refuge in such States or Territories.

SEC. 42. That appeals and writs of error may be taken and prosecuted from the decisions of the United States court in the Indian Territory to the Supreme Court of the United States in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the circuit courts of the United States, ex- cept as otherwise provided in this act.

SEC. 43. That any member of any Indian tribe or nation residing in the Indian Territory may ap- ply to the United States court therein to become a citizen of the United States, and such court shall have jurisdiction thereof and shall hear and determine such application as provided in the stat- utes of the United States; and the Confederated Peoria Indians residing in the Quapaw Indian Agency, who have heretofore or who may here- after accept their land in severalty under any of the allotment laws of the United States, shall be deemed to be, and are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States from and after the selection of their allotments, and entitled to all the rights, privileges, and benefits as such, and parents are hereby declared from that time to have been and to be the legal guardians of their minor children without process of court: Provided, That the Indians who become citizens of the United States under the provisions of this act do not for- feit or lose any rights or privileges they enjoy or are entitled to as members of the tribe or na- tion to which they belong.

SEC. 44. That the following sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriat- ed, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be disbursed under the direction of the Attorney-General of the United States, in

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the same manner that similar appropriations are disbursed in the other Territories of the United States, namely :

To pay the actual traveling and other expenses of the judge of the United States court holding court in said Indian Territory other than at Mus- cogee; to pay for the rent of buildings for the

court; to provide jails and support prisoners; to pay mileage and per diem of jurors and witnesses; to provide books, records and stationery for the judicial offices for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, the sum of ten thousand dollars. Approved, May 2, 1890.

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CHAPTER

EXPANSION OF OKLAHOMA TERRITORY; CESSION AND OPENING OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS

The Oklahoma country opened to set- tlement on April 22, 1889, contained ap- proximately 1,800,000 acres. . The area embraced within the limits of Oklahoma territory as defined and organized by the act of May 2, 1890, (including the then disputed Greer county), contained 38,830 square miles or nearly twenty-five million acres. By the inclusion of No Man's land, which was public domain, (containing about 3,700,000 acres), the total area open to oc- cupation by settlers at the beginning of Ok- lahoma's territorial existence was about five and a half million acres. Thus only a fifth of the territory was under complete terri- torial jurisdiction ; the remainder was still held by the Indian tribes as reservations, from which white settlers were excluded.

Another reference to the distinction be- tween the original Oklahoma lands and the rest of the region included in Oklahoma ter- ritory will assist to a clear understanding of what follows. At the time of the open- ing and for some time previously, the Ok- lahoma country was unoccupied by its In- dian possessors. These lands had been ceded in 1866 by the Creeks to be used as reservations for other friendly tribes. But they had never been diverted for that pur- pose, and hence, as soon as the contract for their sale to the government was concluded, they were at once open to settlement. The same was not true of the other Indian lands in Oklahoma territory. The Kickapoos,

Pottawatomies, Cheyennes, Comanches and other tribes actually resided on their reser- vations, and their rights to homesteads had to be safeguarded before the residue of their lands could be brought within the operation of the general land laws regula- ting the settlement of public domain. For this reason the opening of the other lands of Oklahoma territory was subject to de- lays and was effected piecemeal.

Over seventeen years elapsed between the original opening and the sale and settlement of the Big Pasture, which was the last of the reservations. In this time, the extension of settlement over Oklahoma proceeded by eight stages, requiring eight presidential proclamations for the opening of as many additions to the public domain. These open- ings were as follows:

September 22, 1891, the Iowa, Sac and Fox, and Pottawatomie reservations, lying east of the original Oklahoma, from which Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties were created.

April 19, 1892, the Cheyenne and Arapa- hoe reserves, lying west of original Okla- homa, from which the modern counties of Blaine, Custer, Dewey, Day, Roger Mills, Washita were created.

September 16, 1893, the Cherokee strip, comprising the present counties of Pawnee, Noble, Kay, Grant, Garfield, Woods and Woodward.

May 23, 1895, the Kickapoo reserve,

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these lands lying in the counties already or- ganized as Lincoln and Pottawatomie.

March 16, 1896, when, by the decision of the United States supreme court, Greer county was finally given to Oklahoma. (This was not an "opening" in the regular sense. )

August 6, 1901, the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache, and Wichita reservations, mak- ing the counties of Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo (the limits of which were changed by statehood.)

In 1904, the Otoe, Ponca, Missouria and Kaw reserves, lying in Kay, Noble and Pawnee counties.

December 6, 1906, the Big Pasture, com- prising half a million acres in the south- west part of Oklahoma territory.

Before entering upon a detailed descrip- tion of these various extensions of Okla- homa's settled area, it will be necessary to consider the methods provided by Congress for the assignment of homesteads to the Indian residents and the division of the sur- plus lands in each reservation among other settlers, thus anticipating in part the dis-

' In the report of the commissioner of Indian affairs for 1887 is an abstract of the allotment law "An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reserva- tions, etc.," approved February 8, 1887. It fol- lows:

The president may, in his discretion, have any Indian reservation or any part thereof surveyed or resurveyed, and the lands of such reservation allotted in severalty to any Indians located thereon.

The size of the allotments shall be: to each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; to each single person over eighteen and each orphan under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; to each other single person born prior to the date of the presidential order directing an allotment of lands upon the reserve, one-sixteenth of a sec- tion. (By an act of February 28, 1891, Congress changed this inequitable allotment, and secured a fair division of tribal property, each member of the tribe having an equal share.)

If the reserve is too small to allow the giving of

cussion in the following chapter. By an act approved February 8, 1887, Congress had enacted a general allotment law, the chief provisions of which had a direct bearing on the opening of the Oklahoma reservations, an object which was no doubt intended by the promoters of the bill. Under this legis- lation the president was given authority to cause any Indian reservation to be surveyed and its lands allotted in severalty to its Indian residents. It is to be noted that the provisions of this act were distinctly de- clared not to apply to the five civilized tribes, nor to the Osages and several minor tribes in Indian Territory. The allotted lands were to be patented to the Indians without privilege of alienation within a pe- riod of twenty-five years. After the allot- ments had been made, or even sooner if the president saw fit, the secretary of inter- ior might negotiate for the sale of the sur- plus lands, and all agricultural lands thus released to the United States were to be disposed of to bona fide settlers in quarter- section tracts.1

By this bill were provided the means by

allotments as above, the size of allotments shall be reduced pro rata. If any treaty or act has provided for larger allotments on any reserva- tion, the provisions of such treaty or act shall be observed. If the lands allotted are valuable only for grazing, the size of the allotments shall be doubled. If irrigation is necessary, the secretary of the interior may prescribe rules for a just dis- tribution among the Indians of the water supply.

Selections of allotments shall be made by Indians, heads of families selecting for their minor children, but agents shall select for orphans. The lands selected shall embrace the improvements made thereon by the respective Indians.

If on one legal subdivision of land two or more Indians have made improvements the tract may be divided between them and a further as- signment of lands be made to them to complete the amount to which each is entitled.

If within four years after the president shall have directed allotments on a reservation any Indian belonging thereto shall have failed to make his selection, the agent, or if there is none a

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which the government might proceed with the settlement of the problems of Indian land ownership, and gradually accomplish the ends for which certain organized inter- ests had been striving both in and out of Congress for years. When the objects pro- posed by this law were attained, practical- ly half of the Indian Territory would be dedicated to occupation by the whites.

special agent, may make the selection for such Indian, and the tract so selected shall be allotted to him.

Allotments shall be made by the agents in charge of the respective reservations, and also by special agents appointed by the president for the purpose, according to rules which the secretary of the interior may prescribe, and the allotments shall be certified by the agents in duplicate, one copy for the Indian and one for the land office files.

Any Indian not residing on a reservation, or for whose tribe no reservation has been provided, may settle upon unappropriated government land and have the same allotted and patented to him and his children, in quantity and manner above set forth, and entry fees therefor shall be paid by the United States.

When the secretary of the interior shall have approved the allotments made, then patents for such lands, recorded in the general land office, shall be issued to the respective allottees, declar- ing that the United States will hold said lands in trust for their sole use and benefit for twenty-five years, and at the end of that time will convey them, without charge, to said allottees or their heirs, in fee and free of all incumbrance; the president, however, may in his discretion extend the period beyond twenty-five years.

After patents have been delivered the laws of descent and partition of the state or territory in which the lands are located shall apply to said lands; the laws of Kansas applying to lands al- . in tribal property. lotted in the Indian Territory.

After lands have been allotted to all Indians of a tribe (or sooner if the president thinks best), the secretary of the interior may negotiate with that tribe for the sale of any of their unallotted lands, such negotiations to be subject to ratifica- tion by Congress.

In case lands are thus sold, the purchase money to the paid therefor by the United States shall be held in the United States treasury, in trust for that tribe, at 3 per cent interest, which interest shall be subject to appropriation by Congress for the civilization of said tribe.

Along these lines the efforts of the govern- ment were henceforth directed until, one after another, the Indian reservations were merged into civilized country and the tribes themselves brought to the conditions of in- dividual citizenship.

In 1890 negotiations were completed with four tribes in Oklahoma for the allot- ment of their lands. These were the Sac

Any religious society or other organization now occupying, for religious or educational work among Indians, any lands to which this act applies, may be confirmed by the secretary of the interior in the occupation of such lands, in quantity not exceeding 160 acres in any one tract, on such terms as he shall deem just, and so long as the organization occupies the land for the above- named purposes; but this does not alter any right heretofore granted by law to any such organization.

All lands adapted to agriculture released to the United States by Indian tribes shall be disposed of only to bona fide settlers, in tracts not exceed- ing 160 acres (subject to grants which Congress may make in aid of education), and no patents shall issue to any such settler or his heirs for such lands until after five years' continuous occupancy thereof as a homestead, and any conveyance of or lien on said land prior to the issuance of patent thereto shall be null and void.

After receiving his patent every allottee shall have the benefit of and be subject to the civil and criminal laws of the state or territory in which he may reside; and no territory shall deny any Indian equal protection of law; and every Indian born in the United States who has received an allotment under this or any other law or treaty, or who has taken up his residence separate from a tribe and adopted the habits of civilized life, is declared a citizen of the United States, but citi- zenship shall not impair any rights he may have

The provisions of this act shall not extend to the five civilized tribes, nor the Osages, Miamis, Peorias, and Sac and Fox in the Indian Terri- tory.

For necessary surveys or resurveys of reserva- tions $100,000 is appropriated, to be repaid to the United States treasury from proceeds of sales of such lands as may be acquired from Indians under the provisions of this act.

The power of Congress to grant right of way to railroads, other highways, or telegraph lines through Indian reservations is not impaired by this act.

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and Fox, the Iowa, the Citizen Pottawa- ing a surplus of about 216,000 acres. The tomie, and the Absentee Shawnee. The Shawnees were divided into two parties, the Sac and Fox agreement was made June 12, 1890. By its terms, each citizen was to be allotted 160 acres, eighty acres to be held in trust twenty-five years and eighty acres to be held in trust five years before patents were issued and restrictions removed from free disposition by Indians. Also sections 16 and 36 in each township were reserved for schools.

The Iowa reserve was ceded May 20, 1890. (Its limits were those described in executive order August 15, 1883, elsewhere given.) Each member of tribe was to be allotted eighty acres, besides the ten acres at the Iowa village.

The citizen Pottawatomies ceded their lands on June 25, 1890.2

The Absentee Shawnee on June 26, 1890, had ceded their titles to the lands com- prised within the reserve of the Citizen Pot- tawatomies.

The work of allotting the lands of these reservations was undertaken in the spring of 1891. Some of the Indians manifested suspicion and a degree of actual hostility to the work of the agents and surveyors, but the opposition was usually overcome by quiet persuasion. In the Sac and Fox re- serve, 549 allotments were made, consum- ing 87,840 acres, and leaving a residue of about 385,000 acres to be opened to settle- ment. Among the Iowas III allotments were made, amounting to 8,880 acres, leav-

" Their cession was bounded as follows:

Beginning at a point on the right bank of the North Fork of the Canadian river, in section twenty-one, on Township Eleven North, Range Five East, where the western boundary line of the Seminole Reservation strikes said river; thence south with said boundary line to the left bank of the Canadian river; thence up said river along the left bank thereof, to a point on said left bank, in the northeast quarter of section thirty-six, Town- ship Six North, Range One West, thirty-nine

Upper, under the leadership of Big Jim, and the Lower, with White Turkey as chief. The former stubbornly refused to deal with the allotting agent, and the selection of homesteads for the 195 members of this faction devolved upon the agents. The Low- er party readily accepted the allotment plan, and to the number of 368 selected their own homes. The Citizen band of Pottawatomies were the first Indians of Indian Territory among whom the scheme of allotment was attempted, and it was from this fact that they derived their distinguishing name. The act under which their allotments were sought to be made was dated May 23, 1872, but as the plan was new most of them did not take individual homes until after the agreement above mentioned. Only 106 re- ceived allotments under the old law, and 1,363 under the law of 1887, making a to- tal of 1,469 to receive land on their reser- vation. The homes of the Absentee Shaw- nee were also located on this reservation, whose area was 575,000 acres, so that the residue left for settlement was about 275,- 000 acres.

There thus remained, after the members of these tribes had been given homesteads, a little less than 900,000 acres, which, by law, should be sold to settlers. The act of February 30, 1891, ratifying the Sac and Fox and Iowa cessions, provided:

"That whenever any of the lands acquired

chains and eighty-two links (by the meanders of the river west), from the point where the Indian Meridian intersects said river, or thirty-eight chains and fifty-two links due west from said In- dian meridian; thence north as run by O. T. Mor- rill, under his contract of September third, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, to a point on the right bank of the North Fork of the Cana- dian river; thence down said river, along the right bank thereof, to the place of beginning.

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by the agreements in this act ratified and confirmed, shall by operation of law or proc- lamation of the president of the United States, be open to settlement, they shall be disposed of to actual settlers only, under the provisions of the homestead laws, ex- cept section twenty-three hundred and one, which shall not apply: Provided, however, that each settler, under and in accordance with the provisions of said homestead laws, shall, before receiving a patent for his homestead, pay to the United States for the land, so taken by him, in addition to the fees provided by law, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents for each acre thereof, and such person having complied with all the laws relating to such homestead settlement, may at his option receive a patent therefor at the expiration of twelve months from date of settlement upon said homestead, and any person otherwise qualified who has at- tempted to, but for any cause failed to se- cure a title in fee to a homestead under ex- isting law, or who made entry under what is known as the commuted provision of the homestead law shall be qualified to make a homestead entry upon any of said lands."

In the case of the Pottawatomie and Shawnee surplus lands, the same provisions applied except that the settlers were to pay $1.50 per acre, one-half to be paid in two years.

The provisions of the agreements with the four tribes having been carried out dur- ing the summer of 1891, President Harri- son on the 18th of September issued his proclamation "that all of the lands acquired from the Sac and Fox Nation of Indians, the Iowa tribe of Indians, the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie Indians, and the Absen- tee Shawnee Indians, by the four several agreements aforesaid, saving and excepting the lands allotted to the Indians as in said

agreements provided, or otherwise reserved in pursuance of the provisions of said agreements and the said acts of Congress ratifying the same, and other, the laws re- lating thereto, will, at and after the hour of twelve o'clock noon (central standard time), Tuesday, the twenty-second day of this, the present month of September, and not before, be opened to settlement, under the terms of and subject to all the condi- tions, limitations, reservations, and restric- tions contained in said agreements, the statutes above specified, and the laws of the United States applicable thereto."

The territory opened by this proclama- tion lay, by a general description of boun- daries, east of the Indian meridian, be- tween the Cimarron river on the north, and the main Canadian on the south, and ex- tended east to the Creek and Seminole na- tions of Indian Territory; excepting, how- ever, the Kickapoo reserve which was not opened until May 25, 1895.

A recurrence of townsite troubles took place in the opening of these reserves. Gov- ernor Steele, in his first annual report, says: "At the recent opening of Tecumseh and Chandler there were at least five thousand people at each place waiting for the signal to be given for entering said townsites con- taining twenty-four hundred lots, good and bad. A very large proportion of those in- tending to enter the sites were anxious to go in on foot, to avoid the danger incident to riding in on horseback or in wagons and vehicles of various kinds; but there is no law to compel them to do so . . . one man was killed by his own horse falling on him; others were more or less injured . .. . but the real settlers are in too many instances deterred from attempting to get a lot or a home from the very fact that horsemen are allowed to ride in. Every man (and

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woman, for that matter) who can be at these openings and enjoy the excitement is there, hoping in the mad rush he or she may get a lot, or a block of lots, and sell to some party really intending to settle."

The 900,000 acres opened to settlement on September 22, 1891, was occupied as quickly as the Oklahoma country had been, and the towns of Tecumseh and Chandler and others sprang up in a day. Part of the lands thus settled were in the south half of Payne county, and the rest was divided into two counties, at first designated county A (Lincoln) and county B (Pottawatomie.)

In October, 1890, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes had agreed to the allot- ment and cession of their lands. But this work was marked by difficulties and de- lays. Says Governor Steele in his report of October, 1891 : "On account of a great many of the Indians refusing to take their allotments, much delay has been caused in the allotting of lands to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and I am informed that the ap- propriation for making these allotments is practically exhausted. Unless it is possible to make other arrangements to throw these lands open to settlement early next spring so that settlers may raise a crop next year, it will mean great hardship . . . among the hundreds of settlers who have been along the borders for weeks, and in many in- stances months, waiting for homes ; they are being joined by hundreds more, who have been waiting around the borders of the lands on the east recently opened to settle- ment . . . . but on account of there not being nearly as many quarter sections as there were settlers, they were disappointed. On account of treaties having been made and published to the country, these settlers had a right to expect they might settle new homes in the territory this fall."

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 45

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.) Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company Number of Pages: 645

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645