CHAPTER XI

REALIGNMENT OF INDIAN BOUNDARIES,
AND REMOVAL OF INDIANS FROM OTHER
STATES TO THE INDIAN TERRITORY

   It seems proper at this point, though anticipating the events of later years, to describe the partition of the old Indian Territory among the various tribes of Indians who were found dwelling there when the movement for white settlement began. As stated, the movement for the delimitation and division of the regions originally assigned to the civilized tribes began with the Choctaw-Chickasaw treaty of 1855, when the country of these nations lying west of the 98th meridian was "leased" to the government, for the settlement of the Wichita and other tribes thereon.
   After the war, each treaty with the nations provided for a cession of lands on which might be located other tribes. First considering the old Choctaw-Chickasaw country, lying south of the Canadian river. The Kiowa and Comanches were first provided with a definite area in this region. The first treaty with these tribes, dated October 18, 1865, is a puzzling bit of geographical description, and perhaps this was a reason why it was not ratified.¹ The permanent treaty is dated October 21, 1867, and defined the Kiowa and Comanche reservation as it was shown on the maps of fifteen or twenty years ago. Its boundaries were, in general, the 98th meridian on the east, the Red river on the south, the North Fork of the Red river on the west, and on the north a line on the latitude of the Washita river.² Another treaty of the same date

[Foot notes]
   ¹Comanche and Kiowa Treaty, Oct. 18, 1865.— . . . . Commencing at the northeast corner of New Mexico, thence south to the southeast corner of the same; thence northeasterly to a point on main Red river opposite the mouth of the north Fork of said Red river; thence down said river to the ninety-eighth degree of west longitude; thence due north on said meridian to the Cimarone river; thence up said river to a point where the same crosses the southern boundary of the state of Kansas; thence along said southern boundary of Kansas to the southwest corner of said state; thence west to the place of beginning, shall be and is hereby set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the tribes who are party to this treaty.
   ²Treaty with the Kiowa and Comanche, 1867.—Art. 2.   The United States agrees that (the) following district of country, to wit: commencing at a point where the Washita river crosses the 98th meridian, west from Greenwich; thence up the Washita river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point thirty miles, by river, west of Fort Cobb, as now established; thence, due west to the north fork of Red river, provided said line strikes said river west of the one hundredth meridian of west longitude; if not, then only to said meridian- line, and thence south, on said meridian-line, to the said north fork of Red river; thence down said north fork, in the middle of the main channel thereof, from the point where it may be first intersected by the lines above described, to the main Red river; thence down said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof to its intersection with the ninety-eighth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich; thence north, on said meridian-line, to the place of beginning, shall be and the same is hereby set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the tribes herein named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as, from time to time, they may be willing (with the consent of the United States) to admit among them; and the United States now solemnly agrees that no persons except those herein authorized so to do and except such officers, agents, and employes [employees] of the Government as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reserva[tion]

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confirmed the confederation of the Apache Nation with the Kiowa-Comanche, and their acceptance into the reservation on equal footing and with the same benefits.
   After the admission of Texas to the Union, the state and federal governments jointly undertook to concentrate the Comanches (the southern band of that tribe) and the various Caddo tribes on two reservations in north Texas. The Comanches were gathered at Camp Cooper in what is now Shackelford county. The attempt to keep these Indians within the bonds of civilization failed, owing perhaps as much to aggressive whites as to the actions of the Indians themselves. The Comanches were on the war path in 1858, and an expedition under Major Earl Van Dorn and Sul Ross pursued them into the Indian country, and on October 1, 1858, overtook and defeated them in a sharp conflict at the Washita river. The Indians were returned to their reservations, but depredations on the advancing white settlements continued, the Indians being blamed whether they were the authors of the mischief or not. The result was that the experiment of domiciling the Texas tribes within the state failed, and in August, 1859, Major George H. Thomas of the U. S. army transferred the tribes to the Indian country.
   The Indians were so incensed at their removal that they began at once a series of depredations on the frontier of Texas. The Rangers and U. S. troops together had more than they could do to protect life and property along the extensive frontier line. In December, 1860, Capt. Sul Ross, with his Rangers and some U. S. dragoons, surprised the Comanche camp on Pease river, and captured or killed many of the Indians. It was in this engagement that the famous Cynthia Ann Parker was captured form the Indians, after she had lived in the tribe for twenty-five years, had adopted their ways, become the wife of an Indian, and so completely merged her identity with the Indian race that it was with difficulty and after many trials that she recalled her native tongue and her name. After being returned to her own people, it is said that she was not contented, and more than once attempted to escape and return to the Indians. But death ended her checkered career before this hope was realized. Her son is Quanah Parker, perhaps the most famous Indian of the southwest, except Geronimo.
   The Wichitas, with their affiliated bands of Keechies, Wacoes, Towoccaroes, Caddoes, Ionies, and Delawares (numbering about 1,250 in 1872) were fragments of once important tribes originally belonging in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas and Indian Territory. Except the Wichitas and Delawares, they were removed by the government from Texas to the "leased district" in the Choctaw-Chickasaw country in 1859, and for many years lived along the Washita river near old Fort Cobb. They had no treaty relations with the government, nor is there anything in the records to show a well defined reservation except the unratifed agreement of October 19, 1872. The commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his re[port]

[Footnotes]
[reserva]tion in discharge of duties enjoined by the law, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in the territory described in this article, or in such territory as may be added to this reservation, for the use of said Indians.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

   Art. 11.   In consideration of the advantages and benefits conferred by this treaty and the many pledges of friendship by the United States, the tribes who are parties to this agreement hereby stipulate that they will relinquish all right to occupy permanently the territory outside of their reservation, as herein defined, but they yet reserve the right to hunt on any lands south of the Arkansas (river) so long as the buffalo may range thereon in such numbers as to justify the chase.

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[re]port for 1872, said, "They have always, or at least for many years, been friendly to the whites, although in close and constant contact with the Kiowa and Comanches. A few of them, chiefly the Caddoes and Delawares, are engaged in agriculture, and are disposed to be industrious. Of the other Indians at this agency, some cultivate small patches of corn and vegetables, the work being done mainly by the women; but the most are content to live upon the government. The Caddoes rank among the best Indians of the continent. . . . But one school is in operation, with an attendance of eighteen pupils. These Indians have no annuities; but an annual appropriaton of $50,000 has for several years been made for their benefit."
   The Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches, said Gen. Francis A. Walker in his report as commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1872, formerly ranged over an extensive country lying between the Rio Grande and Red river. "Wild and intractable, these Indians, even the best of them," declared General Walker, "have given small signs of improvement in the arts of life; and substantially, the whole dealing of the government with them thus far has been in the way of supplying their necessities for food and clothing, with a view to keeping them upon their reservation and preventing their raiding into Texas, with the citizens of which state they were for many years before their present establishment on terms of mutual hatred and injury. Some indviduals and bands have remained quiet and peaceable upon their reservation, evincing a disposition to learn the arts of life, to engage in agriculture, and to have their children instructed in letters. To these every inducement is being held out to take up land and actively commence tilling it. Thus far they have under cultivation but 100 acres, which have produced the past year a good crop of corn and potatoes. The wealth of these tribes consists in horses and mules, of which they own to the number, as reported by their agent, of 16,500, a great proportion of the animals notoriously having been stolen in Texas. . . . So long as four-fifths of these tribes take turns at raiding into Texas, openly and boastfully bringing back scalps and spoils to their reservation, efforts to inspire very high ideas of social and industrial life among the community of which the raiders form so large a part will presumably result in failure."
   The lands set apart for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were originally a very important part of present western Oklahoma, comprising parts of the land ceded by the Creeks in 1866 and later included wihtin the original Oklahoma. The first treaty providing lands for the location of these Indians is dated October 28, 1867, and owing to dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians the boundaries of the reservation were not permanent.³ The commissioners suggested a readjustment of boundaries, and with the approval of the department,

[Footnotes]
   ³Treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, 1867.—Art. 2.    The United States agrees that the folowing districts of country, to wit: Commencing at the point where the Arkansas river crosses the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, thence west on said parallel—the said line being the southern boundary of the state of Kansas—to the Cimarone river (sometimes called the Red Fork of the Arkansas river), thence down said Cimarone river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the Arkansas river; thence up the Arkansas river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning, shall be and the same is hereby set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indinas, as from time to time they may be willing with the consent of the United States, to admit among them.

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the location of the Cheyenne and Arapaho reserve was defined as a region whose southern limit was the Kiowa-Comanche country (above described), extending west to Texas, with the Cherokee Outlet on the north, and on the east the 98th meridian and a portion of the Cimarron river.⁴
   Concerning the general condition of these tribes, Commissioner Walker said in 1872: "A considerable number of the Arapahoes [Arapahos] are already engaged in agriculture, though at a disadvantage; and when the question of their reservation shall have been settled, it is confidently believed that the whole body of this tribe will turn their attention to the cultivation of the soil. Two schools are conducted for their benefit at the agency, having an attendance of thirty-five scholars. Of the Cheyennes confederated with the Arapahoes [Arapahos] , the reports are less favorable as to progress made in industry, or disposition to improve their condition. Until 1867 both these tribes, in common with the Kiowas and Comanches, were engaged in hostilities against the white settlers in western Kansas, but since the treaty made with them in that year they have, with the exception of one small band of the Cheyennes, remained friendly and have committed no depredations."
   By the treaty of March 21, 1866, the Seminoles were restricted to a reservation containing two hundred thousand acres, a rectangular tract situated just west of the Creek Nation, between the North Fork and the main Canadian rivers. This reservation has left a permanent mark on the geography of the state, in Seminole county, which includes the area reserved by the above treaty.⁵
   The Sac and Fox tribes, by treaty dated February 18, 1867, ceded their former reservations in Kansas, and in return were assigned lands in the Indian country south of Kansas and south of the Cherokee lands, in area not exceeding 750 square miles.

[Footnotes]
   ⁴Commencing at the point where the Washita river crosses the ninety-eighth degree of west longitude; thence north on a line with said ninety-eighth degree to the point where it is crossed by the Red Fork of the Arkansas (sometimes called the Cimarron river); thence up said river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the north boundary of the country ceded to the United States by the treaty of June 14, 1866, with the Creek Nation of Indians; thence west on said north boundary and the north boundary of the country ceded to the United States by the treaty of March 21, 1866, with the Seminole Indians, to the one hundredth degree of west longitude; thence south on the line of said one hundredth degree to the north boundary of the country set apart for the Kiowas and Comanches by the second article of the treaty concluded October 21, 1867, with said tribes; thence east along said boundary to the point where it strikes the Washita river; thence down said Washita river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning.
   The territory comprised within the boundaries last above designated contains a small portion of the country ceded to the United States by the terms of the treaty with the Creek Indians concluded June 14, 1866; a portion of the country ceded to the United States by the terms of the treaty with the Seminole Indians concluded March 21, 1866, and the remainder is composed of a portion of what is commonly known as the "leased country."
   ⁵Seminole Treaty, March 21, 1866—Art. 3.    In compliance with the desire of the United States to locate other Indians and freedmen thereon, the Seminole cede and convey to the United States their entire domain [According to treaty of Aug. 7, 1856] . . . . The United States having obtained by grant of the Creek nation a westerly half of their lands, hereby grant the Seminole nation the portion thereof hereafter described, which shall constitute the national domains of the Seminole Indians. . . . Beginning on the Canadian river where the line dividing the Creek lands according to the terms of their sale to the United States by their treaty of Feb. 6, 1866 [this treaty was never ratified], following said line due north to where said line crosses the North Fork of the Canadian river a distance sufficient to make two hundred thousand acres by running due south to the Canadian river; thence down said Canadian river to the place of beginning.

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For the home of these Indians lands were selected between the Cimarron and the North Fork of the Canadian, lying just west of the Creek Nation, including the eastern half of what is now Lincoln county and small portions of the adjoining counties. This reservation was located on part of the country ceded by the Creeks in 1866.⁶
   By the fifteenth article of the treaty of 1866 provision was made that, upon certain conditions, the United States should have the right to settle civilized Indians upon any unoccupied Cherokee territory east of 96° west longitude.⁷ The material conditions limiting this right were that terms of settlement should be agreed upon between the Cherokees and the Indians so desiring to settle, subject to the approval of the president of the United States; also, that, in case the immigrants desired to abandon their tribal relations and become citizens of the Cherokee Nation, they should first pay into the Cherokee national fund a sum of money which should sustain the same proportion to that fund that the number of immigrant Indians should sustain to the whole Cherokee population. If, on the other hand, the immigrants should decide to preserve their tribal relations, laws, customs, and usages not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the Cherokee Nation, a tract of land was to be set apart for them by metes and bounds which should contain, if they so desired, a quantity equal to 160 acres for each soul. For this land they were to pay into the Cherokee national fund a sum to be agreed upon between themselves and the Cherokees, subject to the approval of the president, and also a sum bearing a ratio to the Cherokee national fund not greater than their numbers bore to the Cherokees. It was also stipulated that, if the Cherokees should refuse their assent to the location of any civilized tribe (in a tribal capacity) east of 96°, the president of the United States might, after a full hearing of the case, overrule their objections and permit the settlement to be made.
   The Delawares were the first tribe to avail themselves of the benefits of the fore-going treaty provisions. Terms of agreement were entered into between them and the Cherokees, which were ratified by the president on the 11th of April, 1867. Under the conditions of this instrument the Delawares selected a tract of land equal to 160 acres for each member of their tribe who should remove in the Cherokee country. For this tract they agreed to and did pay one dollar per acre. They also paid their required proportional sum into the Cherokee national fund. The number of Delawares who elected to remove under this agreement was 985. The sums they

[Footnotes]
   ⁶Sac and Fox Reservation.—Beginning at a point on the left bank of the North Fork of the Canadian river, where the west boundary line of the Creek reservation crosses the same; thence north with said west boundary line to the right bank of the Cimarron river along the right bank thereof to a point on said right bank of said river, where the section line between sections nineteen (19) and twenty (20) of Township eighteen (18) north, of Range (4) east of the Indian Meridian strikes the same; thence south . . . to the southeast corner of section eighteen (18) in said Township Thirteen (13); thence west . . . to the range line between Ranges Three (3) and Four (4) east . . . thence south . . . to . . . the left bank of the North Fork of the Canadian river . . . .; thence down the said North Fork of the Canadian river, along the left bank thereof to the place of beginning.
   Also the tract of land situated in Township Ten (10) North of Range Four (4) East of said Indian Meridian, north of the North Fork of the Candian [Canadian] river (not within the limits of the tract of country above described).
   ⁷Fifth Annual Report B. A. E.   C. C. Royce, "Cherokee Nation of Indians."

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were required to pay were: for land, $157,600; and as their proportion of the national fund, $121,834.65, the latter amount having been calculated on the basis of an existing Cherokee national fund of 1,678,00 and a population of 13,566 (Indian Office records).
   For a time after their removal the Delawares were much dissatisfied with what they characterized as the unequal operation of the Cherokee laws, and because much of the tract of land to which they were assigned was of an inferior character. At one time some two hundred of them left the Cherokee country, but after an absence of two years returned, since which a feeling of better contentment prevailed. Following the Delawares, the Munsee or Christian Indians, a small fragmentary band who under the treaty of July 16, 1859, had become confederated with the Chippewas of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, residing in Kansas, perfected arrangements for their removal and assimilation with the Cherokees. An agreement was entered into (December 6, 1867) at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, having this end in view, and which was duly filed with the commissioner of Indian Affairs (July 31, 1868). The condition of this agreement was that, after the complete dissolution of their relations with the Chippewas, the Munsees should pay into the Cherokee national fund all moneys that should be found due them in pursuance of such separation.
   The next Indians to avail themselves of the privileges of Cherokee citizenship were the Shawnees. By the treaty of 1825 (Treaty of November 7, 1825, in United States Statutes at Large Vol. VII) a reserve had been granted them covering an area in the richest portion of what is now the state of Kansas 50 by 120 miles in extent. By a subsequent treaty in 1854, they ceded in deference to the demands of encroaching civilization, all of this immense tract except 200,000 acres. Among those who so elected, the greater portion of this diminished reserve was divided into individual allotments of 200 acres each. Patents were issued to the head of each family for the quantity thus allotted to the members of his or her family, with the power of alienation, subject to such restrictions as the secretary of the interior might prescribe. In course of time alienation was made by these allotters of the greater portion of their land; the money thus received was squandered with the thriftless prodigality that characterizes barbarous semi-civilized tribes the world over, and their improverished [impoverished] condition was rendered still more uncomfortable by the seeming determination of the rapidly increasing white settlers to take possession of their few remaining lands.
   In this unfortunate condition of affairs they turned their eyes for relief toward the country of the Cherokees. Negotiations were entered into which resulted in the conclusion of an agreement, under date of June 7, 1869, and which received the approval of President Grant two days later. By the terms of this compact, the Shawnees then residing in Kansas, as well as their absentee brethren in the Indian Territory and elsewhere, who should enroll themselves and permanently remove within two years to the Cherokee country, upon unoccupied lands east of 96°, should be incorporated into, and ever after remain a part of the Cherokee Nation, with the same standing in every respect as native Cherokees. In consideration of these benefits the Shawnees agreed to transfer to the Cherokee national fund a permanent annuity of $5,000 held by them under previous treaties, in addition to the sum of $50,[000]

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[$50,]000 to be derived from the sale of the absentee Shawnee lands provided for by the resolution of Congress approved April 7, 1869. Under the provisions of this agreement, seven hundred and seventy Shawnees removed to and settled in the Cherokee country, as shown by the census roll filed (August 14, 1871) with the commissioner of Indian affairs.
   The Osages, about whom so many of the early events of the Indian country revolved, after their removal from the dangerous proximity with the Creeks and Cherokees, were Kansas Indians until after the war. The treaty with the Cherokees in 1866 opened the way for the location of several Kansas tribes on the ceded territory west of the 96th meridian. The act of Congress, July 15, 1870, directed that the lands of the Great and Little Osages in Kansas should be sold and that the tribe should move to a part of the former Cherokee possessions, a part of the proceeds from the sale of the Kansas lands being devoted to the purchase of suitable lands. The provisions of the act were carried out, and the Osages took possession of their new lands. After they had lived there a year or so and had, it was claimed, built homes and made many valuable improvements on their lands, an accurate survey showed that the most valuable portion of the Osage lands lay on the east side of the 96th meridian. In consequence an act of Congress, June 5, 1872, directed that a tract of country west of the 96th meridian, bounded "on the east by the 96th meridian, on the south and west by the north line of the Creek country and the main channel of the Arkansas, and on the north by the south line of Kansas," should be assigned as the permanent home of the Osages, with the proviso that the Kansas Indians should have a home in this tract.
   The Iowas were assigned lands under executive order, dated August 15, 1883. Their lands lay west of the Sac and Fox reservation, bounded north by the Cimarron, south by the Deep Fork of the Canadian, and west by the Indian meridian.⁸
   On the same date another executive order defined the Kickapoo reserve, which lay directly south of the Iowa reserve, between the Deep Fork and the North Fork of the Canadian.⁹
   Under provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1881, the Otoe and Missouria tribes were assigned a reserve aggregating about 130,000 acres, lying southwest of the Arkansas river and east of the Indian meridian.¹⁰
   The Nez Perces, who occupied a block of

[Footnotes]
   ⁸It is hereby ordered that the following described tract of country in the Indian Territory, viz.: Commencing at the point where the Deep Fork of the Canadian river intersects the west boundary of the Sac and Fox Reservations; thence north along said west boundary to the south bank of the Cimarron river; thence up said Cimarron river to the Indian meridian; thence south along said Indian meridian to the Deep Fork of the Canadian river; thence down said Deep Fork to the place of beginning, be, and the same hereby is, set apart for the permanent use and occupation of the Iowa and such other Indians as the secretary of the interior may see fit to locate thereon.
   ⁹It is hereby ordered that the following described tract of country in the Indian Territory, viz.: Commencing at the southwest corner of the Sac and Fox Reservation; thence north along the western boundary of said reservation to the Deep Fork of the Canadian river; thence up said Deep Fork to the point where it intersects the Indian meridian; thence south along said Indian meridian to the North Fork of the Canadian river; thence down said river to the place of beginning, be, and the same hereby is, set apart for the permanent use and occupation of the Kickapoo Indians.
   ¹⁰The lands of the Otoe and Missouria were thus described: T22 N, R 1 E; T 23 N, R. 1 E; T 22 N, R 2 E; T 23 N, R 2 E; T 22 N, R 3 E; and all of T 23 N, R 3 E, lying west of the Arkansas river.

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land on both sides of the Arkansas (consisting of four townships) just west of the Indian meridian, were northern Indians and under the act of March 3, 1885, were removed to reservations in Washington Territory and Idaho. Their homes and field were then assigned to a remnant of the once numerous Tonkawa tribe of Texas, who had been removed from that state to the Iowa reserve in October, 1884.
   Fort Reno Military Reserve was set apart in accordance with a request approved July 17, 1883, containing about ten thousand acres.¹¹

[Footnotes]
   ¹¹Beginning at the northwest corner of section 28, township 13 north, range 8 west of the Indian meridian, and running thence east to North Fork of the Canadian river; thence down this stream to the range line between ranges 7 and 8 west of the Indian meridian; thence south on said range line to the southeast corner of section 36, township 13, range 8 west of the Indian meridian; thence east to the northeast corner of township 12 north, range 8 west of the Indian meridian; thence south to the southeast corner of section 12 of said township; thence west to the southwest corner of section 9 of said township; thence north to the northwest corner of section 4 of said township; thence west to the southwest corner of section 33, township 13 north, range 8 west of the Indian meridian; thence north to the point of beginning, containing an area of about 14 5-6 square miles, or 9,493 acres.