CHAPTER XII
REVIEW OF WESTWARD EXPANSION

   During the first four decades of the nineteenth century the "Indian country" meant a large and broadly defined area west of the tier of states bordering the Mississippi river. The ten years before the Civil war and the events of that war resulted, as we have seen, in a gradual concentration of Indian population, until by 1870 the only large territory, with definite boundaries, belonging to the Indians, was the "Indian Territory," as it was thereafter generally known until the state of Oklahoma was created.¹
   Having brought the account of this historical evolution to a point where "Indian Territory" is apparently segregated from the forces of American enterprise and civilization, it is now proper to review the events and influences that tend to break down the barriers around this Indian asylum, and that eventually overwhelmed and metamorphosed the Indian under a more vigorous and productive race of American intruders.
   Jefferson and his contemporaries saw the solution of the Indian problem of their day in erecting an Indian reservation or state far beyond the western limits of civilization. Ideally they planned the raising of barriers around this Indian country beyond which the whites might never go, and doubtless were sincere in their expectation that the tribes might thus be isolated and protected from the sinister influences of civilization until Indians had advanced to a degree of independence and culture where they would readily enter the Union on equal footing with other states.
   Settlement overtook the retreating tribes before a single generation had passed in their new homes, and Indian Territory lay like a barren island dividing the currents of migration this side and that, until the time came when it was engulfed by the streams of white population that surged around.
   No fault can be attributed to Jefferson that he could not foresee the rapid expansion of the settled country up to and beyond the region designed for the Indians. In 1800 American population had advanced westward only a little beyond the line of the original colonies, except that Kentucky and other portions of the Ohio valley had received large bodies of pioneers following in the wake of Boone. By 1810 the Mississippi was the westernmost limit of population. St. Louis, from a fur-trading post, has become an important center of settlement, population having spread northward above the mouth of the Missouri and southward along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio. On the Arkansas, near the mouth, is a similar body of settlement.

[Footnotes]
   ¹The name "Indian Territory" was applied to the Indian country in official records at an early date. But it was not until after the state lines of Kansas had been drawn that the name acquired the geographical significance as describing a portion of the United States in distinction from other political divisions. Though never a regularly organized territory, the name was accepted and used in official records and in the geographies until "Indian Territory" passed out of existence on November 16, 1907.

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   By 1820 the first assignment of lands in the Indian country had been made. East of the Mississippi nearly all the land has been occupied by settlement and divided up and admitted as six or seven states. Also Louisiana had been admitted, and north of that Missouri territory organized. Up the course of the Arkansas and the Missouri population had advanced in solid front, until in 1830 it had reached the first barrier of the Indian country, and paused in the river valleys to gather power for next move to the west.
   During the decade preceding 1840 many important changes have occurred. From Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians have finally vacated their lands to the whites, and in the states north of the Ohio river many other tribes have been persuaded to abandon their lands and seek new homes in the Indian country. By 1840 population has crossed the Mississippi river into Iowa territory, and occupies a broad belt up and down that stream. In Missouri the settlements have spread northward from the Missouri river nearly to the boundary of the state, and southward until they cover most of the southern portion, and make connection in two places with the settlements of Arkansas. In Arkansas the settlements remain sparse, but have spread widely away from the streams, covering much of the prairie parts of the state. In 1840 as also in 1850 the western boundaries of Arkansas and Missouri mark the western limits of any considerable population. South of Red river, with the admission of Texas to the Union, population had crowded along that river and by 1850 a considerable population lived along the south border of Indian Territory, from the vicinity of Gainesville, Sherman and Dallas, east to the state line.
   Between 1850 and 1860, before the outbreak of the Civil war, many important changes were made in the geography of the west. The territory of New Mexico had been created, California and Oregon had been admitted as states, Utah and Washington territories were formed, Minnesota had become a state, and, specially noteworthy, the Indian Territory had been decreased by the formation from that portion lying north of the 37th degree of latitude of the Kansas and Nebraska territories. In 1860 the first extension of settlements is noted beyond the line of the Missouri river (the settlement of the Pacific coast region not being considered in this connection). Even before the war and the building of the first railroad to the far west, the march of settlement up the slope of the great plains had begun. By 1860 population was found west of the 97th meridian in Kansas and Nebraska, and in Texas the western advance was even further.
   Some momentous changes occurred in the situation during the decade from 1860 to 1870. The advance of population was very much interrupted during the war, but the progress during the years immediately following was facilitated by the opening of the first transcontinental railroad and by a general era of speculation and development after the close of the war. It is of particular interest to note that at the time the civilized nations of Indian Territory agreed to surrender most of their lands lying west of the 96th meridian, the line of settlement on the north, in Kansas, and on the south, in Texas, had already crossed that meridian, and the process of surrounding Indian Territory with well settled states was rapidly being accomplished.
   The forces operating to break down the barriers of isolation set up by the government around the Indian country are referred

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to by the commissioner of Indian affairs in his report of 1859.² The commissioner says that most of the border tribes in Kansas and Nebraska were removed there from homes east of the Mississippi under assurances that they would have a permanent home. Various causes operated to render their isolation impossible. "Amongst the most mischievous and fatal of which were their possession of too great an extent of the country, held in common, and the right to large money annuities; the one giving them ample scope for indulgence in their unsettled and vagrant habits and preventing them from acquiring a knowledge of individuality in property and the advantages of settled homes; the other fostering idleness and want of thrift, and giving them the means of gratifying their depraved tastes and appetites. And though located separate and apart by themselves, they were yet in contact or within easy communication with a border population, and so constantly exposed to the examples of the various vices from which it was intended to shield them.
   "Then came the acquisition of our new possessions west of them [by the Mexican war], and the consequent, inevitable and continued sweep of emigration thereto, through ever portion of their country. Thus was the barrier of separation swept away, and they became subject to constant contact . . . . Their best interests, if not their existence, rendered an entire change of policy toward them necessary, viz.: their concentration on small reservations, to be divided among them in severalty, where they could be protected and compelled to adopt habits of industry. . . . "
   The conditions brought about by this invasion and breaking up of the old Indian country led to the act of 1853, authorizing negotiations "with the Indian tribes west of the states of Missouri and Iowa, for the purpose of securing the assent of said tribes to the settlement of the citizens of the United States upon the lands claimed by the Indians, and for the purpose of extinguishing the title of said Indian tribes, in whole or in part, to said lands."
   The creation of the Kansas and Nebraska territories was the greatest factor in preventing the consummation of the plan of Indian concentration proposed by Monroe and Calhoun. The influences set in motion by the colonization of Kansas might be traced to their final result in the opening of Oklahoma. The aggressive character of the movement, by which Kansas was won to the Union, was later continued in the organized invasion of Payne and his followers and in the persistent agitation for the opening of the Indian lands to settlement. Speaking, in 1873, of some phases of this question, Gen. Francis A. Walker said: "In 1855-56 occurred the great movement, mainly under a political impulse, which carried population beyond the Missouri. In two or three years the tribes and bands which were native to Kansas or Nebraska, as well as those which had been removed from states east of the Mississippi,were suffering the worst effects of white intrusion. Of the free-state party, not a few zealous members seemed disposed to compensate themselves for their benevolent efforts on behalf of the negro by crowding the Indian to the wall; while the slavery propagandists steadily maintained their consistency by persecuting the members of both the inferior races."³

[Footnotes]
   ²Sen. Doc. 1st Sess., 36th Cong., Vol. I, p. 379.
   ³"The great and sudden influx of population into Kansas, embracing a large class of persons having but little regard for the obligation of law, and none whatever for the rights and welfare of the Indians, has rendered the administration of

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   "In 1867-8," continues the author just quoted, "the great plough of industrial civilization drew its deep furrow across the continent, from the Missouri to the Pacific, as a sign of dissolution to the immediate possessors of the soil. Already (1874) the Pacific Railroad has brought changes which, without it, might have been delayed for half a century. Not only has the line of settlement been made continuous from Omaha to Sacramento, so far as the character of the soil will permit; but from a score of points upon the railroad population has gone north and gone south, following up the courses of the streams, and searching out every trace of gold upon the mountains, till recesses have been penetrated which five years ago were scarcely known to trappers and guides. . . . The lapse of another five years will find every reservation between the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains surrounded and to a degree penetrated by prospectors and pioneers, miners, ranchmen, or traders."

[Footnotes]
the affairs of this branch of the public service in that Territory peculiarly embarrassing."—From report of the commissioner of Indian affairs, 1859.

CHAPTER XIII
THE CATTLE INDUSTRY AND INDIAN TERRITORY

   The range cattle industry in Texas during the years following the Civil war was among the most powerful agencies, if not the chief force, in dissolving the solidarity of the Indian country. This fact has not been generally apprehended, but sufficient arguments, it is believed, are at hand to prove the assertion.
   Cattle raising in Texas at the middle of the last century was largely confined to the southern and eastern parts of the state, and, compared with the business of later years, only a small quantity left the state for outside markets. New Orleans was the principal cattle market before the war, though during the latter fifties St. Louis and Memphis also received some large herds of Texas beeves.
   The commencement of hostilities broke all commercial relations between the north and south, cattle drives across the country stopped, the blockade of gulf ports ended the foreign export business, and the Texas herds were scattered over the plains and running wild among the mesquite and buffalo-grass pastures, multiplied until millions of mavericks, it was estimated, roamed the desert ranges. The revival of the cattle business after the war was swifter than that which followed in other industries. Many poor but enterprising cowmen collected and branded the half-wild cattle of the plains, and in a short time Texas was ready to supply an enormous quantity of beef to the northern markets. The fact that war-time prices prevailed in those markets for some time after the war gave a decided impetus to Texas stock-raising. Thousands of cattle were driven across Red river during 1866.
   Then in 1867 a new status was given the cattle traffic. Up to that time the Missouri river had furnished the nearest and most convenient shipping points for Texas cattlemen. In that year the Kansas Pacific Railroad reached out through central Kansas, and at the station of Abilene, Joseph G. McCoy built immense cattle pens and planned a shipping point at which the cattle trails from the south and southwest should converge and disgorge the long-traveled herds into cars, thence to be hurried over steel rails to the abattoirs and packing houses of the east. By 1868 Abilene had not only gained a reputation as "the wickedest and most God-forsaken place on the continent," but had won the favor of many cattlemen as a convenient shipping point, so that the trail-herds were pointed in increasing number toward Abilene. Along with more favorable marketing conditions, came an advance of the cattle industry into western Texas, the result of which was further to extend the activities of the white race around the Indian Territory. It is estimated that 300,000 head of cattle were driven from Texas, across the Indian Territory, to Kansas points in 1870, and twice that number went in the following year.
   Up to this time not a single line of railroad directly connected the cattle ranges of Texas with the markets of the Mississippi valley and north, and yet it was much cheaper and more advantageous in every

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way to drive the herds along the trails to the north than to send the cattle out through the gulf ports. But with the year 1872 came a change. The Santa Fe reached the Colorado line in that year, traversing southern Kansas and establishing such shipping points as Dodge City. In the same year the M. K. & T. built its line through eastern Indian Territory to Denison, Texas. About the same time the Texas and Pacific was being extended from Texarkana across northern Texas toward El Paso. Thus on the north, east and south, Indian Territory was hemmed in by the greatest instrument of civilization, the railroad, and directly through the country of the five nations one line had cut a channel from which the influences of the enterprising white race were bound to pervade its tributary region.
   But the railroad across the Indian country was only the successor and partial substitute for the route that had already been defined and much used by the cattlemen. Following about the course now made a permanent highway by the M. K. & T. Railroad, the cowboys during the sixties drove their herds over what was generally called the "Baxter Springs Trail." Indian Territory was marked by the most famous of the old cattle trails. West of the Baxter Springs route was the "Shawnee trail," passing through the Osage nation to Abilene, which was much used during the ascendancy of Abilene as a shipping center. Further to the west than either of these was the famous "Chisholm" or "Chisum" trail, which took its name from Jesse Chisholm, a half-breed Indian, and one of the earliest stockmen of the Territory. This trail came into prominence after the custom had been established of transferring the southern cattle to the northern ranges, there to be held and fattened for market. Beginning at the Red river, it crossed the western portion of the present Oklahoma into Kansas, and during the seventies so many cattle were driven this way that it presented the appearance of a wide, beaten highway stretching for miles across the country.
   From this brief outline of the Texas industry it is easy to understand how Indian Territory was directly affected. South of the Territory were the greatest cattle ranges of the country, with their thousands of cattle to be marketed annually. In the north and east were the markets. Indian Territory lay directly in the path of the herds, whether they were driven to market or to northern ranges. Under these circumstances, it was almost inevitable that the cattle trails wound across the Indian reservations, and that in time railroads were built along the same general routes and made permanent connection between the grazing grounds of Texas and the pacing centers of the Missouri river. At the same time, Indian Territory offered as fine range for cattle as Texas, and not only did the herds graze broadly over the several trails across the Territory, but the opportunity of fine pasturage and easy leasehold was seized by many cowmen who used the Indian lands as a breeding ground. How long could the barriers around the Indian nations obstruct the invading whites, when an army of cowboys each season lingered along the trails, resting their herds on the best pastures and often wintering their cattle in the valleys?
   During the early '80s the range cattle industry reached the climax of its development.¹ The western ranges were occupied with cattle from southern Texas to Montana. A large number of cattle owners of that period thought they had more or less

[Footnotes]
   ¹"Prose and Poetry of the Cattle Industry."

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permanently provided themselves with ranges of the best pasturage to be found in the whole country, by leasing lands from the Indian Territory tribes. This practice was continued until a large part of the Indian Territory was occupied for maturing herds of Texas stock on the blue grass of the country. Wire fences were first introduced about this time, and most of the operators in the Territory fenced their leased lands. Their business was controlled almost exclusively by white men who were not connected by marriage with any Indian tribe and could not be citizens of the Territory.
   The story of the triangular conflict between the cattlemen, the Oklahoma boomers, and the Indian citizens reveals, as might be expected, many points of view, and a decision on the merits of the different parties would be difficult to arrive at. In the work, "Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry" (Kansas City, 1904), which presumably states the cattlemen's side of the question, the occupation of Indian lands and the eviction by executive order in 1885 are described as follows (pp. 689-690):
   "The division of the Territory and the creation of a new territory for white people from its western part had been in contemplation, and attempts had been made, in anticipation of this, by parties of white men, to settle in districts containing fine agricultural lands; but these attempts had been frustrated by the stockmen. It is to be said to the credit of the latter that they believed the Indian tribes had full power to lease their lands, and therefore that the leases were valid. . . . The government recognized the cattlemen only as trespassers and declared their leases to be void, and in August, 1885, President Cleveland issued an executive order directing them to vacate at once. . . .
   "The executive order of 1885 caused a profound sensation throughout cattledom in the west, and produced consternation among the stockmen directly affected by it. Their situation indeed was a hard one. The stock business was in a state of collapse, . . . . the country was full of cattle, the range land everywhere seemed to be crowded. . . . Hundreds of thousands of cattle had to be taken out of the Territory immediately. The stockmen had sent a committee to Washington to plead for a few months' delay . . . . The president's reply was that he had no discretion in the matter, that no modification of the order was possible . . . . The cattlemen got out of the Indian Territory in the autumn of that year." The removal at that time, when market was in collapse, entailed the loss of thousands of cattle on the drives and the sacrifice of great values in disposing of the stock.
   "It would seem," continuing the quotation, "that proceedings so arbitrary and that worked hardships and losses so great as were imposed upon these trespassing stockmen were unjust, though they were strictly lawful. A few months for preparation for the change could have made no practical difference to the federal government, nor to the people who were looking forward to the opportunities for acquiring homesteads in the new country. . . . These Indian Territory stockmen were 'set out' with as much indifference to the consequences as any that has characterized the dispossession of Irish peasantry. It is easy enough to say that the stockmen were trespassers, but to one familiar with circumstances and conditions and ways of thinking in the west at the time, this offhand disposition of the matter will not meet with approval."