The Dawes Act and its subsequent revisions robbed Native Americans of their newfound homes in Indian Territory. It encouraged white settlement and a land rush followed.
When the United States Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887, it made Indian nations wards of the state. The act voided all native land claims and redistributed title to these lands among the Indians themselves. Originally, the Five Civilized Tribes and the Sac, Fox, Sioux and Seneca Nations were excluded from the provisions of the legislation—partially due to preexisting treaties and the fact that all resistance in these tribes had been more or less dulled by their existence on reservations. It furthermore stipulated that the territorial borders of these tribes would not be included in the creation of any further American states. However, the act was amended several times in subsequent years and eventually all tribal lands were absorbed by the United States for re-allotment. This made it easier for the United States to deal with Native American land claim issues. No longer would they have to bribe or force tribal chiefs to sign treaties that were often eventually contested. Another provision of the Dawes Act was the creation of state run schools for Native American children. The ulterior motive of this provision was to speed up the process of cultural assimilation.
In the years following the Dawes Act, settlers moved into Indian Territory and established homes on the reservations. These tenacious squatters, known as Sooners because they often moved in before the land was actually available, were backed by powerful business and political interests in the east. These interests felt that Indian land would be more valuable if it were opened up to settlement and development. Although U.S. officials would arrest squatters, as their actions did violate the Dawes Act, they could not stop their influx. By 1889, the Dawes Act had resulted in the purchase of over 2 million acres of native land. Under the provisions of the Homestead Act, passed in 1862, any settler who could establish residence in these lands for a period of five years would be granted title. With more settlers inundating the lands surrounding the last native freeholds, Indian Territory was renamed Oklahoma Territory in 1890. Incidentally, Oklahoma is a Choctaw word meaning “red people.” In 1898, the Curtis Act dissolved the tribal governments and court system and placed the five tribes under the direct authority of the Territorial Assembly.
In the words of Senator Henry Dawes, originator of the Dawes Act and Chairman of the commission charged with its enforcement, Indian Territory was reorganized as a means of preserving the peace. Dawes saw the scattered tribes as a collection of lawless entities, a land where fugitives fled to seek sanctuary from the enforcement of the United States. His justification for designing this legislation was the fear that Indian Territory, left unchecked, represented a threat to the United States. For the Indians whose newfound homes were taken from them, the dispossessed masses of the former southeastern tribes, it was yet another broken promise.
In an effort to preserve their sovereignty, the five tribes convened in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1905 to discuss the possibility of a separate Indian state. Named for the Cherokee linguist Sequoyah, who developed the written Cherokee language, this state was meant to enter the Union as a semi-sovereign alliance of all the tribes in the region. The delegates to the convention created a constitution and system of government based on the American model. However, the application for statehood was denied and the territory entered the Union as part of Oklahoma in 1907. The remaining tribes eventually regained their unique status as Indian nations when the Dawes folly was finally ended in 1934. The influence of Native American culture on the development and prosperity of Oklahoma is still visible to this day.
Mark C Carnes, Ed, U.S. History. (New York: MacMillan Library Reference, 1996).
Henry L. Dawes, “The Indian Territory,” The Independent, 25, October 1900, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengo.browse.html. (1990)
Norman A. Graebner, et al., A History of the United States: Vol. II. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1970).
Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian. (New York: Checkmark Book, 2000).
