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Mrs. Simpson stated that the U.S. gained control of the land
west of the Mississippi River, with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803,
and later gave the area we now call Eastern Oklahoma to the Five
Civilized Tribes ; if they would re-locate from the southeastern
states. Treaties were made with each tribe but the tribes were not
in a good negotiating position because Congress had passed the
Removal Act of 1830 which mandated that they move. The Treaty of
Dancing Rabbit Creek was made with Choctaw Tribe and the Treaty of
New Echota was made with the Cherokees. These treaties conveyed a
certain land area west of the Mississippi to each tribe and stated
that they would be allowed to exist as a nation and that the land
granted them would never be included in any territory or
state.
In 1907 when Oklahoma became a state, the land was divided up by
the Dawes Commission to individual Indians. After years of
wrangling over interpretations of the treaties, land sales, leases,
etc. lawsuits were filed which culminated in a decision by the
United States Supreme Court in 1970. It gave ownership of the
Arkansas River Bed of the old Indian Territory to the Indians as
follows: From the confluence of the Arkansas, Grand and Verdigris
Rivers known as The Three Forks to the junction of the Canadian
River belongs to the Cherokee Nation. The river bed from the
Canadian River to the Arkansas State Line is shared with the
Cherokees owning the north half and the Choctaws and Chickasaws
owning the south half, with full rights to the commerce of same. In
2002, after 32 years of additional negotiations the tribes reached a
settlement with the government and surveys of the river bed will one
day designate the exact property of each tribe.
This was just one more saga in the long history of the United
States vs the Indian Nations.
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by OKGenWeb
