Dawes Commission

DAWES COMMISSION

DAWES COMMISSION. The commission helped pave the way for the creation of the state of Oklahoma from what had been Indian Territory. Commonly called the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, it was appointed by President Grover Cleveland in 1893 to negotiate with the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. The object was to induce these Indians, to whom the Dawes General Allotment Act did not apply, to take their lands "in severalty" (that is, to convert lands to individual ownership), abolish their tribal governments, and come under state and federal laws. The original commission consisted of Henry L. Dawes, Archibald S. McKennon, and Meredith H. Kidd. Despite some resistance, including that led by the Creek Chitto Harjo, or Crazy Snake, the commission secured the necessary agreements with the tribes, made up tribal rolls, classified the tribal lands, and allotted to all citizens their rightful share of the common property. Its work being finished, the commission was abolished by law on 1 July 1905.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. 1940. Reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.

Perdue, Theda. Nations Remembered: An Oral History of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1865–1907. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.

Wickett, Murray R. Contested Territory: Whites, Native Americans, and African Americans in Oklahoma, 1865–1907. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.

Frank Rzeczkowski

See also Dawes General Allotment Act .