Indian Territory

INDIAN TERRITORY

INDIAN TERRITORY. Between 1820 and 1842, the Five Civilized Tribes were removed to Indian Territory, an area that encompassed most of current day Oklahoma. In 1866, the western portion of the territory was ceded to the United States for use as reservation land for other tribes. In 1889, a section of this western portion was opened to settlement and became Oklahoma Territory in 1890. An outcry for statehood soon emerged with settlers calling for the union of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Cherokee Chief William Rogers and Choctaw Chief Green McCurtain opposed this union and led a constitutional convention to create a state of Sequoyah from the land known as Indian Territory. Congress ignored their proposal, and in 1907, Congress merged Indian and Oklahoma Territories into one state. With this action, Indian Territory disappeared.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burton, Jeffery. Indian Territory and the United States, 1866–1906: Courts, Government, and the Movement for Oklahoma State-hood. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.

Veda Boyd Jones

See also Indian Policy, U.S., 1830–1900 ; Sequoyah, Proposed State of ; and vol. 9: Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 .