Oklahoma Indian Territory

Oklahoma Indian Territory An early Native American reservation in the western USA. Most of modern Oklahoma came to the USA by the LOUISIANA PURCHASE, which stimulated President JEFFERSON to think that one answer to relations between Whites and indigenous peoples would be to transfer the latter to these newly acquired lands. In 1817 some Cherokees made the journey west to join original inhabitants like the Kiowa, Shawnee, Comanche, and Pawnee. After the Indian Removal Act of 1830 increasing numbers of indigenous peoples were transferred west and in 1867 the general Oklahoma Reservation was established. By the end of the 1880s many Whites had been persuaded that the land was not being used productively, and called for the opening of much of it to White settlement. In 1889 Congress authorized settlement, and in 1890 it organized the White-controlled areas into Oklahoma Territory, which became the 46th state in 1907.