MooNEY] OKSSION OB^ CHKKOKKK STRIP 1892 153 



C'liit't'.l. B. Miiycs tortile ^(v-^sioii of all the ("herokcc hinds thus do- 

 .scribed, beiii"' that portion known as th(> Chcrokeo outlet or strip. 

 Tiie ])roposition was declined on tlie oround that the C^herokee con- 

 stitution forbade its considei'ation.' Other tribes were approached for 

 a similar purpose, and tiie commission was continued, with chiuigincv 

 persotuiel from j'car to year, until aL;reeinents for cession and the 

 takino- of allotments had been made with neai'ly all the wilder tribes 

 in what is now Oklahoma. 



In the meantime the Attorney-Creneral had rendei'ed a decision deny- 

 ing the right of Indian tribes to lease their lands without pennission 

 of the Government. At this time the Cherokee were deriving an 

 annual income of $il.5(>.(l(>(> from the lease of grazing privileges u])on 

 the strip. l)ut by a proclamation of President Harrison on February 

 17. 1890, ordering the cattlemen to vacate before the end of the year, 

 this iiu-ome was cut off and the strip was rendered practically value- 

 less to thcm.^ The Cherokee were now forced to come to tei'm-^, and 

 a second pi'oposition for the cession of the Cherokee strip was finally 

 accepted by the national council on January 4. IS'.t:^. "It was known 

 to the Cherokecs that for some time would-be settlers on the lands of 

 the outlet had been encamped in the southern end of Kansas, and by 

 every influence at their command had l)een urging the Gov(M'iuii(^nt to 

 open the country to settlement and to negotiate with the Cherokees 

 afterwards, and that a bill for that purpose had been introduced in 

 Congress." The consideration was nearly l|S,ti()(),()()0, or about $1.2.5 

 per acre, for something over (),(i()0,000 acres of land. One article of 

 the agreement stipulates for "the reaffirmation to the Cherokee Nation 

 of the right of local self-government.'"^ The agreement having been 

 ratified by Congress, the Cherokee strip was opened by Presidential 

 proclamation on September 16, 1893.* 



The movement for the abolition of the Indian governments and tlie 

 allotment and opening of the Indian country had now gained such force 

 that by act of Congress approved March 3, 1893, the Presid(Mit was 

 authorized to appoint a commission of three — known later as the 

 Dawes Conunission, from its distinguished chairman. Senator Henry 

 L. Dawes of Massachusetts — to negotiate with the live civilized ti'ibes 

 of Indian territory, viz, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Ci-(>ek, 

 and Seminole, for "tlie extinguishment of tril)al titles to any lands 

 witiiin that territory, now held b\' any and all of such nations and 

 tribes, either by cession of the same or some part thereof to the Unit- 

 ed States, or by the allotment and division of the same in severalty 

 among the Indians of such nations or tribes respectively as may be 



• Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 22, 1889. 



^See proclamution by rresident Harrison and order from Indian ('omnnHsii>iier in Report of Iiuiian 

 Commissioner, pp. Ixxii-lxxiii. 421-12'2, 1890. Tlie lease Hgnres are from personal information. 

 3 Commissioner T. J. Morgan. Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 79-80. 1.S92. 

 < Commissioner D. M. Browning, Report of Indian Conmiissioner, pp. 'i'S-'M, 1893. ^ 



