BULL. 30] 



RESERVATIONS 



373 



afewof them still exist, which the Indian 

 Bureau deems exceptions to this rule, as 

 where the reservation was formed by re- 

 stricting the original areas or where res- 

 ervations have been patented to tribes by 

 the Government. Examples of the lat- 

 ter class are the patents to the Cherokee, 

 Choctaw, and Creek nations. In a few 

 instances the Indians purchased the lands 

 forming in whole or in part their reserva- 

 tions. The construction given to these 

 by the Indian Bureau and the courts is 

 that they are not titles in fee simple, for 

 they convey no power of alienation ex- 

 cept to the United States, neither are 

 they the same as the ordinary title to oc- 

 cupancy; they are '"a base, qualified, or 

 determinable fee," with a possibility of 

 reversion to the United States only, "and 

 the authorities of these nations may cut, 

 sell, and dispose of their timber, and may 

 permit mining and grazing, within the 

 limits of their respective tracts, by their 

 own citizens." The act of Mar. 1, 1889, 

 estal)lishing a United States court in In- 

 dian Territory, repealed all laws having 

 the effect of preventing the Five Civilized 

 Tribes in said Territory (Cherokee, Choc- 

 taw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole) 

 from entering into leases or contracts 

 with others than their own citizens for 

 mining coal for a period not exceeding 

 ten years. As a general rule the Indians 

 on a reservation could make no leases of 

 land, sales of standing timber, or grants 

 of mining privileges or rights of way to 

 railways without the authority of Con- 

 gress. On the other hand, it was obliga- 

 tory upon the Government to prevent 

 any intrusion, trespass, or settlement on 

 the lands of any tribe or nation of Indians 

 unless the tribe or nation had given con- 

 sent by agreement or treaty. 



The idea of removing the Indians re- 

 siding E. of the Mississippi to reservations 

 w. of that river was a policy adopted at 

 an early date. The first official notice of 

 it appears in the act of Mar. 26, 1804, 

 "erecting Louisiana into two territories, 

 and providing the temporary government 

 thereof." By treaty with the Choctaw 

 in 1820 they had been assigned a new 

 home in the W., to include a considerable 

 portion of w. Arkansas, with all that part 

 of the present Oklahoma s. of the South 

 Canadian and Arkansas rs. In 1825 Presi- 

 dent Monroe reported to the Senate a 

 formal ' ' plan of colonization or removal ' ' 

 (see Schoolcraft, iii, 573 et seq., 1853), 

 of all tribes then residing e. of the Missis- 

 sippi, to the same general western region. 

 In accordance with this plan the present 

 Oklahoma, with the greater portion of 

 what is now Kansas, was soon after 

 constituted a territory, under the name 



of "Indian Territory," as a permanent 

 home for the tribes to be removed from 

 the settled portions of the United States. 

 Most of the northern portion of the terri- 

 tory was acquired by treaty purchase from 

 the Osage and Kansa. A series of treaties 

 was then inaugurated by which, before 

 the close of 1840, almost all the principal 

 Eastern tribes and tribal remnants had 

 been removed to the ' ' Indian Territory, ' ' 

 the five important Southern tribes — 

 Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, 

 and Seminole — being guaranteed auton- 

 omy under the style of "Nations." By 

 subsequent legislation Kansas was de- 

 tached from the Territory, most of the 

 emigrant tril)es within the bounds of 

 Kansas being again removed to new reser- 

 vations s. of the boundary line. By other 

 and later treaties lands within the same 

 Territory were assigned to the actual na- 

 tive tribes — Kiowa, Comanche, Wichita, 

 Cheyenne, etc. — whose claims had been 

 entirely overlooked in the first negotia- 

 tions, which considered only the Osage 

 and Kansa along the eastern border. 

 Other tribes were brought in at various 

 periods from Texas, Nebraska, and farther 

 N., to which were added, as prisoners of 

 war, the Modoc of California (1873), the 

 Nez Perces of Oregon and Idaho (1878), 

 and the Chiricahua Apache of Arizona 

 (1889), until the Indian population of the 

 Territory comprised some 40 officially 

 recognized tribes. 



An unoccupied district near the center 

 of the Territory, known as Oklahoma, 

 had become the subject of controversy 

 with intruding white settlers, and was 

 finally thrown open to settlement in 1889. 

 In 1890 the whole western portion of 

 Indian Territory was created into a sep- 

 arate territory under the name of Okla- 

 homa. In the meantime, under provis- 

 ions of an allotment act passed in 1887 

 (see Land ?e?«M'e), agreements were being 

 negotiated with the resident tribes for the 

 opening of the reservation to white set- 

 tlement. In 1906 a similar arrangement 

 was consummated with the five auton- 

 omous tribes of the eastern section, or 

 Indian Territorj' — the Cherokee, Creek, 

 Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole — to- 

 gether with the several small tribes in 

 the N. E. corner of Indian Territory. 

 In the following year, 1907, the whole 

 of the former Indian Territory was cre- 

 ated into a single state under the name of 

 Oklahoma. 



According to the report of the Com- 

 missioner of Indian Affairs, the number 

 of reservations in the United States in 

 1908, including the 19 S^ianish grants to 

 the Pueblo Indians, was 161, aggregating 

 52,013,010 acres, as follows: 



