220 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



was the creation, in 1824, of a Bureau of Indian 

 Affairs, which handled trade in addition to treaties, 

 appropriations, a small fund to establish Indian civi- 

 lization, claims by and against Indians, and agencies 

 of all kinds. Eight years later the first Commis- 

 sioner of Indian Affairs, Elbert Herrick, was ap- 

 pointed. Two years later, the Bureau was enlarged 

 to its present importance, and in 1849 it passed from 

 the War Department to the Interior Department. 



The idea of removing all Indians east of the 

 Mississippi to reservations to be established in fed- 

 eral lands in the West was one of the first enter- 

 tained by the new government. As early as 1804 

 it was embodied in the law creating two territories 

 of Louisiana, and in 1820 a treaty with the Choc- 

 taws provided for a new home for them in Arkan- 

 sas. President Monroe reported a formal plan to 

 Congress in 1825, under which the present state of 

 Oklahoma and most of Kansas was acquired by 

 treaty from the Osages and Kansan Indians. This 

 became the Indian Territory of the early school 

 geographies. 



Within fifteen years all the principal tribes 

 were established there by treaty, including the Five 

 Nations. With forty tribes resident, unoccupied 

 parts of the territory were thrown open to white set- 

 tlement in 1889 under the name of Oklahoma; the 

 present state was created in 1907. But meantime, 

 in 1871, treaties had been abolished and only the 

 United States was thereafter recognized. 



