Unit 3
Settlement
Civil War and Reconstruction
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The fifteen years or so between the end of the major Indian
removals to the West and the outbreak of the Civil War
have been called by some the “Golden Years” of Indian
Territory.
During these years, the Five Civilized Tribes rested from the
onslaught of white poachers onto their lands, and they
recovered from their suffering and losses along the trail of
tears.
All of the Five Tribes adopted constitutions very much like
that of the United States, incorporating executive,
legislative, and judicial branches of government.
Each written constitution contained a Bill of Rights, and all
Five Tribes supported education in their nations.
Education was important to the Indians. Many of their
leaders were well-educated. It was their education that
enabled them to deal with the whites.
Farms and Plantations
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Tribal lands were
still owned in
common by all
members of the
tribe, but in most
places separate
farms were
established by
tribesmen.
Slavery in the Territory
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Much of Indian Territory appeared to be a replica
of the American South with approximately the
same divisions of wealth – only about 1 percent
of the people were large slaveholders and
planters.
A large group owned a few slaves, but most were
farmers who owned no slaves at all, just land.
A good number lived in poverty.
Although slavery was not proclaimed as strongly
in Indian Territory as it was in the American
South, slaves were still valuable chattel worth
about $1200 each in 1861.
Slave rebellion
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One of the common fears among slaveholders everywhere
was the fear of slave rebellion – the fear that the blacks
would rise up against their owners and in retaliation against
the bondage in which they lived.
The United States Government with whom they were allied
appeared to have abandoned the people of Indian Territory.
Most tribal agents were loyal to the confederate states.
When the union appointed new agents, they congregated in
Kansas but did not venture into the Territory because of the
ever-present Confederate soldiers.
Military posts were abandoned by Union troops running
from invading Texas confederates. Even the annuity
payments were stopped because the federal government
feared the money would fall into Confederate hands.
Confederate interests
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Geographically the Union was at a disadvantage
in Indian Territory. Texas on the South and west,
and Arkansas on the east were solidly
Confederate. To the North, Kansas was Union, but
vast areas of Kansas were largely unsettled and
permitted little, if any, protection for the Indian
tribes.
The confederacy was interested in Indian
Territory as a source of supply. Grain and meat
were unavailable to them from the North, and the
United States had blockaded southern ports so
that European sources could not reach them.
The Five Tribes had large herds of cattle and
horses and produced plentiful crops.
Confederate interests cont.
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The South had produced none of these things for itself in
many years, most Southerners raised cotton, tobacco, or
rice.
The Northern blockades were very effective warfare in that
they threatened starvation for the Southerners.
Indian Territory quickly became an attractive answer to the
Confederate problem.
Indian agents living in the Territory were almost exclusively
Southern. They used all their influence to persuade the
Indians to ally with the confederacy. They argued that the
Union had been divided and that Indian Territory lay in the
South.
They pointed out that the Union had abandoned the Indians
and they claimed that the new Southern Government would
take the place of the Northern government which had once
ruled them both.
Indian Sympathies with the South
William H. Seward who had campaigned
for Lincoln advocated opening Indian
Lands to white settlement. It had been the
Federal Congress and Andrew Jackson
who successfully forced Indian removal,
although Southern states such as Georgia,
Alabama, and Mississippi were strongly
behind those moves.
 Many Indians feared another removal
action by the union and the confederates
promised to protect Indians and their
lands in Indian Territory.
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Tribal divisions
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Considering these factors,
perhaps the surprise is,
that all the Indians didn’t
immediately align
themselves with the
Confederacy.
They remembered other
factors. A majority of
Indians owned no slaves.
The southern states
instrumental in forcing
Indian removal in the
1830’s. It was the Union
government with whom
they had made treaties
and to whom they were
bound by those treaties.
Tribal division cont.
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Probably the majority of
citizens in Indian Territory
favored neutrality.
Cherokee Chief John Ross
became the leader for
neutrality.
He wrote letters to all
tribes advising them to
remain neutral
Fearing a Cherokee civil
war more than he feared a
white civil war, John Ross
became the last chief of
the Five Tribes to sign an
alliance treaty with the
Confederates.
Cherokees
All Southern Treaties with the Five Tribes
were more advantageous to the Indians
than had been any treaties they had made
with the United States Government.
 Delegates from the Cherokee tribe, the
Choctaw-Chickasaw tribes, and the CreekSeminole tribes were to sit in the
Confederate Congress.
 No Indian tribe ever had a delegate in the
Federal Congress.
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Creeks
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The full-blood Creeks, under the leadership on Sands and
Opothleyahola, called an intertribal meeting at the western
edge of Creek territory. It was attended by Union
sympathizers and neutrals from all the southeastern tribes.
They drafted a letter declaring their neutrality and asking
the Union for the protection they had been promised in all
their treaties.
Sands and Opothleyahola prepared their people to move to
a new location to wait out the war.
Groups of Creeks, Seminole, Chickasaws, Cherokees,
Kickapoo's, Shawnees, Delaware's, Comanche's, and
African Americans loaded their possessions on their wagons
and drove their livestock to converge on Round Mountain,
near the mouth of the Cimarron River.
Battle of Round Mountain
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Confederates discovered
the camp, and on
November 19,1861 the
first territorial battle of the
Civil War took place.
The Confederate troops
were under the command
of Colonel Douglas Cooper,
and the neutral Indians
were under the leadership
of Opothleyahola and
Sands. The Indians forced
the Confederates retreat
and Opothleyahola led his
followers to a new hiding
place near the Creek
settlement, Tulsey Town.
Battle cont.
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The Confederates sought out the new hiding
place, and a second battle occurred. Once again
the Confederate troops were driven back and the
neutral Indians moved, this time making camp at
Chustenalah in the Cherokee Outlet.
On December 26, 1861, Coopers troops
surrounded the camp and defeated the Indians
who had run out of ammunition
The men resented the hardships placed on their
families and wanted to join Union troops to
retake their home country. The neutral Indians
were finally enlisted as the First Regiment of
Indian Home Guards.
Destroying the Territory
 The
Civil War in Indian Territory was
fought Indian against Indian and no
tribe was left out.
 Battles were fought in all areas of
the Territory and refugees roamed
from one area to another.
Battle of Honey Springs
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were no decisive battles fought
in Indian Territory, but the most
important battle in the area was the
Battle of Honey Springs, fought on
July 17, 1863, just south of present
day Muskogee.
 Honey springs was the turning point
of the war in Indian Territory.
General Stand Waite
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In 1864 Confederate
officials promoted Stand
Waite to the rank of
Brigadier General.
He was the only Indian to
attain such a rank
His greatest victory was at
the Battle of Cabin creeks
in September of 1864. He
captured a Union supply
train and shared the food,
clothing, medical supplies,
and blankets with
Confederate Indian
refugees camped along the
Red River
End of the War
The official end of the war came on April
9, 1865. Confederate commanding general
Robert E. Lee surrendered his forces to
Union General Ulysses S. Grant at
Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.
 The war in Indian Territory continued into
the summer. Confederate officers
surrendered to Union officers at
Doaksville, Choctaw nation.
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Negotiating Reconstruction
Treaties
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Although the term “Reconstruction” applied to Federal
dealings with all of the South after the Civil War, it was
especially applicable in Indian Territory.
The map of Indian Territory was completely reconstructed.
Four of the Five Tribes had furnished loyal warriors to the
Union cause during the war, and all four tribes boasted
more Union Soldiers than confederate.
The Western tribes also signed treaties with the
Confederacy, but most of their warriors fought for the
Union.
Despite these facts, Cooley informed the Indian leaders
that they had forfeited their annuities and lands.
He made it clear that the federal government intended to
punish them for their supposed par tin the war.
Conditions of the Treaties
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The severity of the treaties depended largely on the bargaining
power held by the individual tribes. The Choctaws and Chickasaws
displayed a united front as Southern sympathizers and received
the best treaty terms.
Although the Cherokees were divided John Ross obtained leniency
for the whole tribe.
The Creeks and the Seminoles however were forced to sign
confessions of war guilt.
The Seminoles ceded all of their tribal lands and were given a
small area of the Creek nation.
As a group all five tribes ceded the western half of Indian Territory
and agreed to the construction of two railroads across the
Territory – one north–south railroad and one east-west railroad.
Regardless of the hardships they inflicted, the Reconstruction
treaties did allow the Indians the re-establish themselves under
their own governments and did not require a federal territorial
government.
Reconstruction Treaties
Reconstruction Treaties with the Five
Tribes reduced the land of those tribes to
about half its previous size. They divided
what had once been Indian Territory into
two distinct parts.
 The southeastern Indians were located in
the eastern half, along with several small
tribes form the Old Northwest Territory
and a few tribes from other areas.
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Indian Territory
Indian Territory did not actually belong to
the United States and was not a part of
the political make-up of that nations.
 Only those lands which had not been
assigned to Indian tribes were under the
direct jurisdiction of the United States
Government.
 Indian agencies were established in the
new tribal territories, and Indian agents
were assigned there to distribute goods
and services owed the tribes.
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Goods and Services
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Services provided medical care and education to replace
the schools which were left behind or to train Indians for a
necessarily new way of life, and new medicine to replace
the traditional medicine which was by nature a regional art.
Each tribe or confederacy of tribes governed itself. The
tribes made their own laws and set the penalties for
breaking those laws. They provided their own police forces
and patrolled their own boundaries.
The greater a tribes need the more control the United
States had.
The Civil War not only reduced tribal lands but also reduced
Indian power.
The reservation era was a whole new proposition for all
Native Americans.
The Leased District
 After
the Civil War the entire western
half of Indian Territory was available
for settlement by western tribes
 Tribes the government intended to
remove from areas of the Western
Plains and resettle in the Territory.
Sand Creek Massacre
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In 1864 colonel John Chivington
and 700 mounted well armed
troops attacked a camp of 500
sleeping Cheyenne and Arapaho.
Black Kettle hoisted the American
flag that had been given to him in
Washington D.C. by an official
who told him he would be
protected by it.
He gathered his people beneath it
and told them to be unafraid. In
addition he hoisted the white flag
of surrender.
Black Kettles friend, White
Antelope, and several others were
shot down while standing beneath
the flag.
The attack took place at the Sand
Creek camp in Colorado and
became known as the Sand Creek
massacre.
Medicine Lodge Peace Council
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In October 1867 a peace council met at Medicine Lodge
Creek in Kansas.
Among the well known Indian representatives were
Satanta, Wolf’s Sleeve, Ten Bears, and Black Kettle.
The commission warned that the buffalo were disappearing
and that for survival the chiefs should take their people to
reservations to learn to farm.
The Commissioners left Washington with instructions to
accomplish three things
– Prevent Indian attacks on white emigrants and settlers
– Stop Indian wars by removing their cause
– Convince Indians to become farmers and stockmen, stopping
their “restless wandering about in search of a precarious living
by hunting buffaloes and other game.”
Broken Promises
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The Medicine Lodge treaties further reduced the
tribal lands specified in the 1865 treaties.
Despite their peaceful promises the government
did not deliver the goods and services exchanged
for depleted tribal lands
Young Warriors believed that the United States
had broken the treaty and Therefore the Indians
were no longer bound by it. Many of them left the
reservations and made their way north looting
and raiding en route.
Treaty Violations
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White settlers coveting Indian lands pressed into
areas stipulated in current treaties as tribal lands.
The government wanted more tribal land
reductions to satisfy the ever-moving frontier.
Angry Indians, who could not depend on
government agents to protect their territories,
retaliated against poachers. This brought the
military to control marauding Indians.
The summer of 1867 saw constant warring
between the Unites States Army in the west and
the Kiowa's, Comanche's, Cheyenne's,
Arapahoe's, and Apaches.
Battle of the Washita
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In retaliation, Colonel George
Armstrong Custer and the
Seventh Cavalry attacked
Black Kettle’s peaceful band
camped on the Washita River.
On November 27, 1868 in
another early morning attack,
Custer virtually annihilated
the unsuspecting Indians.
He killed 102 warriors many
women and children, and
slaughtered a herd of 800
horses.
Black Kettle was shot and
killed as he fled on horseback
across the Washita River.
Conquering the Indians
Battles and skirmishes between the army
and the Indians continued. The army
patrolled the reservations in Western
Indian Territory. Young Indian Warriors
slipped away to raid Texas and Kansas
farms and ranches.
 In 1871, the government declared that no
Indian tribes were sovereign and that they
no longer would be treated as free and
independent states.
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Assignment
 In
an essay tell what the
Commissioners, who left Washington
to go to the Medicine Lodge Peace
Council, were told to accomplish and
why they wanted this done
Americanization and Reservations
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During the conquest of the western and Plains Tribes as
well as the constant removal of the tribes of the Old
Northwest some tribes suffered great wrongs.
One policy seemed to remain constant throughout the
dealings of the United States with the Indians, and that was
that the Indians should be “Americanized”
The reservation Indians were given their rations and taught
to farm and raise livestock. If they resisted Americanization
agents were instructed to withhold supplies.
Indian children who spoke tribal languages were punished
in school.
Ministers and teachers berates the customary tribal dress
and hairstyles. All signs of Indian culture were to be
obliterated, if possible.
Cattle Trails and Railroads
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After their removal to Indian Territory the Five
Civilized Tribes raised livestock.
The war virtually wiped out the herds that had
grazed territorial pasture lands, along with the
prosperity of cattlemen.
The Indian ranchers did not have the funds to
rebuild their herds.
In Texas however the range cattle industry was
booming. Large herds were raised on Texas
grass, then driven north to markets in Missouri
and Kansas. The first major cattle drive rumbled
up the East Shawnee Trail in 1866 across eastern
Indian Territory.
The Chisholm Trial
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The most famous of all trials
through Indian Territory was
the Chisholm Trail.
It entered the Territory on the
south at the Red River
Crossing and ran roughly
adjacent to the 98th Parallel
until it crossed into Kansas as
Caldwell.
The Chisholm Trail solved the
geographical problems of
forests and mountains
encountered on the East
Shawnee Trail.
The first cattle drive up the
Chisholm Trial took place in
1867.
The Western Trail
The Western Trail or Dodge City Trail
entered Indian Territory at Doan's
Crossing on the Red River. It crossed into
Kansas northeast of Laverne.
 Other cattle trails cut through Indian
Territory but by 1885 all the surrounding
states had passed quarantine laws against
Texas cattle. The trails in those states
became quiet.
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Railroads
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While the cattle industry was
growing in the west, railroads
were vying for right of way
agreements elsewhere. The
Reconstruction Treaties
provided for a North-South
line and an east-west line
through the Territory.
The Missouri, Kansas, and
Texas Railroad familiarly
known as the Katy won the
right to complete a line across
the Territory from Kansas to
Texas.
The MK&T was the first of
three competing companies to
arrive at a specified
destination in a railroad
building contest.
Boomer Sooner
Not all Indians in the Territory opposed
land allotment and white settlement.
 Many believed that individual Indians land
ownership and white settlement would
bring economic opportunities for Indians.
 Elias C. Boudinot encouraged the
abandonment of old tribal customs
concerning land ownership. He felt that
progress and the Indian economy would
be served by opening the Territory to
white settlement.
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David L. Payne
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David Payne went to
Kansas where he organized
a “Colonization
Association”
The group hoped to
establish a colony in the
Unassigned lands. Payne
claimed it would include
5,000 to 10,000 people.
Payne’s group became
known as the “Boomers” A
Boomer is a person who
works up a boom or gets
others excited when
promoting a cause.
Opening the Lands
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March 2,1889 President Cleveland
signed a bill authorizing the opening of
the Unassigned Lands to white
settlement. On March 23 Cleveland's
successor Benjamin Harrison
announced the opening set for April
22.
The lands would be opened for
settlement on the date by means of a
race which would begin at noon. No
one was to enter the area before the
specified date.
Male citizens who were at least 21
years of age were eligible to enter the
race, as were women of the same age
who were single, widowed, or legally
separated from their husbands.
Each entrant would claim a quarter
section of land, 160 acres. No one who
already owned 160 acres of land or
more could participate.
Opening of Lands cont.
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Preventing people from slipping into Oklahoma District as
the area had come to be called was next to impossible.
The black soldiers, called Buffalo Soldiers, who had
escorted the Boomers back to Kansas so often found their
problems multiplied.
As thousands of other people gathered at the boundaries
countless new arrivals tried early entry. Many of them
succeeded.
Dubbed “Sooners” by the other entrants the people who
crossed the boundaries early found choice plots of land,
staked their claim and hid until time for the race.
They were called Sooners because they crossed the line
“sooner” than they were suppose to.
The Race for Land
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On April 22, 1889, designated
military officers fired their guns at
noon to start the race. Fifteen
trains entered the area from the
north along with thousands of
wagons, horses, buggies, carts,
and other conveyances, all
carrying passengers who were
rushing into the “promised land”
to posses long dreamed of
homes.
On the South border at Purcell
another train pulled into the area
carrying home seekers and more
vehicles dashed across the
muddy South Canadian River into
the countryside.
Many fights ensued as legal
racers encountered Sooners
already occupying coveted land.
Race for Land cont.
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Successful racers stood in lines which were literally miles long to
file their claims.
All claims were subject to Federal Homestead Act, which meant
that improvements had to be made on the land and the claimant
had to occupy it within a given length of time.
Town sites were also laid out, and claimants filed for the city lots
just as farmers filed for quarter sections of land.
In an afternoon towns sprang up where there had been none the
day before. Town sites were restricted to 320 acres and this
caused problems in many areas.
With 12,000 people camped outside the location which was to be
Guthrie, and all of them wanting lots in that city, 320 acres was
not nearly enough.
To get around the restriction additional town sites were
established adjacent to the original Guthrie site – East Guthrie,
South Guthrie, West Guthrie, Capitol Hill, and Dyers Guthrie.
Estimates vary as to the number of people who participated in the
Land Run. The most likely figure is somewhere around 50,000.