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| Cherokee Strip | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cherokee Strip |
| Other name | Cherokee Outlet |
| Type | Region |
| Location | Oklahoma Territory, United States |
Cherokee Strip The Cherokee Strip was a defined tract of land in what is now northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, associated with the Cherokee Nation and later the United States federal land policies during the 19th century. It figured prominently in negotiations and conflicts involving the Indian Removal Act, the aftermath of the Trail of Tears, and later open land runs and allotment processes that reshaped territorial governance and settlement patterns in the Oklahoma Territory.
The region originated from treaties and agreements between the Cherokee Nation leaders such as John Ross and federal officials including Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, and involved actors like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and commissioners appointed by presidents including Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes. It intersected with national controversies exemplified by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Civil War alignments of tribal nations, and postwar policies enacted during the administrations of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
The tract lay north of the Arkansas River corridor, bounded by the Texas panhandle border to the south of Canadian County and extending to the Red River and the Cherokee Strip of Kansas and Oklahoma demarcations used in federal surveys. Key landmarks within or adjacent to the area included the Cimarron River, the Washita River, and transportation corridors later developed by companies such as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Rock Island Line. Neighboring jurisdictions and entities included Kansas Territory, the Plains Indians territories occupied historically by groups like the Comanche, Kiowa, and Osage Nation.
Original indigenous occupation connected to the Mississippian culture, oral histories maintained by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma trace habitation and migration tied to removal treaties like the Treaty of New Echota and negotiations at places associated with tribal councils that involved delegates such as Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot. During the Civil War the region was affected by campaigns involving the Confederate States of America and the Union forces, and by leaders such as Stand Watie who led Cherokee Confederate brigades. Postwar reconstruction policies and allotment initiatives reflected influences from figures like Henry Dawes and the Dawes Commission, culminating in events such as the Land Run of 1893 that brought settlers from states including Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas and volunteers from organizations like the Oklahoma Land Run Association.
Settlement was facilitated by treaties, surveys, and legal instruments shaped by legislators including Thomas C. McRae and clerks from the General Land Office, and spurred migration networks linking towns such as Guthrie, Oklahoma, Enid, Oklahoma, Perry, Oklahoma, and Tulsa, Oklahoma which later became urban centers tied to agricultural and energy industries.
Legal controversies involved litigants and institutions such as the United States Supreme Court, attorneys like Thomas H. Benton and commissioners appointed under statutes including the Indian Appropriations Act and the Curtis Act. Disputes over title and allotment engaged the Cherokee Nation leadership, tribal courts, federal commissioners, and land law practitioners who invoked precedents set in cases argued before justices like Melville Fuller and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.. Congressional acts debated by lawmakers in the United States Congress altered jurisdictional status, with committees chaired by figures such as William McKinley and John Wanamaker influencing appropriation and settlement policy. Administrative bodies including the Department of the Interior and regional federal surveyors implemented partitioning that led to contested claims resolved through litigation and administrative adjudication.
The opening and partitioning of the tract catalyzed agricultural expansion through cotton, wheat, and cattle ranching promoted by entrepreneurs and syndicates tied to markets in Chicago, St. Louis, and Galveston. Railroads like the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad accelerated commodity flows, and financial institutions such as the Second Bank of the United States-era successors, regional banks, and later Federal Land Banks provided credit. Social dynamics changed as migrant populations from Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, and the British Isles settled, interacting with established tribal communities including the Choctaw Nation and Creek (Muscogee) Nation. Public institutions proliferated: town councils, Oklahoma Constitutional Convention delegates, schools tied to the Peabody Education Fund model, and faith communities like Methodist Episcopal Church and Roman Catholic Diocese of Oklahoma City–Tulsa established local infrastructure.
Economic shifts continued with discoveries of resources influencing regional actors such as prospectors, oil companies including early incarnations that became Conoco and Phillips Petroleum Company, and labor organizations like the Knights of Labor that mobilized rural and urban workers.
The tract’s legacy appears in legal scholarship, historical works by authors like Angie Debo and John Hope Franklin, and in cultural commemorations by institutions such as the Oklahoma Historical Society and museums in Enid and Guthrie. It informs contemporary tribal sovereignty debates involving the Cherokee Nation and intertribal organizations including the Intertribal Council and public history projects at universities like the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. Literary and artistic treatments reference events in regional narratives alongside federal policy histories documented in archives such as the National Archives and Records Administration and collections at the Library of Congress. The area’s transformation from an outlet reserved in 19th-century treaties to a locus of settlement and resource development remains central to studies of westward expansion, property law, and Native American rights.
Category:History of Oklahoma