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Some Maps of Indian Territory, Oklahoma

 #20. Removal of the Five Tribes:  #21. Choctaw - AR. Boundaries:  #22. Cherokee Land in the West:  #23. Indian Territory 1830-1855:
 #26. Indian Territory 1855-1866:  #27. Forts & Military Rd. 1817-1876:  #33. Indian Territory 1866-1889:  #34. Tribal Locations in OK.:
     1895 Indian Nations (West) Area Maps!
  1895 Cherokee Nation-West   1895 Chickasaw Nation-West   1895 Choctaw Nation-West   1895 Creek Nation-West
 1895 Modoc Nation-West  1895 Ottawa Nation-West  1895 Peoria Nation-West  1895 Quapaw Nation-West
 1895 Seminole Nation-West  1895 Seneca Nation-West  1895 Shawnee Nation-West  1895 Wyandotte Nation-West

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   20. Removal of the Five Tribes:
  The [force] Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes to Oklahoma was a process which lasted more than twenty years, beginning with the Choctaw Treaties of 1816, 1820, and 1825 and the Cherokee Treaties of 1817 and 1828. The movement ended with the efforts to comb the Seminoles out of the Florida swamps in the 1840's. Some small bands of southeastern Indians went west before the removal treaties, and many Indian hunters regularly crossed the Arkansas country to reach the buffalo plains.

In exchange for their land in Mississippi and Alabama the Choctaws were to receive a large tract south of the Arkansas and Canadian rivers. The Treaty of Doak's Stand, 1820, provided an eastern boundary for the Choctaw settlements on a line extending north from the mouth of Little River to the Arkansas. Because of white squatters in the area, however, a New Treaty in 1825 moved the boundary west approximately to the present border of Arkansas from the Red River to the Arkansas River.

In a series of removals the Choctaws traveled west by various routes, in some instances using riverboats for a part of the journey. Although they endured great hardships on the road west, their travail was, perhaps, less painful than the suffering of tribes that moved a longer distance.
Most of the Chickasaws traveled across Arkansas by wagon, at least for part of the way. Riverboats on the Mississippi, St. Francis, and Arkansas rivers provided a part of the removal facilities.

Cherokee removal parties usually crossed western Kentucky to Golconda on the Ohio, and moved across southern Illinois to the Cape Girardeau ferry on the Mississippi. The "Trail of Tears" was the overland passage across Missouri and Arkansas. Many of the people, especially infants and the elderly, died [about 4,000] and were buried along one or another of the trails. One of the four-teen wagon trains went west across central Arkansas from Chickasaw Bluff (Memphis), and a few bands moved west from Cape Girardeau to southwestern Missouri before turning south to the Cherokee lands in the Indian territory.
Creek migration was complicated by warfare, since some bands resisted the process of removal. Like the Cherokees, the Creeks suffered because of bitter controversy within the tribe over removal.

Perhaps Seminole removal was the most costly of all. For seven years this least "civilized" of the five tribes fought against the government's order to leave Florida. Most bands traveled by boat from the Florida coast to New Orleans and by river steamers to Little Rock or farther upstream. The final stage was accomplished by wagon. The tribe was reduced by one-third as a result of the war and the hardships of the long journey.
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma, Pg20

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   21. CHOCTAW-ARKANSAS BOUNDARIES
In 1824 an act of Congress fixed the western boundary of Arkansas Territory on a line forty miles west of the southwest comer of Missouri. As surveyed by John C. Brown, the new Arkansas boundary cut through the lower Kiamichi near the stream's mouth and crossed west of the Three Forks area. The act was a clear violation of the Treaty of Doak's Stand.
By the Treaty of Washington, 1825, the Choctaw Nation ceded to the United States all of its western land "lying east of a line beginning on the Arkansas, one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence due south to the Red River." The United States agreed to pay an annual sum of $6,000 to the Choctaw Nation "forever," to remove all white citizens from the newly defined Choctaw Nation, and to prevent future settlement of United States citizens on Choctaw lands.
The Arkansas delegate to Congress, Henry W. Conway, protested the treaty line, declaring in a letter to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun that such a boundary would cut off a large number of Arkansas citizens. Calhoun pointed out, however, that Arkansas had obtained a substantial addition from the earlier Choctaw grant. President John Quincy Adams appointed James S. Conway to survey the new line, and on November 2, 1825, the work was begun at Fort Smith. It was completed on December 7.
The Conway line was inaccurate, as later surveys proved conclusively. After a long diplomatic struggle, Peter P. Pitchlynn of the Choctaw Nation obtained passage of an act of Congress authorizing a new survey.
Henry E. McKee, United States surveyor, ran the line "due south" in April and May, 1877, not for the purpose of recovering land for the Choctaws, but as a basis for payment of damages. According to McKee's survey, the boundary established in 1825 crossed Red River west of the treaty line by four miles and sixteen chains and deprived the Choctaws of 136,204.02 acres.
The tribe was paid $68,102.00 for the land given to Arkansas by error. Of the sum awarded to the Choctaws, however, 30 percent was taken for attorney fees and 20 percent to pay the expenses of the Pitchlynn delegation.
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma, Pg20

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   22. CHEROKEE LANDS IN THE WEST
The first Cherokee [forced] removal to Arkansas lands occurred in 1817. Removal was on a voluntary basis, and the tribe ceded about one-third of the Cherokee lands in the East in exchange for equal acreage between the White and Arkansas rivers. Enforcement of the treaty terms, which guaranteed the Cherokees freedom from the encroachment of white settlers, was impossible, and the Western Cherokees were [forced] persuaded to move farther west in 1828. Seven million acres of land in the Verdigris, Grand, and Arkansas valleys were exchanged for the holdings of the Cherokees in the Territory of Arkansas.
On December 29, 1835, an agreement was reached at New Echota, Georgia, between commissioners of the United States and leaders who purported to speak for the Eastern Cherokees. The Treaty of New Echota provided for removal of all the remaining members of the tribe to the land west of Arkansas and Missouri that had been assigned to the Western Cherokees. An additional tract of land in Kansas was conveyed to the Cherokees in consideration of the payment of $500,000 to the United States. This area, twenty-five miles wide and extending fifty miles along the western border of Missouri 800,000 acres known as the "Neutral Lands."
The "Cherokee Outlet", as provided in Article 2 of the New Echota Treaty, was assurance to the Cherokee Nation of a "... perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country west of ... said seven million acres."
By the terms of Article 17 of the Treaty of Washington in 1866, the United States held the "Neutral Lands" in trust to be sold for the benefit of the Cherokee Nation. The "Cherokee Strip," about two and one-half miles wide and lying along the 37th parallel within the state of Kansas, was also held in trust for the benefit of the Cherokee Nation.
By the terms of Article 15 and Article 16, friendly tribes were to be settled on surplus Cherokee lands.
     (1) Ceded tract in Kansas known as "Neutral Lands"
     (2) Ceded tract in Kansas known as "Cherokee Strip"
     (3) Tract sold to Osages,
     (4) Tract sold to Kaw (also called Kansa or Kansas)
     (these two tribes were settled in the portion of the Cherokee Outlet lying between the Arkansas River and the 96th meridian.
     (5) Tract sold to Pawnee,
     (6) Tract sold to Ponca,
     (7) Tract sold to Nez Perce,
     (8) Tract sold to Otos & Missouris.
In 1885 the Nez Perces moved back to their earlier home in Idaho, and their lands were occupied by a remnant of the Tonkawas from Texas.
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma, Pg20

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   23. INDIAN TERRITORY, 1830-1855
By the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, the Choctaws ceded all their land east of the Mississippi to the United States. In exchange they received the land between the western border of Arkansas and the 100th meridian, with the Red River as the southern boundary and the Canadian-Arkansas rivers as their northern limit.

The Choctaws agreed to arrange for moving as many members of the tribe as possible "during the falls of 1831 and 1832," and the rest during the fall of 1833. After three years, about 7,000 Choctaws remained in Mississippi.
In January, 1837, Chickasaw and Choctaw commissioners met at "Doaksville" on the lower Kiamichi and agreed upon terms of Chickasaw removal.

The Treaty of Doaksville provided that the Chickasaws should move into a district west of the Choctaw settlements. The two governments were to be combined, and members of both tribes were to have the right to settle in any part of the Choctaw Nation. Separate tribal annuities were to be continued, but all other privileges were equal.
By the end of 1840 most of the Chickasaws had moved into their district. The Kiowas and some other western tribes resented the presence of Chickasaws on land which the Plains Indians regarded as their own. Raids by Kiowas and Comanches were frequent, and the Chickasaws were forced to maintain a constant guard over their livestock and other property. Also, they could not obtain an equal voice in united tribal affairs.
Fort Washita, established in 1842 about fifteen miles from the Texas border, provided protection against raids; and a new treaty in 1855 gave the Chickasaws relief from the frustration of representative government in which their votes had little weight.

Creek removal was marked by war within the tribe and terrible suffering during migration. Chief William Mclntosh was executed in 1825 for ceding land without tribal consent. The Treaty of Washington in 1832 provided for the cession of all Creek land east of the Mississippi and settlement of the tribe west of Arkansas. Another treaty in 1833 defined the boundaries of Creek lands.
The northern line, which was also a Cherokee boundary, began at a distance of twenty-five miles from the Arkansas River and extended west to the 100th meridian. The western line lay along the Mexican boundary, and the southern limit was the Canadian River. The eastern line was the result of compromise with the Cherokees, negotiated by the Stokes Commission in 1833.

James Gadsden reached an agreement with a party of Seminoles at Payne's Landing, Florida, in 1832. The "treaty" provided that the Seminoles should send an exploring party to the Creek lands in the West, and if the explorers should be satisfied with the country and "the favorable disposition of the Creeks to reunite with the Seminoles as one people," the removal agreement should be binding.
At Fort Gibson reluctant consent of the Seminole explorers was incorporated in a brief "treaty" which purported to be a completion of the Payne's Landing agreement. In Florida, Seminole tribal leaders objected strongly to migration, and the attempt to remove them by force resulted in a costly war. Most of the Seminoles were moved west between 1836 and 1842.
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma, Pg20

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   26. INDIAN TERRITORY, 1855-1866
Major changes in the condition of the Chickasaws and Seminoles resulted from new treaties with the United States in 1855 and 1856. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland and Commissioner of Indian Affairs George W. Manypenny recognized the principle of self-government in dealing with the two smaller tribes.

By the terms of the Choctaw-Chickasaw agreement in June, 1855, Choctaw land west of the 98th meridian was leased to the United States to provide a home for the Wichitas and "such other tribes of Indians as the Government may desire to locate therein." For the lease, the United States agreed to pay $600,000 to the Choctaws and $200,000 to the Chickasaws.

In consideration of the establishment of a separate Chickasaw Nation, the tribe agreed to pay the Choctaws $150,000. The Chickasaw western boundary was the 98th meridian from the Canadian to the Red; and the eastern boundary followed Island Bayou from its mouth to the source of its eastern branch, thence due north to the Canadian River.

Each tribe was "secured in the unrestricted right of self-government, and full jurisdiction over persons and property within their respective limits," with the proviso that the Constitution of the United States should be recognized as the final authority.

The Seminole-Creek agreement in 1856 to maintain separate tribal organizations was a parallel movement toward self-government. The Seminole lands began with a line: extending due north from the mouth of Pond Creek (Ock-hi-appo) on the Canadian to the North Fork of the Canadian; thence up that stream to the southern line of the Cherokee Outlet and west along that line to the 100th meridian; thence down the Canadian to the point of beginning.

Of great importance to the Seminoles was the provision for separate tribal government, which relieved them from the domination of the Creek majority. The United States agreed to construct an agency building for the Seminoles and to pay the tribe $90,000 to cover the losses involved in moving to the new location. The contract for the new agency building and council house was awarded to Henry Pope of Arkansas, and the buildings were constructed "one mile west of the eastern boundary of the Seminole country, and about two miles north of the road recently laid out by Lieutenant Beale."

The rectangle between the 100th meridian and the 103d meridian, from 36�30' north latitude to the 37th parallel, was not claimed by any of the adjacent states or territories. The Texas Panhandle extended north to 36�30'; the state of Kansas had the 37th parallel as its southern boundary; the Cherokee Outlet extended west to the 100th meridian; and the eastern boundary of New Mexico was along the 103d meridian. Therefore, the rectangle that became the seventh county of the original Oklahoma Territory was frequently called "No Man's Land."
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma,

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   27. FORTS, CAMPS, AND MILITARY ROADS, 1817-1876
Fort Smith, which was established at Belle Point near the Choctaw border in 1817, was one of the most important centers of defense and Indian administration of the entire frontier area.
The Choctaw eastern boundary, by the terms of the Treaty of Washington in 1825, began on the Arkansas River "one hundred paces east of Fort Smith" and extended "due south" to the Red River. This imperfectly surveyed line between Arkansas and the Choctaw Nation has continued as a boundary to the present day, except for the "Choctaw Strip," which was purchased from the Choctaws and added to Arkansas, 1905-1909 (Map 61). The area thus annexed to the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, approximately 130 acres in extent, contained the old fort.

Fort Gibson and Fort Towson were established in 1824 by Colonel Matthew Arbuckle. The first surveyed road in Oklahoma was the military route from Fort Smith to Fort Gibson, marked off in 1825. The road from Fort Smith to Fort Towson began as a blazed trail, marked by Robert Bean and Jesse Chisholm in 1832. During the previous year, the log structures at Fort Towson had been replaced by new stone buildings.

In 1834, Captain John Stuart established Fort Coffee on the right bank of the Arkansas, about ten miles above Belle Point. Captain Stuart, with a small cannon trained on the river, hoped to control the importation of whisky into the Indian country. His efforts were not entirely successful, however, since illegal shipments across the border by wagon could make deliveries to "whisky boats" farther upstream. Fort Holmes. on the Canadian near the mouth of Little River was established by Colonel Henry Dodge's dragoons as a hospital camp in 1834. Located near Edwards' trading post, it was sometimes called Fort Edwards. Camp Mason, a mile from the site of present-day Lexington, was the location of a great conference of Plains Indians, called together by Major R. B. Mason, in 1835.

Fort Wayne (1838), Fort Washita (1842), Fort Arbuckle (1850-51), Camp Radziminski (1858), and Fort Cobb (1859) were other important military posts before the Civil War.

The most important Confederate forts during the Civil War in the Indian Territory were Fort Davis, on the south bank of the Arkansas opposite Three Forks, and Fort McCulloch, established by Albert Pike in 1862. Fort Davis was destroyed by Federal troops under Colonel W. A. Phillips on December 28, 1862 Albert Pike built Fort McCulloch so far south that it was practically out of the danger zone in the struggle for Indian Territory.

The establishment of military camps and permanent posts in the Indian Territory made roads a necessity and thus gave an impulse to opening the area to travelers and eventually to white settlement. Camp Supply was established by General Alfred Sully in 1868 at the mouth of Wolf Creek on the North Fork of the Canadian. A road to the Texas border and later roads to Fort Sill (1869) and Fort Reno (1874) gave Fort Supply a degree of permanence, in spite of flimsy barracks hastily constructed during a winter of stormy weather.
Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma,

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   33. INDIAN TERRITORY, 1866-1889
New treaties concluded in Washington, D.C., in 1866 with each of the Five Civilized Tribes, in addition to providing for the abolition of slavery and the recognition of citizens' rights for the freedmen of the Indian tribes, provided land in the western part of Indian Territory for the settlement of tribes from Kansas, Nebraska, and elsewhere.

The Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1866 ceded the Leased District to the United States for $300,000. The Creek treaty ceded the western half of Creek lands-3,250,000 acres-for $975,168 approximately 30 cents an acre. The Seminoles ceded all their land 2,169,080 acres, for $325,362 15 cents an acre.

The Seminoles further agreed to purchase 200,000 acres of land, a part of the tract recently acquired by the United States from the Creeks. (Actually, the Seminoles purchased an additional tract in 1881, enlarging their new home to 375,000 acres.)

The Cherokee treaty provided that friendly Indian tribes might be settled on the Cherokee Outlet at a price agreed upon by the Cherokees and the purchasers. The Cherokee Strip and the Neutral Lands (Map 22), both in Kansas, were to be sold to the highest bidder for the benefit of the Cherokees, at an average price no lower than $1.25 an acre.

Settlements on land ceded by the Creeks and Seminoles also were limited to "such other civilized Indians as the United States may choose to settle thereon."

Each of the Five Civilized Tribes agreed to admit two railroads one rail line running east to west, the other north to south across tribal lands.

Tribal settlements in the Cherokee Outlet in 1889 were as follows: east of the Arkansas River, Osage and Kaw; west of the Arkansas, Oto and Missouri, Ponca, and Tonkawa. On Creek and Seminole land were the Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie and Shawnee, Iowa, and Kickapoo tribes.

The Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache tribes occupied a reservation more than 3,000,000 acres in extent in the southeastern part of the Leased District. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation was west of the 98th meridian and south of the Cherokee Outlet.

The region between the North Fork of the Red River and the 100th meridian, about 2,300 square miles in extent, was still in dispute between Texas and the United States. Texas had organized the area as Greer County and admitted more than 8,000 white homesteaders.

The Cherokee Outlet comprised over 6,000,000 acres not occupied by Indian groups. "No Man's Land" had no legal settlers. Greer County was settled only in part. A fourth region, the "Unassigned Lands," contained 1,887,796 acres, which became the first area opened to white settlement in 1889. It was near the center of the present state. Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma,

Click on Thumbnail for Larger Map!   34. TRIBAL LOCATIONS IN OKLAHOMA
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 as followed by many cessions of land and removals of other eastern Indians besides the Five Civilized Tribes. In 1831 the Senecas of the Sandusky Valley exchanged their Ohio land for 67,000 acres lying north of the new Cherokee Nation. Soon afterward a mixed band of Senecas and Shawnees ceded their land near Lewiston, Ohio, and received 60,000 acres adjoining the Seneca tract in Indian Territory. In 1833 a band of Quapaws moved from the Red River to a tract of 96,000 acres, also north and east of the Cherokees.

After the Civil War space was found in the district of northeastern Indian Territory for additional bands: Ottawas, Weas, Peorias, Kaskaskias, Piankashaws, and Miamis. Fragments of other tribes affiliated with these bands were brought in with them in some instances. The little Oregon band, the Modocs, brought in from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, in 1873, was settled on a tract of 4,040 acres, purchased from the Shawnees.

Two hundred Wyandotte Indians moved in with the Senecas in 1857. Driven north by guerrilla bands during the Civil War, both Senecas and Wyandottes returned in 1865. Two years later the Wyandottes obtained a reservation of 21,246 acres along the northern boundary of the Seneca tract.

Detached groups of Indians other than the Five Tribes settied permanently on the lands of these Indians in eastern Indian Territory from time to time. For example, the Choctaws admitted nineteen Catawbas from North Carolina in 1851 and granted full rights of citizenship to fourteen of them in 1853. Other members of the tribe settled in the Creek Nation. Catawbas belong to the Siouan linguistic stock, detached from kindred tribes on the Plains before written history appeared in that part of North America. The Biloxis of the Gulf Coast and the Winnebagos of Wisconsin are other Siouan tribes found by Europeans east of the Mississippi.

Two groups of Delaware Indians live in Oklahoma. A band from the Brazos in Texas came to the Wichita Agency in 1859. Their descendants live in communities near Anadarko and Carnegie. Another band moved by contract into the Cherokee Nation from their reservation in Kansas in 1867.

The Creek Indians, of Muskhogean linguistic stock, were accustomed from early times to adopting fragment groups into the tribe. The Creek Nation in Oklahoma contained Indians from the Koasati, Hitchiti, Natchez, Apalachicola, Alabama, Tuskegee, and Yuchi (Euchee) tribes. All of these except the Yuchis belong to the Muskhogean language group. Source: [NA-REF: History Atlas of Oklahoma,

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Part of the SFA Native American Indian - History Series! These records are part of the "History American Indian Profile©" by Volume - I. Sarratt/Sarrett/Surratt Family Profile©
Compiled and self Published in Jun. 29, 1993 by Paul R. Sarrett, Jr. with the assistance of my late mother
Mrs. M. Lucille (WILSON) SARRETT (1917-1987) The SFA "Work-Books" were compiled by "General, Languages, Tribes, Treaties, Wars, How to Research NA Ancestors, Bibliographies". In 1996 I started "Up-Loading" this material on the Sarratt/Sarrett/Surratt Families of America (SFA)© site. ..prs

Would like to Exchange and Share information on SARRATT / SARRETT / SURRATT Families, contact me at:
E-Mail: Paul R. Sarrett, Jr. Auburn, CA.

Text - Copyright © 1996-2007 Paul R. Sarrett, Jr.
Created: Dec. 01, 1996; Dec. 16, 2000;  Sep. 16, 2007;