Editing Unassigned Lands (section)

==Pro-settlement campaign==
{{quote|During the Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty negotiations of 1866, the Principal Chief of the Choctaws, Allen Wright, coined the term Oklahoma and suggested it as the name for all of Indian Territory.|Oklahoma Historical Society{{full citation needed|date=March 2016}}}}

In about 1879, [[Elias Cornelius Boudinot|Elias C. Boudinot]] began a campaign, perhaps at the behest of one of his clients, the [[Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad|M–K–T Railroad]], to open the land "unoccupied by any Indian" to settlement by non-Indians. He pointed out in a letter published in 1879 that four of the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], unlike the Cherokee, had extinguished their complete title to the lands ceded following the Civil War and received full payment. 

He also said:
<blockquote>Whatever may have been the desire or intention of the United States Government in 1866 to locate Indians and negroes upon these lands, it is certain that no such desire or intention exists in 1879. The Negro since that date, has become a citizen of the United States, and Congress has recently enacted laws which practically forbid the removal of any more Indians into the Territory.</blockquote>He suggested that the area was now [[Public domain (land)|Public Land]] and suggested the names "Unassigned Lands" and "Oklahoma" for the district.

In an attempt to prevent encroachment, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] issued a proclamation on April 26, 1879, forbidding trespass into the area
<blockquote>which Territory is designated, organized, and described by treaties and laws of the United States and by executive authorities as the Indian's country ...</blockquote>

It was too late. Almost immediately speculators and landless citizens began organizing and agitating for the opening of the land to settlement. The newspapers generally referred to these pro-settlement forces as ''Boomers'' and followed Boudinot's lead in referring to the area as the Unassigned Lands or Oklahoma.

The Boomers planned excursions, which they called raids, into the area and surveyed townsites, built homes, and planted crops. The United States sent troops to round them up and expel them. The raids continued for several years. The Boomers tried to get a legal opinion as to the status of the public lands, but the government, instead of charging them for illegal settlement of Indian land, charged them only under the [[Indian Intercourse Act|Intercourse Act]]. Finally, in ''United States vs. Payne'' in 1884, the [[United States District Court]] at [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]], [[Kansas]] ruled that settling on the Unassigned Lands was not a criminal offense.

The government refused to accept the decision and continued to raid the squatters. Finally General [[Pleasant Porter]], the Creek Council's delegate to Washington, offered to relinquish all Creek claims to that part of the ceded territory which remained unassigned. On January 31, 1889, the United States and the Creek agreed to quit any claims to title of the land. The Creek received approximately $2,250,000.