Editing Cherokee Outlet

{{Short description|Section of the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) reserved for the Cherokee nation}}
{{Redirect|Cherokee Strip}}
[[File:Former Indian Reservations in Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|400px|Oklahoma, the Cherokee Outlet, and Indian reservations established in the state and in the Cherokee Outlet.]]

The '''Cherokee Outlet''', or '''Cherokee Strip''', was located in what is now the state of [[Oklahoma]] in the [[United States]]. It was a {{convert|60|mi|km|adj=mid|-wide|abbr=off|sp=us}} parcel of land south of the Oklahoma–Kansas border between [[96th meridian west|96]] and [[100th meridian west|100°W]]. The Cherokee Outlet was created in 1836. The United States forced the [[Cherokee Nation]] of [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] to cede to the United States all lands east of the [[Mississippi River]] in exchange for a [[Indian reservation|reservation]] and an "outlet" in [[Indian Territory]] (later Oklahoma). At the time of its creation, the Cherokee Outlet was about {{convert|225|mi|km}} long. The cities of [[Enid, Oklahoma|Enid]], [[Woodward, Oklahoma|Woodward]], [[Ponca City, Oklahoma|Ponca City]], and [[Perry, Oklahoma|Perry]] were later founded within the boundaries of what had been the Cherokee Outlet.

The [[Cherokee Strip (Kansas)|Cherokee Strip]] was a {{convert|2.5|mile|adj=on}} wide piece of land running along the northern border of much of the Cherokee Outlet. It was the result of a surveying error.<ref>James, Marquis. "Notes to Foreword". ''The Cherokee Strip: A Tale of an Oklahoma Boyhood''. p. vii.</ref>  The whole of the Cherokee Outlet is often called the Cherokee Strip.

==Creation==
In 1836, the [[Treaty of New Echota]] between the Cherokees and the United States obligated the Cherokees to move west of the Mississippi River to lands assigned them in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Their new lands included a 7.0-million-acre reservation and "a perpetual outlet west...as far west as the sovereignty of the United States" extended. The parcel of land extending west from the Cherokee reservation became known as the Cherokee Outlet. Under the terms of the treaty, the lands ceded to the Cherokees would "in no future time be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory" and the Cherokees were promised a [[land patent]]  verifying their ownership of the land.<ref>Smith, Chadwick and Teague, Faye (Winter 1993), "The Response of the Cherokee Nation to the Cherokee Outlet Centennial Celebration: A Legal and Historical Analysis," ''Tulsa Law Review,'', Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 272–274</ref><ref name="EOHC-Opening">{{cite web|last1=Turner|first1=Alvin O.|title=Cherokee Outlet Opening|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH021|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, www.okhistory.org|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=May 20, 2016|date=2009}}</ref>

In 1838, in what is called the [[Cherokee removal]] or [[Trail of Tears]], most of the Cherokees, living primarily in northern [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], were forcibly relocated to Indian territory and their new lands. A census in 1835 had counted 16,500 Cherokees.<ref>McLouglin, William G. (Dec 1977), "The Cherokees in Transition: A Statistical Analysis of the Federal Cherokee Census of 1835," ''The Journal of American History'', Vol. 64, No. 3, p. 678.</ref>

==The Civil War and its aftermath==
The Cherokee Outlet was little used for decades after its creation. The Cherokees were farmers rather than ranchers or hunters, but the nomadic and warlike [[Plains Indians]] recognized no ownership of the outlet except by themselves, and used the outlet for hunting. They resisted encroachments on their range, whether by Whites or other Indians.<ref>"The Cherokee Outlet," http://www.garfieldokgen.org/History.htm, accessed 17 Nov 2018</ref> Consequently, only a few Cherokees took advantage of the outlet to the west of their homes for hunting or to graze cattle.<ref>Essery, Roderick C. (April 2015), ''The Cherokee Nation in the Nineteenth Century: Racial Tension and the Loss of Tribal Sovereignty,'' Dissertation: Flinders University of South Australia, p. 189</ref> With the coming of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, the Cherokees and other Indians living in Indian Territory were divided between support for the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and the [[Confederate States of America]]. A substantial number of Cherokees were slave owners. The census of 1835 counted 1,592 slaves among the Cherokees and 7.4% of Cherokees were slave owners.<ref>McLouglin (Dec 1977), pp. 681, 690</ref> The attraction of Cherokees toward the Confederacy was magnified by a statement in fall 1860 by [[William Seward]], a prominent supporter of Unionist presidential candidate [[Abraham Lincoln]], who said that the Cherokees and other Indians should be expelled from Indian Territory and relocated.<ref>McLoughlin, William G. (2014), ''After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839–1880,'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 166–167 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

After the American Civil War, the United States demanded a new treaty (see [[Reconstruction Treaties]]) to punish the Cherokees because of the support of many of them for the Confederacy.<ref name=okstate>{{cite web|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v014/v014p022.html|title=Oklahoma: A Foreordained Commonwealth|year=1936|access-date=2006-12-05|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214095157/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v014/v014p022.html|archive-date=2012-02-14|url-status=dead}}</ref> The new treaty (ratified on July 19, 1866) required the Cherokee to sell land in the Cherokee Outlet to other Indian tribes and to allow them to move into and live in the Outlet. The price for the land was to be negotiated with the U.S. president deciding on a price if one could not be agreed to by the Cherokee and the Indian tribes wishing to buy the land.<ref>"Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866," [http://www.southerncherokeeok.com/documents/treaty.pdf], accessed 20 Nov 2018.</ref>

Meanwhile, the Indian peoples in neighboring Kansas came under intense pressure from the U.S. government and White settlers. With new lands available to them in the Cherokee Outlet, the various Indian people living in Kansas were induced by the U.S. to sell their lands and to purchase new lands in the Cherokee Outlet. The [[Osage Nation|Osage]] moved to lands (now [[Osage County, Oklahoma]]) in the Cherokee Outlet in 1872, followed shortly by the [[Kaw people|Kaw]], [[Nez Perce people|Nez Perce]], [[Otoe-Missouria]], [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]], [[Ponca]], and [[Tonkawa]].<ref>[https://www.okhistory.org/images/research/IT.4.1889.pdf "Timeline of American Indian Removal"], Oklahoma Historical Society, accessed 20 November 2018. The Nez Perce were later allowed to move to [[Washington (State)|Washington]].</ref> The Osage had enough in funds (managed by the U.S. government) to pay for their new lands in the Cherokee Outlet; the U.S. government failed to pay for the land sold to the other tribes until the 1880s, and then paid less than the price asked by the Cherokees.<ref>Smith and Teague, pp. 279–283</ref>

The practical impact of this settlement of non-Cherokee Indians in the eastern portion of the Cherokee Outlet was to cut the Cherokee off from easy access to the western part of the outlet, thus making it "virtually useless" to them.<ref>Snodgrass, William George (1972), ''A History of the Cherokee Outlet'', Dissertation: Oklahoma State University, p. 11</ref>

==Cattle grazing==
[[File:Jessechisholm.jpg|thumb|upright|Jesse Chisholm, a mixed-blood Cherokee, pioneered cattle drives through the Cherokee Outlet.]]
[[File:Cattle-trails.jpg|thumb|upright|Most of the cattle drives going north from Texas passed through the Cherokee Outlet.]]

In 1865, mixed-blood Cherokee [[Jesse Chisholm]] laid out the [[Chisholm Trail]] from [[Texas]] to [[Kansas]], and the next year, the first large cattle herd was driven through the Cherokee Outlet from Texas to the railroad in [[Abilene, Kansas]]. The Chisholm Trail passed through the present city of Enid and entered Kansas near [[Caldwell, Kansas|Caldwell]]. [[Cattle drives in the United States|Cattle drives]] following the Chisholm Trail, and numerous side trails continued to pass through the outlet for the next 20 years.<ref>"Cattle drives started in earnest after the Civil War," ''Texas Almanac,''[https://texasalmanac.com/topics/agriculture/cattle-drives-started-earnest-after-civil-war], accessed 22 Nov 2018</ref> The Cherokees collected, but with difficulty, 10 cents per head of cattle passing through the outlet.<ref>Smith and Teague, p. 283</ref>

The Texans began to halt in the outlet to graze and winter their cattle. Ranchers in Kansas also began to use the outlet for grazing their herds. The Cherokees attempted to collect fees for grazing rights, which were confirmed by the  [[Senate of the United States|U.S. Senate]] in 1878, but collection of the fees was difficult. In 1880, cattlemen, mostly Kansans, formed the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association to manage a chaotic situation in the outlet. After the incorporation of the association in Kansas in 1883, the Cherokees negotiated a five-year lease of the outlet to the association for $100,000 per year. At the end of five years, the Cherokee [[Tribal Council]] put the lease up for bid, hoping to get a better price, and leased it again to the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association for $200,000 annually. The more than 100 members of the Livestock Association divided up the land, erecting fences and corrals and building ranch houses.<ref>Snodgrass, pp. 17–19</ref><ref name=clsa>{{cite book|author=Savage, William|title=The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association: Federal Regulation and the Cattleman's Last Frontier|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8061-2271-4}}</ref>

Also during the 1880s, Captain Bill McDonald, acting as deputy [[U.S. marshal]] for the Southern District of Kansas and the Northern District of Texas, cleared the Cherokee Outlet of cattle thieves and train robbers, who had taken to hiding out in what they thought was a kind of "no-man's land".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmc43| title=Harold J. Weiss, Jr., and Rie Jarratt, 'McDonald, William Jesse'|publisher=tshaonline.org|access-date=March 9, 2010}}</ref>

==Boomers==
The lease to the Cherokee Strip Livestock Association was nullified by Congress in 1890, which then authorized purchasing the land from the Cherokees for $1.25 per acre. Having previously rejected a bid from the cattlemen to buy the land for $3.00 per acre, the Cherokee protested in vain that the government price was too low. President [[Benjamin Harrison]] forbade all grazing in the Cherokee Outlet after October 2, 1890, which eliminated all profit from leasing the land.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=70953 |title= Benjamin Harrison: 'Proclamation 296 – Prohibiting Grazing on Cherokee Strip lands, Indian Territory,' February 17, 1890 |author1= Peters, Gerhard |author2= Woolley, John T |publisher= University of California – Santa Barbara |work= The American Presidency Project |access-date= 17 January 2016 |archive-date= 11 June 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160611063551/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=70953 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=70955 |title= Benjamin Harrison: 'Proclamation – Extending the Time for Cattlemen to Move Herds off the Cherokee Strip', September 19, 1890 |author1= Peters, Gerhard |author2= Woolley, John T |publisher= University of California – Santa Barbara |work= The American Presidency Project |access-date= 17 January 2016 |archive-date= 11 June 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160611061738/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=70955 |url-status= dead }}</ref> After that, the Cherokee sold off the land at prices ranging from $1.40 to $2.50 per acre.<ref name="EOHC-Cherokee Outlet">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH021 Alvin O. Turner, "Cherokee Outlet.", ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Retrieved July 29, 2013.</ref>  The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association disbanded in 1893, the same year the outlet was opened to non-Indian settlement.<ref name="EOHC-CSLSA">{{cite web|last1=Snodgrass|first1=Jimmy|title=Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH025|website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=May 20, 2016|date=2009}}</ref>

Actual payment did not occur until 1964, when the Cherokee finally settled their claims against the U.S. government for the actual value of the Cherokee Strip land opened to settlement in 1893. This amounted to about $14.7 million, which was paid to the original allotment holders or their heirs. The tribe also received an additional $2 million in accrued interest.<ref name="Lowe">[http://fivetribes.tripod.com/wwkeeler.html Lowe, Marjorie. "Let's Make It Happen: W.W. Keeler and Cherokee Renewal." ''The Chronicles of Oklahoma''.] Retrieved August 28, 2013.</ref>

The [[Oklahoma organic act|Organic Act of 1890]] incorporated the unassigned lands into the new [[Oklahoma Territory]].<ref>Acts of the Fifty-First Congress, First Session: Oklahoma Organic Act of May 2, 1890, ch. 182, 26 Stat. 81. Laws and Treaties Vol 1. (Statutes, Executive Orders, Proclamations, and Statistics of Tribes) Compiled to December 1, 1902 by Charles J. Kappler, LL., M., Clerk to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903</ref>  Oklahoma became the 46th state on November 16, 1907.

==Cherokee Strip land run==
In 1889, [[United States Congress|Congress]] authorized the [[Cherokee Commission]] to persuade the Cherokee to cede their complete title to the Cherokee Outlet. After a great amount of pressure, and confirmed by a treaty Congress approved March 17, 1893, the Cherokee agreed, for "the sum of $8,595,736.12, over and above all other sums" to turn title over to the United States government. On September 16, 1893, the eastern end of the Cherokee Outlet was settled in the [[Land Run of 1893|Cherokee Strip land run]], the largest [[land run]] in the United States and possibly the largest event of its kind in history.<ref name="Landphair">{{cite web |last1=Landphair |first1=Ted |title=Cheaters Prospered in Historic U.S. Land Runs |url=https://www.voanews.com/usa/cheaters-prospered-historic-us-land-rush |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117195543/https://www.voanews.com/usa/cheaters-prospered-historic-us-land-rush |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 17, 2021 |website=VOA News |access-date=10 March 2021}}</ref>

[[File:OkLandRush.jpg|thumb|center|Photograph of the land rush by [[William S. Prettyman]] who participated in it and served as a mayor of Blackwell]]

==In popular fiction==
The Cherokee Outlet and the actions of the cattlemen play a prominent role in a portion of the [[Matt Braun]] Western novel ''The Kincaids''. The names of the characters have been changed, but the basic actions taken are explored.<ref name="mj">Deventer, M.J., [http://www.mattbraun.com/interviews.htm Interview Published in 2001 Edition Permission Hill] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701201401/http://www.mattbraun.com/interviews.htm |date=2010-07-01 }} (accessed May 27, 2010).</ref>  The 1897 land run serves as the setting of films such as 1925's ''[[Tumbleweeds (1925 film)|Tumbleweeds]]'' starting [[William S. Hart]] and 1939's ''[[The Oklahoma Kid]]'' starring [[James Cagney]] and [[Humphrey Bogart]]. In Mark Twain's 1896 comic novel “The American Claimant,” the naive character Washington Hawkins arrives in Washington, D.C., upon being appointed the Congressional delegate for the Cherokee Strip.

==References ==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH021 Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Cherokee Outlet Opening]
* [http://www.csrhc.org/ Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, Enid, OK]
* [http://cherokee-strip-museum.org/ Cherokee Strip Museum, Perry, OK]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091222070348/http://www.arkcity.org/index.aspx?ID=216 Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, Arkansas City, KS]
* [http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/state/outlet/strip.html Map of Cherokee Strip & Cherokee Outlet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215093835/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/state/outlet/strip.html |date=2021-02-15 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100723004811/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/history/ckstrip.html Outlet and Strip differences explained]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024013411/http://www.library.okstate.edu/okmaps/ Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory]

{{Oklahoma}}
{{Cherokee}}

{{Coord|36.5|N|98.0|W|format=dec|display=title|name=Cherokee Outlet|type:adm1st_region:US-OK}}

[[Category:Regions of the Southern United States]]
[[Category:Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)]]
[[Category:Former regions and territories of the United States]]
[[Category:Indian Territory]]
[[Category:Regions of Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Oklahoma Territory]]