OCR Text |
Show MOONEY] CESSION OF CHEROKEE STRIP 1892 153 Chief J. B. Mayes for the cession of all the Cherokee lands thus described, being that portion known as the Cherokee outlet or strip. The proposition was declined on the ground that the Cherokee constitution forbade its consideration. 1 Other tribes were approached for a similar purpose, and the commission was continued, with changing personnel from year to year, until agreements for cession and the taking of allotments had been made with nearly all the wilder tribes in what is now Oklahoma. In the meantime the Attorney- General had rendered a decision denying the right of Indian tribes to lease their lands without permission of the Government. At this time the Cherokee were deriving an annual income of $ 150,000 from the lease of grazing privileges upon the strip, but by a proclamation of President Harrison on February 17, 1890, ordering the cattlemen to vacate before the end of the year, this income was cut off and the strip was rendered practically valueless to them. 2 The Cherokee were now forced to come to terms, and a second proposition for the cession of the Cherokee strip was finally accepted by the national council on January 4, 1892. " It was known to the Cherokees that for some time would- be settlers on the lands of the outlet had been encamped in the southern end of Kansas, and by every influence at their command had been urging the Government to open the country to settlement and to negotiate with the Cherokees afterwards, and that a bill for that purpose had been introduced in Congress." The consideration was nearly $ 8,600,000, or about $ 1.25 per acre, for something over 6,000,000 acres of land. One article of the agreement stipulates for " the reaffirmation to the Cherokee Nation of the right of local self- government." 3 The agreement having been ratified by Congress, the Cherokee strip was opened by Presidential proclamation on September 16, 1893.* The movement for the abolition of the Indian governments and the allotment and opening of the Indian country had now gained such force that by act of Congress approved March 3,1893, the President was authorized to appoint a commission of three- known later as the Dawes Commission, from its distinguished chairman, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts- to negotiate with the five civilized tribes of Indian territory, viz, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole, for " the extinguishment of tribal titles to any lands within that territory, now held by any and all of such nations and tribes, either by cession of the same or some part thereof to the United States, or by the allotment and division of the same in severalty among the Indians of such nations or tribes respectively as may be 1 Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 22.1889. ' See proclamation by President Harrison and order from Indian Commissioner in Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. lxxii- lxxiii, 421- 422,1890. The lease figures are from personal information. 3Commissioner T. J. Morgan, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 79- 80,1892. * Commissioner D. M. Browning, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 33- 34, 1893. |